kurtr

Not that the children won't love it, but much, if not most, of the humor is going to go right over their heads. The movie has a less Disney feel to it, as if halfway through production Disney didn't like how it was going and told them to just finish what they had. No big musical numbers, no state-of-the-art animation techniques, some of the backgrounds almost look as if they were using the roughs, and many scenes are left out . . . but that was probably the best part of the film.

Between all the out-of-character takes, bordering-on-spoof humor, and fill-in-the-blanks missing scenes (one of which even plays an integral part of the plot) it works very well on two levels. You might even want to catch a late showing by yourself and leave the kids at home.

While I will admit that this is the best short film about 17th century French midgets ever made, I don't think that would be true if you removed any of those adjectives. It sounds like it would be a hilarious show, but instead it just lies there. It seems like whoever wrote it was either trying to make a serious philosophical statement, or thought the concept alone was funny enough, because watching a 17th century midget sit down for a minute, and then be forced to stand up because of some minor annoyance over and over again just doesn't pass as entertainment. I won't spoil the surprise ending.