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Buster Keaton produced many wonderful short films – 'The Love Nest (1923)' is my favourite so far – but, unfortunately, 'The Balloonatic (1923)' isn't one of them. Despite a fair share of funny jokes, the film is basically comprised of a number of different gags strung together with a flimsy pretense, and so it lacks any narrative cohesiveness. Considering that this was released in the same year as the feature 'Our Hospitality (1923),' which had a terrifically-dark storyline to complement the jokes, this short really does come across as disappointing. Indeed, even the title promises more than the film actually delivers, with barely a quarter of the running time concerned with hot-air balloons. However, cast aside these trivial complaints, and you can simply enjoy Buster's antics for what they are. The actor/director's comedic work still sparkles with imagination and creativity, and few entertainers could have achieved such hilarious results with something as simple as a collapsible canoe. Also, it beats me how he avoided drowning on at least one occasion.

The story opens at a carnival, where hopeless romantic Buster goes out looking for love in a "House of Trouble." As always, it's interesting to note just how stone-faced he remains as numerous ominous figures emerge from dark doorways; his body language communicates fear and panic, but his facial expressions remains astonishingly deadpan. After finding his way out of the attraction, Buster then ruins a perfectly good jacket in being kind to a beautiful lady, before earning a black eye from another pretty girl (Phyllis Haver) who presumably rejected his advances. Buster then inadvertently catches a ride on the top of a hot-air balloon, which brings him down in the middle of the wilderness, where – surprise! – the girl who punched him is enjoying a lonely fishing trip. The pair try their best to ignore each other, thinking up elaborate techniques to survive comfortably in the forest, until all that remains is for Buster and Phyllis to fall in love. This silly story makes for some enjoyable enough gags, including, most memorably, Buster's face-to-face meeting with two curious bears.

Well, don't get too excited over the title - there are very little actual ballooning in the movie. No big stunts either, just cheap slapstick gags which some are great, but overall, the film can be quite a disappointment to big Buster Keaton's fans.

Buster Keaton stars as a young man who is so inept at anything, and being so oblivious about his own bumbling ways that it is almost hard to bear. His adventures start at the fun house of the amusement park, where Buster tries to amuse himself at someone's else expense. After failed attempt to hit on a girl on a boat ride, Buster stumbles on a hot air balloon that takes him into the wilderness. Trying to survive in the nature Buster has to overcome many obstacles, to win the heart of a girl.

Actually, there are only a few minutes of Buster Keaton and the big hot-air balloon in this 22-minute movie. Most of it is Buster and Phyllis Haver out in country, separately, canoeing and having adventures fishing and hunting. In the end, they get together for a few scenes including a "cute" ending with some waterfalls.

Overall, it's okay but nothing hilarious. Most of the gags are very loosely connected, but that's not unusual for a short silent comedy film. Buster provides most of the laughs but Haver, a new female face not seen by me before in a Keaton film, is not a bad comedienne.

I watched this right after a much faster-paced Keaton short ("Neighbors") so this looked a little slow in comparison.

Buster Keaton is at an amusement park. First he's in the House of Trouble and then he gets slapped in a tunnel ride. He finds a large balloon. The balloon gets loose and he gets taken for a ride. He tries his hand at duck hunting and shoots his own balloon. He crash lands and tries to do some fishing. He gets into a constant fight with a woman fishing until they run into a bear.

I really laughed when he brought out the duck decoys. It would have been better for Keaton to extend the balloon ride. That is fun and something different. Once he gets on land, the story isn't quite as much fun. It's interesting to have the bear but that's to see if he's getting bit or not. I really the balloon but it's far too short.

With a promising beginning, Keaton finds himself atop a balloon, descends to the basket only to find there is no floor and then uniquely brings the balloon down to ground. What follows are a series of loosely connected and often amusing gags. However, the whole ends up being less than the sum of the individual parts. No compelling strand effectively connects these humorous moments. The movie is worth watching because Keaton's genius always offers the unexpected; it will, however, provoke chuckles rather than laughter.

