Ratskin (1932) is a weird fever dream with a record player rifle

If you have about seven minutes to spare and want to feel like you are losing your mind just a little bit, Ratskin is worth a look. It is for anyone who loves that old-school, rubber-hose animation where physics are just a suggestion. If you hate 1930s cartoons that make zero sense, you should probably stay far away from this one. 🐭

It starts with Krazy Kat leading a wagon train west. But it is not just people; he has got these skinny horses and a bunch of turkeys just hanging out. Why turkeys? I have no idea and the movie never bothers to explain it. It is just one of those things you have to accept.

The horses look like they have not eaten in a month. They move in this weird, rhythmic way that is actually kind of mesmerizing if you stare at it too long. Honestly, the way everything in this cartoon bounces is a bit much. Even the ground seems to have a pulse.

Then the attack happens. It is very typical of the era, so expect those old-fashioned caricatures that have not aged well at all. Krazy gets captured and tied to a stake. Most characters would be panicking, but Krazy just looks mildly inconvenienced. 🪵

The fire starts at his feet. Instead of burning, he just blows cold air on the flames. And they just... disappear? It is so stupid that it actually made me laugh out loud. There is no logic here, just pure cartoon nonsense.

The chase scene that follows is where things get really trippy. It reminded me a bit of the energy in Hitting the Trail, but turned up to eleven. Krazy is running for his life, but he still has time to be clever.

He takes a rifle—because everyone has a gun in the west—and somehow turns it into a record player. He puts a disc on it and starts playing music. The music is not even good. It is like "London Bridge" and "Glow Worm" mashed together. 🎶

The pursuers don't shoot him. No, they just start dancing. It is such a bizarre tonal shift. One second they are trying to cook him, the next they are doing a little jig. The rhythm of the scene is totally off, but that is why I liked it.

Then the movie goes full hallucinogenic. The dancers all merge together. They don't just stand close; they literally melt into each other to form a giant phonograph. The end of the rifle becomes the big horn speaker. It is the kind of thing that makes you wonder what Manny Gould and Ben Harrison were thinking when they sat down to draw this. 😵‍💫

I noticed that the background art is actually pretty decent. George Herriman’s influence is there, with those weird mesas and desert shapes. It feels much more artistic than the actual plot deserves. It is way more visually interesting than something like The Little Intruder.

There is a specific moment where a turkey looks at the camera. It has this blank stare that feels like it is judging you for watching this. I kept thinking about that turkey for like ten minutes after the short ended. It was just an oddly specific detail that stuck with me.

The ending is abrupt. It does not really conclude so much as it just stops because the film ran out. You don't get a big emotional payoff or a lesson learned. Krazy just survives because he is the star.

If you enjoy seeing how weird early sound cartoons could get, give this a watch. It is messy and the music is kind of annoying, but that phonograph transformation is pure gold. Just don't expect it to make a lick of sense. 🌵

Random things I noticed:

• The way the horses' legs move like noodles.
• The London Bridge tune is stuck in my head now.
• Krazy’s facial expressions are barely there, he just looks high.
• The fire effect looks like fluttering paper.
• That one turkey is definitely the real hero.

It is definitely more fun than Camping Out if you want something with a bit more bite. Even if the bite is just a cat playing a record on a gun.