The Crunch Bird

I don't understand what I just watched! Or how it won an Oscar.

The animation was crude, even cruder than animation done decades ago, and didn't really add anything.

The story was poor. The humour stale. The voice acting limited.

Many critics were up in arms when Marisa Tomei took home an Oscar for her walk-through in "My Cousin Vinny." And there were those who cried foul when "Crash" won Best Picture instead of "Brokeback Mountain."

As unfair as those may seem, I can safely say that the film that was least deserving of its Academy Award was "The Crunch Bird."

Slapped together over a weekend by one Ted Petok, with all voices done by one man who lacked the talent of Mel Blanc or Don Messick, "The Crunch Bird" won over the smart National Film Board of Canada production "Evolution" and the beautifully animated Oscar Wilde adaptation "The Selfish Giant." Methinks Petok threatened to sic a crunch bird on the Academy members.

This horribly-animated short is based on one joke. One antique, middle-school joke. It probably had you ROTFL in 7th grade but it's merely stupid now.

Classic cartoon, my a*s!

There's nothing wrong with this little film. It should have been set up better with a few more examples of the bird's horrible trait. Anyway, I had figured it out as soon as the chair was destroyed. I, too, can't imagine this little bit getting the Oscar.

Considering that the work is from 1971 and still makes me laugh, despite having a simple plot, it surprised me. Not as funny or with deep messages as other Oscar-winning animated shorts but still good.

Yep it's true! The first thing you do after watching is scratch your head and ask yourself "how did THIS win an Oscar"? Then You chuckle and realise it doesn't matter and this is a funny short. Worth watching! And what else really matters huh?