User Reviews

I found this rare Walter Lantz Oswald cartoon with some animation by Tex Avery on David Germain's animation blog on his tribute to Avery's 100th birthday. It's basically a stage slide show/vaudeville revue that features a female singer who gets chased by the villain before the Lucky Rabbit saves her and gets her love. A couple of gags that may have been created by Avery include: Oswald asking a lady to take off her hat as it's blocking his view but getting even more blocked when her hair suddenly grows into a giant afro! Also, as the trapeze artist spins around on his swing, so too do the audiences' heads from top to bottom! That's all the inventive stuff I saw in this cartoon, still Towne Hall Follies is worth a look for any Avery fans out there.

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.

Oswald in the Disney years saw mostly good to very good cartoons, and while the Winkler years had some duds there were also cartoons as good as the best of the Disney years. The 1929-1930 batches of Walter Lantz-directed Oswald cartoons were a mixed bag, with some good, some forgettable and not much special and a few mediocre. The 1931 batch was mostly underwhelming, with only 6 out of 18 cartoons being above average or more. The 1932 batch had a few not so good, though the cartoons in question were nothing compared to the worst of the previous 3 years, cartoons, but most were decent to good and some even very good. The 1933 batch is one of the most consistent, with the weakest 'Beau Best' still being decent. The 1934 batch were mostly nice and decent if unexceptional, with a few average ones and 'Sky Larks' and 'Toyland Premiere'.

'Towne Hall Follies' is even better than the still pretty good 'Elmer the Great Dane' and 'Springtime Serenade'. It is non-existent in terms of story and Oswald could have had more to do, he should be the lead but at times felt more of a supporting one.

However, the animation and gags are particularly good in 'Towne Hall Follies'. Once again the animation is terrific, it is elaborate, beautifully and cleverly drawn and rich in detail and colour in the backgrounds, some of it in the gags is quite imaginative too and with wonderful surreal images.

Gags are inventive and enormous fun and there is plenty of them, which is a nice change from previous 1935 cartoons where there could have been more of them that could have been funnier. That all changes in 'Towne Hall Follies'.

The characters are endearing and enjoyable. Also love the music, which is very characterful, bouncy and beautifully and lushly orchestrated and performed. The cartoon is fun and charming to watch and the action synchronises beautifully, also avoiding the trap of being too saccharine like too many of the 1934 cartoons did.

Overall, very entertaining and visually impressive. 8/10 Bethany Cox Overall, highly entertaining and visually great

Tex Avery's first known film (credited as lead animator, but some think he may have directed too).

Funny send up of a night at a vaudeville show, full of Avery's trademark surreal images.

Best bits – man asks woman to remover her hat so he can see, only to be lost behind her giant afro, an acrobat goes through the wall of the theater leaving a very Magritte like silhouette, a seemingly skinny performer has her corset burst, and balloons to huge proportions. A steam shovel comes out on stage to remove her and collapses in exhaustion.

The was available to see on YouTube.