Noah's Lark Review: A weird 1929 cartoon fever dream

Is this worth watching today? Only if you have a weird obsession with 1920s cartoons or you want to see what people thought was funny before the world fell apart in the Great Depression.

History nerds will love it. People who need a plot or, you know, logic will probably want to throw their laptop out a window. 🎈

So, Noah’s Lark is about eight minutes long. It feels like it was made by people who had just discovered what a microphone was and decided to make it everyone else's problem.

The whole thing starts with the Ark on the water. But it’s not the serious Sunday school version. This boat is bouncing.

Everything in this movie bounces. The water bounces. The boat bounces. Even the clouds look like they have a heartbeat.

The animals are all singing. It’s this very high-pitched, scratchy sound that reminds me of a haunted music box.

Billy Murray does some of the voices. Not the actor from Ghostbusters, obviously, but the old-timey singer who sounds like he’s shouting into a tin can. 🎙️

There is a lot of singing. Like, maybe too much singing? They sing "Goodnight, Ladies" and it just keeps going.

Noah himself looks less like a biblical hero and more like a guy who would get kicked out of a public library for sleeping. He’s wearing these big boots and a hat that looks like a deflated balloon.

I noticed this one part where a hippo is singing and its mouth opens so wide it basically swallows the rest of its face. It’s deeply unsettling if you look at it for more than three seconds.

The animation style is what they call "rubber hose," which means nobody has bones. A giraffe’s neck can wrap around a pole three times and it’s just... fine.

It’s a bit like The Fable of a Raisin and a Cake of Yeast in that way. Just total visual nonsense for the sake of a gag.

Then the movie takes a hard turn. The Ark finds land, but it isn’t a mountain. It’s Coney Island.

I laughed because it’s so random. They just show the big Luna Park sign and the animals lose their minds. 🎢

Noah lets them all off for "shore leave." I don't think that's how the Bible story went, but I’m not a scholar.

The scene where the animals are on the roller coaster is the best part. The tracks are wiggly and the cars look like they are going to fly off into space at any moment.

There is a bit where a cow is trying to play a carnival game and it’s just awkward. The timing is slightly off, like the animator forgot how long a second is.

It reminded me of the weird pacing in The Goofy Age. Just these long pauses where you're waiting for the joke to land.

I kept thinking about the person who had to draw all those frame by hand. They probably had no idea we’d be watching this on glass rectangles nearly a hundred years later.

The sound quality is pretty rough. There’s a constant hiss in the background like a radiator is leaking somewhere in the room.

But that’s part of the charm, I guess. It feels like a transmission from another planet. 👽

One reaction shot of a seal lingers so long it becomes funny. Then it becomes scary. Then it’s just boring.

If you’ve seen Billy Blazes, Esq., you know that 1920s energy where everything is just fast and loud. This has that, but with more fur.

It’s not exactly a masterpiece of storytelling like Orochi. It’s more like a collection of doodles that someone figured out how to make move.

The ending is very abrupt. They just kind of stop being at the park and that’s it. Roll credits (well, the one credit they had).

I don't know why the animals needed to go to Coney Island. Maybe the animators just really wanted to draw a roller coaster that week.

It’s weirdly charming in a "don't look too closely" kind of way. If you blink, you might miss a dog playing a trombone or something equally pointless.

The whole thing is thin. Very thin. But it’s got spirit.

I’d say watch it if you’re bored and want to feel like you’ve hallucinated for ten minutes. Just don't expect it to make any sense.

Things I jotted down:

• The water looks like moving spaghetti.
• Noah's beard has a mind of its own.
• The hippo is definitely the breakout star.
• Why are there so many tubas?
• The Coney Island transition is pure chaos.

Anyway, it’s a neat little artifact. Not exactly high art, but better than staring at a wall. 🤷‍♂️