CriticSociety- film reviews

Review

The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle

Director

Des McAnuff

Year

2000

Rating

Reviewed by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

Review date

Sunday, August 05, 2001

To tell you the truth, I hadn’t heard about these cartoon characters before the movie was made. People told me they were quite big at their time. No wonder...

Fearless Leader (Robert DeNiro) and his two spies, Boris (Jason Alexander) and Natasha (Rene Russo), have come to real-life with a big plan to rule the world. Agent Karen Sympathy (Piper Perabo) has been appointed the mission of stopping them, but she’ll need the help of our two heroes, Rocky and Bulllwinkle, to do it. Of course, she’ll need to bring them over as they have been stuck in “reruns” for several years now. It is now a matter of time before Fearless Leader accomplishes his goal.

I was totally blown away by the sense of humor in this movie. It is sarcastic, self-referential, ironic and intelligent all in one. The movie’s creators were clearly having fun while they were making it. You really sense it. And I always enjoy a clever movie that manages to entertain and satirize all at once. People here know they’re in a movie, talk to the narrator, have no problems dealing with cartoon characters in the real world, make fun of the plot, and everything is always delivered in a tongue-in-cheek manner that is hilarious. Nothing to take seriously here.

Our heroes’ primary goal is to get to New York quickly. Rocky is the smartest one, or should I say, Bullwinkle is the dumbest of the two. Together they’ll live a lot of adventures while Boris and Natasha try to destroy them. In their way, they’ll poke at Hollywood in the smartest way I’ve seen lately. There’s even a very funny reference to Duck Soup (1933) stuck in there.

When I saw the movie I could clearly see why it didn’t connect with general audiences. It was too weird and unique for its own good. But those who get it will have a lot of fun watching it.

Robert DeNiro definitely has some fun playing the villain here. He even has the time to play with his Travis Bickle persona a bit. Rene Russo and Jason Alexander are hilarious. Piper Perabo is adorable. And watch out for many wonderful cameo appearances such as Whoopi Goldberg (as “Judge Cameo”), Billy Crystal and John Goodman.

Kenneth Lonergan scripted this movie and kudos should go to him, the director and the animators for making such an interesting different movie.

CriticSociety en Twitter | CriticSociety en Facebook

Share on Facebook | Share on Twitter