The Mechanical Cow (1927)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Walt Disney

Release Date:

3 October 1927 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Short | Comedy

Plot:

Oswald wakes up grumpy and takes it out on his alarm clock, afterward trying his best to wake up the mechanical cow sleeping in the bed beside him...

Plot Keywords:

Cow | Alarm Clock

Runtime:

6 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Robert Winkler Productions

Movie Connections:

Edited into The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story (1999)

Creative and Hilarious

For years, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was an unseen legend known only to cartoon geeks who devoured animation history books (the fact that my father saw them as a child and regaled me with stories about them also helped). The rediscovery of these films prove that the acclaim about them is not merely the stuff of film folklore.

This episode tells the story of a robotic cow that serves as the heroic hare's "Cow Friday" (perhaps inspired by the sci-fi silent classic "Metropolis?"). The title character is quite sympathetic and the toon as a whole displays far greater character development and situation comedy than was typical of cartoons of that era. But this does not get in the way of the gags, which are quite plentiful and well done within six or seven minutes. Strongly recommended.