Those Beautiful Dames Review

Those Beautiful Dames is a 1934 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is a solid color short.

Now this is a Technicolor film, but done in a cheaper 2-strip version. And it definitely shows that it is Technicolor as it looks much better than ‘Honeymoon Hotel’s’ Cinecolor quality. But the film itself is much, much weaker. A young orphan girl enters the house where various household items and toys come to life and sing to her. Maybe it influenced the famous Be Our Guest segment in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ as it definitely has that charm and playfulness to it. But it is nowhere near as fun and the humor and gags are lacking.

The animation is good and the score is very catchy and a lot of fun, but the plot is nothing to write home about and I only found its last eating segment really heartwarming, the rest of it is nowhere near as moving or as fun as it thinks it is. One dance sequence I loved, but the others were entirely forgettable. I am looking forward to much better Technicolor Merry Melodies in the future as this is only the beginning.

Those Beautiful Dames is well scored and animated, but rarely truly moving and lacking in plot and gags.