The Chubbchubbs!

My parents dragged me to cinema because of "Stuart Little 2" - while this movie was not a bad one the opening was worth all the money.

The opening turned out to be a (sadly) short movie titled "The Chubbchubbs". It was more than entertaining - the animated characters were downright funny (for example, you can see Darth Vader and Yoda arm wrestling).

It is obvious that the creators of this movie put a lot of effort into it. Both graphics and story (short as it is) were excellent. The movie made me laugh continuously and I don't think I was the only one who wished there had been more once it was over.

Now I just have to convince my Granny to give me one of those Chubbchubbs for Christmas.

What? You want to know what a Cubbchubb is? Well, I certainly won't spoil you the fun of finding out for yourself. All I can say is that I highly recommend this movie if you like to laugh. And who doesn't?

The reason I saw CHUBBCHUBBS! is not at all typical. I never saw HAPPY FEET (which was bundled with CHUBBCHUBBS! when released) but saw just this short film because I read a review on IMDb for THE CATHEDRAL--a picture that lost to CHUBBCHUBBS! for the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 2003. This reviewer thought THE CATHEDRAL "was robbed" and they hated CHUBBCHUBBS!--and this encouraged me to see for myself if they were right.

From the onset, CHUBBCHUBBS! was an entirely different film than THE CATHEDRAL--having all the charm and polish you'd expect from a large CG studio, whereas THE CATHEDRAL looked more like a cut scene from a video game or an experimental film. While I strongly want to encourage young film makers, the quality and polish and completeness of the CHUBBCHUBBS! production was obvious--telling a first-class story in a manner that will not only impress film snobs but families as well. In fact, of all the Oscar-nominated films that year, the best short of the year probably was still THE CHUBBCHUBBS!, but I was surprised as how wonderful and original DAS RAD was--it sure was better than THE CHUBBCHUBBS in several ways, though I think THE CHUBBCHUBBS is definitely more the crowd pleaser.

Because other reviewers have discussed the plot, I'll just wrap it up by saying while this is far from the best short I've seen in recent days, it is very enjoyable and is good for a nice laugh. I particularly liked all the references to previous sci-fi films, such as STAR WARS, E.T. and FORBIDDEN PLANET.

'The Chubbchubbs!' is a nice animated short that won the Oscar in its category. I have to admit it is pretty funny. There are a lot of references to science-fiction films. Obvious references are Darth Vader, Yoda and Jar Jar Binks from 'Star Wars' and we see E.T. in a bicycle. Harder to find but also there are references to 'Alien', 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' and 'Lost in Space'.

So the short is fun because you can spot the little references, but without those things it is quite good anyway. The animations are very well done, the story has a nice little twist and simply said, it is funny. Most animated short films have the biggest laugh in the end, 'The Chubbchubbs!' is no exception, but there are quite some good moments before that as well.

I saw this as an added extra on the DVD Special Edition of Men In Black II. The movie was thoroughly forgettable, but The Chubbchubbs was worth the price of admission alone! Only about five minutes in length, but packs in quite a bit for such a comparatively short piece. It has the best bar scene since Star Wars (check out the "cameos"), unusual renditions of "Respect" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?" and some truly side-splitting one-liners! If Men In Black II had one-tenth the charm, wit and creativity of this little thing, it would have been worth watching. The Chubbchubbs was nominated for, and could well win, the Academy Award for Animated Short. That would suit me just fine. Highly recommended.

This is another one of these new strange cartoons with not much a storyline and not a lot of jokes but great visuals. The colors in here also are fantastic. It is the visuals, however, that captivate.

We are on some planet in which an Aretha Franklin-alien is on stage singing her famous song and our hero Meeper, the janitor, messes up. He is one-man disaster crew for Franklin, inadvertently turning her into toast a couple of times while she was on stage performing. Meeper, who daydreams of being a singing star, is no singer as we see in his karaoke bit.

Anyway, after getting thrown out of the Ale-E-Inn (get it?) nightclub-bar, he sees a mushroom cloud on the horizon and tries to warn everyone that the "Chubbchubbs" are coming.

When they do, without spoiling anything, we get a big surprise.

I didn't find anything to laugh out loud but I did think this was "cute" and very entertaining, enough to watch it again to see what I missed the first time, where I caught a few quick sights of characters from past sci-fi classics.

Overall, a fun cartoon and an appropriate one to the equally-fun "Men In Black 2" DVD. This is a feature on disc one of the two-disc special edition.