Swiss Movements: A weird, ticking mess of a short

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, you probably know if you’re the type of person who sits down for a 1920s Krazy Kat cartoon. If you like rubbery limbs and background gags that make zero sense, you’ll have a good time. If you need a coherent story or modern pacing, this will just feel like a strange, frantic blur.

Krazy Kat is a clock doctor here, which is just a fancy way of saying he bangs on things until they stop smoking. It’s barely a plot, more like a string of excuses to draw gears and springs flying everywhere. 🕒

The vibe

There’s something about the way these old shorts look that feels almost like a fever dream. The cuckoo clock in this one has a face that looks genuinely miserable, like it’s paying taxes instead of just telling the time.

The animation is jerky, but that’s the charm, right? It’s not smooth like the stuff people make now, but the timing on the gags has a weird, twitchy energy. You can tell they were just figuring out how to make a drawing walk without it looking like it was falling apart. Sometimes it still falls apart anyway.

Watching this reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in The Knockout, where everyone is just moving way too fast for their own good. Nobody in this short seems to have a internal monologue; they just react to the nearest hammer.

Odd little moments

• That one gear that just rolls off into the abyss for no reason.
• Krazy Kat’s ears doing things that definitely defy biology.
• The sound effects—if you imagine them, they sound like a kitchen drawer falling over.

The middle part of the short drags a little bit. It just becomes a loop of Krazy trying to patch a hole in a clock while the clock keeps fighting back. It’s a bit like watching someone try to fix a computer with a wrench. You know it won't end well. 🔧

I wouldn’t say this is the *best* animation from the era, but it’s got a weird soul. It doesn't try to be profound or even particularly clever. It’s just noise and motion, which is fine by me on a slow afternoon. You don't need to overthink it.

Anyway, the clock eventually explodes. I think. Or maybe it just turns into a bird. It’s hard to tell with these things sometimes.