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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. In My Merry Oldsmobile remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Honestly, only if you have five minutes to kill and a weird curiosity for animation history. If you are into vintage stuff or just like watching old, bouncy cartoons, you will have a decent time. If you need a coherent plot or something that makes actual sense, you will probably hate it. 🚗
It starts off exactly how you would expect from the title. A guy, a girl, and a car. That is the whole vibe.
The whole thing feels like one long, extended commercial for an Oldsmobile. Not that I blame them, but it is pretty blatant. The villain is just sort of... there. He shows up to be a nuisance, and then he is gone. No real stakes, really.
The animation style reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Arctic Antics, but with a lot more chrome. There is this one shot of the wheels spinning where the timing feels just a tiny bit off, like the artist was rushing to get to lunch. It is charming, though.
Compared to something more dramatic like Blackmail, this is just fluff. It is not trying to be a masterpiece. It is just trying to make you want to drive a car and sing a song. I think it succeeds at that, in a weirdly hypnotic way.
The pacing is all over the place. It jumps from a rescue to a drive like it is nothing. The villain does not even put up a good fight! He just sort of folds. Classic.
It is definitely not as complex as Westfront 1918, obviously. But sometimes you do not need a deep dive into the human condition. Sometimes you just need a cartoon car driving down a hill while people sing.
I found myself wondering if they actually owned an Oldsmobile while they were drawing this. It feels like someone was just staring at a brochure for ten hours straight. Strange little relic.