Junior Rodeo Daredevils (1949)

You won't be disappointed!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Most of the shorts that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" heckled are very dated but not necessarily creepy. Not so with "Junior Rodeo Daredevils". Less a look at a subculture than an excuse to put children and animals through hell, it's the sort of thing that probably couldn't have gotten filmed after the '60s (at least not in any country with animal welfare laws). It's enough to make anyone NOT want to attend a rodeo. This is just a horrendous disgusting movie.Sure enough, the Satellite of Love Crew has fun with it. Their narration DOES give an idea of what people would probably think if experiencing the events of the movie. It's the only way to enjoy this awful movie.

I have the feeling that "Junior Rodeo Daredevils" was a freebie when grade school districts purchased Encyclopedia Britannica sets, which meant it went into the A-V closet and was never heard from again, or maybe only shown when an educational film was too short. In any case, this half-reeler revolves around some ranch town in the southwest where geezer Billy Slater finds two small boys tying a can on his horses' tail. Instead of beating them with a strap, he decides to run a junior rodeo on his flyspeck ranch and give out prizes that look like they were fished out of the town dump. The boys make cheapo posters and tack them up all over town, attracting every "child" from 5 to 15, though I suspect some of the contestants were midgets. Soon the all-white rodeo begins, with stumpy toddlers being thrown from greased pigs, skinny girls flying off ponies, and this lanky 7th grader riding a bucking mule for at least 10 seconds. The "prizes" are handed out, all while the old coot smiles and displays his perfect set of teeth, as true a sign as any that he was a Hollywood cowboy. We may cry child endangerment now, but it is obvious that semiprofessionals were featured. In any case, the MST3K version was a laugh riot, and this short is as funny or funnier than "The Days of Our Years" or that Ma Bell promotional where the woman sings about telephones while her musician husband plays "Kung Fu Fighting" on the piano.

When I was a kid I put on my white cowboy hat, jeans, jean jacket, work shirt, bandana and boots and attended things like this. Yeehaw! At the time I wasn't fully aware of the cruelty that went into this so-called sport. Once I turned 15 I swore that I wouldn't be caught dead at one of these disgusting things, Junior or otherwise, ever again. I've kept that promise to myself.This short is itself predictable and boring. One thing I can't understand is why it was made, since most short films from its era were intended to be instructional (cf. "Cheating" and "Body Care & Grooming.") I guess it had appeal to the kids of the era.MST3K makes this one fun. Under no circumstances should ANYONE waste time on this without it.

This short film is based on a junior rodeo that two kids and an old man organize. They show scenes of several young people doing rodeo activities, like calf riding, calf roping, bull riding, and the like. These days, it would be called child endangerment.Avoid this unless you're watching the MST3K version. Joel and the bots make this turkey watchable.