Flowers for Madame (1935) Review: A Weird Garden Fever Dream

Is it worth the time?

If you have ten minutes and a soft spot for 1930s animation that feels like a fever dream, then yes. It is worth it.

People who love the old Silly Symphonies style will find this charming. People who want a deep plot or modern logic will probably find it annoying or just plain confusing.

It’s a cartoon about a flower pageant. That is basically the whole thing for the first half.

The garden is throwing a party and every single plant has a face. It is a bit overwhelming at first because there is just so much moving at once.

The flowers are all getting ready for the big pageant. It looks a lot like the Rose Parade but with way more eyelashes.

I noticed these two fireflies acting as brake lights on one of the floats. That is the kind of small detail I actually love in these old shorts.

The Scottish Heather flowers are wearing tiny kilts. It is very cute, though maybe a little bit repetitive after the third or fourth float goes by.

The music is bouncy. It never really stops, which makes the whole thing feel like it is vibrating.

Then things go wrong.

A magnifying glass gets left in the sun. This is the villain of the movie, I guess.

It starts a fire. The way the fire is animated is actually pretty scary compared to the happy flowers from two minutes ago.

The fire starts eating through the garden. The flowers try to use the sprinklers, but the fire is too aggressive.

It is definitely more intense than something like The Fable of the Traveling Salesman. The stakes feel higher because you don't want the pretty garden to burn down.

The rescue scene is where it gets really weird. Not bad weird, just... 1935 weird.

• Watermelons show up to help.
• They basically act like fire extinguishers.
• The juice just sprays everywhere.

I was watching this thinking, how are they going to end this? The fire is almost out but there is one little spark left.

A grasshopper hops up. He takes a big puff or chew of something and spits tobacco juice on the last flame.

Yeah. Tobacco juice. In a cartoon about pretty flowers.

It is such a sharp turn from the sweet beginning. It made me laugh because it was so unexpected and kind of gross.

Final thoughts on the garden

The colors are great. Technicolor back then always had this glow to it that you don't see anymore.

It’s not exactly a masterpiece like Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, but it’s a fun piece of history.

The pacing is a bit fast. One moment they are dancing, the next they are almost dying in a blaze.

I think the writers, like Tom Armstrong, just wanted to see how much they could cram into a few minutes. They succeeded at that.

If you see it on a list of old shorts, give it a go. Just don't expect the grasshopper to be a role model. 🌸🔥