'Roland and Rattfink' "The Foul Kin" (1970)
Opening thoughts: Of the previous Roland and Rattfink cartoons, all are watchable and more but none of them strictly speaking are ones worthy of repeat value. There are cartoons in general that do that with me, coming from somebody who loves anything animated of all styles and decades regardless of budget, but the Roland and Rattfink never properly rose above high middle in standard and are not cartoons that fit in the category unfortunately. Am not saying that with pleasure just to say.
This is the ninth cartoon of seventeen making up one of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' middling theatrical series that never achieved an awful lot of popularity for reasons not inexplicable, so the halfway point for the series. For me this is one of the lesser Roland and Rattfink cartoons, far from terrible but not particularly good. It is not easy making something funny out of a serious situation and although one can see effort the cartoon doesn't completely succeed.
Good things: Visually, this fares much better than the previous cartoon 'A Taste of Money' in this department. The drawing is very sketchy, but the colours are lush and the backgrounds are far more elaborate which makes the setting far more vivid. Rattfink actually looks finished too. The music continues to be on the money, the jazzy rhythms and light-heartedness fitting beautifully. The humour is a long way from being creative but there are some amusing moments, pretty much all of it coming from the dog.
Who is also here the best character by quite some way (though Roland's very brief cameo while somewhat random raises a smile) and his chemistry with Rattfink is amusingly anarchic, the most believable easily of the character relationships. One of the cartoon's most satisfying parts though is the ending. Lennie Weinrib seems to be enjoying himself.
Bad things: Like the rest of the series, there is very little original here. Again, it is a very familiar scenario that is not a novel one in animation and there is a very seen it all before vibe throughout. There are amusing moments certainly, more in the more energised second half (found the first a bit bland), but most feel recycled (more toned down Looney Tunes than Roland and Rattfink) and the lack of surprises and freshness hurt them somewhat. The dialogue can be corny, some nail Rattfink's snideness in the writing that is and others miss the mark. This doesn't quite make it as there isn't enough of it.
Somehow the characterisation of Rattfink seemed off, there were a few Roland and Rattfink cartoons that seemed to experiment with the characters, particularly Rattfink, and there was the sense when they did it that they didn't know what to do with them. That's the case with Rattfink, the writers did go overboard on his greed character trait which made it difficult to be amused by him or get behind him. Even for an intentionally crotchety character the old man is deeply unpleasant and not in a funny way, if Rattfink wasn't as greedy as he was it would have made it easier to root for him. There were a few cartoons in the series that didn't seem to belong, and this didn't feel like Roland and Rattfink but more experimenting solo Rattfink in a role that could have been filled by any character.
Closing thoughts: Overall, watchable but again pretty mixed.
5/10.
Opening thoughts: Of the previous Roland and Rattfink cartoons, all are watchable and more but none of them strictly speaking are ones worthy of repeat value. There are cartoons in general that do that with me, coming from somebody who loves anything animated of all styles and decades regardless of budget, but the Roland and Rattfink never properly rose above high middle in standard and are not cartoons that fit in the category unfortunately. Am not saying that with pleasure just to say.
This is the ninth cartoon of seventeen making up one of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' middling theatrical series that never achieved an awful lot of popularity for reasons not inexplicable, so the halfway point for the series. For me this is one of the lesser Roland and Rattfink cartoons, far from terrible but not particularly good. It is not easy making something funny out of a serious situation and although one can see effort the cartoon doesn't completely succeed.
Good things: Visually, this fares much better than the previous cartoon 'A Taste of Money' in this department. The drawing is very sketchy, but the colours are lush and the backgrounds are far more elaborate which makes the setting far more vivid. Rattfink actually looks finished too. The music continues to be on the money, the jazzy rhythms and light-heartedness fitting beautifully. The humour is a long way from being creative but there are some amusing moments, pretty much all of it coming from the dog.
Who is also here the best character by quite some way (though Roland's very brief cameo while somewhat random raises a smile) and his chemistry with Rattfink is amusingly anarchic, the most believable easily of the character relationships. One of the cartoon's most satisfying parts though is the ending. Lennie Weinrib seems to be enjoying himself.
Bad things: Like the rest of the series, there is very little original here. Again, it is a very familiar scenario that is not a novel one in animation and there is a very seen it all before vibe throughout. There are amusing moments certainly, more in the more energised second half (found the first a bit bland), but most feel recycled (more toned down Looney Tunes than Roland and Rattfink) and the lack of surprises and freshness hurt them somewhat. The dialogue can be corny, some nail Rattfink's snideness in the writing that is and others miss the mark. This doesn't quite make it as there isn't enough of it.
Somehow the characterisation of Rattfink seemed off, there were a few Roland and Rattfink cartoons that seemed to experiment with the characters, particularly Rattfink, and there was the sense when they did it that they didn't know what to do with them. That's the case with Rattfink, the writers did go overboard on his greed character trait which made it difficult to be amused by him or get behind him. Even for an intentionally crotchety character the old man is deeply unpleasant and not in a funny way, if Rattfink wasn't as greedy as he was it would have made it easier to root for him. There were a few cartoons in the series that didn't seem to belong, and this didn't feel like Roland and Rattfink but more experimenting solo Rattfink in a role that could have been filled by any character.
Closing thoughts: Overall, watchable but again pretty mixed.
5/10.