Here's to the Good Old Jail (1938) watch online HD

The Terrytoons are oddly interesting, mainly for anybody wanting to see (generally) older cartoons made by lesser known and lower-budget studios. They are a mixed bag in quality, with some better than others, often with outstanding music and with some mild amusement and charm and variable in animation, characterisation and content.

1938, like all the other years for Terrytoons, saw a hit and miss batch, more so than the other years even. Of which 'Here's to the Good Old Jail' is one of the better ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons and one of the best 1938 cartoons. There are flaws but also a lot of strengths, and a few things done better than what was seen before. 'Here's to the Good Old Jail' is well worth watching as an above average watch with more to it than completest sake.

Best asset is the music, which predictably is incredible. It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. The ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is still great to see, the 1936 Terrytoons onwards showed more fluidity in design than in previous years and some synchronisation is neat. The drawing is more fluid generally.

A fair share of amusing moments, with more gags than there can be usually found and they are all beautifully timed and funny (not always the case with Terrytoons), and there is a lot of zest and natural charm. Also a suitably strange and absurdist quality that was fun and endearing to watch. The characters are amusing and quite relatable here too and that it doesn't get saccharine is appreciated. The metamorphoses/transformations are remarkably imaginative and weirdly absurd (in a good way).

On the other hand, there are occasions where transitions are not as smooth as they could have been.

Likewise, the story, while refreshingly wild for Terrytoons at this point, is thin and with not quite enough surprises. A few moments of staleness in humour though this was only occasional.

All in all, pretty impressive. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Two dogs break out of prison and go through an extraordinary number of metamorphoses in this striking absurd Terrytoon.

Director Eddie Donnelly was one of the many artists that Paul Terry hired after Van Beuren's cartoon factory had ended in 1937 and this cartoon harks back to the almost surrealistic weirdness of that studio's A DIZZY DAY and forward to the better Gandy Goose cartoons and even pieces like Tex Avery's DUMB-HOUNDED. Donnelly's character design is as simple and unrealistic as Van Beuren's studio did in 1933, but that simply expedites the silly transformations.

Eddie Donnelly would remain with the Terry organization for the rest of his career -- for someone who didn't seem terribly interested in turning out great cartoons, Paul Terry seemed to be able to onto considerable talent (probably because of his habit of remaining within budget, he never missed a payroll; in a chancy field like animation that was a great inducement). Eddie gave up the top seat in the mid-1950s, but continued to animate for the organization for another ten years.