Doing Their Bit (1942) Online

Paul Terry produced two cartoons for Twentieth-Century Fox based on Ernie Bushmiller's "Nancy" comic strip. In this one, Nancy, Sluggo and the gang raise money for the USO. It looks like a variation on the Hal Roach "Our Gang" series and I don't know how it relates to the comic strip. When I knew it in the sixties, "Nancy" consisted of Nancy, Sluggo and occasional appearances by Aunt Fritzi, the original flapper subject of the strip.

Nor am I particularly impressed by the cartoon, since there is little to it that could not be done live action. Still, the gags are well constructed and organized. It's certainly good enough for one viewing.

Have mainly found the Terrytoons interesting to view, and they are from personal stance to be seen mainly for anybody wanting to see (generally) older cartoons made by lesser known and lower-budget studios. Their quality is wildly variable, with a mix of good (very few great), decent, average, lacklustre and weak, often with outstanding music and with some mild amusement and charm and variable in animation, characterisation and content.

1942's batch was hit and miss like the previous years (later too). Found 'Doing Their Bit', the second of two cartoons part of a laudable but failed attempt at a comic strip translation series, to be one of the lower middle ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons and one of the weaker 1942 cartoons. The first being 'School Daze', and have the same issues with 'Doing Their Bit' as with that. It is a fairly mediocre, though semi-watchable, cartoon and has the same amount of problems as it has the amount of strengths. Completest sake is the main reason to see 'Doing Their Bit', certainly was my main reason for watching as a Terrytoons completest, but that is not to say that it shouldn't be seen for anything else.

Best asset as ever is the music, which is the one consistent asset that has been hard to find fault with in the Terrytoons cartoons even in the lesser ones. It is here outstanding, so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. The animation continues to come on leaps and bounds since Terrytoons first started, the ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is still great to see, as is the comparatively improved fluidity of drawing and movement, and the synchronisation is neat.

A few marginally amusing and charming moments here and there.

However, 'Doing Their Bit' never really came to life for me, the pace tended to be pedestrian, the latter parts dragging badly, and there just wasn't enough to the story to make one properly engaged. Basically, a cartoon with hardly any plot and what there is feeling over-stretched and very predictable with nothing new here. The gags are far too few and those present are marginally amusing at best if even that. The setting is a potentially colourful one but could have been presented with more imagination and variety here.

None of the characters are particularly interesting in personality and don't really engage and the whole cartoon is far too cute that it gets nauseating.

Concluding, mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox