Farmer Al Falfa's Bedtime Story: A loud 1932 cartoon about mice bullying an old man

So, is this six-minute short worth your time today?

If you like that old-school animation where characters look like they are made of overcooked noodles, then yes.

But if you need a plot that makes any sense at all, you are going to hate this.

It is called Farmer Al Falfa's Bedtime Story, which is a total lie because nobody gets any actual sleep.

Poor Al Falfa is just trying to hit the hay, but the local mice have other plans.

They basically turn his bedroom into a nightclub.

I honestly felt a little bad for the guy.

The mice are playing trumpets and marching on his head like they own the deed to the farm.

There is this one moment where a mouse uses a bedspring as a trampoline that made me chuckle.

It is aggressive how much energy these rodents have in the middle of the night.

Paul Terry and Frank Moser clearly did not care about things like gravity or logic here.

The physics are just... gone.

Everything bounces. The walls bounce. The bed bounces.

Even the silence in between the gags feels like it is about to bounce.

It reminds me of the weird, jittery energy you find in His Taking Ways, but with more whiskers and cheese.

I noticed that the Farmer’s beard moves like it has a mind of its own.

It is actually kind of distracting once you start looking at it.

There is a bit where he tries to catch them with a net, and it is just pure, loud slapstick.

There is no dialogue, just a lot of squeaking and those tinny crashing sounds from the 30s.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Farmer Al Falfa's Bedtime Story (1932) through its definitive frames.

It is definitely not as heavy or serious as something like Paid in Full.

It is just light, weird fluff that exists to make you blink at your screen.

I think the best part is when the mice start marching in a perfectly straight line.

They look so smug about ruining this man's night.

If you have ever had a real mouse problem in your house, this might actually feel like a horror movie.

It is certainly not as smart or sophisticated as I Graduated, But....

But it has that 1930s charm that is really hard to be mad at.

The animation is a bit scratchy and rough in certain scenes.

You can literally see the hand-drawn lines jittering around on the edges of the frames.

I kind of like that, though.

It feels human and handmade.

It is way better than the perfectly polished, soulless stuff we see in modern kids' shows.

Anyway, it is over before you can even finish making a cup of coffee.

Give it a look if you want to see an old man lose his mind to a jazz band of rats. 🐭

The "Didja notice?" list:

• The way the window frame wobbles for absolutely no reason at all.
• That one mouse who looks suspiciously like he belongs in a certain theme park in Florida.
• Farmer Al Falfa's nightcap stays on his head way longer than it should given the physics.
• The music is actually pretty catchy if you like that old-timey, scratchy record sound.
• The bedposts seem to grow and shrink depending on how scared the Farmer is.

I am still thinking about that ending.

There is no real lesson or resolution, just a "well, I guess that happened" vibe.

Is it better than The Love Cheat? Probably not in a technical sense.

But it is a lot shorter, which is a huge plus some days!

It's a weird little time capsule of what people thought was funny ninety years ago.

Mostly, people just liked seeing things get hit with hammers back then.