Farm Foolery (1949) User Reviews

Famous Studios Screen Song built around "Shine On Harvest Moon".

[llltdesq · 5/10 · 16 February 2015]

This is a short in the Screen Songs ("Follow the bouncing ball") cartoon series from Famous Studios. There will be mild spoilers ahead:

There isn't much of a plot here. It's harvest time on the farm and various animals are shown picking crops. There's a rather clever bit at the beginning with a scarecrow, there are some unique harvesting methods and some of the animals aren't the typical animals you'd normally see on a farm (turtles and kangaroos, for example).

Mice feature prominently more than once, possibly the same mouse. There's a neat reference to a major cartoon character from another series early in the short involving a mouse. A mouse also falls into some cider at one point, to the strains of "Little Brown Jug".

The Screen Songs were basically an excuse to do a sing along in theaters, with animation forming the first half or a bit more of the short and then a musical interlude, with the lyrics showing on the screen and a bouncing ball cuing the audience on the lyric being sung. Also instructions on who should be singing at what point. The ball here is the moon, cuing "Shine On Harvest Moon". The song isn't terribly memorable and neither is the art on that part of the short.

The cartoon closes with a barn dance and a funny finish once again involving a mouse. It's cute and enjoyable.

This short can be found online and may be on DVD. Worth a look.

Harvest time on the farm

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 30 July 2021]

It is very understandable as to why anybody wouldn't be too enamoured by the premise for 'Farm Foolery', being somebody who before my first watch wasn't that enthusiastic about a cartoon with a very familiar setting in animation often done with not much variation to each other. Also as someone who has found Famous Studios' Screen Songs series interesting but very up and down in quality. So mixed expectations before my first watch.

'Farm Foolery' on first watch struck me as one of the watchable but average mixed feelings entries. On rewatch years later, my feelings are very much the same except with a little bit more to appreciate. Ranking it along with the rest of the series, 'Farm Foolery' perhaps is towards low middling and quite close to being in the mediocre category. Thankfully the animation and the orchestral music save what is generally a very average and routine cartoon, as do a couple of fun gags.

As said, the best things (and that is true for pretty much the whole of the series) are the animation and much of the music. The animation in 'Farm Foolery' is good on the most part. Especially the vibrant colours and equally loved the background detail where a lot of care went into it, the setting looks handsome yet has grit too. The incidental music is even better, very lushly orchestrated and full of character rhythmically.

A couple of the gags are amusing early on, especially the beginning with the scarecrow and the mouse with the cider. The story is nothing exceptional at all, but there is some nice energy thankfully, with the first half not feeling tired here and certainly not suffering from stereotypes or distaste. The characters may be thin but are nicely done.

Much of the story however, when there is any which is only vaguely present in the first half, is bland and does nothing new with over-familiar territory. Other jokes are very corny and the predictability is blatant.

While the first half is fun, the singalong portion feels like a different cartoon and not in a particularly good way. It is dull, veers on childish, very formulaic and too cute, and while the song featured is okay it is generally very forgettable and sloppily staged where transitions are a little on the careless side.

Overall, watchable but very average. 5/10.

Cute but pointless

[Mary-18 · 7 September 2001]

I'm not really sure that most farms have, in addition to the traditional assortment of cows and chickens and such, kangaroos and elephants. But if they did, I suppose they would be as happy and silly as this farm, where each animal's unique characteristics give it a special place in the farmyard. There isn't really any plot or point--Farm Foolery is just an excuse to show animals acting cute, and the second half of the cartoon is filled up by an unmemorable sing along.