The Chubbchubbs!

Forgive me father for I have sinned, sort of.  On Friday morning my wife, my daughter and I all packed up and drove 500-600 miles to visit my sister and her family.  We stayed for the Memorial Day weekend and drove back on Monday.  For those 4 days I didn’t watch any DVDs.  I love my DVDs, and I have been enjoying this little project, but when I have to choose between watching a DVD or spending a couple of extra hours visiting with family that I’m lucky to get to see once or twice a year, family wins out hands down.  So for 4 days, I didn’t watch a DVD.  Today I’m playing catch up.  I have watched 4 DVDs for the days I skipped and after my eyes rest a little, I’m going back to watch today’s disc.  All four of the DVDs I watched today came from the great Illinois vacation.

First up is The Chubbchubbs!.  When I decided to catch up by watching five discs today, I began looking for some short films.  The Chubbchubbs! was a DVD I found at the Big Lots near my sister’s house.  I remembered The Chubbchubbs! being nominated for an Oscar a few years ago.  Turns out it won the Short Film (Animated) Oscar in 2002 and that the DVD was only 5 minutes and 27 seconds long.  It’s short, but boy does it pack a lot into those 5 and a half minutes. 

The CGI animation is fantastic; some of the best I have seen.  The story is cute as well.  A loser alien who works as a janitor at a popular bar called the Ale E Inn is mopping the floor while a female alien singing Aretha Franklin performs on stage.  One tipped mop bucket later, the poor little guy has nearly fried the singer.  He is fired and thrown out of the bar where a dying alien crawls up to warn him that the Chubbchubbs are coming.  When the little alien looks over the horizon, he notices a dust cloud with these armoured marauders quickly approaching.  The alien makes several attempts to warn the patrons of the bar, but they all turn out the same.  He ends up injuring the singer, stopping the show and getting tossed back out.  When someone else shows up and delivers the warning, the place clears out in an instant.  The little alien tries to leave too, but now he notices four little fluffy baby chicks.  He rushes back to save them and in the process is unable to leave before the marauders arrive.

The Chubbchubbs features a plethora of science fiction cameos in the animation.  The alien from Alien is sipping a drink, Yoda and Darth Vader are arm wrestling, Robbie the robot and the Lost In Space robot are dancing (what else) the robot.   Even ET and Jar Jar Binks manage to pop in for a quick gag.  The short was so good I had to call the wife back in to watch it.  She loved it as well.

The DVD is extremely bare bones.  Some trailers and the short and that’s it, but I’m still very happy with it.  The Chubbchubbs! gets a perfect 10 on the Night Flight scale.  If you don’t want to run out to Big Lots and pay $3 for a 5 minute DVD, I understand it is also available on the Surf’s Up DVD.

Tags: alien, aliens, animation, Aretha Franklin, Big Lots, cameos, CGI, Chubbchubbs, comedy, DVD, ET, Jar Jar Binks, Lost In Space, Night Flight, oscar winner, Robbie, robot, sci-fi