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6.2/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.2/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Barn Dance remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have seven minutes to kill and want to see Mickey Mouse before he became a billion-dollar logo, this is actually worth a look. It is for people who like the weird, stretchy logic of old cartoons where bones don't seem to exist. If you hate repetitive slapstick or silent-era pacing, you will probably find this annoying as hell.
It’s 1929 and Mickey is still in that phase where he looks a bit like a rat. He’s trying to pick up Minnie for a dance, but Pete shows up in a car that looks like it is made of jello. 🚗
Mickey’s horse is the best part of the whole thing. The horse is so skinny it looks like a collection of pipe cleaners held together by hope.
There is this moment where the horse gets insulted and just... collapses. It’s not even a gag that makes sense, it just happens because the animator felt like it. I love that about these old shorts. They don't care about the rules of physics or even basic logic.
Mickey eventually gets Minnie to the dance after Pete’s car crashes. But then the movie becomes about how terrible Mickey is at dancing. He keeps stepping on Minnie's feet. It is honestly painful to watch after the fourth or fifth time.
Minnie looks genuinely miserable. You can almost feel her toes throbbing through the black-and-white ink. It reminds me of those awkward middle school dances where nobody knew where to put their hands.
Then Mickey gets the bright idea to put a balloon in his pants. He thinks it will make him light on his feet so he won't crush her. 🎈
It works for a second, which is the weirdest part. He’s just floating around the barn while everyone else is doing a regular jig. The other animals in the barn are just... watching? There’s a cow playing a fiddle that looks like it hasn't slept in three weeks.
The music is catchy, I guess, but it’s that tinny, early-sound-era quality. It sounds like it’s being played through a rusty tin can. It’s got that high burstiness where the rhythm just stops and starts whenever a gag needs to happen.
Pete eventually comes back and catches Mickey cheating with the balloon. He pricks it with a pin. Mickey falls like a rock, right back onto Minnie’s feet. Ouch.
Minnie finally has enough and leaves with Pete. Mickey just sits on the floor and cries. It’s a bit of a bummer ending for a cartoon, honestly. Usually, the little guy wins, but here he just fails because he’s a clumsy mess.
I noticed the background art is super simple. Like, they barely drew the barn walls. It makes the characters pop more, but it also feels a bit empty, similar to some scenes in Alice's Balloon Race where the world feels like a giant white void.
There’s a weirdly specific moment where Mickey tries to fix his car and the parts just refuse to cooperate. It feels very personal. Like the person animating it had a really bad morning with their own Ford Model T.
The way Mickey’s ears stay perfectly round no matter which way his head turns is still mesmerizing. It’s a total cheat, but it works. The animation is bouncy in a way that modern stuff just isn't. Everything is constantly vibrating.
It isn't a masterpiece or anything. It's just a guy trying to get a date and failing. We've all been there, minus the balloon in the trousers.
If you enjoy seeing the evolution of the character, it’s a neat historical artifact. It’s much more grounded than something like Thais, even if it’s just a cartoon about a mouse. It feels more human in its failure.
I wonder if kids today would even find this funny. Probably not. It’s too slow for the TikTok brain. But the scene where the horse refuses to move is still a solid bit of comedy.
The ending shot of Mickey crying is just... weirdly heavy? It hangs there for a second too long. Then the circle closes and it's over. No moral, no lesson. Just a mouse who needs dancing lessons. 🐭
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