While not one of my favourites, Ub Iwerks was responsible for a lot of interesting work. Especially when working with Walt Disney, his oldest friend and one of his best, and co-creating one of animation's most famous characters in Mickey Mouse. His career since opening his own studio had interest value but the quality was variable, often being successful in the animation and music but wanting in the story and variable in gags, lead characters and tone.
1933 to 1936 saw twenty five cartoons, mostly based on famous fairytales and familiar stories, as part of Iwerks's "ComiColor" series. The "ComiColor" series is very much worth watching and interesting, as is the case with many series some cartoons are better than others but there are no real animation nadirs. 1934's 'The Queen of Hearts' is watchable enough but compared to the previous cartoons in the series it is a little disappointing.
'The Queen of Hearts', while faithfully adhering to the basic details of the poem, is slight and is too saccharine, like at the beginning, and melodramatic. There is just not enough content to the poem to fill the cartoon's length and the middle especially is where one feels the over-stretching.
Its characters should have been much more interesting, their personalities are bland and this is including the title character. The wit and imagination has been more frequent and stronger in other cartoons in the series before and since, it did feel bland somewhat.
However, 'The Queen of Hearts' in no way disgraces the poem and has enough interest to stop it from being completely dull. There are a few amusing moments that aren't too corny and never repetitive, and there is a genuine likeability and charm.
Furthermore, the animation is great. Meticulously detailed, fluid in drawing, vibrant in colour and often rich in imagination and visual wit. The music is cleverly and lushly orchestrated, is infectiously catchy and adds a lot to the cartoon.
Overall, another example of a worth a look once but not repeat viewings cartoon. 5/10 Bethany Cox