This minor offering from Keaton is really just a collection of sketches cobbled together to make a 20 minute short; as such, it lacks any cohesion and struggles to hold the viewer's interest despite containing a number of decent sight gags and Keaton's ever-reliable comic timing. In this one he finds himself atop a hot air balloon that has drifted from its moorings and which transports him deep into the countryside where he encounters young Phyllis Haver, a rather strapping young wench whose initial coolness towards him thaws after a number of escapades. There's very little that is memorable here, and probably the best moment is Keaton's reaction when he realises he is standing beneath a chute that dispatches visitors from the 'House of Trouble' fairground ride just after a heavy young lady has entered.

The Balloonatic is always on a high when it comes to entertainment value present in Keaton shorts. For the first time, it begins with a close up shot of a spooked Keaton at The House of Trouble, a haunted house at an amusement park. As the camera zooms out of his face, we see him walk towards three different rooms, each time to be surprised by a spooky figure. Once he gets out of the house, he watches a stout lady enter the same place. She loves the haunted house so much she enters the second time.

Keaton however moves on to another thrill and soon finds himself on top of a hot air balloon. The balloon crashes and Keaton lands on a tree. While fixing the balloon, he also goes to a lake and tries fishing; in his Keaton-esque manner, he tries to block the flow of water by placing a barricade rocks at the shallow point, only for the water to collect on the other side and soon crash into the barricade and take Keaton along. He encounters a girl who attacks him at first for coming in her way when she dives into the lake, but later becomes close to him.

The ending takes you by surprise as you fully expect a disaster only to be baffled. That's the high point of The Balloonatic, another triumph in the joyful Keaton shorts.

Buster Keaton was a man who liked to tinker with things and survive maelstroms. Both of these things come together in this short to tell the tale of a man who first gets trapped on a balloon, and then has to survive in nature in the middle of nowhere while trying to win the affection of the belle nearby.

The beginning starts out in a carnival and isn't really that interesting. Surreal, to be sure, but after the audience figures out what's going on, most of the comedy of the situation doesn't work out as much. However, once Keaton gets on the balloon, it becomes a whole different story altogether, and definitely shows the inventiveness of such a comedic genius. When he's in the wild, as well, the situations he finds himself in is worth more than just a laugh.

Overall it's definitely worth a good watch or two. Buster Keaton is the type of artist where everything he does is good enough to take a look-see, and definitely to rave about. Plus, being that this is a short, it's a quick thing you can watch with friends during a party or something. Highly recommended.

--PolarisDiB

Despite the title, there aren't a lot of ballooning sequences in the film. While it is a balloon that takes Buster into the woods in this silent short, it is in the wild that the bulk of this movie is set.

The film begins with Buster in a Fun House. Then, a few minutes later, he accidentally hitches a ride on the top of a balloon and goes from the beach to the wild wide open. The jokes up until then were just okay by Keaton standards. However, the jokes begin to improve and the film takes a nice leisurely pace as Buster makes himself at home in the great outdoors. He makes a boob of himself fishing, cooking out and almost gets eaten by bears, but he also meets a nice outdoorsy girl who he falls in love with in the end. Nothing really spectacular occurs--just like seeing Buster on vacation.

This Buster Keaton short has a very good title. But as you will discover there really isn't much actual ballooning in it. As you might expect from a short film its pretty simplistic. It begins at a fun-house where Keaton accidentally hitches a ride in a hot air balloon. He is propelled miles away and winds up in the wilderness. He meets a girl out here who isn't initially too keen on him but together they get in to all manner of scrapes including some memorable scenes with grizzly bears.

It would be fair to say that this is not a great feature. It doesn't have a very cohesive narrative and essentially boils down to a series of gags loosely connected into the synopsis above. It's really mainly recommended to fans of Keaton and/or silent slapstick in general. Others might be a bit underwhelmed.

Buster proceeds as lunatic. This film appears to be pieced together with fragments picked up from a cutting-room floor. It makes little sense, but then again, why should it ? General agreement is that this is just not one of Buster's best. Filling in time ?

This is not one of Buster Keaton's best short features, but it has some good moments. Most of the gags are of good quality, and most of the sequences work well enough. The main thing it really lacks is that, unlike most of Buster's movies, it never really builds on itself or gets much momentum. In his best features, the setting and story help make the decent gags very funny and the good gags hilarious.

Buster becomes "The Balloonatic" when he is trying to help a balloonist prepare his craft, and it accidentally takes off with Buster on top of the balloon. He winds up in the wilderness, where he and a young woman that he meets (Phyllis Haver) have to fend for themselves.

