Watching 'In the Good Old Summer Time' (1930) is a weird, bouncy trip

Is this worth watching today? Honestly, only if you have about eight minutes to spare and a high tolerance for rubber-hose animation that makes no sense.

If you like old-school cartoons where everything—including the trees—seems to have a heartbeat, you'll dig this. If you want a serious story, please go find something like Children of Fate instead.

This is a Fleischer Screen Song. It’s basically a music video from the Great Depression era.

Dave Fleischer and Shamus Culhane are the names behind it. You can tell they were just vibing in the studio when they made this.

It starts with some animals reacting to the summer heat. There is a cat that looks slightly terrified of its own shadow.

The way the characters move is so fluid it almost feels liquid. I love how thier limbs just stretch like taffy whenever they need to reach for a drink or a fan.

I noticed one specific moment where a bird is fanning itself. The fan is clearly just a bunch of lines, but the rhythm of it is weirdly hypnotic. 🍦

There is no real plot here. It’s just a series of gags leading up to the main event: the song.

The song is, obviously, 'In the Good Old Summer Time.' You get the bouncing ball on the screen so the audience can sing along.

I always wonder if people actually sang in the theaters back then. It feels like such a vulnerable thing to do in the dark with strangers.

Compared to something like Mammy, which came out around the same time, this feels much more chaotic and less 'produced.'

The background art is actually pretty nice. It’s got that soft, charcoal-grey look that makes the sharp black-and-white characters pop out.

One scene goes on a bit too long with a dog and some water. It starts to feel like they were just trying to fill the runtime.

But then something weird happens, like a tree growing a face, and you're back in it. The Fleischers loved giving everything a face.

I think the sun in this short looks like it has a massive hangover. Its eyes are heavy and it looks generally annoyed to be awake.

The audio is pretty crackly. It sounds like someone is frying bacon in the room next door while the music plays.

That hiss is part of the charm though. It makes it feel like you found a lost reel in an attic. 🎞️

Culhane’s animation style is already showing through here. It’s bouncy, but there is a weight to it that other shorts from 1930 lack.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of In the Good Old Summer Time (1930) through its definitive frames.

I keep thinking about how different this is from The Counter Jumper. That one has a different energy entirely, more frantic.

In this one, the pace is almost lazy, like a hot July afternoon. It actually fits the title perfectly.

There’s a moment where the ball hits the words slightly off-beat. It’s thier little mistake, and I’m glad they didn't fix it.

It makes the whole thing feel human. Like a person was actually cranking a machine to make it work.

If you're bored, look at the bottom corners of the frames. Sometimes you can see little ink blots or dust that stayed on the cells for decades.

I’ve seen a lot of these shorts, like Don't, but the Screen Songs always feel the most 'pure' to me.

They weren't trying to sell you a character or a franchise yet. They were just trying to make you sing.

Is it 'good' by modern standards? Probably not. The jokes are thin and the song is old-fashioned.

But as a piece of animation history, it’s fascinating. You can see the seeds of what would become Betty Boop or Popeye.

The way the animals blink is very specific. It’s a slow, deliberate shutter-click of the eyes.

I also love the weird logic of the props. A bucket isn't just a bucket; it’s basically alive if the scene needs it to be.

If you hate old music, you will probably find the sing-along part annoying. It repeats a lot.

But if you like the idea of a communal theater experience from 90 years ago, it’s kind of sweet. It’s a very innocent kind of entertainment.

I wouldn't go out of my way to find it unless you're an animation nerd. But if it pops up on your feed, don't skip it.

It’s a tiny, vibrating slice of the past. It’s imperfect, scratchy, and strangely beautiful in its own way.

Also, the ending is abrupt. It just stops. No big finale, just 'okay, song's over, go home.'

I kind of respect that. No ego, just ink. 🖊️

Why it sticks with you:

• The weirdly expressive sun face.
• The fluidity of the arm-stretching gags.
• The sheer nostalgia of the crackling audio.
• That feeling of a 1930s summer that probably never actually existed.

Anyway, it's better than staring at a wall for six minutes. Give it a look if you want to see how Culhane got his start.

Just don't expect it to change your life. It’s just a cartoon about summer. ☀️