Pagan Moon (1932) Online

There's not much that can be said about 'Pagan Moon', a Merrie Melodie effort from Warner Bros, released in 1932.

Most of the early MMs were based around a particular song from the WB back catalogue, and this one is a good example. The song is perky enough but the animation is derivative of what WB had done themselves and of what was being developed at other studios such as Disney, especially in their early Mickey Mouse cartoons.

'Pagan Moon' has a crocodile, an underwater concert, a row-boat and a lady interest, and a boy with a ukulele, but there's not much else to add! These early cartoons are worth watching for completeness but are not a patch on the wild n wacky cartoons of the 1940s and 1950s featuring names like Bugs, Porky, Daffy, and the like.

It is always interesting to see Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies cartoons featuring characters that are not the classic ones we know and love and are iconic in animation history. There are some good or more efforts, if also some average or less ones (with some of the cartoons of the very early lead characters, like Bosko and Buddy, being not much more than historical interest).

There are however far better examples of early Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies cartoons than the watchable but bland 'Pagan Moon'. It has good things but is easily forgettable after a couple of hours on the most part. A delight visually and aurally, other than that 'Pagan Moon' doesn't have an awful lot else to offer.

'Pagan Moon' looks good visually if not exactly imaginative. It's meticulously detailed and crisp and smooth. The title song is perky and the rest of the music is catchy, lush, rousing and cleverly synchronised.

Second half picks up in the pace and has a couple of mildly amusing music-oriented gags and fun undersea supporting characters.

However, the lead character and his sweetheart are bland and lack personality. There is not much funny in 'Pagan Moon' apart from a few moments in the second half.

Nor is there enough energy (the first half is far too cloyingly cutesy for my taste), consistent gags or a story with much memorability or momentum. The story is not much of one at all in fact.

Overall, watchable but doesn't have much to offer. 5/10 Bethany Cox

. . . with their prophetic and instructive PAGAN MOON cartoon. Though many of Warner's Looney Tunes warnings were designed simply to inform We Americans of the Far Future of Our Upcoming Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, and Apocalypti, some of these warnings also incorporate prescriptive solutions to problems such as White House Resident-Elect D.J. Rump and his predatory Rich People's Party. Until now, many PAGAN MOON viewers have been perplexed by crocodiles, squid, and fish that all growl like pirates here. However, in the past eight weeks it's become clear that these threatening miscreants frightening the native Hawaiian couple represent the Basket of Deplorable Billionaires that Rump's installed in America's Cabinet. The music-snuffing crock is none other than one-time KKK Imperial Wizard Jeff Sessions (our new Attorney General); the polluting inky squid is that Rapist of Chad, Exxon's Rex Tillerson (Secretary of State), and the Cold Fish full of razor-sharp fangs is a dead ringer for "Amway Calling's" Betsy DeVos, Eradicatress of Detroit's Public School System (Secretary of Education--what else?). The little Uke player's topless girlfriend engineers his rescue from all these fiendish creatures via pelican, a clear signal that Warner Bros.' prognosticators--in all their preemptive wisdom--are urging American Patriots to reenact the events of Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington's PELICAN BRIEF feature film to guarantee that Deplorable Rump Appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court will NOT be allowed to destroy our country and Sacred Constitution forever.