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5.5/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Toyland Broadcast remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you've ever wondered what it would look like if your childhood toys decided to start a cabaret act in the middle of the night, Toyland Broadcast is basically your answer. It is short, weird, and feels like it was put together by someone who spent a little too much time staring at clockwork mechanisms.
It is definitely worth a watch if you are into animation history or just enjoy things that feel a bit unsettling. If you get annoyed by repetitive musical numbers or characters that have no actual motivations, you will probably hate it within thirty seconds.
The whole thing is basically just a string of musical performances. You have baby-doll singers and a jack-in-the-box crooner who sounds like he hasn't slept in a week. It reminds me a bit of the frantic, slightly off-kilter energy in Mickey's Midnite Follies, where everything is just a little bit too bouncy for its own good.
There is this roly-poly bandleader who pops up, and honestly, the animation on him is weirdly hypnotic. The way he moves isn't quite human, but it isn't quite toy-like either. It just sort of... drifts.
I found myself staring at the background details more than the actual characters. There are these little bits of shadow and ink work that look like they were drawn in a rush, but they add this weird charm to the whole broadcast. It isn't as polished as later studio work, but that is exactly why it works. It feels hand-made, even if it is a bit messy.
Some of the songs drag on way too long. The music box segment felt like it was playing for ten minutes straight, even if it was probably just a fraction of that time. You can almost feel the cartoon running out of ideas toward the end.
I wouldn't call this a masterpiece or anything. It is just a strange little artifact from a time when animators were still figuring out how much weirdness an audience could handle. If you want something that doesn't feel like a corporate product, this is it. It has that raw, slightly broken feeling that I really appreciate in old shorts. 🎶
The whole experience is pretty surreal. It lacks the dramatic stakes of something like The Crippled Hand, obviously, but then again, that is not what you are here for. You are here to watch a wind-up doll sing. And that is exactly what you get.
It is not a film that stays with you, but it is a fun twenty minutes or so of visual chaos. Sometimes that is all you need on a slow afternoon.
IMDb —
1921
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