It's a new medium with old material, as Cheech and Chong's greatest hits get animated, or reanimated, perhaps. In the fashion of Still Smokin, Animated Movie plays out in a series of vignettes, with the time-tested comedy skits that originally put them on the map.
The bits are so similar to the original recordings; it was hard to tell if the duo had even spent much time in the studio. Classics like "Dave", "Let's Make a Dope Deal", "Sister Mary Elephant", "Sgt. Stadanko", "Pedro and Man at the Drive-Inn" and "Trippin' in Court" all get a visual treatment. But the biggest pay-off was the final bit, an animation to accompany the metal/funk comedic classic, "Earache My Eye". The boy's also bring some new tunes along for the ride, including the "Cheech & Chong Anthem (WEed Are The World)".
We're also introduced to Buster the body crab; a pot-loving pubic louse that ties each bit together with his disastrous mishaps in the pursuit of mary jane (some of Buster's shining moments take place in parodies of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Slim Pickens riding a nuke in Dr. Strangelove). But other than that, nothing new is brought to the rolling table.
One would think that Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong's brand would mature after a four- decade career, but Cheech and Chong's Animated Movie resorts to nothing shy of crude toilet humor, and yes, lot's of inhaling, Waylon.
Yet not all blame can go towards the stand-up comedy duo, as the film's directors, Eric and Branden Chambers, elaborate on the toilet humor, with all the over-the-top fecal, urine and body-hair visual absurdities they could fit into an eighty-minute animated feature film. They are also credited for writing the additional material.
Overall, Cheech and Chong's Animated Movie still hits the mark, for fans who have heard the same routines a thousand times, or for newcomers looking for dope and fart jokes from before the Kevin Smith generation.
Either way, Cheech and Chong are still smokin. 8/10
