Saturday, April 12, 2008

Film #35: The Critic

This is the fourth in a series of posts devoted to some of my favorite shorts. This one is popularly attributed to Mel Brooks, who came up with the concept and the narration. But it's a film by Ernest Pintoff, and I understand when he took home the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1963, it caused a rift between them. Well, Mel got his Oscar five years later for The Producers, so I would think the bad blood over The Critic should be long gone. A simple idea, done perfectly. Fun to watch, fun to listen to--a great little movie.

2 comments:

Hepcat B said...

I'd never seen this before. Is it condescending to say I found it "cute?"

This could actually be used in art houses as the "don't talk in the movie" announcement if it was shorter.

My favorite stupid movie talker ever spoke made the following stupefyingly obvious prediction, loudly, during a crucial plot juncture in the film Pay It Forward. And I quote: "He's going to pay it forward."

I couldn't help but audibly laugh. That was more entertaining than the film itself.

Dean Treadway said...

Of course, Brian, you know my favorite stupis movie talker story. I was watching Lawrence of Arabia for the first time at the Ziegfeld in NYC. The lady behind me said idiotic things all through the movie, but two stuck out. At the point where O'Toole and his Arab guide first see a dot on the desert horizon, denoting the eventual entrace of Omar Sharif, the genius behind me noticed the horse-shaped figue and said..."Someone's coming!"

Later on, when we see a train full of horses that Anthony Quinn has his eyes on, Ms. Science behind me centered in on the white horse in the herd and said "That one's a stallion!" Thanks for info, National Velvet.