The Chubbchubbs! (2002)
Film:
DVD:

Written by Jeff Wolverton
Directed by Eric Armstrong
Starring the Voices of Bradford Simonsen, Mortonette Jenkins, Jeff Wolverton, Peter Lurie, Rick Zieff

Features:

• Trailers
  

Released by: Columbia/Tristar.
Rating: G
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Rent it.

Meeper (voiced by Simonsen) is doing janitorial work at the Ale-E-Inn, but he has dreams of getting on stage. While he's fantasizing about singing (badly) some Aretha up under the spotlight's gaze, he has a little accident--which gets him fired and pitched out of the Inn. Once outside, though, it appears he's about to come face to face with a terrifying doom.

This is a cute CGI short, and it's easy to see why it beat out "Mike's New Car" for the Oscar. "Car" was at its funniest with the commentary, and was amusing, but can't hold up to Yoda and Darth Vader arm wrestling or some very familiar robots getting funky on the dance floor. The animation is nice and smooth--and appropriately goofy. So it all works. And Simonsen needs an award just for being able to sing so off key on purpose. Ow.

Now this is a hard DVD to adequately review, because, well, it's less than six minutes long--and the only features are a slew of trailers for other Sony bits. Also, Sony's already come out and said that this is going to be expanded into a feature film. So all the things I would normally ask for on a release like this--production featurette, art galleries, test footage--will no doubt wind up on the DVD release for that expanded version. And, more than likely, you'll see this short as a bonus on that DVD when it's finally released.

As a result, it's kind of hard to recommend much of anything for this disc. I've decreed it a rental, but be warned--if your local vid shop will understand that it's six minutes long and loan it to you for a buck, then you're good. It's a pretty solid laugh, so I'll pay a buck for that. But Blockbuster will probably want full price, knowing their tremendous width and breadth of knowledge over their own inventory. So it's funny, sure, but wait for the feature film DVD and enjoy it on there.