The Good: Surprisingly funny, Well-written, Entertaining, Decent plot progression, Good initial characterizations/performances.
The Bad: Mediocre acting, Characters are “types,” Homophobic jokes/milks the same jokes to death.
The Basics: Cannibal! The Musical is a quirky little comedy film that is surprisingly good and vastly underrated in geek culture.
It is a rare thing for me when my wife recommends a movie I have not even heard of. On the few occasions that has happened, it surprises me less when the movie is an obscure, indie comedy film that has almost no presence on video. What surprises me more about learning of these weird little films that my wife witnessed in her young adulthood, is when I see them (which I inevitably do) and actually enjoy them (which so seldom occurs that “actually” is entirely appropriate). Yet, such has happened with Cannibal! The Musical.
Cannibal! The Musical is most analogous to Monty Python And The Holy Grail (reviewed here!) and, in fact, bears such a resemblance to it in structure and humor style that it is absolutely shocking to me that it has not achieved the same level of notoriety in geek culture as the older movie. Created by Trey Parker, with some uncredited writing help from his longtime collaborator Matt Stone (the two created South Park together), the film is a one-shot musical that justifies its entirely cheey acting, inexpensive sets and mediocre direction by claiming to be a 1950’s film that was recently recovered and colorized. Regardless of one’s feelings about South Park (I’ve only had very limited experiences with it myself), Cannibal! The Musical is a riotously absurd live-action musical comedy that stands surprisingly well on its own.
As Alferd Packer awaits the resolution to his trial for cannibalism, Polly Pry visits him in jail. Despite knowing he should not speak with her without a lawyer, he begins to tell her the story of what actually happened in the woods on his journey from Utah to Breckenridge, Colorado. Unlike how the prosecutor characterizes the incident that cost five of Alferd’s associates their lives (the flashback description is gory and ridiculous as Alferd allegedly took all five men on, tearing off limbs and biting directly into their necks!), Alferd’s story is a musical adventure that begins with him getting roped into serving as a guide to a party headed from Utah to Breckenridge in search of gold.
However, after the band of men encounters a trio of punk trappers who mock them and push them around, Alferd’s beloved Arabian horse, Liane goes missing. Crossing two treacherous rivers at the expense of most of their supplies, Alferd’s team encounters Chinese “Indians,” a Cyclops, and the trappers again. Soon, one of Alferd’s men realizes that Alferd is heading south, where the trappers said they were going, following the path of his horse as opposed to guiding them to Breckinridge. As winter falls and the Rockies become impassable, their supplies run out and when Swan goes crazy singing about making snowmen, it sets the men on a course for cannibalism!
Cannibal! The Musical has surprisingly good music. The well-written and catchy songs, like “Shpadoinkle” and “Let’s Build A Snowman” are utterly ridiculous and lampoon musicals nicely. It is hard to imagine watching Cannibal! The Musical and not finding oneself singing “My heart is full like a baked potato” at least once within the week after seeing this movie.
Outside the musical comedy aspects of Cannibal! The Musical, the film is a much tougher sell and probably the reason it never exploded even within geek culture. While something like Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog resonated as a low budget success story of late, Joss Whedon did everything he could to make it look and feel professional. Trey Parker, who wrote, directed and starred in Cannibal! The Musical, seemed to embrace the low-budget nature of the project and used that as an excuse to have the performers acting stiff and amateurish. Given how few of the stars of Cannibal! The Musical have multiple acting credits (most have abundant behind-the-camera credits on the IMDB) after this film, they either did not want to pursue acting or were too convincing in their performances here.
Cannibal! The Musical flops a bit on milking some of the jokes in the film to death. In addition to some unfortunately homophobic jokes near the beginning of the film and the obligatory joke whereby Alferd Packer is called a “fudge packer,” Parker telegraphs some of his best jokes in ways that rob them of their humor. For example, the Chinese “Indians” is an initially funny gag. However, when they speak with over-the-top accents and stereotypically Chinese mannerisms, the joke treads toward the un-funny and more potentially offensive. In other words, the gag is clever when the men walk into the camp and find a bunch of “Indians” doing tai chi and asserting they must be Indians because of the tee pees around, but when they go for more blatant references than that, they beat the humor horse to death.
Beyond Alferd, the hapless guide and horse-lover, the characters are “types” more than well-rounded individuals. Like most Westerns, Cannibal! The Musical features the green cowboy, the religious nut, and the quiet loner, though the addition of the hopeless optimist seems unique to this movie. As far as Western parodies go, Cannibal! The Musical is actually more successful in its execution than the recent Casa De Mi Padre (reviewed here!), though I suppose it is more directly analogous to Blazing Saddles (reviewed here!).
On the balance, Cannibal! The Musical is an unlikely enjoyable parody film and any adult who likes screwball humor and mocking the establishments of musical theater will undoubtedly enjoy this movie.
For other musical comedies, please visit my reviews of:
South Park: Bigger, Longer, And Uncut
Hamlet 2
A Prairie Home Companion
6/10
Check out how this film stacks up against others I have reviewed by visiting my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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