Making 'Em Move (1931) Review: The cameras have legs and I'm worried

Is it worth your time?

If you've got seven minutes and a weird interest in how people used to imagine animation worked back in 1931, give this a go. It's not exactly a documentary, but it's fascinating in its own clunky way.

I think animation nerds will find it cool for the history, but if you're looking for a 'story' with a beginning and end, you're gonna be pretty annoyed. This is basically just a tour of a factory where the machines are alive.

The Studio Tour from Hell (In a Good Way)

The movie starts with this big building that says 'Cartoon Studio' on it. You see these characters—mostly dogs and pigs—acting like they're the artists and directors.

There is a moment early on where a guy is drawing a lady character and she just... starts dancing right there on the paper. It's a bit cliché now, but for 1931, the timing is actually pretty sharp and smooth.

What really got me was the cameras. They have legs and they walk around the room like little tripods with minds of their own.

It's honestly a bit creepy if you look at them for too long. They just scuttle around the room while the 'directors' bark orders at them. 📸🐕

The sound design is a total mess, but in a way that makes me smile. It’s got that hollow, echoing quality that all these early talkies have, like everyone is recording inside a metal trash can.

You can tell the creators, Harry Bailey and John Foster, were just having fun with the concept of their own jobs. It feels like an inside joke that they decided to sell to the public because they ran out of ideas for a plot.

I noticed that some of the background characters look suspiciously like they were traced or reused from other shorts. It happens a lot in these old Van Beuren cartoons, they weren't exactly big spenders.

If you've seen Mickey's Merry Men, you already know the vibe—just pure energy without much logic to back it up. Everything is bouncing, even the walls.

One thing that really stood out was the 'Music Department' scene. They have this huge machine that basically spits out musical notes like a sausage factory.

It reminds me of how we think about AI today, funnily enough. Just a big box where you put in 'stuff' and 'art' comes out the other side without much human soul involved.

The pacing is... well, it's fast. Things just happen and then the scene changes before you can really process the joke or the weirdness of a pig playing the piano.

There’s this one shot of the piano player that goes on about five seconds too long. It’s like the animators really liked that specific loop and didn't want to let it go, even if it breaks the rhythm.

I also keep thinking about the 'Story Department' where they just throw things at a wall to see what sticks. It feels very honest for how creative work actually goes, even now.

Is it as polished as something like Ship Ahoy? Probably not. Those movies feel like they had a plan, while this feels like it was made on a Friday afternoon.

But there is a soul here. You can feel the sweat that went into those hand-drawn frames, even when the drawings are a bit wonky or the lines don't quite meet up.

The ending is super abrupt. It just kind of stops once they've shown you all the rooms in the studio, like they ran out of film or just got bored.

No big moral, no 'the end' with a bow on top. Just a 'hey, we make these, hope you liked it' vibe that I actually kind of respect.

I’d say watch it if you’re bored and want to see something that feels like it was made by people who drank way too much coffee. Don’t watch it if you need a plot that makes sense or characters you actually care about.

Random Notes I Scribbled Down:

• The way the ink pot shakes is strangely hypnotic for no reason.
• Why does every character have the exact same face? It’s a bit unsettling.
• The 'living' cameras are definitely the best part, even if they give me nightmares.
• The music is catchy but it will stay in your head in a really annoying way for hours.
• One dog artist is wearing glasses but they aren't even on his ears.

It’s a neat little time capsule. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s messy and imperfect, just like the people (and dogs) who made it.