Toys Will Be Toys (1949) User Reviews

Not Really a Christmas Cartoon

[Sober-Friend · 6/10 · 30 March 2017]

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM HONEST ABOUT THESE FILMS

In this film A toy shop owner closes the store for the night and goes home. After business hours in a toy store, the merchandise comes to life, and the toys enjoy a bit of musical nightlife. There is an impromptu parade; the military turns out, and the captain of the guard falls in love with a doll. This, of course, leads into a singalong of "Oh! You Beautiful Doll," complete with a bouncing ball to follow. Watch for Koko the Clown and Popeye in cameo appearances and caricatures of Harpo Marx and Bob Hope (his head appears as a "Ski Slide").

Not a Christmas Cartoon but also sold on DVD's that contain Christmas Cartoons. However it it worth watching.

Cute but could have done with more toys and less singing!

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 7/10 · 8 March 2017]

In a cosy old-fashioned toy store the owner locks up after dark, and then all of the toys...well, will be toys, and they throw themselves a parade in miniature before the captain of the marching toy soldiers becomes lovelorn over the doll of his dreams, and he sings a grand old timey song declaring his love, and he has the viewing audience sing it right along with him! I love all the different kinds of toy designs and colours as well as the sight gags that they came up with for the cheery parade sequence. To me a vintage animated short is almost always a winner when it has a sequence with that kind of creativity on display, and the one in this is a very eye-catching one, with little cameos of Popeye and Koko the Clown, two of the iconic characters of what by this point was the former Fleischer Studios. I like the toys that fall apart and then pop back together again, like the Humpty Dumpty and the lion tamer who repeatedly loses his head! I love some of the animation but I am frankly bored by the part that asks you to sing along to the stuffy old music number "You Beautiful Doll", I only like the parts of the short before and after that. For 1949 the animation is very nice but it's not quite as rich as that of similarly-themed shorts from the late 30s and early 40s. Good short animation, I'd say to give a look see if you're partial to old cartoons about toys! x

In 1949, the pernicious picture pilferers . . .

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 24 September 2023]

. . . who had gotten away with a brazen heist a few years earlier, swiping America's most cutting-edge animation concern from its famous founding brothers, and then putting a son-in-law of the lead brother in charge of the ill-gotten outfit and audaciously renaming the mess "Famous Studios," got the bright idea that animation would be cheaper to foist off upon a paying public if there were NO moving characters! So, at the height of the success of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester Cat, Yosemite Sam, Tweet Bird, P. P. Le Pew, the Tasmanian Devil and Michigan J. Frog, the famous fakers churned out a series of alleged cartoons featuring various "bouncing" orbs, a static slide and an audience sing-along song.

Pleasant "Screen Song" entry a holiday favorite

[Popeye-8 · 8/10 · 22 December 2005]

This "Screen Song" entry from Famous Studios is virtually plot less, but is still an engaging collection of images and scenes. Taking place inside a closed toy store, the toys come to life when the humans are gone, and promptly take part in a toy parade throughout the store. A toy soldier then professes his love for the "Queen of Toys" (still "mint in box"!).

This leads into a quaint rendition of "Oh, You Beautiful Doll", with the standard 'bouncing ball' that was well known for the time, but is essentially a period piece today.

Overall, a neat look at a past art form, and still enjoyable for today's audiences.

Nocturnal fun in a toy store

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 16 July 2021]

Actually had little doubt that 'Toys Will Be Toys' would work. It revolves around an incredibly charming premise, although not very original (being already familiar territory in animation) and it is hard not to dislike anything centered around toys. As has been said more than once though, the Screen Song series that it is part of is very inconsistent, with the same good things but similar bad things in most, and had seen a few pretty mediocre previous cartoons in a row.

'Toys Will Be Toys' to me works very well, is a lot of fun and is as charming as the premise suggested without trying too hard to be cute (something that a lot of cartoons in the series failed at doing). Two thirds of it is absolutely great, the other third not quite so much not unexpectedly. Again from personal opinion, 'Toys Will Be Toys' is one of the best of the Screen Song cartoons and easily the best since 'Little Brown Jug' which feels like a long time ago.

Do agree that it is at its weakest in the singalong portion. The song ("Oh, You Beautiful Doll") is absolutely beautiful and beautifully sung, but the cartoon does lose its energy at this point, literally coming to a standstill and becomes too saccharine. The material in this portion is also pretty flimsy and derivative.

Likewise that the cartoon is pretty much plotless which affects the momentum when the material becomes less inspired.

Which, we are talking again about the inferiority of the singalong portion, was not as much the case with the previous two thirds of 'Toys Will Be Toys'. As ever with the Screen Song series, the animation and the music are the best things. Is beautifully animated. The colours are vibrant and there is meticulous attention to detail in the backgrounds, the toy store is such an inviting and nostalgic place and the there is some creative animation on the toys.

If there was one aspect that was consistently good in Famous Studios' 1940s and 1950s output, it was the music scoring and it is outstanding here in 'Toys Will Be Toys'. The orchestration has a lot of energy and there are some truly luscious sounds throughout. The series has been very variable when it has come to its songs, but "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" is to me one of the better ones with its beautiful melody and that there is nothing sickly or annoying about it.

Regarding the gags, 'Toys Will Be Toys' may not be filled to the brim with them but there is no shortage of them and they are not as corny or as predictable as other Screen Song cartoons, they amuse too. Although the story is slight and loses momentum later, the first two thirds are full of exuberant energy and sweet but not too sugary charm. For the first time in a while for the series, the characters are ones worth caring for and are engaging in personality. Koko and Popeye's cameos are a delight.

Overall, not mind-blowing but very nicely done and one of the series' best easily overall and in a while. 8/10.

Toys Will Be Toys was another Famous Studios Screen Song cartoon I highly enjoyed

[tavm · 8/10 · 11 December 2008]

This was another Famous Studios Screen Song cartoon I watched on YouTube. With the toy shop closed at night, the inhabitants-led by a wooden soldier-come to life in their own parade. Among them: Ko-Ko the Clown (in his first color appearance), Popeye, a Ski Nose exhibit consisting of Bob Hope's head with miniature people skiing on it. All this is done to an instrumental tune I recognized as the theme of "Buckskin Bill's Storyland", a local Baton Rouge children's show on WAFB-TV 9 which aired at 8:30 a.m. weekdays during my '70s childhood. When the soldier comes to a girl doll in a box, he becomes smitten immediately as he tells the audience to "Follow the Bouncing Ball" as the song , "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" plays on with lyrics printed on screen. Despite the appearance of one stereotypical Mammy, the gags presented here were highly amusing so on that note, I highly recommend Toys Will Be Toys.