Lulu Gets the Birdie (1944) User Reviews

a one joke cartoon and the joke is beaten into the ground. The end is good.

[llltdesq · 5/10 · 19 September 2015]

This is a cartoon in the Little Lulu series produced by Famous Studios. There will be spoilers ahead:

The Little Lulu series varied in quality. This one is one of the less interesting ones. Lulu makes an incredible mess in the kitchen and Mandy figures out who's responsible. She tricks Lulu into revealing herself and Lulu asks her how she knows it was her. Mandy trots out the old, "A little birdie told me" expression, which Lulu takes literally.

That's basically the gag-Lulu spends most of the rest of the short confronting birds and demanding to know if they are the "birdie" Mandy has been hearing tales from. Even an appearance by a prototype for Buzzy the Crow can't do much to make this more interesting. He's the only talking bird in here and leads Lulu to believe that a little baby red bird is the tattletale.

This leads into the last section, the sole section which is even mildly interesting. It involves a cat. More than that, I won't spoil, because the last two minutes is worth watching.

Worth watching once.

"A little birdie told me..."

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 11 February 2017]

The 26 Little Lulu cartoons made during 1944-1948 (and the two made in the early 60s) were uneven (individually and the series as a general overview) but watchable.

After a decent but "very much finding its feet" debut with 'Eggs Don't Bounce' and a much improved and very well done second cartoon 'Hullaba-Lulu', 'Lulu Gets the Birdie' signals the Little Lulu series' first disappointment and is easily the worst of the three, suffering mainly from a one-joke concept that peters out far too early and becomes very uninteresting quickly.

Sammy Timberg's music once again is terrific with a real lushness and energy, complete with an infectious theme song that isn't easy to forget. Of the rather few saving graces, Timberg's music is the best thing about 'Lulu Gets the Birdie'.

Little Lulu is engaging enough and the cat is the most interesting supporting character character with a halfway decent personality. The last two minutes has interest and entertainment value. The voice acting is quite good.

However, Mandy is a bland and annoying racial stereotype, that may cause some offence, and once again really didn't care for the very stereotypical and ugly character design for her, which reminds one uncomfortably of the character designs in the "Censored 11" cartoons with those ugly and somewhat offensive exaggerated features. The Buzzy the Crow-like bird makes an appearance that amounts to little and feels like a waste of a character.

At slightly over 8 minutes, 'Lulu Gets the Birdie' feels too long. Especially with a story that is too thin and too little content that is not that funny or interesting. The writing is also pretty flimsy and the animation, while not as much as before, still has its rough patches with a little more smoothness needed.

Overall, mediocre at best and disappointing Little Lulu cartoon. 4/10 Bethany Cox