Sherman Was Right: An odd, frantic bit of cartoon history

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.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Sherman Was Right (1932) through its definitive frames.

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.

The Good and The Weird

• The backgrounds look like they were drawn in about thirty seconds.
• The character expressions shift from 'scared' to 'blank' in a single frame.
• The fire itself is surprisingly well-drawn compared to the people.

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.