Sunny South Review: Oswald's Train Trip is a Total Mess

Is it worth the seven minutes?

If you like old cartoons or just want to see how Tex Avery started out, sure.

Most people will probably find it too noisy or just plain confusing. 🚂

It is definitely for the folks who don't mind very old-school humor that sometimes feels a bit wrong now.

I sat down to watch Sunny South mostly because I wanted to see Oswald before he got all corporate and boring.

The first thing you notice is how much the train moves like it has no bones.

It bends and stretches around corners in a way that makes my head hurt if I think about it too long.

Oswald is the conductor here, and he seems way too happy for someone driving a vehicle that looks like it's about to explode.

The music is just... constant. It never stops for a second.

It’s that bouncy, repetitive 1930s loop that stays in your brain for hours after the screen goes black.

There is a specific moment where the train goes over a bridge and the bridge just sort of sags under the weight.

It’s a small gag, but I liked it more than the bigger ones.

I wonder if the animators were just bored that day.

The "South" they show in this movie is exactly what you'd expect from 1933, which is to say, it's pretty stereotypical.

There are some characters that made me squint and go, "Oh, they really drew that, didn't they?"

It’s not as wild as Alice Hunting in Africa, but it’s close in that uncomfortable way.

You can see the seeds of what Tex Avery would do later at Warner Bros, though.

There is a fast-paced energy that feels like everyone involved had too much coffee.

One scene has Oswald trying to deal with a passenger, and the timing is just a little bit off.

The passenger reacts before Oswald even finishes his move. It’s a glitch in the hand-drawn world.

I noticed the backgrounds are surprisingly detailed compared to the characters.

The trees look like they belong in a different movie, maybe something more serious like Kindling.

But then you have this rubbery rabbit hopping around them and it breaks the illusion.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Sunny South (1931) through its definitive frames.

I think my favorite part was the dog that shows up for no reason.

He doesn't really do anything for the plot, but he has a funny face.

The ending of the short feels like they ran out of paper.

It just sort of stops. No big finale, just a quick iris out.

I’ve seen better Oswald shorts, like some of the ones where he’s just being a menace at home.

This one feels like they had a checklist of "train jokes" and they just ticked them off one by one.

It reminded me a bit of the chaos in Dummies, but with more soot and steam.

Is it a masterpiece? Absolutely not.

But it has that grainy, flickering charm that you only get from this era of film.

You can almost smell the old theater popcorn and the cigarette smoke when you watch it.

I wish the sound quality was better, honestly.

Half the time, the sound effects are louder than the actual music, and it gets a bit grating on the ears.

There's a gag with a cow on the tracks that I’ve seen in probably fifty other cartoons.

It wasn't funny in 1920 and it wasn't really funny here either.

Still, Oswald has a certain smirky quality that Mickey Mouse never really had.

He feels like a guy who would steal your lunch and then help you look for it.

I’d say watch it if you’re bored, but don't expect it to change your life.

It’s just a weird little time capsule of a version of the world that never really existed.

Also, the way they draw fire in this is actually pretty cool.

It looks like flickering black ink ribbons. 🎞️

I might go watch Against All Odds next to cleanse my palate with something totally different.

Anyway, it's a short trip on a bouncy train.

Nothing more, nothing less.