Spanish Onions: A weirdly loud cartoon about a mouse and a bull

Is this worth watching today? Only if you have six minutes to spare and a high tolerance for shaky, old-school animation.

Fans of weird history will like it, but anyone looking for a deep story will probably hate how simple it is.

The whole thing starts with a mouse playing a tiny guitar. He is trying to impress his girlfriend who is a flamenco dancer.

She has these huge eyes that take up half her face. It is a bit creepy if you look at it for too long.

They decide to go to a bullfight because that is what you do in this version of Spain, I guess.

The bull is the best part of the whole movie. It looks like a giant black bean with horns and very skinny legs.

I don't know how those legs hold up that body. It defies all logic.

The mouse ends up in the ring, and suddenly he is a matador. The transition is so fast you might miss it if you blink.

The music by Philip A. Scheib is absolutely frantic. It sounds like a piano falling down a flight of stairs in a good way.

There is a specific moment where the mouse gets tossed into the air. He stays there for way too long.

The background doesn't even change. It’s just the same three lines of a stadium wall over and over.

It reminds me of the pacing in A Rustic Romeo, but maybe a bit more violent? The bull really wants to murder this mouse.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Spanish Onions (1930) through its definitive frames.

Paul Terry’s style is very obvious here. Everything is bouncy and a little bit ugly in a charming way.

The crowd in the stadium is just a bunch of dots. They don't even move, they just vibrate.

I noticed that the mouse's hat stays on his head even when he is being trampled. That is some strong glue.

The ending feels very abrupt. Like they ran out of paper and just decided to stop drawing.

One second he is fighting, the next second it is over. No real wrap-up at all.

It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s a weird window into what people thought was funny a hundred years ago.

I still don't understand why it's called Spanish Onions. There are zero onions in this movie 🧅.

Maybe it’s a pun I’m too young to get. Or maybe they just liked the way the words sounded together.

The animation on the bull's tail is oddly smooth compared to everything else. Someone spent a lot of time on that tail.

If you like rubber-hose style where bones don't exist, you'll find this fun. Otherwise, it’s just a loud noise in black and white.

It’s definitely better than some of the other shorts from that era that just had characters walking in place for five minutes.

At least things happen here. Even if those things are just a mouse getting bullied by cattle.