Toy Time
About Toy Time
After hours, the mouse Oscar brings his girlfriend into a toy shop and they treat the place like a playground, climbing through the toys and playing the instruments. A cat finds them. They fight it off with the toys. Oscar then plays her a serenade on a piano, and she kisses him.
Cast & crew
More about Toy Time
An Aesop's Fables short produced by Amadee J. Van Beuren and released by RKO. Wikidata dates it December 6, 1931, and gives the length as 8 minutes. John Foster is the director on Wikidata. Dr. Grob's Animation Review also credits Harry Bailey and lists a release of January 27, 1932. Gene Rodemich wrote the score.
Themes
Background
Van Beuren was releasing these musical fables through RKO in 1931, in the same season Warner Bros. was preparing its own toy-shop cartoon, It's Got Me Again!, which came out the next year.
Making
Reviewer Grob writes that the shop-at-night premise follows the Silly Symphony Midnight in a Toy Shop, and that Van Beuren added the cat fight and the piano serenade. He also notes painted backgrounds and animation he finds stiff beside the score.
Reviews
On Dr. Grob's Animation Review (September 16, 2016), Grob rates Toy Time three and a half stars and calls Rodemich's score the strongest part of an ambitious short whose mouse designs stay plain.
Music
Gene Rodemich composed the score, including the piano serenade Oscar plays for his girlfriend.
Preservation
A raw HD copy is on Wikimedia Commons, credited to John Foster and Harry Bailey.
Notes
- Oscar uses a toy hook-and-ladder truck to reach a piece of cheese, then sets a detour sign by a mousetrap.
- He has to work out how a mouse opens the shop's front door to let his girlfriend in.
- The cat arrives only in the last couple of minutes.
- The Commons file credits Foster and Harry Bailey.
- IMDb times a copy at 7 minutes.
Scenes
- Oscar rides a toy fire truck toward the cheese and plants a detour sign beside the trap.
- The mice turn the instruments in the shop into a band.
- They drive the cat off with the toys, and Oscar finishes at the piano.
Influenced by
- Midnight in a Toy Shop (1930)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (John Foster and Harry Bailey - Aesop's Fables - Toy Time (1931) (raw HD version).webm)
