Hello and welcome back to Classic Shorts Showcase and if you recall one of the earlier Showcases that I did back when these were posted on Saturdays was Casey at The Bat. I enjoyed that short very much, of course this was the short I watched right after Ben and Me and really, anything was better than that short. Moving on to today's short though. This is a sequel to Casey at The Bat and from my understanding, this is an original story that Disney came up with for this short. Is it as good as the first? No, not really and you'll find out why in this review.
The Plot
This short picks up right at the end of the first Casey short, when Casey's wife comes to tell him that she's pregnant and Casey thinks that he is going to have a son and even when when the baby is born, he thinks it's a boy. It isn't until Casey goes to change the baby's diaper that he finds out, it's a girl and as life goes on, Casey's wife gives birth to more girls and because of this Casey refuses to pay the doctor that he delivered his daughters. It took Casey's baseball friends to show him that his daughters could be great baseball players. That's the main reason, why Casey wanted to have a son because he wanted a baseball player to carry on his legacy. Now this is my first problem with this short comes in. I say the because while the first one did have some semblance of a plot, it was a simple plot and Casey works better with a simplified plot, where you can laugh at his actions because of his attitude and it made his downfall so much funnier. Now I normally would not say this but I don't think fleshing out his character more than what he was in the first short was a good idea.
Narration
Narrator - Not Listed
For those of you read that my read my review of the first Casey short, you may recall that I compared the narration in that short to that of a an old time sportscaster on the radio talking about the game. Sadly, I did not get the same feeling with this short. Which is part of what gave the first short so much charm, here instead, it felt average and that's really disappointing because the narration in this short just felt average. That's almost worst than bad narration, if you ask me. This is probably the first short that I've come across where the narration while fitting the short was disappointing and at best forgettable. I mean I may not have cared for Basil Rathbone's narration for Wind In The Willows but at least it was memorable. Now I'm not saying that there shouldn't have been any narration because the essence of narration helps the short to flow but they could have used someone with a more memorable voice. In all honesty, the person narrating this short felt as though they were reading straight off a script and yeah, they probably were but with all the other narrations, it never felt so obvious or forced. That's the other thing in certain points in this short, the narration felt forced.
Characters
Casey - Not Voiced save for one line
In the original Casey short, Casey was a likable jerk but fleshing out his character in my opinion was a mistake because instead of being a jerk you could laugh at, he came across a pig and someone that hated women. I may have disliked Fifer and Fiddler but at least that was consistent with all the shorts but with Casey, yeah he was cocky in the first but at least I was able to laugh at him and in this one, I felt like I was suppose to laugh at his circumstance but instead of laughing at it, his personality in this short infuriated me because his actions came across as though he did not care about his daughters until he saw that they could baseball. Really? I mean, yeah I get that is what Casey's passion and love is but really? Way to take a character that was somewhat likable and turn him into completely distant character that I want nothing to do with.
Casey's Daughters - Not Voiced.
Y'know as much I want to defend Casey's daughters because of their father's attitude, I can't because they come across more as part of a recurring gag that Casey's wife will never have a son. This is not a hit on the daughters but at the same time, I feel as though that is the only reason, there are so many. None of the individual daughters have a personality that they can claim as their own. In the long run, they're flat characters. Now as seen in this picture, Casey does eventually form a baseball team with his daughters and we do get to see them play a championship game and they do win but Casey feels the need to help his daughters and go out on the field dressed as a girl to hit the ball. Hence the title but it was actually his eldest daughter that hit it and she is actually better at the game, then her pop. That was probably the only funny part in this otherwise bad short.
My Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, more than anything else, this short is disappointing. I loved Casey at The Bat, it was funny, to this day I have not laughed so hard at a Disney short as I did with Casey at The Bat but this one, I was honestly excited to watch it and it started out wonderfully but as the short progressed, I came to despise Casey. If this were the only Casey short and the first one did not exist, Casey would be one of my most despised Disney characters. Thankfully, the first short saves him from that. This short has a similar problem as Ben and Me in that one character ruined the entire short for me. Now this short is not as bad as Ben and Me (nothing can be) but it certainly comes close. Folks, just skip this short and stick to the first one. Join me next week as I take a look at
Three Blind Mouseketeers
The Plot
This short picks up right at the end of the first Casey short, when Casey's wife comes to tell him that she's pregnant and Casey thinks that he is going to have a son and even when when the baby is born, he thinks it's a boy. It isn't until Casey goes to change the baby's diaper that he finds out, it's a girl and as life goes on, Casey's wife gives birth to more girls and because of this Casey refuses to pay the doctor that he delivered his daughters. It took Casey's baseball friends to show him that his daughters could be great baseball players. That's the main reason, why Casey wanted to have a son because he wanted a baseball player to carry on his legacy. Now this is my first problem with this short comes in. I say the because while the first one did have some semblance of a plot, it was a simple plot and Casey works better with a simplified plot, where you can laugh at his actions because of his attitude and it made his downfall so much funnier. Now I normally would not say this but I don't think fleshing out his character more than what he was in the first short was a good idea.
Narration
Narrator - Not Listed
For those of you read that my read my review of the first Casey short, you may recall that I compared the narration in that short to that of a an old time sportscaster on the radio talking about the game. Sadly, I did not get the same feeling with this short. Which is part of what gave the first short so much charm, here instead, it felt average and that's really disappointing because the narration in this short just felt average. That's almost worst than bad narration, if you ask me. This is probably the first short that I've come across where the narration while fitting the short was disappointing and at best forgettable. I mean I may not have cared for Basil Rathbone's narration for Wind In The Willows but at least it was memorable. Now I'm not saying that there shouldn't have been any narration because the essence of narration helps the short to flow but they could have used someone with a more memorable voice. In all honesty, the person narrating this short felt as though they were reading straight off a script and yeah, they probably were but with all the other narrations, it never felt so obvious or forced. That's the other thing in certain points in this short, the narration felt forced.
Characters
Casey - Not Voiced save for one line
In the original Casey short, Casey was a likable jerk but fleshing out his character in my opinion was a mistake because instead of being a jerk you could laugh at, he came across a pig and someone that hated women. I may have disliked Fifer and Fiddler but at least that was consistent with all the shorts but with Casey, yeah he was cocky in the first but at least I was able to laugh at him and in this one, I felt like I was suppose to laugh at his circumstance but instead of laughing at it, his personality in this short infuriated me because his actions came across as though he did not care about his daughters until he saw that they could baseball. Really? I mean, yeah I get that is what Casey's passion and love is but really? Way to take a character that was somewhat likable and turn him into completely distant character that I want nothing to do with.
Casey's Daughters - Not Voiced.
Y'know as much I want to defend Casey's daughters because of their father's attitude, I can't because they come across more as part of a recurring gag that Casey's wife will never have a son. This is not a hit on the daughters but at the same time, I feel as though that is the only reason, there are so many. None of the individual daughters have a personality that they can claim as their own. In the long run, they're flat characters. Now as seen in this picture, Casey does eventually form a baseball team with his daughters and we do get to see them play a championship game and they do win but Casey feels the need to help his daughters and go out on the field dressed as a girl to hit the ball. Hence the title but it was actually his eldest daughter that hit it and she is actually better at the game, then her pop. That was probably the only funny part in this otherwise bad short.
My Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, more than anything else, this short is disappointing. I loved Casey at The Bat, it was funny, to this day I have not laughed so hard at a Disney short as I did with Casey at The Bat but this one, I was honestly excited to watch it and it started out wonderfully but as the short progressed, I came to despise Casey. If this were the only Casey short and the first one did not exist, Casey would be one of my most despised Disney characters. Thankfully, the first short saves him from that. This short has a similar problem as Ben and Me in that one character ruined the entire short for me. Now this short is not as bad as Ben and Me (nothing can be) but it certainly comes close. Folks, just skip this short and stick to the first one. Join me next week as I take a look at
Three Blind Mouseketeers
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