Van Beuren studios were never in the same class as Disney, Warner, or even Fleischer. Then again, they were a cut above some of the truly awful stuff that was made right up through the 50's. Their shorts often had a distinctive, musical bounce to them, and their Tom and Jerry shorts are often particularly fun. This short, 'Toonerville Picnic', released in 1936 was the last thing they ever made. They had released two other Toonerville cartoons that year, so it's a shame the bottom fell out then, because this is above average for VB.

It doubtless helped that they were using characers who had been in print in newspapers for over 25 years, and that therefore all the character groundwork was done for them. There is a lot more dialog and less music than in some of their shorts.

The Toonerville Trolley is a tiny railway carriage operated by The Skipper, an elderly but spirited bloke, a bit like what you might imagine Popeye being like in his 80's. His wife is the huge, Valkerie-like 'Strong' Katrinka (though in fact she wasn't the biggest woman in the strip!). The other chief character in featured here is the hilariously bad-tempered and uptight Mr Bang, who is customarily either apoplectic with rage over some trivial incident, or about to be.

The short starts with Mr Bang's doctor telling him he has to learn to relax, and ordering him to take some time off. A trip to the beach.... Sounds like a good idea, but this means travelling on the maniacal trolley, which is suddenly filled to bursting point. Bang gets stuck next to a talking dog who teases him relentlessly once he realises it gets under his skin.

When they get to the beach nothing goes right... or more properly, everything goes right for everyone except Mr Bang, who is in the process of being murdered by his deckchair while everyone else is enjoying a swim. When he finally takes to the water, he gets trapped (inside the trolley!) by a giant octopus, who also eats his lunch. Needless to say, this does little for My Bang's blood pressure.

This isn't a classic, but I enjoyed it a lot more than most of the stuff coming out of the lesser studios at the time.

BTW the 12 DVD boxed set in the profile which claims to have 100 classic cartoons is stretching things a bit, since most of them are awful. It lists Felix, Little Lulu and Betty Boop on the front cover, and I think the three of them have four cartoons between them. On the plus side it does have nearly 2 DVDs of Popeye shorts, though unfortunately mostly from the Famous Studios period, but still worth watching. The thing is though, it's only about $12, so who cares if it only has 20 cartoons on it you'll want to watch?