Africa (1930) User Reviews

All Singing, All Dancing

[boblipton · 6/10 · 28 August 2010]

Walter Lantz and company finally and firmly walk Oswald like an Egyptian into the talkie era as he and a cast of camels, sphinxes and pyramids sing "Lucky Rabbit." Up until this point, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit had been sort of moving into what can be called 'synchronized' cartoons, in which the movements were matched to a musical soundtrack. With this one, however, Oswald sings, and you can see his mouth move in a decent approximation of cartoon reality.

The gags in this one are fairly weak for the era and if you want a better handling of the subject, you should look at Disney's HELL'S BELLS. But the music, singing and animation are quite good.

Oswald in Africa

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 12 June 2017]

Despite Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his cartoons being popular and well received at the time, they have been vastly overshadowed over time by succeeding animation characters. It is a shame as, while not cartoon masterpieces, they are fascinating for anybody wanting to see what very old animation looked like.

While not perfect, 'Africa' is a big improvement over the previous Lantz Oswald cartoon 'Mexico', which was a lacklustre effort while 'Africa' is pretty good. Not all the Lantz Oswald cartoons are particularly good, there are some average or less ones and a few only worth seeing for historical interest. 'Africa' fortunately is one of the good ones.

The story is flimsy and formulaic with its only purpose being stringing along the gags. While some of the gags are pretty amusing, there are a few poorly timed and unfunny ones.

However, there is not much else wrong. The sound quality for a cartoon so old and techniques still in its early days is not as primitive as it could have been. Oswald is very endearing.

Music is as energetic as ever too. The animation is mostly quite good, with evidence of smoothness and detail. Oswald's movements, expressions and gestures are well done and the detail and smoothness is there. As said, some of the gags work well.

On the whole, good cartoon and one of Lantz-Oswald's better country-themed ones. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Do the Mummy Dance

[gengar843 · 5/10 · 6 November 2021]

THE STORY & GENRE -- Oswald the "lucky rabbit" sings and dances in Egypt. There are a few moments with non-scary dancing mummies. From Walter Lantz.

THE VERDICT -- I'm not going to pretend to be a fan of Oswald, but if you are, cool. I *am* a fan of musical cartoons but not this one. My grade reflects me, not you. I'll give it a 4.5.

FREE ONLINE -- Yes, at least the 6-minute "BluRay" cut. IMDB claims an original 10-minute cut, but I haven't seen it.

Another Oswald the rabbit Cartoon

[mmcgee282 · 10/10 · 30 March 2018]

This was a restored cartoon that was apart of the restored king of jazz DVD and Blu- ray.It was very fun.In it he goes to Africa and has all adventure.There's some footage in it that is similar to the footage used in the color cartoon used in king of jazz.He goes to Africa fights a lion and African tribes .He visits an Egyptian princes .Whether this was shown as part of the feature in king of jazz, in the the theater I don't know.Historical interest