Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. Have for a long time loved animation with an edge, a bit of darkness and not sounding too cutesy. Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising tackled ahead of the time themes more than once, including bold depictions of smoking and drugs, and both were responsible for plenty of good and more cartoons despite both varying (especially Ising when it came to the latter).
1935's 'Good Little Monkeys', directed by Harmon just to say, could have been a lot better. Actually don't think it's an awful cartoon and it did have quite an interesting premise, it just doesn't do anywhere near enough with it. There are certainly good things that make it a one time watch for anybody interested in lesser known animation, but there are also a lot of faults and when it comes to edgy, darker cartoons there were certainly better ones (including from Harman himself) from this period.
'Good Little Monkeys' does have good things. It is very well made visually, with it being beautifully detailed and a mix of vibrant and unsettling. It doesn't try to do too much while not being simplistic at the same time, the hallucinatory visuals being wonderfully surreal in a way seldom seen in other Harmon cartoons. The music is outstanding, lush, characterful with the odd haunting moment.
The best character by far is Satan, who is genuinely scary and imaginatively designed but also actually the most rootable character.
Some of Satan's actions are eye popping to watch and have genuine creepiness, and 'Good Little Monkeys' could have just stuck with that tone.
A lot is wrong with 'Good Little Monkeys'. Really liked the concept, but other than the startling beginning nothing new is done with it. Characters from books and such is a premise seen a lot by me in animation well before seeing this, one of the best examples being 'Have You Got Any Castles', and there is very little that is funny or creative. Instead the too few attempts at humour feel stale and could have been a lot sharper, also sounding very juvenile. The monkeys agreed are incredibly annoying and their antics come over as really idiotic and repetitive. The conflict lacks tension.
Furthermore, the story is best forgotten as there isn't one really and the pacing is pretty dull from the cartoon struggling with finding enough content to fill the already short length. Tonally, 'Good Little Monkeys' is pretty all over the place, very inconsistent and muddled with the shifts between eeriness, excessive cutesiness and childish humour never feeling seamless and coming over as abrupt and disjointed. Indicative of it trying too hard to appeal to a wider audience, laudable but doesn't quite succeed. The cuteness for my tastes did go overboard and 'Good Little Monkeys' in all honesty would have worked better if either cute or eerie rather than trying to do both, with the latter being better as it would gel better with what goes on in the visuals.
In conclusion, nothing special here. 5/10.