Jack and Old Mac

This is a Disney cartoon that is the most unlike any other Disney toon I have ever seen. And, if I didn't know it was Disney, I would have sworn it would have been made by some other studio--such as UPA who had a history of such style films.

It's a musical version of 'The House That Jack Built' as well as 'Old MacDonald'. Both are very zippy jazz shorts--with a style that works well if you are inviting a group of beatniks over to the house to watch it. However, it's VERY ultra-1950s modern look sure was ugly. This, combined with the music, make it a cartoon I doubt most kids would enjoy. In fact, I think MOST folks would struggle with this one. Unless you are a HUGE jazz or UPA fan, steer clear.

Jack and Old Mac is a cartoon that won't please everybody but it is not a cartoon that will or should be universally hated. To me, it was interesting and well-done. If anything though from personal tastes the animation was the kind that most of the time it worked but others where it doesn't quite. It's in an abstract and stylised style of drawing, a style that takes some getting used to but it is also a style that will fascinate. It does look flat and blocky in places but a vast majority of the time it's colourful and stylish. The jazz arrangements are very clever and make both nursery rhymes very catchy, the orchestration sounds great and is particularly rousing in Old MacDonald. The singing is very characteristic of that of the singing in the Disney cartoons of this time, which is a good thing because it's a lovely and beautifully harmonised sound. The humour is in the sound effects and visuals and is done very well, the sound effects are not bizarre in the slightest and don't distort the music at all while the cartoon does a great job in keeping the gags and visuals varied for two nursery rhymes that are heavily reliant on repetition. Both The House that Jack Built and Old MacDonald segments are funny and visually interesting, Old MacDonald is a little more zippy in pace than House that Jack Built is but not by much. Neither segment that form Jack and Old Mac have much plot, then again the nursery rhymes don't really either, Old MacDonald is literally just introducing new things repeated. The characters visually match the animation style really well and are not bland. In conclusion, not for all but personally it was very interesting and well-done once you get used to the animation. 8/10 Bethany Cox

A Walt Disney Cartoon.

Mother Goose never imagined the Nursery Rhymes of JACK AND OLD MAC to be anything like this...

This Is The House That Jack Built & Old MacDonald's Farm are given zany new interpretations in the flat, limited animation format which became so popular in the 1950's.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.