Sports Day at Animal Village review: pure 1930s cartoon chaos

If you have seven minutes to spare and want to see some pre-war Japanese animation that feels like a weird dream, yes, Sports Day at Animal Village is absolutely worth your time. 🏃‍♂️

Animation nerds and people who like old, dusty curiosities will love this. If you can't stand black-and-white scratches or silent-era pacing, you will probably hate it.

It is basically just a bunch of animals doing track and field. But the way they move is so strange and bouncy.

The creator, Yasuji Murata, used cutout animation here. It give everything this flat, slightly jerky movement that I actually kind of adore.

There is this one scene where a bunch of monkeys are on the high bar. They spin so fast their arms stretch like long rubber bands.

It reminds me of those old Western cartoon shorts, like Felix the Cat in Skulls and Sculls, but with a very different kind of energy. Less spooky, more just... hyperactive.

My favorite part has to be the diving competition.

A giant hippo climbs up this incredibly high ladder. It looks so heavy, the ladder is literally bending under its butt.

And then he dives into this tiny, tiny bucket of water. Like, how does he even fit in there?

He doesn't splash; he just disappears into it. It made me laugh out loud because of how stupidly simple the gag is.

Then we get to the boxing match. A kangaroo and a pig. 🥊

They are wearing gloves and just absolutely whaling on each other. The pig gets knocked out and his eyes turn into little spinning spirals.

It’s classic cartoon stuff, but there is no sound except for whatever music you play in the background. I watched it in complete silence, which made the cartoon violence feel oddly personal.

The writer, Chûzô Aochi, didn't really write a story here. It is just: event, gag, next event.

But that is fine. Sometimes you don't need a deep message, you just need a bear doing gymnastics.

It is way better than some of the dry stuff from that era. I’d honestly rather watch this than some dry instructional short like How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones No. 10: 'Trouble Shots'.

The film just ends very suddenly. Like they ran out of paper or the bell rang for lunch.

One second a pig is getting dizzy, the next it is just "The End" in Japanese characters.

I love that lack of closure. It doesn't try to wrap things up with a neat little moral about sportsmanship.

It just says, "Here are some animals doing sports. Now go home."