getting nowhere fast
by Douglas Messerli
Wilfred Jackson (director) Barnyard Olympics / 1932
[animated cartoon]
This Mickey Mouse cartoon gathers most of the barnyard animals for a true series of Olympic-like events, featuring a mad quadrathlon which includes running with hurdles, pole vaulting, rowing, and cycling.
It begins with some boxing and wrestling bouts, and a parade of three animal athletes in race walking which with its requirements of looking straight forward without any visible contact, one foot always flat on the ground, and no bent knee or legs gives the walkers a characteristic swivel hip rhythm which encourages one pansy fan, who interpreting it as a queer trot, rises up, hanky in hand, to call out a “you-hoo” from the grandstands.
Most of the rest of
this short involves how the smallest and seemingly weakest of the barnyard creatures,
Mickey, competes against the large, muscular Tomcat Pete in the main event.
Despite Pete’s constant attempts to cheat, spinning Mickey backwards from the
start, tying his boat to a stump, changing the arrow on a mountain pass that
sends most of the cyclists over the cliff, destroying his tires, and finally,
tossing a large wad of gum to the truck forces Mickey, now near the finish
line, to remain pasted in place.
In each case, however, the
backward movement somehow propels him back into the competition, and finally
even send his over the line before Pete as the winner, delighting Minnie and
her friends.
But frankly this race
gets rather boring quite quickly. Even diehard sports fans might want to sit
this short 7-minute film out.
Los Angeles, November 2, 2025
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (November 2025).
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