chrisrebholz1

This film is based on a book by Thomas Pyncheon, whose work is notoriously difficult to imagine being adapted to the screen. I get the sense that PTA was determined to show that it could be done. The acting is a success; how can you go wrong with this cast? But the rest of the movie isn't. I felt like I was watching "The Big Lebowski" (which has a similar plot) with all of the humor stripped out, which isn't surprising because I just can't imagine Joaquin Phoenix doing comedy. I have to wonder how it would have played with someone else in the lead. It was a use of two hours of my life that I will never have back. It would have been much better spent having a Caucasian and going bowling.

This short film doesn't need to have a parody, because it is almost a self-parody.

It's Fassbinder's earliest work, according to the IMDb. The problem is that while watching it, I couldn't help but think of two "Saturday Night Live" scenarios: "Sprockets" and Leonard Pinth-Garnell's "Truly Bad Cinema." Honest. I was expecting Dieter to pop up at any moment from the midst of the bushes at any moment, and at the end, Leonard Pinth-Garnell to pop up, saying, "Truly, truly awful. A brilliant example of bad acting." About the best that I can say for this is that the photography is pretty good.

The only reason I can think of to watch this is for the reason I did so: to see some of Fassbinder's earliest work. I can't say that I'm upset that I spent ten minutes of my life watching it, but if it had gone on for another twenty minutes, I would have been waiting to hear Tom Servo's commentary on MST3K at some point.

This short was produced for the Canadian government. During WWII, war bonds were a critical part of financing the army. (This was true in the US as well.) The Canadian government asked the Disney studio for a cartoon to promote them, but only had a very small budget.

The Disney folks kept the cost down by using existing footage of "The Three Little Pigs." There were only two real new animation pieces added. First, the third house's construction changed from red bricks to bricks made of war bonds. Second, the big bad wolf is now wearing some Nazi attire. Other than that, it's the same. Two of the houses are huffed and puffed down, etc.

The most interesting thing about this animation is realizing how ubiquitous this sort of low-grade propaganda was during WWII, if you didn't live through it.