Now a fairly obscure character, Buddy was the second Warner Brothers Looney Tunes character, after Bosko and followed by Beans the Cat. Buddy didn't last long, being retired in 1935 after 23 cartoons starting in 1933.
The Buddy cartoons are intriguing to see how very early Looney Tunes characters, before the iconic ones with far more interesting and funnier personalities were introduced, fared. His filmography is very much variable, most ranging between mediocre and decent though 'Buddy's Adventures' is one of the rare very good Buddy cartoons. 'Buddy of the Legion' is alongside 'Buddy's Show Boat' and 'Buddy's Bearcats' one of the weakest, quality-wise it's not terrible but mediocre.
'Buddy of the Legion' has good things. The animation is nicely drawn and detailed with the black and white looking crisp. Even better is the very energetic and cleverly orchestrated music score. Music played a big part in the Buddy cartoons and it was essential for it to work.
A couple of the latter moments are mildly amusing and the voice acting is good.
However, 'Buddy of the Legion' is very weak in terms of story (and it is a potentially fun premise not done enough with), one would be forgiven for not remembering there being much of one and what there is is so formulaic one is a couple of steps ahead of the cartoon the whole time, which takes away from the enjoyment. It also feels very rushed due to, even for a Buddy cartoon, being far too short.
In regards to the humour, 'Buddy of the Legion' is very much short-changed. There is nothing genuinely funny here, the best sporadic moments only being mildly amusing at best. The supporting characters don't register enough. Buddy is part of the problem too, like in all his lesser-just straining average cartoons he just isn't a particularly interesting or compelling in personality character, pretty bland actually, and his comic timing is barely there.
Overall, mediocre lesser Buddy effort. 4/10 Bethany Cox
