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5.5/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Sunday Clothes remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Should you watch Sunday Clothes today? Honestly, only if you have a soft spot for the absolute lawlessness of early 1930s cartoon physics. 🧦
If you want Disney-level polish, you will absolutely hate this. But if you like watching a weird kid with giant ears get into fights with mud puddles, it is a goldmine.
The whole thing is about Scrappy trying to get to Sunday school without ruining his nice clean outfit. It is basically a six-minute war between a boy and the physical universe.
Dick Huemer has this incredibly bouncy animation style. Everything in the background feels like it is vibrating, even the fences.
There is this one incredibly specific moment where Scrappy tries to jump over a puddle. The puddle literally moves itself to catch him. It is so mean-spirited but I laughed out loud.
Some of the gags go on way too long. Like, there is a bit with a goat that just keeps eating things and it feels like they ran out of ideas for thirty seconds.
It reminds me of the weird, loose energy you find in other forgotten relics of the era, like Whys and Otherwise. They just threw everything at the wall back then.
Scrappy himself is a strange character. He is not cute like Mickey, he is more like a tiny, aggressive middle-aged man trapped in a kid's body. 😠
His little brother Oofy is also there, mostly just being annoying. Oofy wears this hat that seems to have its own physical gravity.
I noticed the sound effects are incredibly loud compared to the music. Every time someone gets hit, it sounds like a wooden plank snapping right next to your ear.
The ending is incredibly abrupt. He just gets dirty, and that is it—cartoon over.
But hey, it is six minutes. You can spare six minutes to see some vintage chaos.