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6.4/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.4/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Novelty Shop remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have a weird soft spot for old-school stop-motion vibes or just want to see how they did things back in the day, maybe. If you hate anything that feels like a fever dream you had after eating too much cheese before bed, stay far away.
It’s a simple setup. The old guy leaves, the lights go down, and suddenly the shop is a circus. It’s not exactly Toy Story, let’s be real. It’s more like those strange shorts you’d see late at night when the cable company is just cycling through public domain stuff.
The Rhythmettes are the main event here. Watching them move around is... something. Sometimes they look like they’re having the time of their lives, and other times they look like they’re stuck in a loop of pure existential dread. The lighting is super moody, too. It’s like they couldn't decide if this was a happy musical or a spooky mystery.
There’s this one scene where a doll just stares at the camera for about ten seconds too long. I’m not kidding. It’s genuinely unsettling. You can almost feel the person behind the camera saying, "Okay, keep holding, just a bit longer... yeah, that’s it, weird as hell."
It’s not as chaotic as The Big Squawk, which at least had some energy to its madness. This feels more like it’s trying to be a sweet little lullaby that accidentally took a wrong turn into the uncanny valley.
I found myself zoning out halfway through. The toys dancing in circles starts to feel repetitive pretty fast. It’s not that it’s bad, exactly. It’s just that it’s very thin. It’s like eating a single cracker for dinner. You’re not hungry anymore, but you’re not satisfied either.
If you enjoyed the weird, stilted charm of Mickey's Holiday, you might find something to love here. Otherwise, it’s mostly just a curiosity. A relic. A thing that happened on film and now exists on your screen. 🧸