The Chubbchubbs!

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.

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.

The story is quite simple. A whole bunch of recognizable aliens are at a night club where a singer is belting out RESPECT. A janitor alien thinks he can sing. When the Chubbchubbs show up (monstrous giants with evil intent) the place is deserted, leaving our hero to confront them. But there is a surprise for these guys. It's visually fun and mostly predictable.

I thought that the plot of this film was great. The story of a clumsy janitor who had a dream of singing on stage was entertaining to me. I thought that this film had a lot of great humor including when the janitor would fall onto the leader singer. It was interesting how the director's were able to fool the view by making the Chubbchubbs look cute, instead of the being the tough monsters carrying weapons. The animation was excellent and left me wanting to watch this as a feature length film. I especially liked the Star Wars references because I am a big fan of the series. Overall, I think that this was a great film and I give it a 10 out of 10.

This 5 minute, 41 second computer-animated short can be found on the second disc of the 2-DVD special edition of "Men in Black 2". And at such a short running time manages to be much more enjoyable then the main feature. The cartoon deals with an alien janitor named Mupps, and his dreams of singing in the intergalactic bar that he works at. A bar inhabited by a great many recognizable patrons. When he find out the Chubbchubbs are coming, he tries to warn everyone with comical consequences. I won't give away any more except to say this cute short deserved the two awards that it won from the Academy.

My Grade: B+