Invention Convention (1953) User Reviews (3)

Invention Convention was another of the funny "Kartunes" from the Famous Studio

[tavm · 8/10 · 5 April 2017]

What Famous Studios once referred to as "Screen Songs" was by this point called "Kartunes". In this one, various humanized animals are demonstrating some unusual inventions like a bed for tired sleepwalkers in which the horse about to get up when not awake has something go on his head as the bed then walks on its feet, a giant flyswatter, and a running gag of a suitcase that is closed quickly various ways but keeps either opening up or makes a hole in it because of too many items in it! They then have one of the characters say "Follow the bouncing ball" which then segues to the song "Let Me Call You Sweethaart" with not only that ball but also various characters jumping on the lyrics. This was one of the funnier entries in the series. So on that note, I highly recommend Invention Convention.

Goofy Gadgets

[boblipton · 5/10 · 14 July 2021]

Here's another of the Famous Studios revival of the Fleischer Screen Songs. This one spotlights.the 1910 song "Let Me Call You Sweetheart"; this was a big hit the following year for the. Peerless Quartet under the leadership of Frank Burr, as I am so very sure you knew. What's that? You didn't? Well, neither did I before I did a little research of the song just now, and I'm sure we'll both forget.

The song is preceded by three minutes of labor-saving inventions, none of which anyone ever felt a need for. This is not the best of the gag sequences from the series.

More conventional than inventive

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 1 March 2023]

While it was an inconsistent series, the Kartunes series from Famous Studios was still worth watching, even if for most of the cartoons it was one time watch level rather than repeat viewings. Some of the cartoons were not great, with the first half generally being better than the second in most of them. But the weakest ones still managed to not be misfires (unlike the better known Screen Song cartoons), more watchable but uneven, and the best surprisingly very good, like for example the first 'Vegetable Vaudeville'.

'Invention Convention' is one of the more average, lesser Kartunes cartoons. It's not a bad cartoon, don't consider any of them inherently bad, and has some very strong things. It also sadly fails in some rather crucial components. It could have done with a lot more imagination, the pacing problems are more obvious here than in something like 'Vegetable Vaudeville', 'Forest Fantasy' or 'Philharmaniacs' and veers on being a little too cute, but the animation and music in particular are enough to make 'Invention Convention' worth a one off look.

Am going to start with the good. It is beautifully animated. The colours are vibrant and there is meticulous attention to detail in the backgrounds. If there was one aspect that was consistently good in Famous Studios' 1940s and 1950s output, it was the music scoring. And it is outstanding here. The orchestration has a lot of energy and there are some truly luscious sounds throughout.

There are some amusing gags in the first half, corny but amusing. The characters are lively and have personality.

Having said all of that, 'Invetion Convention' is still not great or even particularly good. The second half is not as good as the first, it's made up of the singalong and while the song itself is a lot of fun the singalong material wise felt too cutesy and was in serious need of variety.

It is also in this half where there are some serious pacing issues as a result, with the pace being quite tedious. Actually did find the pace on the dull side throughout, but the singalong was where it was at its most obvious. As to be expected, the plot is non existent and a series of gags of the blackout kind and it is generally very predictable.

Concluding, rather average. 5/10.