The Chubbchubbs!

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.

'The Chubbchubbs!' is a nice animated short that won the Oscar in its category. I have to admit it is pretty funny. There are a lot of references to science-fiction films. Obvious references are Darth Vader, Yoda and Jar Jar Binks from 'Star Wars' and we see E.T. in a bicycle. Harder to find but also there are references to 'Alien', 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' and 'Lost in Space'.

So the short is fun because you can spot the little references, but without those things it is quite good anyway. The animations are very well done, the story has a nice little twist and simply said, it is funny. Most animated short films have the biggest laugh in the end, 'The Chubbchubbs!' is no exception, but there are quite some good moments before that as well.

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.

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+

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.