Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: June 30, 1939
Stars: Hunky & Spunky
Rating: ★
Review:
‘Barnyard Brat’ is the third of seven cartoons featuring Hunky and Spunky, arguably the worst comic duo ever put to the animated screen.
In ‘Barnyard Brat’ little burro Spunky is no less than a spoiled brat, who goes into tantrums and who bullies the other barnyard animals. These animals take revenge, however, and give the little brat a severe punishment. At that point Spunky’s mother comes to the rescue, but as Spunky remains as ungovernable as ever, she gives him a spanking. In the end it seems that Spunky has learned his lesson, but he has one final trick on his sleeve…
It may be clear that like ‘Small Fry‘ and the other Hunky and Spunky cartoons ‘Barnyard Brat’ belongs to the childish and cloying cartoons that had swamped the second half of the 1930s. By 1939 these were more and more replaced by gag cartoons. None of that, in ‘Barnyard Brat’, although there’s one mildly amusing gag of two ducks running away while stuck together in a pipe.
Besides the cloying story, the animation is rather poor. Spunky looks as if he’s seriously misshapen, and there’s some thinking animation on Hunky that’s anything but convincing, and cannot match that of Pluto in ‘Playful Pluto‘ (1934). Since that cartoon was already five years old by 1939, this only shows the Fleischers’ incompetence to catch up with the Disney style, and one wishes they never even tried this, for the Disney style would never become their strength. Besides, Warner Bros. and Walter Lantz were already showing that this copycat behavior wasn’t necessary for success.
Watch ‘Barnyard Brat’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Barnyard Brat’ is available on the DVD set ‘Somewhere in Dreamland – Max Fleischer’s Color Classics: The Definitive Collection’
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 29, 2021 at 22:44
Jah99
In my honest opinion, I think this was made during the time that Fleischer Studios had outstayed their welcome, yes, there might’ve been some good stuff like Mr Bug Goes to Town, Superman, and some later Popeyes, but most of their stuff made in the mid-30’s to early-40’s with an exception of Popeye were pretty much mediocre, Betty Boop lost all of her appeal, most of the Color Classics were a hit or miss, and their Gulliver adaptation was pretty disappointing. People said that the magic of Paramount cartoons were gone when Max and Dave Fleischer left and Fleischer Studios got turned into Famous Studios, but I kinda call bull on that since the studio’s non-Popeye stuff has went downhill years ago and this cartoon is good proof of how the Fleischer’s lost most of their charm and magic by then. Say all you want about Famous Studios cartoons, but at least most of their cartoons have more charm and likability than the worst of Fleischer Studios such as this one.
April 6, 2021 at 17:37
Gijs Grob
Thanks for commenting. I agree with you, as the 1930s progressed the Fleischers became less and less in touch with their times, and progressed much less than the Californian studios.