Tumble Down Town (1933)

I love this movie so much

Wonderful character development!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.There are certainly far worse Aesop's Fables/Van Beuren cartoons. Could see much more effort than what tends to be with Van Beuren generally visually, but 'Tumble Down Town' still felt bland and disjointed at the same time. A few good things but also a lot of bad, which is not unusual for Aesop's Fables/Van Beuren.Best asset about 'Tumble Down Town' is the music score, pretty much the best thing consistently of Van Beuren's output. Sometimes even the only good thing. It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. Animation quality shows improvement. The character designs, while still sloppy and too simple at times (especially in the more complex backgrounds), are not as erratic or as ugly. More impressive is the backgrounds, which has much more detailed than most of the studio's earlier efforts. Synchronisation has some neatness. Story however is very flimsy, actually very little of one, in 'Tumble Down Town'. Then again that was not unexpected, even in Van Beuren's best cartoons it was never one of the strongest assets. It's also too hectic in pace and is very disjointed, with 'Tumble Down Town' feeling too much of a cartoon of two jarringly different halves. One half being reminiscent of a sugary sweet extended musical sequence and the other being more violent and bizarre. Gags are not enough and they are not particularly imaginative or funny, very run-of-the-mill forgettable at best stuff. None of the characters are engaging or with much personality.In summation, mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This Van Beuren cartoon shows that they are getting out of the era of synchronized cartoons -- much of the singing is decently matched to characters' mouth movements. However, the movie is definitely pre-code and excessively violent, with a lot of fighting, including the gang rumble that makes up much of the second half.The first half is a collection of Tin Pan Alley songs about growing up poor: "A Shanty in Old Shanty Town", "The Bowery" and a couple others. The gags are about violence, including a couple of pictures hanging on the walls that slug each other. The characters are clearly influenced by the Fleischers, including the cat that sings like Helen Kane. Although the backgrounding is pretty good, this is a primitive cartoon for the era with few jokes.