Animal Antics (RiffTrax Shorts)

RiffTrax Year:  2015

Riffers:  Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett

This newsreel short from way back in yesteryear comes from a series called "Our World in Review" ("In case you missed it all the first time."), of which I have limited information on.  Based on what's featured here, it looks like footage used and edited/dubbed over for amusement purposes, likely for kids.  This particular one is rabbit focused, as it shows off rabbits hopping around and interacting with other cute animals (not predatory animals, because that would be decidedly not fun) and a narrator dubs little conversations between the critters.

It's cute, mostly because the animals are cute.  It gets tiring after a few minutes, but it's only eight minutes long and I can put up with that.  The sense of humor is a bunch of big talk, wise-guy humor from the 30's, but we're here to see the animals playing around and that's what you get.  Animal Antics delivers on its title, though it's a bit more rabbit-focused than the more broad title of "animal" would imply.  Should I feel ripped off?  I don't know.  All I know is that they made that chicken move its mouth like it's talking, and I feel very concerned about what they did to it to make it do that.

"This is like Watership Down meets Jersey Shore."

This is a rather lightweight short that is difficult to make unamusing, so I'd consider this a T-ball round.  Mike, Kevin, and Bill get to the plate and bunt their best base hit with it.  I'd hesitate to call any of it hilarious, but there are some really funny barbs flung around.  They jab at the edited quicktalk of the narrator, wondering aloud "Do you think the narrator takes one huge breath at the beginning?"  They comment on the cows in the barn begging the rabbits for help:  "Help us escape from this freaky nipple torture dungeon!"  And then there is a look at the rabbits themselves, which mixed with the humorous narration, rubs Bill the wrong way.  "I had no idea rabbits were unlikable, sexist dickbags."  And now we know.

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