Grandfather's Clock: Why are these clocks playing football?

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, only if you’re deep into the weird, creaky history of early animation. It’s barely a movie—more like a hypnotic, slightly unsettling artifact from another century. If you have kids who are into old cartoons or you just like things that feel like a fever dream, you might get a kick out of it. If you’re looking for a plot that makes sense, keep walking. 🕰️

The whole premise is just a giant wooden clock acting as a narrator for a cartoon-within-a-cartoon. It starts slow, like really slow. Then suddenly, we are watching clocks go to school. Why do they need to learn? I don't know.

Watching clocks play football is a choice. It’s weirdly fluid, in that jittery, hand-drawn way that makes you wonder how much coffee the animators drank back in the day. The ball physics are basically nonexistent, but who cares? It's a clock throwing a pass to another clock. 🏈

It definitely has a different vibe than something like Dynamite Doggie, which felt like it had way more energy behind it. This feels more like someone’s strange dream they wrote down on a napkin. The characters are just shapes with hands and feet, which is honestly kind of charming in a creepy way.

There is a segment in here that reminded me slightly of the pacing in Experimental Animation 1933, just because it feels like they were throwing ideas at the wall to see what would stick. Some of the background details are just blank white space. It makes the whole thing feel like it’s happening in a void.

Odd little notes:

• The grandfather clock looks way too serious to be telling jokes.
• The football scene goes on for about 40 seconds too long. I checked.
• The sound design is basically just 'tick-tock' noises until you want to pull your hair out.
• It’s definitely not as funny as Sea Sore, but it has a weird, dry soul to it.

Don’t go in expecting a Pixar movie. It’s a relic. It’s a bit dusty, a bit cracked, and it doesn't really care if you're keeping up with the narrative. Sometimes the screen just goes a bit blurry, and you just accept it. That's part of the fun, right?

It ends as abruptly as it starts. One minute there’s a touchdown, the next, the screen is just black. No moral, no big lesson about being on time. Just, poof. Done. ⏳