Although this one doesn't fit together quite as well as his best comedies, being mostly a series of only loosely-connected gags, some of them are very good in themselves. If nothing else, it has enough that it should probably be of interest at least to those who are already Keaton fans.

The pace and quality of the gags in this Buster Keaton short leave a little something to be desired, but it was amusing nonetheless. It's not a very cohesive story, with Buster going from an amusement park to accidentally atop a hot air balloon, then to fishing and wilderness adventures in a river where he spends most of his time. Buster tangles with bears while Phyllis Haver wins the wet bathing suit contest for 1923 before wrestling a bull to the ground. It was nice to see her character so empowered, and she seemed like the star of this one. Meanwhile in the romance department, she goes from giving Buster a black eye in the "Ye Old Mill" ride to gradually becoming attracted to Buster amidst the shenanigans. None of it is particularly memorable, but the giant chute sending customers out of the "House of Trouble" and Buster's walking canoe bit probably worked the best.

Buster Keaton's penultimate short film (he'd depart for feature-length comedies within the year) has him exploring a funhouse, wandering carnival grounds, pitching a tent, reeling fish and stowing away on an errant hot air balloon. At each stop, he happens upon the same comely young lass; initially an object of scorned affection, later a source of mutual nuisance, finally a welcome travel companion. Phyllis Haver is the girl, a rarity in Keaton films in that she's given room to grow and exist as more than just a lash-fluttering dish. Buster's still the unequivocal centerpiece, armed with an array of effective gags and tricks that benefit from the frequent shifts in scenery, but the presence of this better-defined supporting player leads to a better-earned climax.

As the stunts and gags go, this is one of Keaton's finer short efforts. He works several big laughs out of a segmented canoe, misusing and manhandling the disassembled watercraft in his own inimitable style, while his daredevil work atop a skyward balloon is positively hypnotic. Only the janky, scattered nature of the plot leaves much to be desired. Otherwise, it's a strong example of a classic comedian in his prime.

On land, sea, and air Buster Keaton delivers gag after gag at a rapid fire pace in The Baloonatic. Moving from an amusement park to the great outdoors the hapless Buster for once ends blissfully, this time among the clouds.

Once again the Great Stone Face endures a quite a pounding as a bear, a waterfall, a runaway balloon and a corpulent young lady put his life in peril. Accessing both urban and rural stages Keaton squeezes into the short's brief (23 min.) running time some tiny gems especially in the field and stream segment. Keaton's gadgets (a three piece canoe) and methodology catching fish along with his narrow escape finale are calamitously hysterical and ever more so by the implacable response of the irrepressible Buster. Phyllis Haver like the love interests in other Keaton comedies endures some roughhousing well enough and shows the right amount of snobbish imperiousness to give as good as she gets. The Balloonatic is one short satisfying high.

1923's 'The Balloonatic' should have been so much more. Considering that it has such a great title and that it starred one of comedy's funniest and most daring performers in Buster Keaton. Actually like to love a vast majority of Keaton's short films and the best of his feature films (i.e. 'The General') are masterpieces. So that this review is not as enthusiastic as most of my other reviews for Keaton's work is regrettable, nothing malicious about it at all.

'The Balloonatic' is one of Keaton's weakest short films and for me it is lesser Keaton overall as well. It is far from terrible, would call very, very little of his work that, and it does have its charm and good things. There are just funnier, clever and bolder short and feature films that Keaton did, and the execution is quite uneven. 'The Balloonatic' is watchable enough but not essential, and is more a curio or if one wants to see everything that Keaton did.

Am going to start with the good things. It is nicely made, not looking primitive. Keaton is not at his funniest or boldest, but he is amusing, he has a lot of likeability and he still shows that he is one of the masters at deadpan. Phyllis Haver is also appealing and has a spirit about her. She and Keaton have an adorable chemistry together.

Some parts are fun. The stuff with the balloon is creative and Keaton's bear encounter is pure genius. 'The Balloonatic' starts and ends very well.

It's what happens in the middle that's a bit hit and miss. Nothing is unfunny here, but only a few parts are hilarious and there are far more inspired and funnier gags in other Keaton efforts. Wouldn't have said no to more gags perhaps, and those that were there could have connected with each other more tightly and with more cohesion. The story is very slight and could have had more energy, it is basically a series of cobbled together gags that gives the structure a disjointed feel.

Compared to other Keaton efforts, 'The Balloonatic' felt a little bland. It's not just the humour and Keaton's athleticism and mastery of deadpan that plays a huge part in his appeal, it's also the jaw-dropping and ahead of the time stunts. 'The Balloonatic' is somewhat short-changed on this front.

On the whole, watchable but Keaton did so much better before and since. 5/10

A BUSTER KEATON Silent Short.

Intrepid Buster faces danger on land, on water & in the air - generally because of his disastrous attempts to impress lovely young women.

THE BALLOONATIC - which actually gives very little screen time to the hot air balloon - is rather a jumble of disjointed (but funny) scenes which bare scant relation to each other. With any other star it would be easy to dismiss, but Keaton holds it all together (barely) by the sheer force of his undeniable talent and some very amusing moments. Highlight: the trajectory of a large lady sliding precipitately out of an amusement park's horror house causes some impact problems for Buster.

Born into a family of Vaudevillian acrobats, Buster Keaton (1895-1966) mastered physical comedy at a very early age. An association with Fatty Arbuckle led to a series of highly imaginative short subjects and classic, silent feature-length films - all from 1920 to 1928. Writer, director, star & stuntman - Buster could do it all and his intuitive genius gave him almost miraculous knowledge as to the intricacies of film making and of what it took to please an audience. More akin to Fairbanks than Chaplin, Buster's films were full of splendid adventure, exciting derring-do and the most dangerous physical stunts imaginable. His theme of a little man against the world, who triumphs through bravery & ingenuity, dominates his films. Through every calamity & disaster, Buster remained the Great Stone Face, a stoic survivor in a universe gone mad.

In the late 1920's Buster was betrayed by his manager/brother-in-law and his contract was sold to MGM, which proceeded to nearly destroy his career. Teamed initially with Jimmy Durante and eventually allowed small roles in mediocre comedies, Buster was for 35 years consistently given work far beneath his talent. Finally, before lung cancer took him at age 70, he had the satisfaction of knowing that his classic films were being rediscovered. Now, well past his centenary, Buster Keaton is routinely recognized & appreciated as one of cinema's true authentic geniuses. And he knew how to make people laugh...

It is not exactly the comedy who you expect. It is not the portrait of "baloonatic" defined by title. But a sweet story about a young man across different forms of adventure, victim of events, having as end of the long trip the love story as crown of efforts to be happy. Special for the simplicity with nostalgic flavor, it is just the window to a lost world of film.

This is the only short feature of Buster Keaton's I have seen, it is funnier than I thought, what with the bear chases and the hot air baloon. However, it didn't seem as sophisticated, clever or as funny as "The General" or "Our Hospitality", it was lacking the usual clever, knowing edge of silent films e.g. Sunrise, The Kid. Which has now been replaced by CGI. Saying ll that, some of the stunts in it are extremely cool and really funny, perhaps the best introduction to Keaton. It is available on "Seven Chances" and on "Buster Keaton Shorts (Volume 1), along with Convict 22 and other things.

Good, not brilliant, ****/****

Here, Buster Keaton accidentally gets on top of a hot-air balloon. When he shoots himself out of the sky, he lands near a stream filled with fish. Also, there is a young woman camping nearby. Funny scenes follow, which contain, among other things, bears, burning canoes, and waterfalls. See this film because it is yet another one that displays Keaton's mechanical ingenuity. Surely, you will also find it quite humorous.

The Baloonatic is a lightly amusing twenty minute short film that draws much of its comedy from loosely connected scenes which are slapstick, and mostly routine for Mr. Keaton. The story here revolves around a man, who as a result of his ever growing bad luck ends in the middle of an unfamiliar forest after a miscalculated ride on a stray hot-air balloon. It's a simple, short and relatively empty feature, outside of its comedic appeal, and so although Buster does well to bring the most out of his script, moments where the jokes fall flat can get a little tiresome. Again, a romantic subplot is consistently played underneath all the slapstick, and while it lacks any real solid involvement, nevertheless brings the entire feature together in a neat, cute and poignant manner; both funny and sweet. Regardless, if silent, short comedy films are your thing, then Keaton will be sure to please in some way or another throughout the twenty minutes, given that you care little for any other substance. By no means is this a classic, nor is it something you should go out of your way to see, but for historians and Buster Keaton fans alike, it's a small and welcome treat.

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