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.
'Fiery Fireman', one of the "Winkler Years" Oswald cartoons (one of the first in fact due to the previous "Winkler Years" cartoons either only just been re-discovered or still lost), is notable for being the debut of Fritz Freleng. It is not a bad debut either, if a little bland by Freleng standards.
Bland in terms of two things. One being in terms of timing, which became considerably sharper since. The other being in terms of consistent humour, with the content being amusing enough but not hilarious or imaginative.
The story, even for an Oswald cartoon, is slight and sometimes struggles for momentum in the earlier parts of the cartoon.
However, the animation is very good, it's crisp and fluid enough with some nice detail especially with animation techniques still in early days. The music is lush and energetic, adding a lot rather than distracting and enhances the cartoon's quality even, the use of sound is never static and helps make the action understandable.
Oswald is a likable enough lead with a nice personality and never doing anything that would infuriate the viewer. As said, some of the material is amusing and it's all charming enough, just with nothing exceptional and with the sense that Freleng was still properly finding his style.
In summary, decent but not great, both for Freleng and for Oswald. 6/10 Bethany Cox