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6/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Ride Him, Bosko! remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have a thing for rubber-hose animation where bodies stretch like bubblegum, sure. If you need a narrative that makes sense or doesn't involve a horse turning into an accordion, you'll probably hate it. It's for the animation nerds who want to see how these characters looked before they got polished up later on. 🤠
There's this rhythm to these early shorts that feels almost like a fever dream. Everything is constantly moving. Even the background trees seem to be twitching. It reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in The Fiddling Fool, where music dictates the physics of the entire world.
Bosko is just a little guy in a big hat trying to survive the desert. The horse is the real star here, mostly because it spends half the runtime actively trying to ruin Bosko’s day. It’s funny in a way that feels very dated and very intentional.
The sound syncing is... well, it’s imperfect. You can tell they were still figuring out how to marry the music to the movement. Sometimes a foot lands, and the thud happens three frames later. It’s charming, honestly. It feels handmade.
The whole thing feels like it was put together in a garage. There’s a loose, experimental vibe here that you just don't see in the big studio stuff anymore. It’s not trying to teach you a lesson or push a franchise. It’s just trying to make you laugh at a horse acting like a jerk.
I wouldn't call this a masterpiece, but it’s a weird little window into where cartoons were stuck in the mud before they learned to run. If you like your animation a little bit cursed, you’ll dig it. 🐎