Summertime (1935): A Cold Shoulder for Spring

Is this thing worth a watch?

If you have exactly seven minutes to kill and you enjoy watching line-drawn characters get into slapstick brawls, sure. It’s perfect for people who like that vintage animation style that feels like it was drawn by someone running on pure caffeine. If you’re looking for a deep story about the changing of the seasons, stay far away. You’ll probably hate this if you’re the type who needs a movie to, you know, have a point beyond 'hitting things is funny.'

Billy Bletcher is doing his usual thing here. You know that voice—the one that sounds like gravel in a blender? He’s basically the king of these old shorts. He gives Old Man Winter this grumpy, unhinged energy that makes the whole cartoon feel a bit frantic. I’m not saying it’s high art, but it’s definitely memorable in a way that most modern stuff isn't.

The pacing is honestly all over the place. One minute it’s all flowery and nice, and then suddenly everything is exploding with ice and snow. It’s like the animators realized they were running out of time and just decided to have the characters start punching each other. Very subtle.

It kind of reminded me of the frantic energy in Rain or Shine, though that one had a bit more room to breathe. Here, it’s just non-stop noise and movement. You can almost feel the artists sweating over their desks, trying to make every frame jump off the screen.

Odd moments that caught my eye:

• There’s a specific look Old Man Winter gives the screen right before he loses it that is just… weirdly menacing for a cartoon.
• The way the snow melts looks like it’s being erased with a dirty sponge.
• The sound effects are so loud they almost clip the audio. It’s great.

I found myself wondering if anyone actually thought this was a good way to show spring arriving. It’s more like a home invasion movie where the intruder is a bunch of flowers. The whole thing is aggressively cheerful, which makes the violence feel even weirder. ❄️

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s just a weird little artifact from 1935 that probably got played before a much better movie. Still, I’d take this over some of the bland stuff you see today. At least it has a pulse, even if that pulse is just a character getting smacked with an icicle.