The Sailor's Home: Old Stories and Ink

Is it worth your time?

If you like old-school, slightly jittery animation from the early days, you’ll dig this. If you need a plot that makes sense or high-end production value, you’re probably going to hate it. It’s a curiosity, nothing more.

There is something inherently bizarre about watching these two old sailors brag about their tattoos. It starts like a quiet conversation in a tavern, but quickly spirals into a tall tale that makes zero sense.

The transition into the mermaid story is handled with that classic Paul Terry looseness. You stop asking "why" pretty early on, which is honestly the only way to watch this thing without getting a headache. 🌊

The Mermaid Wedding

The whole sequence with the mermaid wife feels like a fever dream. The octopus fight is surprisingly frantic, even if the animation makes it look like they’re just hugging underwater. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Quiet Please!, just with more barnacles.

The moment she tosses him back out of the water on their wedding day? It happens so fast. It felt like the animators were just bored with the underwater setting and wanted to get back to the docks. It’s messy, but it works in a weird, lopsided way.

• The tattoos actually move sometimes, which is a nice touch.
• The background characters are mostly just blobs.
• The dialogue is sparse, thank goodness.

It’s not as polished as something like The Kid from Spain, but that’s fine. It feels like a doodle that someone decided to turn into a movie over a weekend. You can almost see the graphite smudges on the screen if you squint hard enough. ⚓️

Is it a masterpiece? Hardly. But it’s short, it’s strange, and it doesn't try to lecture you on the "human condition." It’s just a guy talking about a mermaid. We could use more of that these days.