Father Geek here with a super classified report from that ace cold war spy Boris, he's hot on the heels of ROCKY & BULLWINKLE and he's prepared to spill the beans on their 1st feature length motion picture, and it's live action, but that didn't scare off Boris. He got his report thru to Father Geek and here it is for you all to study...
I've been checking out your site for the past couple of months and I'm hooked. I never wrote in before because I never had anything to say. But yesterday I got invited to a screening of Rocky & Bullwinkle (test screening I think cuz we had to fill out cards). Anyway, I was excited cuz I loved all that Jay Ward animated stuff and the movie did not disappoint. The screening was today so after I got back I decided to write you about it. Below is my "review" if you want to post. Keep up the good work but watch out for that Mountain Dew -- more caffeine than Coke!
Just came from a screening of the movie Rocky & Bullwinkle. It stars Robert DeNiro as Fearless Leader, Rene Russo as Natasha, Jason Alexander as Boris (That's me)--and of course, Moose & Squirrel. There are also cameos by Whoopie Goldberg as a judge, John Goodman plays a cop (who doesn't think he looks at all like John Goodman) and I think I saw Billy Crystal in a funny gag as a mattress salesman on the street.
I guess I should start by saying that I'm a huge Jay Ward fan having grown up watching episodes of R&B, Dudley Do Right and Sherman & Peabody on Saturday morning TV over a bowl of Capt Crunch. I'm happy to report that this film totally lived up. It was the kind of silly but smart fun you would expect it to be--including the pithy narration. (Not like that AWFUL Brendan Fraser/Dudley Do Right movie last year). Whoever made this one finally got it right. It's a great mix of live action and state-of-the-art animation and has that same sense of humor that I loved in the TV series. Even DeNiro pokes fun at himself with a line that he has become famous for ("You talking to ME?"). Rocky and Bullwinkle are the same only better -- Bullwinkle's antlers now pick up hip-hop radio signals. They are drawn the same only more 3-D and have more realistic movement. Their voices are exactly as I remember them. Could those voice-over people still be alive? I have to be honest, when I had heard that Rene Russo was playing Natasha I really didn't get it. But I have to say that she gives you dead-on Natasha -- sexy, husky Russian voice, deadpan face and that Natasha shuffle. DeNiro is good too. Jason Alexander is okay too but his talent is wasted in this movie. The Boris character doesn't get much to do.
The movie starts off with an animated update of what happened to all the characters after the show got cancelled. The plot is basically this -- Fearless Leader, Boris and Natasha find their way to Hollywood and are brought out of syndication (and literally out of the TV) by a movie exec named Mini Mogul (an Austin Powers/Mini Me parody) who signs a deal with them to make a Rocky & Bullwinkle movie. Once they are in the real world they are quickly up to no good and decide to start a cable company (RBTV- Really Bad TV) to hypnotize the world with their own subliminal message. Fearless runs for President and uses the cable station to subliminally convince the country to vote for him. Government agent Karen Sympathy goes in search of Rocky & Bullwinkle who have been away for 35 years. Unless Rocky & Bullwinkle can stop Boris and Natasha and shut down the cable company, Fearless will take over.
Yes, the plot is derivative and there are a few holes along the way, but you don't really care. It's simple and clean enough for kids but peppered with more sophisticated references for adults and sight gags for everybody. The film pokes fun at everything - Hollywood, spy movies, government, trash TV, and yes Harry, even the internet. At one point, Bullwinkle realizes he has no time to get from The White House to New York City to stop Fearless from making a speech on TV. He turns to the camera while leaning against a computer and says something like "Hmm, if only there were a way to transmit a high tech computer generated moose across a great distance in the blink of an eye."
It's so dumb, it's smart.
Jay Ward would be proud.
Boris
