6.6/10
Senior Film Conservator

A definitive 6.6/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Air Race remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Honestly, only if you have seven minutes to kill and a soft spot for 1930s animation. If you aren't into rubber-hose movement or characters that turn into airplanes, you’ll probably find this pretty forgettable. But for fans of Ub Iwerks, it’s a neat little time capsule.
Willie is essentially the guy at the bar who won't stop talking about his high school football days. Except, here, he’s a pilot. The whole premise is just a vessel for gags. It doesn't care much about narrative stakes, which is actually kind of refreshing in a weird way. ✈️
The pacing is absolutely manic. It’s like the animators were on a sugar rush. One second he’s on the ground, the next he’s mid-air, and everything is morphing into something else. It feels a lot less coherent than something like Clancy at the Bat, but it’s got that frantic energy that makes these old shorts feel alive.
It’s not trying to be Civilization. It’s just trying to make you chuckle while some ink-blot character gets his feathers ruffled. The sound effects feel like they were recorded in a bathroom, but that’s half the charm, right? 🔊
I found myself zoning out during the mid-section. It gets a bit repetitive with the 'near-miss' tropes. You know the ones—where the pilot almost hits a mountain and pulls up at the last second. We get it. You're a good pilot.
Compared to the weirdness of Le Theatre du hula hula, this feels fairly standard. It’s a safe bet for a rainy afternoon. Just don't go looking for deep character development or a plot that actually makes sense. It’s all about the motion.
Sometimes the animation gets *so* loose that you lose track of where Willie’s limbs are. It’s messy. It’s loud. It’s totally fine.