Bob's Birthday

Maybe don't watch this if you've a phobia about dentists! The eponymous man is promised a birthday curry by his wife, but he's not so very keen. As "Margaret" sits at home carefully creating the kebabs, he is at work using his weapons of torture on his unwitting patient. There's a great poster on the wall saying "Just Say No!" - it's about not eating fruit but it could just easily work warning of the industrial scale flossing that ensues before the reluctant "Bob" heads home for his special treat. Rarely can an animation have picked a collection of subjects that trigger a grimace from me so effectively. From the imaginary smell of a dental drill to the perils of an ill-judged conversation when the house is full of... surprises. The last five minutes really do make your eyes water... This is great fun!

Funny animated short film that gave birth to the series, which I must admit, I haven't really followed. In this short, Bob turns 40. Margaret organize a surprise party, but she'll get a few surprises of her own! While she's preparing kebabs and the dogs are choking on the same ball, Bob is hit by middle-age crisis. His fear is to "wrinkle up like a piece of fruit". Maybe it's time to have children. Maybe Margaret doesn't find him sexy anymore. Maybe he should fall to temptation and have an affair with his younger secretary. Maybe ophtalmology is really his destiny! Lots of question and lots of laughs in this one.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on December 29th, 2004.

79/100 (***)

The winner of Best Animated Short Film at the 67th Academy Awards is a look at middle age. I understand that "Bob's Birthday" became the inspiration for an animated series. I've never seen the series, so I can only focus on this story of a dentist's misgivings about reaching middle age while his wife invites their friends over for a birthday party.

I should note that this is a mature cartoon, but in my opinion that improves it. The cartoon doesn't sugar-coat or dumb anything down. It treats the characters with respect the whole time. It also brings to mind the fact that the millennials will start reaching middle age in a few years. That creates all the more incentive for us to check out "Bob's Birthday". I recommend it.

This is one of those features where you want to leave your chair, jump on the screen, and put a stop to it. Bob is a dentist who leads a humdrum life with a boring wife and boring house. He is obviously loved but can't quite see it. Eventually, he gets something out of his birthday. His friends at the surprise party are horrible people (sort of like most people) with their pettiness and other foibles. This is really good but hard to endure.

This short justly won the Academy Award and is probably one of the two short produced by the National Film Board of Canada (the other is The Cat Came Back) that most people would have seen than any other work done under their umbrella. Excellent and hilariously funny, particularly Bob's semi-meltdown under circumstances that his wife Margaret would just as soon forget. Beware of surprises. Available from the NFBC, relatively easily for Canadian citizens, a bit more complex for non-Canadians, but worth it either way. Most joyously recommended by a somewhat less neurotic, just-turned-42 Robert!