Overrated

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is an Oscar-winning animated short from 1966 and is definitely a product of its times. First, like almost all animation from this period, the quality shows a huge drop from the animation of the 40s and 50s--with low cel counts and very, very simple animation. In more recent years, there has been a huge improvement in this and the Oscar winners of the 60s and into the 70s just don't look very good compared to the years before or after. Second, it's a product of the times because it features Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass*--a very, very successful musical group that dominated the pop charts in the mid- late 60s.The film consists of two of the group's more famous musical pieces, "Spanish Flea" and "Tijuana Taxi". To the music is very simple animation that sometimes seems to fit the music and is in many ways a precursor to music videos. The other two reviews, so far, loved the film. As for me, it just looked cheap...but I liked the music.*I watched a recent documentary and found out, to my surprise, that there really was no 'Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass'...at least not initially. It seems that Alpert created his music in a studio with a studio band and only later hired musicians for his 'Tijuana Brass' when the group became popular and offers to have them tour developed. The session artists declined to join him (after all, they were doing very well for themselves already) and he created a band from scratch after the albums became popular! See "The Wrecking Crew" for more on this.

This short won the Academy Award for Animated Short. There will be mild spoilers ahead: This short by John and Faith Hubley is effectively a music video, taking two of the popular tunes by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass-"Spanish Flea" and "Tijuana Taxi"-and creating animation to tell stories. The first shows a day in the life of a flea. Various animals and people are annoyed to no end by the flea.The second one shows a taxi driver who has to get his passengers to the airport before their plane leaves. He takes them on quite a ride, running over people and taking them places they don't need to go.The ending of the second short is cute and the short is well worth seeking out. Recommended.

Just watched this Oscar-winning John and Faith Hubley-written and produced animated short distributed by Paramount on YouTube as linked from Cartoon Brew. The title's meaning is that two Herb Albert selections-"Spanish Flea" and "Tijuana Taxi"-are illustrated in animated form in their entirety. "Spanish Flea" has the title character annoying a donkey, chicken, a gangster and his girlfriend and other people at a hotel party. "Tijuana Taxi" has the driver trying to get his passengers to the plane on time. Both segments have compellingly humorous abstract line drawings set to the beat of the wonderful music. Don't want to say anymore except I highly recommend Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature.