Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . is patterned after the classic Agatha Christie story (and corresponding films) sometimes titled AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (a.k.a., TEN LITTLE INDIANS, a.k.a., TEN LITTLE N-words). We see approximately ten members here of a local Ride Your Bike While Wearing a Monkey Mask Club setting off for a picnic. Naturally, the nerdy boy who follows all the rules has the biggest bicycle basket of the bunch. It should go without saying that all the other kids put their sack lunches into this nerd's rolling baggage bin. So as Nerd Boy rides super-cautiously toward the back of the pack, his friends commit various biking rule violations and consequently get T-Boned, steam-rolled, veered into, railroaded, man-holed, creamed, and Salad-Shootered one-by-one, until Mr. Pokey is the only one left. Though Master N's mom has no doubt prepared him a lunch of cucumber sandwiches, his chunky friends were all packing Baconators and Triple Cheeseburgers slathered in Mayo. As the title proclaims, Orville-the-Nerd eats ALL the lunches in homage to his fallen friends, gets fat (think the Blueberry Girl in Willie Wonka), and--EXPLODES!!
rab1-3
...and we're the luckier for it.First of all, though, I can't help wondering how the state of Georgia could have thought this was a good idea (a Department of Education logo is proudly displayed at the beginning)."One Got Fat" is definitely not for everybody. The short can be viewed on so many different levels, ranging from absurdist to alarmist (and all points in between). This thing is a bipolar surrealist's fantasy/dream/nightmare. The monkey face-masks alone, capable of expressing everything from laughter to stark, naked horror are about as cool as anything I've seen in a very long time. The "wipe-outs" are all horrifically comical. That said, I can't help feeling that some well-intentioned people somehow detoured down a very dark, twisted ill-advised road. The happy-happy music, alongside Edward Everett Horton's always charming delivery, is in stark contrast to the harshest of realities.Or something like that.
durrant4145@rogers.com
ONE GOT FAT is a short film narrated by Edward Everett Horton - who portrayed Fred Astaire's sidekick in THE GAY Divorcée - and probably written by my favourite childhood author, Richard Scarry. It features a group of ten friends who go out one day to a park for a picnic. Each of the monkeys rides dangerously and gets knocked out of the picture one by one, breaking the law of the time (as a boy, I never had to register either of my bicycles). Only one of the ten friends makes it to the picnic site; the short is based on the childhood game "Ten Little Monkeys/Ten Little Indians." And he turns out not to be a monkey at all, but a normal human boy. Despite the low budget, the masks are astounding and the sound effects accurate. The bicycle safety tips are still accurate, except for one - the idea of licensing your bike. In none of the bicycle safety films I have seen as a child was this issue discussed, and it did not appear in either of the books I have read on the subject(perhaps because a bike was not considered to be a motor vehicle); this movie loses two points for being dated.
tavm
On a recommendation from Cartoon Brew, I saw this bizarre educational short about bicycle safety, with art direction by Disney artist Ralph Hulett, on Google. Narrated by Edward Everett Horton (best known to modern day viewers for his Fractured Fairly Tales voice-over), One Got Fat has most of the kids in monkey masks and tails suffering one bike accident after another (and not being able to tell the tale) to sound and visual cartoon effects. Only one kid who followed the rules of bike safety was human and he got to eat all his buddies lunches, hence the title...Horton provides amusing commentary especially when he keeps saying, "Right?...Right." Since I'm used to SNL sketches in which characters bleed and die, this short didn't scare me much but I can sympathize with anyone who had nightmares after seeing this in elementary grade school classes for years. Of course, maybe the bland music didn't help...
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