"King Tut's Tomb" is a Heckle & Jeckle cartoon, but it avoids the usual anarchic violence of those magpies. Instead, the two friends go on an exotic adventure which features more imaginative visuals than usual for a Paul Terry cartoon, and the climax features an interesting musical number. This cartoon (intentionally) has fewer laughs than usual for Heckle & Jeckle, but it's bright and well-paced, and makes for enjoyable family viewing.
Heckle and Jeckle, wearing pith helmets, are riding their flying carpet over Egypt. They come in for a landing near a likely pyramid, and decide to investigate. When they open the tomb, various Egyptian artefacts fly out into the desert. The last item to emerge is a levitating mummy case, which opens to reveal a cartoon version of Harpo Marx. The comedy of Heckle & Jeckle was always strongly influenced by the Marx Brothers, so it's nice to see an honest acknowledgment of this.
In appropriate cartoon fashion, the inside of the tomb is larger than the outside. Inside the tomb, Heckle and Jeckle discover an ancient Egyptian jukebox. (It looks to me like it's Twentieth Dynasty, second Ramesside period.) The jukebox and its records have been sitting in this dusty tomb for thousands of years, but when Heckle starts it up (of course) it works just fine. The two magpies do a spirited dance to the catchy tune on the jukebox.
The character animation in this short is better than usual for the Terry studio, whose characters sometimes had a distressing tendency to wobble. I enjoyed 'King Tut's Tomb' without actually laughing out loud, and I recommend it with a rating of 7 out of 10.
Heckle and Jeckle, wearing pith helmets, are riding their flying carpet over Egypt. They come in for a landing near a likely pyramid, and decide to investigate. When they open the tomb, various Egyptian artefacts fly out into the desert. The last item to emerge is a levitating mummy case, which opens to reveal a cartoon version of Harpo Marx. The comedy of Heckle & Jeckle was always strongly influenced by the Marx Brothers, so it's nice to see an honest acknowledgment of this.
In appropriate cartoon fashion, the inside of the tomb is larger than the outside. Inside the tomb, Heckle and Jeckle discover an ancient Egyptian jukebox. (It looks to me like it's Twentieth Dynasty, second Ramesside period.) The jukebox and its records have been sitting in this dusty tomb for thousands of years, but when Heckle starts it up (of course) it works just fine. The two magpies do a spirited dance to the catchy tune on the jukebox.
The character animation in this short is better than usual for the Terry studio, whose characters sometimes had a distressing tendency to wobble. I enjoyed 'King Tut's Tomb' without actually laughing out loud, and I recommend it with a rating of 7 out of 10.