by Chris Learned Kane, Reporter

I remember the first time I ever heard Cheech and Chong.  I was seated in the greatest tree house ever constructed by mortal man.  It was great because my friend (whose father build the treehouse) had strung a long orange extension cord from his second story bedroom window, into the tree house through a knot hole in the wall.  And into the extension cord he had plugged his portable turntable, on which we would play our coolest records:  the Disney Read along versions of The Black Hole and Tron, a Kiss album or two and a badly scratched Cheech and Chong record that had belonged to his older brother.  We didn’t understand a vast majority of what they were talking about, but laughed like loons at the stupidity of “Dave’s Not Here,” and drove our mothers and fathers nuts with incessantly thundering, “Dave’s not here!” for no appropriate reason.

At some point I figured out Cheech and Chong were stoners, their act heavily laced (nung!) with drug references, but I never  got around to seeing  Up In Smoke or heard any of their other albums as their popularity had all but vanished when I hit my teens.  It wasn’t until later when I became a fan of another stoner duo (Jay and Silent Bob) that I wondered how much Cheech and Chong influenced them.  But one thing or another came up, and I never got round to exploring the fore(20)bears of Jay and Silent Bob. And so it was with curiosity that I sat down to watch Cheech and Chong’s Animated Movie. 

Essentially Cheech and Chong’s Animated Movie is an animated (duh, man!) interpretation of the emerald duo’s 1981 Greatest Hits Album.  Each vignette is loosely connected through the misadventures of a cannabis craving crotch louse that Chong picks up in the film’s opening sequence.   Among the animated offerings are “Dave’s Not Here,” “Sister Mary Elephant,”  “Sgt. Stadanko” “Let’s Make a Dope Deal” “Trippin’ in Court” and “Pedro and Man at the Drive-In.”  Much of the humor (as well as the lingo, man) is dated and somewhat stale.  There are, however, some gems in the bunch that display how sharp Cheech and Chong could be. Consider “Empire Hancock,” “Let’s Make a Dope Deal” and “Unamerican Bandstand” as sly lampoons of American preoccupations and social convention. 

As far as any kind of apparent influence or similarities between Cheech and Chong and Jay and Silent Bob, well, there are some very superficial resemblances: their central preoccupations and their good natured vulgarity mark them as related, but each are very much their own unique entity.

Animation and Sound

Far out, man!  The animation and artistic concepts are top notch, and the Dolby DTS sound is crisp, warm, and fat (high, mid, low).  Good shit, man!

Special Features:  Cheech and Chong give you more bhang for your buck!

• Joint (HA!)  commentary by Cheech Martin and Tommy Chong
• Commentary by Chambers Brothers and Lou Adler
• Commentary by Tommy Chong and Paris Chong
• 420 listening mode
• “Medical Marijuana Blues” session w/Blind Melon Chitlin’
• Cheech and Chong Slideshow

Overall:  If you’re a fan of Cheech and Chong this is a must have for your collection.  If you’re a fan of watching flicks through what Kev Smith calls the green prism: I’m sure you’ll find a fat sack of laughs! Good fun, good animation, and some good laughs despite the mildly dated material!

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives Cheech and Chong’s Animated Movie 3 lids outta 5, man!

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