Man from Button Willow

Sorry it took a long time for this review to be made. We had moving issues. I don’t recommend going to North Carolina, except for a specific Taco Bell and Animall. I was on a long vacation which got longer with Hurricane Florence, and suffered from two funerals, but now I’m back.

Let’s start with the western animated films with Man from Button Willow. Before this film, we had the Lone Rangers serial series, most of the original western films are mostly live-action, and any westerns that are animated were mostly spoofing popular western films. The closest was Disney’s Pecos Bill, but that wasn’t feature length and it was a package film to Melody Time. Same situation with Willy McBean and the Magic Machine when they met Buffalo Bill, and it came out on the same year.

What’s the story? Good question. Justin Eagle is the sheriff to Paramount’s Western Town…I mean who cares, it’s Button Willow. He has his closest friend named Sorry and adopted daughter named Stormy. Justin has a ranch of Eagle’s Ranch with a full chance his vote count than anyone else. Justin’s horse’s wife gave birth to a baby. The rest is the life on the ranch to the animal, until Justin leaves for a secret mission for noteworthy, it would be spoiling to those who haven’t seen it if you watched the supercut version of this film featuring Justin, which lacking from the film.

The obvious title character!! The Man from Button Willow is barely the focus, and it’s mostly on the animals and his friends. If anything, Sorry is the Man from Button Willow since he has more focus than the other. However, he owns Button Willow, so they might as well show the life there for 1.5/3^rd of the film, but the live action opener said specifically its Justin.

Dale Robertson: This is the story of Justin Eagle. Wait, no, this story about his horse. Hold on, it’s about his human friends. Now it’s to his furry friends.

Stinky Whizzleteats: This is a song about a whale….No! This is a song about being happy!

This focus issue is right up there with The Ballad of Smokey The Bear, Jason Take Manhattan, and most of Raja Gosnell and Richard Rich films such as The Smurfs, Swan Princess, and the animated King and I. Speaking of which, Stormy’s voice actress would be in the King and I TV series.

The animation is decent at most. Though get uses to Justin riding his horse, because they reused it a lot as much as Superman flying scene in Superman 4. I wouldn’t complain much, but this was 1965 and was a weak point to MGM when they’re not using Chuck Jones.

The director and writer was David Detiege, the guy who would doom the Looney Tunes but gave life to Pink Panther by using Bugs Bunny’s body. One of the animator is Don Luske, who helped with Disney’s Pinocchio. These explain why Jeremiah look likes Ghepetto and some connections to get some of the Disney’s voice actors, including their next film, Shinbone Alley aka Pinocchio directed by Gideon. This was the last time Ukulele Idle (the voice for Jiminy Cricket) voice acted, but only for two or three lines from two supposedly villains who disappeared in the middle of the film. Either Idle was difficult to work with to the point they booted him out, he was starting to lose his voice, or he needed the job to pay for retirement at the home. I would lean more on the ladder since it was said Idle went to the Retirement Home, but died and no one in his home town recalled him. Instead, the villain goes to this forgettable sailor.

I swear this was originally a short film, but it was too long for a short cartoon, or too short to be a TV series. So they padded it with pointless scenes and bad musical number with the exception of the opening sung by Howard Keel. This is a dull start to animated Western film as it feels like a chore to rewatch. Here’s hoping animated Western Animated Films go uphill from here!