5.1/10
Senior Film Conservator

A definitive 5.1/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Sherman Was Right remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have any patience for early, jagged animation, Sherman Was Right might be your cup of tea. If you prefer smooth movement and anything resembling a logical plot, you are going to hate this. It’s a total mess of ink, movement, and weird ideas.
The whole thing is built on that old-timey frantic energy where characters just vibrate instead of walking. There’s a scene near the middle where the fire department shows up and honestly? I have no idea what they were trying to do with the hose. It just keeps bending in ways that shouldn't be physically possible.
It’s weirdly fun, though. Frank Moser really leans into the absurdity. It reminded me a bit of the frantic pacing in Koko Trains 'Em, where you just have to accept that the world is melting and the characters are fine with it.
There’s a moment where a character tries to put out a blaze with a bucket of water, but the water just turns into a solid block of shapes. Why? Who knows. The animation doesn't care about your confusion.
It’s not trying to be Our Heavenly Bodies or anything deep. It’s just a cartoon about a fire. It feels like someone scribbled a joke on a napkin and then decided to animate it without checking if the joke actually worked.
Sometimes the rhythm is just off. You wait for a punchline and you get a weird jump-cut instead. It’s definitely not as polished as the stuff we see today, but it’s got a weird heart to it. 🎨
If you're curious about where cartoons started, this is a decent, if slightly baffling, artifact. Just don't go looking for a coherent story. You won't find one.