Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.
It is easy to see why 'Silvery Moon' won't connect with some viewers. To me though, it is one of Van Beuren's better cartoons. Not great by all means, but for all its flaws, which are fairly obvious if not as big as other efforts of the studio, it's a pleasant, sweet and charming watch and a cartoon that is difficult for me to be too hard on.
Some of the animation in 'Silvery Moon' is still poor. Van Beuren certainly stepped up in their background detail on the whole when they made an effort to, and that is apparent here, but the character designs are still sloppy and erratic, the cartoon was crying out for colour and there is some animation reuse going on, some of it reminiscent and recycled from 1932's 'Toy Time' (one of Van Beuren's better cartoons from that year).
Concept-wise, 'Silvery Moon' is not a novel one and doesn't do an awful lot new with it. It's also not the most gag-filled or most memorable cartoon in the world and is a little too cute in places, though actually it does this approach better than most Van Beuren cartoons when they go down that route. To the extent that one can easily mistake it from it coming from another studio, being tonally very different for Van Beuren who generally went the surreal, absurdist route when they did it right and didn't go too bizarre.
Having said all this, the backgrounds have more imagination and ambition, meaning that there is much more of a sense of wonder than one would expect. For what 'Silvery Moon' may lack in laughs, it makes up for it by having a natural charm and handling its content with more wonder and imagination than one would expect and not being anywhere near as childish as one would fear it to be.
Dull 'Silvery Moon' isn't, actually it is pretty lively without being hectic, it is far less random and more coherent than a lot of Van Beuren cartoons and it is not a confused hodge-podge of ideas. It is very thin on the ground story-wise but has enough to still be interesting. The characters are amiable and the music score typically is splendid and beautifully and cleverly orchestrated.
On the whole, decent if not mind-blowing. 7/10 Bethany Cox