Awesome movie. Holds a special place in my heart because:
It was the first R-rated film my parents let me see.
2)I might actually be in it; I participated in the mass hysteria parade scene at the end, but have never gone through the whole thing frame by frame to see if I could spot my 10 year old self.
3)After the movie was made, the producers reneged on their promise to fix the frat house back up, so it sat abandoned near the University of Oregon campus for several years until finally being torn down. I attended many hella cool, totally illegal punk rock shows in the basement during my teen years.
Say what you will, but AH was a damn funny flick. What I remember, there was a huge surge of Toga parties and other stuff, after the movie came out.
“Son, fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life” -Dean Vernon Wormer/Faber College (“Knowledge is Good”)
The movie was great. It’s humor isn’t entirely dated, just the sex aspect. Who *isn’t *banging the president’s wife, now? You get the point.
It was great, and deserves its place in folklore.
OK, OK, so Animal House is totally overrated, but just think back to when you guys were freshmen. Boone, you had a face like a pepperoni pizza and even I was so obnoxious that the seniors used to beat me up once a week.
So, Animal House is overrated? Well, let me tell you about another movie that is overrated…
Sorry, I just couldn’t let this thread sink with this post not being recognized. I think this may actually be the best answer to the original question.
When I started University in 1982, there was a Freshers’ week movie. Yes, the Students Union had a showing of Animal House for a bunch of mostly 18 year olds away from home for the first time, embarking on their University careers.
By the start of the next term I lost my virginity at a Toga Party.
Overrated? Difficult to say. Influential? Definitely.
I saw the movie during its original run. And before I saw the movie, I read the novelization. This was a graphic-novel sized paperback, illustrated with stills from the book. Some of the scenes – Pinto & Clarice at the toga party, the road trip to the woman’s college… – were illustrated comic-book style. It stuck quite close to the movie, fleshing some things out (Pinto was named Pinto because his penis was spotted like a pinto-pony), and I loved this book and I read and reread it many times. I was going through a serious National Lampon peiod anyway.
Anyway, I’ve seen the movie many times since, but the book got disappeared somewhere through the years. Recently, I checked Amazon and discovered that the the novelization had been re-released for the 30 year anniversary or something), so I bought it.
It’s still as funny as I remembered. Most of my favorites from National Lampoon (I have several other books with reprints of old National Lampoon articles) have held up well, I think. Like I said, funny is funny.
This thread inspired me to go out and get a used copy of AH (only $6!). In the scene we’re remembering, Gregg is introducing the future Pinto and Flounder to the pre-rejected gang. He obviously doesn’t care what any of their names are; he introduces the guy as** Jugdish**, and a moment later calls him Jugless.
I also dug out my original copy of the book/novelization. There are some great illustrations and photos that aren’t in the movie.
Comparing AH and Porky’s. Both had relatively unknown casts (except Belushi). But the cast of Porky’s has pretty much dropped off the face of the Earth (except Catrall). The cast of Animal House got work for years even if it was just character parts.
“They took everything, even the stuff we didn’t steal.”
I consider Animal House to still be funny, but suffers from a weak third act. All of the truly funny stuff comes in the character and college environment establishment. Once it passes the student court trial and gets into the implementation of the final revenge against the administration, I start losing the laughs.
