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6.3/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.3/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Fire! Fire! remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have an itch for early 30s animation, sure. It is a quick hit of nostalgia for people who like that bouncy, slightly-haunted look of old-school cartoons. But if you hate repetitive gags and stuff that makes zero sense, you will probably want to turn it off after the first minute. 🐸
There is this moment where the fire station alarms go off, and the whole building just starts vibrating like it’s about to shake itself to pieces. It’s genuinely funny in a way that feels unintentional. Like the animators just decided, "Yeah, let's make the walls have a seizure."
Ub Iwerks was doing some wild things back then. You can really tell they were just figuring out how much they could get away with before the audience got dizzy. Sometimes the action is so fast it just turns into a blur of black and white lines.
It’s not as polished as the stuff that came later, obviously. But it has this raw, weird energy that reminds me a bit of the frantic pacing in Mickey's Initiation. Everything is constantly moving. Nobody just stands still.
I found myself staring at the background art more than the actual characters. It’s all very simple, but those exaggerated perspectives make the whole thing feel like a tilted house. It’s charming, honestly. It doesn't try to be a masterpiece, and that’s why it works.
It’s a bit like watching Seein' Things where the logic of reality just takes a vacation. If you look for a story, you’re gonna be disappointed. Just watch the frogs slide around and try not to think about the physics of it all. It’s better that way.
Sometimes the short gets a little repetitive, just cycling through the same 'fire-fighting' gag for a bit too long. But then a ladder does something completely impossible and you're back on board. It’s a messy, fun little artifact.