The Crunch Bird

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!

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.

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.

I'm in agreement with rnigma-1 from down south that THE CRUNCH BIRD definitely did not deserve to win the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1972, though I wouldn't rate this film a 1--though perhaps my 5 is a bit generous. One problem is that the cartoon isn't particularly well animated and has very garish colors. The other is that the cartoon is a rather crude joke that 7th graders might find funny, but most anyone older that that won't. It's really sad that this insignificant film won, as one of the runners up (THE SELFISH GIANT) is head and shoulders better. Unlike the crude and rather stupid CRUNCH BIRD, THE SELFISH GIANT has a wonderful message, excellent animation and a depth to it. When seen today by sane people, it's obvious that THE CRUNCH BIRD is an inferior film and the Academy should have been embarrassed at picking the winner that year. I don't even think THE CRUNCH BIRD should have been nominated--let alone win. A super example of an over-rated film. Since they gave THE CRUNCH BIRD an Oscar, perhaps Pauley Shore will one day win the Best Actor Oscar!!!

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.