Wonderful Movie

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Chubbchubbs!, The (2003)** 1/2 (out of 4) Oscar-winning animated short has an alien working at an alien bar of all places where he dreams of becoming a singer. He hasn't any talent or a good voice but he finally gets his shot after something happens. Going into this film knowing it's an "Oscar-winner" is certain a burden as this thing isn't anything great and having that certain label put on it just makes people, such as myself, go into the film with much higher expectations. Once you get over the fact that it has an Oscar you're left with a mildly entertaining little film. I wouldn't call it a good one as I was never really caught up in the story going on and I can't even say it's the greatest short out there dealing with someone not having the greatest talent in the world. Where the short does work is in the color department as the visual style is quite impressive and the rainbow of sorts colors really jump out at you.

This little charming short is found on the DVD of Surf's Up. It's got great animation, and the designs are marvelous. The running time is a mere 5 minutes, with credits, and it's well-paced. Editing and cinematography are excellent. The simple story allows the audience to immediately get into it, and it manages to reference numerous sci-fi classics(and while knowledge of them will enhance your appreciation of this, it is in no way necessary) in very little time. This has humor that people of all ages can enjoy, and it isn't so completely geared at children(meanwhile, there's no such thing as being too young for this) that it feels insulting to the intelligence for anyone over the age of 7. The timing is spot-on, and every joke and gag works. This is well-cast, and every voice acting performance is flawless. In general, everything in this sounds exactly right, and the music is great, original and otherwise. Apart from arguably cartoon violence, there is nothing offensive in this, and certainly nothing that the kids will(well, should, anyway) understand yet. I recommend this to everyone. 8/10

ChubbChubbs, apparently, are frightening beasts that threaten the happy existence of the creatures living on the planet in question, which includes the alien from the Alien movies, Jar Jar Binks, and Yoda and Darth Vader in a wrestling match in the bar in which our hero works when we meet him. Our hero, as it were, is a lowly janitor, completely awkward an graceless but a lover of music and performing. As an alien Aretha Franklin is on stage singing Respect, he grabs his mop and sings hilariously into it, dancing around until he spills his mop water onto the plug, frying Aretha and getting himself kicked out into the cold.Once outside he is confronted by a whole line of vicious looking beasts, and does the only thing he can think to do. He starts singing and dancing for them. When one of them gives in and starts singing and clapping along, much to the chagrin of his fellow mean-looking beasts, it reminded me of something the Blue Man Group would do. This is just a clever film. I think there were a couple of other animated short films nominated for the Oscar for 2002 that should have won over this one (Cathedral and Rocks), but this is still a wonderful film. Also make sure to watch through the credits for the hilarious closing performance!

I am quite certain that had the voters seen any of the other shorts nominated for the Oscar that year (well, maybe not Pixar's deplorable "Mike's New Car"), they wouldn't have voted for this. ChubbChubbs is as mindless and boring as the movie it accompanies on DVD: Men in Black II. The main character is cloying and the only thing going for this animated short is that any kid older than 2 will understand what's going on. Judging by the content, that's the target audience. There's absolutely nothing awardworthy about this sacchrine piece of fluff: ChubbChubbs is joylessly calculated to make you giggle and go "awwww...", without a clever or truly heartwarming moment.