People Soup

This short film was used quite frequently by the Showtime channel as filler between movies around 1979. If you get a kick out of homemade style movies made by celebrities using their family, this is a amusing little tale. Alan Arkin films this short using his kids Adam and Matthew(?) who somehow manage to change each other into different animals by eating a food mixture they create at the kitchen table one day while bored. It's worth seeing just for the chance to laugh at Adam Arkin as a kid.

Don't be misled by the title: "People Soup" isn't about cannibalism. In fact, it's a short movie the whole family can enjoy.

In the 1950s, before he was a well-known actor, Alan Arkin wrote two stories that were published in the prestigious "Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction". One of these stories, "Whiskaboom", is a funny science-fiction yarn about an eccentric inventor who accidentally flattens himself. Somebody could make a good movie from "Whiskaboom".

Arkin's lesser story, "People Soup", is a cute fantasy about a boy and girl who start experimenting with various kitchen ingredients, eventually creating a soup which enables them to turn into various animals and objects.

After he became an established actor, Arkin decided to film his own magazine story. "People Soup" is a faithful adaptation of the original story, with the girl changed into another boy so that Arkin's two young sons can play the experimenters. The original story didn't have enough plot for a full-length movie, and sure enough "People Soup" is a short film that makes its point, earns a few gentle laughs, and then quits while it's ahead.

I recommend "People Soup" as a movie that adults and kids can enjoy together, but it's too short to form the backbone for an evening's video pleasure. Still, it's a good glimpse into a little-known aspect of Alan Arkin's many talents, and "People Soup" offers a very early glimpse of the young Adam Arkin as well. See it if

I think the joke here is meant to come from the slightly sarcastic commentary from the observing adults as the two Arkin children (Matthew & Adam) hum, cycle, sing and play at what looks like baking whilst they discuss "lizard people stuff" and spat with each other over where the apple sauce might be lurking in the kitchen. Then it's outside for some frolicking about on the lawn whilst it all sets in the bowl. At times it's quite an engaging look at two siblings making a mess and playing but after five minutes it all runs out of steam and by the time we put garlic in their cake I had lost interest in the home movie feel of the whole thing. If they were your kids, then maybe - if not, then not really - even with a live chicken!