The Butter Battle Book

Wow. Wow, wow. Hmmm. Do I waste the words? In the spirit of Bakshi, I'll stay human and fail by trying. I won't believe the Grandfather. Anyone who studies Bakshi feels the tides of generations, of change, of the street, of music, and art, addiction and emotion. Of the loss of soul which accompanies conviction. So those few will suck on the sour, ironic pill of these comments like they have every minute of Bakshi film, and twist their face wry, and spit it out and never forget. They illustrate alike. Let me simplify and close; from 'a brilliant, if all-too-brief, collaboration...' "Soon there are goofy attempts by a hired Grandfather Yook (voiced by Charles Durning) to take on the task of stopping the Zooks from continuing on their bottom-buttered path." And contrast. From 'Simplistic and misguided' "In any event, the cartoon is little more than simplistic propaganda which does little to explore the nuances of the ethical questions behind nuclear armament and instead tries to inculcate fear of weapons technology into children." Do I really need to summarize? Probably, but I won't. Conviction becomes reality. What acts is indestructible.

Bakshi's oeuvre couldn't be more diametrically opposite than Dr Seuss's work: While the former is mostly known for his involvement in raunchy, adult-aimed animated films, Dr. Seuss remains to this very day as a wholesome icon of family entertainment, similar to Mister Rogers.

The ultimate result here is closer to Seuss's than Bakshi's, being a rather whimsical special with some darker undertones (In this case, a Cold War allegory) Apparently Dr. Seuss considered this animation the best adaptation of his books, and while I personally think that The Lorax short film from 1972 is more deserving of that title, this was an interesting watch anyway.

It would have been quite fascinating to see another collaboration of Bakshi and Dr. Seuss.

One more thing: The "Pg" rating (Assuming this is not a mistake from Imdb part) is ridiculous. This is pretty much a "G-rated" work, and honestly it feels more harmless than some G-rated Disney films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I guess Bakshi was totally right when he said the rating board hated him and his work.

Who would've thought that one of the very best adaptations from book to screen- albeit small screen- in the Dr. Seuss realm would be by underground animated filmmaker Ralph Bakshi. By then, Bakshi had gone on from the more personal work of the 70s, trademarked with rough pencil and inking with wild color combos in unconventional stories, to more sci-fi/fantasy fare like Wizards, Fire and Ice, and even a hit and miss attempt at Lord of the Rings. This short work that he produced and directed, probably as a way to make ends meet as much as an artistic statement, is probably one of his most obscure works, but it might be one of his better works because he keeps his ambitions low and his targets simple enough to accomplish completely. What we have here is a story that has a level of appeal for children and adults, and like the recent Happy Feet it will mean different things for different audiences. For either age group, child or parent (or those who are out to seek any and all works by Bakshi), there's some appeal.

For kids, it's a bright story of what it means to have a job to do, however petty or ridiculous it might seem. The Yooks and the Zooks are two different kinds of, well, Seuss characters, who each have their own way of spreading butter on bread, one side up, the other side down. Soon there are goofy attempts by a hired Grandfather Yook (voiced by Charles Durning) to take on the task of stopping the Zooks from continuing on their bottom-buttered path. There are also some whimsical songs, and even some random moments of strange humor, as can only come out of Seuss. But for the older ones, those who might have any kind of political awareness, Seuss and Bakshi have a simple message to go on, which is the notion of wars being started on the most petty but fastidiously held points of merit. And, as escalating tactics go, pretty soon it's less about the actual butter itself than the point of one side being too different enough- separated by a 'great-wall' kind of wall barrier- to ever have any kind of peace. There's details like how grandfather, however incompetent he might be to swart the Zooks, gets promoted to general, or how intricate a bomb can be made: and how it's just as easy for the other side to get the same power.

It's not only how sharply and aptly Bakshi is in having Seuss's words have their impact, and the wit as scathing as it is poke-in-the-ribs playful and fairly hilarious (I loved the ending, which I won't reveal, but has its suddenness as a point of absurdity and satirical merit), but in fusing in his own methods of style that make this a success. Bakshi, taking a break from rotoscoping, makes the Seuss cartoonish world come to life, and in a manner that presents it not totally smooth and finely tuned but a little scratchy and messy and with the colors usually of the lighter-primary side (the exception, and a great scene at that, is when grandfather ventures down the staircase to the bomb-making lava-pool area). There's something very much alive to how Baskhi gets the Yoots and Zoots moving along, how they use oddball weaponry or machines, and how the timing is less out of Looney Tunes than out of his background as a satirist of culture. He even gets Seuss's songs, which are by turns silly and inane, as entertaining little notes in the story.

If you can find this for your kids, if they happen to be Dr. Seuss fans anyway, it's a sure bet to get them into a lesser known but still worthwhile work. It's smart, vibrant, and almost cheerfully discomforting; second only to Chuck Jones's How the Grinch Stole Christmas as the best animated adaptation of a Seuss work. 8.5/10

I first saw this short upon purchasing a 4-DVD pack containing 'The Best of Dr Seuss,' 'Laura's Star,' 'Quest for Camelot' and 'The Powerpuff Girls Movie.' While it's not the best of 'The Best of Dr Seuss,' it still had rhyming narrative, Dr Seuss-illustration-type characters and a storyline that reminded me of that from the 'My Little Pony ' episode 'Ice Cream Wars.'

The animation style is sketchy, is not as smooth as that in 'Daisy-Head Mayzie' or 'Horton Hatches the Egg' and has a few lip-syncing flaws but the colours are bold. A lot of the musical score was military and although there were a few moments with no music at all, I liked the harmonious vocals of a group of female characters.. While a lot of the story was hard to follow, I liked the concept of one community spreading their bread butter-side down and the other butter-side up. The pace dragged on in the middle and while I found the ending abrupt, it was something of a cliffhanger as well.

Overall this is the weakest addition to 'The Best of Dr. Seuss' DVD but its most positive assets are the narration, the colours, the music and the nostalgic appeal it brings to a certain extent by reminding me of one of my favourite episodes of one of my favourite childhood cartoons. 7/10.

This was one of my favorite adaptations of a Dr. Suess story. On one side of a stone wall, there's the Yooks, the "proper" race that butters their bread "butter side up". On the other side live the Zooks, which (gasp!) butter their bread "butter side down". The two groups, whom appear to be the exact same with the exception of this one characteristic, have waged war with each other for countless years. The Butter Battle Book shows the story of an old man who was once patrolled the wall, protecting the Yooks from the terror of the Zooks. With the help of his advisor, things get worse and worse until he and Zooks' protector both bring out a device that will destroy both sides of the wall forever. Who's going to drop it first? We may never know...

I saw this when I was a child, and it left a lasting impression on me. These two races are fight over something as simple as this, and it shows what happens if we don't learn to get along and accept one another as each other. In a way, this story is the summary of every war that has happened: the fighting gets worse, and if we don't learn to get along, things are only going to get worse until both sides will destroy one another. Even though the story is very humorous, the moral is an important one. I'm hoping that one day I can share this story with my children and my grandchildren.