Thumbtanic

Steve Oedekerk, the man behind the two `Ace Ventura' movies, `Patch Adams', and `Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius', is pleased to present a Cliff Notes version of `Titanic'...all acted by thumbs. It's actually called `Thumbtanic' and it's pretty bizzarre....and humorous. After finding a pictures of a naked woman at the bottom of the ocean (and not wearing any clothes too), the local news station interviews a very old woman by the name of Germanium, who remembers the ill-fated voyage of `Thumbtanic', which was a ship that was very big but poorly steered. Once onboard, Germanium falls in love with Jack. I'll stop right here, I don't want to go any further, except by commenting my thought and opinions of it. I thought this was actually a very clever sendoff of one of the most beloved films of all time, with a lot of jokes made not only about tee movie, but made a lot of other references (mostly sexual). There is one scene however that cracks me up in the movie, and that is when he...uh, I forgot what I was going to say. Oh, except the movie's done in flashback sequence in 1912 when old people were really young, and not very tired as old people are now. What didn't work, though, was that annoying song `My Heart Is A Thumb'. Celine Dion impersonator: not impressed, although many of the great human impersonators who have a hairball stuck in their throats are better. Hey, this is why we love Weird Al Yankovic so much. Not an outstanding comic masterpiece, but funny, funny, funny. We have `The

Naked Gun', `Airplane!', and `The Blues Brothers' among us as the real comedy classics.

Rated: NR Released by: O Entertainment ©1999 Running Time: 27 minutes Rating: **1/2 out of **** (C+)

This is a brilliantly stupid movie. I mean this as a complement---really! After all, a really "dumb" film can't really be dumb if it makes you laugh so hard! This is one of several 30 minute thumb parodies created by Steve Oedekerk. The best of these, in my opinion, is Thumb Wars, but Thumbtanic is just about its equal for silliness and fun. Yes, it TRUE that the movie's actors are thumbs with computer-generated faces on them and YES I still think it's good! Try watching it and see--you just can't help laughing and isn't that why we watch comedies anyway--to laugh?! Particularly funny was the guy on deck trying to make a buck selling babies and then later by selling sex changes! Just watch it and see for yourself. BUT, only do so if you are the type person who can laugh at 100% unsophisticated but funny films.

The Thumb idea isn't such a winner the second time round. ThumbTanic wasn't as good as Thumb Wars for a number of reasons. Primarily, I think, Mr Oedekerk had far less to work with in the Titanic send-up. Unlike Star Wars, the movie Titanic hasn't (yet?) become a cultural myth and there are far fewer references to be made which will resonate with the audience.

In ThumbTanic, the holes are filled by one-off jokes which don't really seem related to anything. For example, the hero's insinuation that the heroine isn't clean during the "jump off end of ship" scene - it's not funny. Rather, you just think to yourself, "Did I miss something in the original movie?". There were too many of these type of baseless jokes (cf. arachnid).

By contrast, the send-up of the smarmy ship's designer had meaning and was funny. Also very funny was the send up of the bloke in the movie who wanted to go "faster" as a maniac running around demanding *everything* be "faster" including the sinking of the ship and himself being the first to die. These sort of jokes meant something in the Titanic context and lent meaningful humour to Thumbtanic.

The thumb "media", the faces and the voices, are still amusing. The props and sets and the CG animation are worthy of appreciation. Overall, although ThumbTanic proves that quirkiness alone won't work, this filmette still keeps you amused and chuckling to the end.

Steve Oedekerk returns with yet another 'Thumb' movie. This one works much better than his THUMB WARS did, because there is a story and he can actually spoof stuff. The whole thing works perfectly because he follows the plot of TITANIC exactly but makes stupid stuff happen along the way. If you liked TITANIC, then this short is for you. Don't see it unless you have seen the actual movie. If you see this movie on the "Double Thumb Feature" then you get to see a preview for Oedekerk's latest 'Thumb' film called THE BLAIR THUMB. There is also a funny segment with a family in a movie theater.

THUMBTANIC: 4/5.

It just goes to show you what a little money, a lot of imagination and a lot of friends can do. My compliments to the creators of this little gem. Brought tears of laughter to my eyes; one of the funniest films I've seen in a long time. Definitely worth taking the 30 odd minutes to watch for a laugh.

If I were Ebert and Roper I'd give it two thumbs up!