The Country Cousin is a 1936 Disney short film in the Silly Symphony series and the recipient of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
First let’s talk about the story. It is about two mice, one from city and one from country. The city mouse called his cousin to come to city and now he can’t get used to it. It starts off really well and I loved the ending in which the country mouse fled the city. That was funny and very well done. And there are some well realized gags in here.
However, it is a very flawed film thanks to its middle parts which are filled with too many gags and even detours. It isn’t as funny as it thinks it is and the situations can get repetitive. It also never quite makes use of its setting properly and the story could have left a much bigger impact had it been better executed.
The characters are well depicted and I liked the redneck humor present here. The relationship between the two is properly established and both mice are well developed. I liked the score as well and the animation is really pleasant and colorful. It is technically quite a good short, but never great. And it didn’t quite deserve its Oscar in my opinion.
The Country Cousin has well developed characters, some good humor and a couple of great moments, but there are too many dragged scenes and it never quite makes use of its story and setting.
