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5.1/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.1/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Robinson Crusoe Isle remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have ten minutes to kill and a soft spot for animation that hasn't quite figured out how to be 'smooth' yet, sure. It’s got that jittery, early-Lantz energy that feels less like storytelling and more like a fever dream. If you’re here for a deep dive into the psychology of isolation, you’re going to be bored to tears. Or confused. Probably both.
Robinson Crusoe Isle feels like someone took the concept of a shipwreck and threw it into a blender with a bunch of random gag ideas. It doesn't care about logic. It cares about how many times someone can fall down or get hit by a coconut.
The pacing is honestly all over the place. One minute we are seeing the classic struggle for food, and the next, everything devolves into nonsense that feels like a rehearsal for A Wolf in Cheap Clothing. The drawings have that slightly scratchy, nervous quality to them. It’s not polished, but that’s the point.
There’s a moment where the main character tries to build a shelter that just looks... well, it looks like a pile of bad ideas. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Pardon My Scotch, where the chaos is the joke itself rather than the setup for one.
It’s weirdly fun to watch because you can tell the animators were just throwing things at the wall. Sometimes it sticks. Sometimes it just makes a mess. I found myself wondering if they even had a script, or if they just woke up and started drawing whatever popped into their heads. It’s charming in a way that modern, clean animation isn't.
If you've seen enough of these, it feels familiar. It’s got that same DNA as The Gorilla, just without the actual gorilla (usually). It’s not trying to win awards. It’s just trying to keep you from changing the channel for a few minutes. I think it succeeds, mostly because it’s so weird you can’t look away. 🌴