ALADDIN’S LAMP (1947)
Article 4759 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-14-2015
Directed by Eddie Donnelly
Voice cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Mighty Mouse cartoon

An evil cat kidnaps Aladdin’s daughter and steals his lamp. Can Mighty Mouse save the day?

One of these days it might be interesting to watch the Mighty Mouse cartoons in chronological order in order to find out how the whole operetta approach evolved. I mention this because this short feels transitional; all of the dialogue is sung, and there’s a sense of the operetta style, but it doesn’t have the serial parody elements of the other shorts in this style, and neither Pearl Pureheart nor Oil-Can Harry appear. Unfortunately, the sense of humor of those shorts is missing as well; the few half-hearted gags that show up here fall flat. As a result, this one is largely as dull as Mighty Mouse’s non-operetta shorts. The best moment for me was the appearance of a dragon for a short segment of the cartoon; it’s a sequence that shows more ambition than what I’m used to finding from Terrytoons. Yet, because of its transitional nature, it might be a crucial step in the evolution of the series.