. . . this finicky family of mammals is on a strictly vegetarian diet. Even in times of dire famine, they will not go near beef, ham, cheese, mutton, milk, or eggs. This brief animated Nature Documentary--THE LOST CHICK--does a bang-up job of fleshing out the aversion voles, moles, chipmunks, squirrels, and mice feel toward any of the many food substances shunned by PETA. As THE LOST CHICK begins, a couple of squirrels find an egg. They take great pains to hide this patently offensive object from plain sight, rolling it into a nook well off the beaten path of their fellow rodents. Laboring under the delusion that this great white orb is some sort of mushroom nut, the misguided pair look forward to feasting upon it come Winter. (Evidently these are some sort of deplorable SOUTHERN squirrels, who are taught nothing about the birds and the bees in their local public school.) Eventually, however, the Truth will always out with its Inexorable Finality. (Among humans this is often called a "Royal Flush Two-For," combining birth and baptism into one magic moment in a middle school Girls Room. Fortunately, within THE LOST CHICK's rodent colony, nobody gets wet.)
3 Reviews
Losing Eggbert
TheLittleSongbird4 August 2018
Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna Barbera, Studio Ghibli and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. With significantly broader knowledge of different directors, animation styles and studios, actually appreciate and love it even more now.
As has been said a few times already, 'The Lost Chick' is fairly typical of Harmon-Ising, leaning towards the cute kind of cartoon with a lot of sentiment in alternative to the laugh a minute and hilarious kind, the latter being the one that a lot seem to prefer (understandably, though am hardly biased against the former). This approach has varied with Ising. In some instances it has been very sweet and charming, in others it can be cloying and too cutesy. Some fit in the former category, others in the latter category. Sadly, 'The Lost Chick' is one of the latter category cartoons.
'The Lost Chick' is not an unwatchable cartoon by all means. It may be underwhelming but there are redeeming values as well. Its best asset is the animation, it's vibrantly and atmospherically coloured and shaded, beautifully drawn and rich in meticulous background detail. The music is another big plus, it's lushly orchestrated, full of charm and character and fits with the visuals beautifully.
There are a few cute and charming moments but they are too few and between
On the other hand, the characters all round are bland and very difficult to endear to, even the titular character, they may have cute exteriors but the antics are easily foreseeable and neither funny or interesting. The story is barely existent and there are times when it drags hard.
Most of 'The Lost Chick' is too saccharine and cloying and some of the distasteful antics render it mostly charmless. Was not expecting a laugh a minute or hilarious cartoon, but 'The Lost Chick' is completely humourless even the sporadic moments that should have amused a little. The moral is laid on too thick and didn't need to be so blatant.
In summation, underwhelming. 4/10 Bethany Cox
As has been said a few times already, 'The Lost Chick' is fairly typical of Harmon-Ising, leaning towards the cute kind of cartoon with a lot of sentiment in alternative to the laugh a minute and hilarious kind, the latter being the one that a lot seem to prefer (understandably, though am hardly biased against the former). This approach has varied with Ising. In some instances it has been very sweet and charming, in others it can be cloying and too cutesy. Some fit in the former category, others in the latter category. Sadly, 'The Lost Chick' is one of the latter category cartoons.
'The Lost Chick' is not an unwatchable cartoon by all means. It may be underwhelming but there are redeeming values as well. Its best asset is the animation, it's vibrantly and atmospherically coloured and shaded, beautifully drawn and rich in meticulous background detail. The music is another big plus, it's lushly orchestrated, full of charm and character and fits with the visuals beautifully.
There are a few cute and charming moments but they are too few and between
On the other hand, the characters all round are bland and very difficult to endear to, even the titular character, they may have cute exteriors but the antics are easily foreseeable and neither funny or interesting. The story is barely existent and there are times when it drags hard.
Most of 'The Lost Chick' is too saccharine and cloying and some of the distasteful antics render it mostly charmless. Was not expecting a laugh a minute or hilarious cartoon, but 'The Lost Chick' is completely humourless even the sporadic moments that should have amused a little. The moral is laid on too thick and didn't need to be so blatant.
In summation, underwhelming. 4/10 Bethany Cox
Dull and full of simply awful music
planktonrules21 December 2006
I am a huge fan of Hollywood films from the 1930s. I simply adore the movies and shorts and can't get enough of them. There is, however, an exception--most cartoons of the 30s were pretty insipid. Sure, there are some notable exceptions (such as SNOW WHITE), but Disney, Warner Brothers and MGM (among others) insisted on cranking out a huge number of terrible musical films that were just awful. Please understand I am NOT knocking Mickey Mouse or Donald--but the musicals referred to as "Silly Symphonies" (Disney), "Merry Melodies" (Warner) or "Happy Harmonies" (MGM). These cutesy films were pure drivel with practically no humor and no edge--just lots of awful singing and characters so treacly sweet that they are just about unwatchable. The edgy Bugs Bunny or Tex Avery cartoons we know and love today were produced in the following decades. You know it was a bad decade for toons when Popeye and Betty Boop were among the BETTER toons of the age!!! Despite these films being so bad, I recently forced myself to watch a trio of Happy Harmonies shorts. Part of this must be because I am a masochist, but part of it is because I love reviewing the more obscure films--as there is a real scarcity of reviews for older and seldom-seen movies and shorts.
The second cartoon shown on TCM was THE LOST CHICK. While not as rotten as WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY, it was a horrible cartoon if compared to those produced by MGM or Warner Brothers in the 1940s or 50s. There is absolutely no humor or edginess to it--just a lot of "so cute they make you puke" animals running around and singing. The main moral of this tale is "Love Thy Neighbor"--and you see it prominently displayed on the wall of the mother hen's home. Gag me! After seeing it, I felt a very strong need for some Tex Avery to wipe this experience from my mind!
The animation quality, though not great, isn't horrid, so the film manages to barely squeek by with a score of 3.
The second cartoon shown on TCM was THE LOST CHICK. While not as rotten as WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY, it was a horrible cartoon if compared to those produced by MGM or Warner Brothers in the 1940s or 50s. There is absolutely no humor or edginess to it--just a lot of "so cute they make you puke" animals running around and singing. The main moral of this tale is "Love Thy Neighbor"--and you see it prominently displayed on the wall of the mother hen's home. Gag me! After seeing it, I felt a very strong need for some Tex Avery to wipe this experience from my mind!
The animation quality, though not great, isn't horrid, so the film manages to barely squeek by with a score of 3.
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