Horsing Around
1973 · 8m · Canada
Directed by Kaj Pindal
Tones: contemplative, humorous, whimsical
Proud horse Nicholas doubts machines truly surpass his strength until he tests himself and consults James Watt about the meaning of horsepower.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A horse consulting James Watt about the literal meaning of horsepower should be absurdist gold, but Pindal plays it straight—which somehow makes the conceptual joke land harder, even if the execution feels more crafted than truly subversive.
Pindal's precise hand-drawn economy and the film's gentle Socratic structure place it squarely in the tradition of pedagogical animation, where formal clarity and philosophical whimsy become inseparable—a model lesson in restraint.
The genius move is treating the horse's doubt as genuinely felt rather than played for laughs; that tonal commitment, held across eight minutes of simple animation, transforms a pun into something that actually matters.