Oh! Susanna: A weird, dusty slice of animation history

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, unless you are a die-hard fan of vintage animation history or you have a weird obsession with how people used to depict the Wild West in cartoons, you can probably skip this one. It is not exactly what I would call a hidden gem. It is a loud, messy, and quite frankly, dated piece of work that will likely irritate or bore most modern viewers. If you enjoy looking at the evolution of Terrytoons, you might find something here, but don't expect a masterpiece.

The whole thing feels like it was put together in an afternoon. You have this wagon train just bouncing along, and then—boom—the conflict starts. It’s all very blunt. There is no nuance, no real setup, just a sudden shift into chaos that feels jarring even for an old cartoon.

I found myself staring at the background art more than anything else. Some of it has that nice, hand-painted look that you just don't see anymore, even if the characters themselves move with all the grace of a wooden block. There’s a specific moment where the movement just feels… stiff. You can almost see the gears grinding in the animators' heads.

It reminds me a bit of the frantic, uneven energy in The Voice of Hollywood No. 23, where things happen just because the story says they have to, regardless of whether it makes sense. The pacing is weirdly stop-and-go. One second it’s quiet, and the next, everyone is running in circles for no discernible reason. 🤠

I kept thinking about how these kinds of shorts were just filler for theaters back in the day. It has that 'let's just get this done' quality that makes you wonder if anyone working on it was actually having a good time. It’s not necessarily as bad as some of the more tedious stuff like A Prisoner for Life, but it certainly doesn't try to aim higher than the bare minimum.

The depiction of the attack is pretty standard for the era, which is to say it’s not exactly going to win any sensitivity awards. It just sits there, an uncomfortable reminder of how cartoons used to view the world. It’s not interesting enough to be a critique, and it’s not fun enough to be mindless entertainment. It just… exists.

I suppose if you are pairing this with something like Way of the West for a double feature, you’ll get a very specific, dusty flavor of 20th-century storytelling. But for a regular Tuesday night? Maybe put on something else.

• The colors are surprisingly bright, if you like that sort of thing.
• The music is exactly what you expect—lots of frantic fiddling.
• I’m still not sure why they chose the title they did.
• It’s very, very short, which is probably its biggest saving grace.