Despite Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his cartoons being popular and well received at the time, they have been vastly overshadowed over time by succeeding animation characters. It is a shame as, while not cartoon masterpieces, they are fascinating for anybody wanting to see what very old animation looked like.
'Oil's Well', interesting only really for being Walter Lantz's second Oswald cartoon, is not a good representation of a more than decent character and series with some good cartoons, one of his weakest if anything. Lantz made some good and more cartoons, with particular success with the Woody Woodpecker cartoons, but 'Oil's Well' is not a good representation of him either.
Not unwatchable by all means. Some of the animation, although not exactly refined and with some jumpy transitions here and there, is not bad at all, are crisp and fluid enough with some nice detail especially with animation techniques still in early days. A couple of the gags are amusing, and there is some nice energy in some of the music.
However, 'Oil's Well' suffers from the exact same problems of Lantz's first Oswald cartoon 'Race Riot', which isn't a good cartoon either. Synchronisation between music and sound effects and how they fit with the images has been much better before and since and far less sloppy too. The sound can lack resonance and the picture quality lacks clarity in places.
Apart from a few amusing moments, 'Oil's Well' is not particularly funny or inventive with much-less-than-crisp timing, the story is flimsier than most Oswald cartoons and Oswald himself is not endearing or funny here (a shame because he usually is).
Overall, disappointing. 3/10 Bethany Cox
'Oil's Well', interesting only really for being Walter Lantz's second Oswald cartoon, is not a good representation of a more than decent character and series with some good cartoons, one of his weakest if anything. Lantz made some good and more cartoons, with particular success with the Woody Woodpecker cartoons, but 'Oil's Well' is not a good representation of him either.
Not unwatchable by all means. Some of the animation, although not exactly refined and with some jumpy transitions here and there, is not bad at all, are crisp and fluid enough with some nice detail especially with animation techniques still in early days. A couple of the gags are amusing, and there is some nice energy in some of the music.
However, 'Oil's Well' suffers from the exact same problems of Lantz's first Oswald cartoon 'Race Riot', which isn't a good cartoon either. Synchronisation between music and sound effects and how they fit with the images has been much better before and since and far less sloppy too. The sound can lack resonance and the picture quality lacks clarity in places.
Apart from a few amusing moments, 'Oil's Well' is not particularly funny or inventive with much-less-than-crisp timing, the story is flimsier than most Oswald cartoons and Oswald himself is not endearing or funny here (a shame because he usually is).
Overall, disappointing. 3/10 Bethany Cox
