The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000) Reviews

• Sincere effort sincerely fails

  MartianOctocretr52006-07-19

  First of all, it should be noted that the film makers here had respect and affection for the source material, and it shows. Rather than just enticing audiences with known characters and titles, then assaulting you with a worthless script (as happens all too often in TV show "adaptations"), this movie pays due homage to the irreverent satire that was the original Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon, by staying close to its theme. Much of the original schtick is here: the frantic narrator, the inside jokes, the brutal political satire, the cluelessness of "our heroes," and of course, the wonderfully awful puns. The oaf super spies from Potsalvania, Boris and Natasha are here, as is their "Fearless Leader." On top of that, several celebs drop by for some clever cameos, in a "Muppet Movie" style way. There are some good one-liners, and everybody seems to be having fun doing the movie. But it just doesn't click. Jokes seem to be presented in an "in your face" manner, slapstick routines are overdone, and end up just looking like pale impressions of the original. The story and script seem contrived just to set up situations for the "comedy." The animation of Rocky, and even more so of Bullwinkle, look awkward, almost eerie. I almost felt like asking Moose and Squirrel: "Wassamatta U?" Sincere but misguided. Gets lost somewhere between Pottsalvania and Frostbite Falls, and just isn't worth the time to find it again. Rent compilations of the original cartoon series instead.

• Where were the Oscar Nominations???? That's what I'd like to know

  harrietta_moonriver2005-02-08

  Rocky and Bullwinkle. That a film could be that good...its the stuff myths are formed from. It's as though God were executive producer. When I was forced, back in my innocence, to watch this with my brother, I shook my fist in an angry fist and said "WhyIOughta..." but my complaints were silenced when the majesty of this beautiful motion picture washed over me, and rendered me speechless. The fact that I feel asleep is not a condemnation- oh no! I was simply captivated and put under its simple, facrical, ridiculous, but oh so charming spell. humour! So wonderfully silly! It's acting? Clearly deliberately poor, to reflect the nature of the acting of comic films of that generation! Costumes, scenery, breathtaking! The Academy failed the film going world by not presenting Rocky And Bullwinkle (or, as I have dubbed it, The Most Wonderful and Beautiful and Spiritually Magnificent film, Ever, in the history of the world, Ever" the MWABASMFEITHOTWE for short) the accolades it deserved. This will always be a best picture winner, in my heart.

• A pathetic shell

  sngbrd392000-08-17

  I saw this one with a couple of my friends. They walked out of the theater totally hating the movie and me for suggesting it. I couldn't have hated it as much as they did, but it was really disappointing. The characters were left as shells of their former selves. The movie seemed to suck out the heart and soul that was put into the TV show to make the movie nothing but a series of pathetically bad jokes. Granted, it was really funny to see a live action Boris, Natasha, and Fearless Leader. Jason Alexander, Rene Russo, and Robert DeNiro were the only reason I didn't pull my hair out in sadness and disappointment at seeing some of my favorite TV characters in a piece-of-junk movie.

• It's the same old bull.

  vip_ebriega2007-10-12

  My Take: Yet another lame attempt to put animation into flesh-and-blood reality. "This is not a cartoon, this is the real world!", claims rookie FBI agent Karen Sympathy, played by Piper Perabo, and I wish I can say the same thing about THE ADVENTURES OF ROCKY AND BULWINKLE. It has a big budget, which it spends on fancy cartoonish sets and other bizarre gimmicks, for what? To make it look like a cartoon! This results into a lot of things that we could prefer seeing in a Saturday morning cartoon. But as a movie, it's pretty hard to see why this was such a favorite cartoon during the early '60's. This is one of the most ineffective and unfunny movies I've seen in a while. And if your not convinced, lets move to to the casting. Lets see, Robert De Niro as Fearless Leader and Jason Alexander and Rene Russo as his bumbling minions. Okay, now your convinced. The film uses the technique of putting animated characters in real-live settings and real actors. This was done many times since films in the 80's like WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT and, recently SPACE JAM. And like SPACE JAM, although not quite as bad, ROCKY AND BULWINKLE enjoys too much with the playfulness of its cartoon characters that they forget that they're making a feature film here. So, it has not much to tell and can't even afford to make jokes that really work. The film is basically a cartoon on a live action movie (which is made just as cartoonish as the animated world). Animated evil mastermind Fearless Leader (De Niro) and his henchmen have crossed the boundaries of an animated world and arrive in our 4-dimensional world and start a TV company called RBTV, meaning "Really Bad Television" (how prophetic), and turn people to mindless drones with their horrible cable shows. The FBI sends a rookie agent (Perabo) to protect still-animated Rocky and Bulwinkle from being zapped, allowing the megalomaniac from ruling the world. And as the story goes, the laughs and silliness get even worse. The film hardly made me laugh, and no head-hitting, car-crashing and any other mishap to change my mind about that. They should know they're making a motion picture here, not a an episode of Bugs and Daffy (which, at least, is better than this). Despite its budget, director Des McAnuff instead spends it on silly cartoonish gimmicks that, joined in with the corny laughs (if you'd call it laughs) and embarrassed leads, it can all be summed up in a 30 minute animated feature for TV, not an 88 minute film. Still, I did find one thing that was quite bearable in this walking disaster waiting to happen, and that is the entertaining cameos. How many movies can you see well-known (and then well-known) talents like Whoppi Goldberg, John Goodman, Kenan (Thompson) and Kel (Mitchell) and Billy Crystal just to name a few. Their cameos thankfully lightens up my high criticism for the film, but that doesn't stop me from giving it a big thumbs down. Still, I won't discourage you from letting the kids see it, for it's mainly made for them and they might be the only ones who'll enjoy it. Rating: * out of 5.

• Jon Monsarrat review: sub-intellectual, just for kids, and bad

  johnnymonsarrat2002-08-03

  Having enjoyed the original cartoon series, I went into this film with a good attitude. I enjoyed "Airplane!" and am hardly one of those film school arty types who can't take a joke. If Rocky & Bullwinkle had been campy, dumb, but fun, I think I would have enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the only good thing I can say is that I was hoping to hear a lot of bad puns, and I did. But there the similarity ended. Taking Rocky & Bullwinkle out of its cartoon format into a 3D realm didn't work for me. The plot stuttered and didn't make any sense. Even starting from the attitude that this is a cartoon, so things will be wacky and nonsensical, it still didn't make any sense. Worst of all were the syrupy and melodramatic interactions with Karen Sympathy, the FBI agent. The emotions and decisions of the characters didn't make sense. Finally, there's something about comedy that involves timing. I don't know what it is. But the build-ups and physical pranks didn't work for me. Something was really askew in the presentation. Who should see this film: -- nobody, even kids, and especially if you've seen the original series, it will just make you sad I'm forced to give The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle a 3 out of 10.