Farm Relief (1932) - The weirdest barnyard party ever caught on film

You should probably watch Farm Relief today if you have six minutes and a high tolerance for absolute nonsense.

People who love old, rubber-hose animation where physics doesn't exist will have a blast.

If you're looking for a deep story or something that makes logical sense, you're gonna hate this thing. 🍺

It starts out like any other cartoon from that era, with Krazy Kat just kind of existing on a farm.

But then a speakeasy just... appears. It’s an impromptu bar that sets the tone for the rest of the chaos.

I love how fast the movie decides that every single animal needs to be completely plastered.

There is no gradual buildup. One second they are farm animals, the next they are basically party monsters.

The chickens are stumbling around and the cows are doing these weird, wiggly dances that look slightly painful.

It reminds me a bit of the energy in Camping Out, but way more frantic and messy.

The animation is bouncy, but in a way that feels like the artists were having as much fun as the characters.

There is this one specific moment where a goat takes a drink and his horns literally turn into corkscrews.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Farm Relief (1929) through its definitive frames.

It’s a small detail, but it’s exactly the kind of visual gag that makes these 1930s shorts worth digging up.

Then we get to the part everyone remembers, or at least the part that feels the most awkward today.

Krazy gets so soused—and yes, the movie uses that word in spirit—that he loses his mind.

He wanders over to a donkey to start milking it. The problem? It’s a male donkey.

The look on the donkey's face is just... haunting. He looks directly at the camera like he’s asking the audience for help.

It’s one of those scenes that lingers a bit too long, making it go from funny to weirdly uncomfortable and then back to funny again.

I dont think you’d see a joke like that in a Disney short from the same year.

The voices are also worth mentioning. You’ve got legends like Paul Frees and June Foray involved here.

Even though they don't have a ton of lines, you can hear that classic, scratchy vocal quality that just isn't around anymore.

The music is this catchy, tinny jazz that feels like it’s being played on a phonograph in the room next to you.

It never stops. The music just drives the whole thing forward like a runaway train.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Farm Relief (1929) through its definitive frames.

It’s much more lively than something like Hitting the Trail, which feels a bit slower by comparison.

I noticed a weird smudge on the background art during the scene with the barn door.

It’s probably just a mistake from the original cels, but it adds to the handmade feeling of the whole thing.

Modern cartoons are so clean that they lose that bit of grit.

There's a scene where the animals are playing instruments made out of farm tools.

The logic is totally broken, but you just sort of go with it because the rhythm is so good.

Honestly, the movie gets way better once you stop trying to figure out why a cat is running a farm anyway.

The ending is abrupt, like they just ran out of film and decided to stop right there.

It doesn't really wrap anything up, it just ends.

But that’s okay. It’s a six-minute fever dream about drunk barnyard animals.

It’s definitely worth a look if you’re bored and want to see how weird things got before the Hays Code ruined all the fun. 🐴

Just don't expect it to change your life or anything.

It’s just a very strange, very loud, very drunk little cartoon.