User Reviews

The story of 'Chicken Little' is a very familiar one and has been done a lot (saying it mildly), so once one sees the premise for 'The Sky is Falling' it's not hard to figure out what goes on before even seeing the cartoon. 1947 was another hit and miss year for Terrytoons, not a surprise seeing as Terrytoons' output was inconsistent the entire time it was active. And it was another variable year for Mighty Mouse too, one's enjoyment of 'The Sky is Falling' will be dependent on how one feels about Mighty Mouse as a character.

For me, he has always left me mixed. And 'The Sky is Falling' is something of a mixed bag of a cartoon too. Not the worst 1947 Terrytoon, but not one of the best. It is though one of the cartoons of that year to sum up very well what was very hit and miss for that year's output for the studio, as all the common good and bad things are here. 'The Sky is Falling' also has all the good and bad things typical in a Mighty Mouse cartoon.

Am going to start with the good things. The best components are the music and the animation which was always the case generally from the late 30s onwards. Well the music was a consistent redeeming trait, even in the mediocre and less Terrytoons (have never faulted it), whereas the animation for the studio started rough but the improvement seen from the late-30s or so as said quite a number of times was staggering. The music is typically lush in orchestration and rich in character, adding to and even enhancing the action brilliantly. The animation is every bit the music's equal here, the attention to detail in the backgrounds is as careful and precise as it should be, the drawing is neat and smooth and as good as that for the early Disney cartoons and the colours are vibrant.

Of all the scenes in 'The Sky is Falling', the very clever wheelbarrow sequence fares the best, the only part that comes close to resembling any kind of originality. Generally though the second half is better than the first, due to there being a lot more energy and fun, with a few mildly amusing moments in the action, even if there is nothing surprising. Am not a fan of Mighty Mouse, while not hating him, but he serves his purpose well here and is not annoying (his bravery also being admirable). The fox is wonderfully crafty and is the best character.

It is a shame though that the rest of the characters are very bland, and while the cartoon does get better once Mighty Mouse comes in the feel of it becomes very different and like two cartoons in one. 'The Sky is Falling' takes far too long to get started and to say that it is thinly plotted is being too generous. Most of the cartoon's story is non-existent other than the very bare bones of the story it's loosely based on and does nothing fresh with.

Much of the first half's material is sorely lacking in laughs, veers on being too cute and has very little tension or energy. The ending can be seen from miles away and was like the typical Mighty Mouse ending present in pretty much every cartoon he's in.

Summing up, pretty bad first half but decent second one, making for an overall average effort. 5/10