Love Thy Neighbor (1934) Online

Love Thy Neighbor (1934)

*** (out of 4)

The Fleischer Studio produced a number of these animated short films where the "bouncing ball" would have audience members singing together. As with an earlier short, this one here starts off with the animated sequences that are being shown inside a theater. Here we see several little short gags before moving to Mary Small singing the title song. The animation is certainly the king here and for the most part this is a pleasant little short that manages to get a few laughs. Short's voice is certainly quite good and she does a nice job on the title track. Fans of the series will certainly enjoy this one.

This is a cartoon in the Screen Song series produced by the Fleischers. There will be mild spoilers ahead:

I'm at something of a loss to describe this cartoon. It's like cotton candy-light and airy, sweet while you're enjoying it, but insubstantial and forgettable minutes after you're done.

The animation is plot less, being set in a movie theater. The beginning shows off the visual craft of the Fleischer studio, particularly the backgrounds. Once in the theater, the short becomes a series of very short newsreel segments which consist of one visual or written gag, typically puns. While they may have been novel 80+ years ago, they've grown whiskers at this point. One or two are still funny, but most have been done better elsewhere.

The singalong, typically the weakest part of the short, is weaker than the surrounding animated parts. Mary Small sings in a style which hasn't aged well and the song is bland and pedestrian. It's nice, but as unmemorable as everything else here.

Worth viewing for the backgrounds and visuals.

Mary Small, "The Little Girl with the Big Voice" was 11 or 12 when she made this celebrity Screen Song, and while it is consistently fun -- despite a somewhat soppy song -- it's not one of the great ones.

Still, it is, as I said, fun. It's offered as a newsreel of selected subjects, with Mary the next to laugh. The others are gag reels, offering a stage blackout construction to the entire piece. It lacks any real coherence beyond that.

There was a run of young girls singing songs like adults. Best remembered is Judy Garland, who was just in the process of breaking away from the family act, the Gumm Sisters. Deanna Durbin was another. Miss Small is as good as the song will let her be. Apparently she is remembered fondly in some quarters, as a documentary about her is currently in the works.