The Bosko cartoons may not be animation masterpieces, but they are fascinating as examples of Looney Tunes in their early days before the creation of more compelling characters and funnier and more creative cartoons. There are some good cartoons, as well as some average or less ones.Generally 'Big-Hearted Bosko' doesn't have an awful lot to it. It is an okay cartoon, and is watchable as a one-time watch but doesn't hold up to repeat viewings. Some of Bosko's cartoons are good (with the animation, music and some well done gags often standing out as particularly impressive). Others are average or less and hindered by lack of laughs, lacking stories, struggling to have enough material to sustain even the short running time and the limitations of Bosko himself.'Big-Hearted Bosko' is one of the average Bosko cartoons. Not without its merits. It is well-animated, not exactly refined in places but fluid and crisp enough with some nice detail, it is especially good in the meticulous backgrounds and some remarkably flexible yet natural movements for Bosko. The music doesn't disappoint either, its infectious energy, rousing merriment, lush orchestration and how well it fits with the animation is just a joy.Some of the gags are amusing, Bruno is a far funnier and more interesting character than Bosko and is pretty likable and the baby is cute enough.However, there are things that don't work. Bosko always was a fairly limited character, but did have his charms in some of his cartoons. Here he is neither interesting, funny or endearing, mostly rather bland. Even for a Bosko cartoon the story is paper thin, with hardly anything narratively, sluggish pacing and a lot of repetition that gets tiresome.It does struggle to find enough material to sustain the length and make the story better than it actually is, and the gags mostly just aren't funny and are pretty uninspired.Overall, watchable but lacking. 5/10 Bethany Cox

. . . constantly crying and wailing foundling baby who doesn't say a word until an over-taxed Bosko--who's adopted a "Finders-Keepers" attitude toward the urchin abandoned on an icy river in a picnic basket during a snow storm--demands of the tyke, "What's the matter; what's the matter?!" a query to which the tot implausibly replies, "I'm Crying for the Carolines." During the same decade that saw the release of BIG-HEARTED BOSKO, future World War Two padded expense account embezzler from the U.S. Army--Warner Bros.' Leon Schlesinger--had the bright idea of adding a line of live action shorts he dubbed as "Spooney Melodies" to Warner's stable of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. The first entry in the Spooney Series was called CRYING FOR THE CAROLINES, after the Warner song of that title that is a mixture of leaky bathos and rheumatic rhymes. The resulting mess was so atrocious that Leon ordered all copies of the half dozen initial Spooneys to be shot-gunned, then burned, and finally Deep-Sixed in the Mariana Trench to "save" his reputation so that he could get his clutches on his upcoming PRIVATE SNAFU contract on American taxpayers in the first place. (Though the lyrics to "Crying for the Carolines" never made any sense in the 1930s, they were actually another one of Warner Bros.' prophetic warnings, alluding to the purge of experienced American diplomats--including U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, five other high-ranking foreign service chiefs named "Caroline," and hundreds of others--by the incoming White House Resident-Elect Rump.)

Since the previous reviewer spoiled the beans of Big-Hearted Bosko, I'll just say that while yes, not much happens in plot, I actually found all the skating, finding the baby, and trying to entertain baby to keep him from crying all the time pretty entertaining myself. Having reviewed a whole bunch of Warner Bros. Bosko cartoons now, I have to give props to music director Frank Marsales for making many of these usually musical shorts as entertaining as they can be. While I grew up on the more gag-filled Looney Tunes post-Tex Avery, these trying-to-top-or-at-least-be-equal-to-Steamboat Willie musical efforts of the early talkie era do have their own charm to anyone seeking them. All in all, a pretty good Bosko cartoon for anyone seeking all things Bosko. That's all, folks!

Though there are a few nice bits in here, there really isn't much substance to this one overall. It's just an average short, with little to interest or bore the general viewer. If you really like Bosko, you'll enjoy it enormously. There will be spoilers from here on out:This short can basically be summed up as follows: See Bosko. See Bruno. See Bosko skate. See Bruno repeat a gag three times and eventually fall through a hole in the ice. See the foregoing take up almost half the cartoon. See Bruno find a baby. See Bosko and Bruno take the very loud baby home and try to make it happy. See Bruno sit on a stove. See baby laugh uproariously. See Bosko play the piano and sing. See baby dance and Bosko and baby sing in "scat" style. See Bosko have an accident and wind up with a fishbowl as headgear. See very mean baby laugh. Iris out.Not the greatest Bosko or the worst Bosko. This short is just "okay". I do hope, however, that this ultimately does get released on a Looney Tunes Golden Collection in the future. Worth watching at least once.