SUPER 8 FILM REVIEW

CHUBBCHUBBS £25.99 1x200ft Available from Classic Home Cinema

Far away in the galaxy (probably) a long, long time ago, on a fairly dEsolate planet, an alien ale house rocks to the sound of a swinging band and a Tina Turner styled singer. This cantina is full of extraterrestrial riff-raff from a dozen different systems (possibly conventions). A giant robot looking suspiciously like Gort from 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' swigs a can of delicious oil, one of Ridley Scott's 'Aliens' drinks through a straw and Darth Vader sits at the bar arm-wrestling with Yoda while variants on Robbie the Robot whoop it up on the dance floor.

One little Alien creature who fancies himself in the karaoke stakes repeatedly attempts to join the female singer in song but just as repeatedly is ejected from the bar as every time he tries to join in something disastrous happens to the female singing, like being electrocuted, or worse. Thrown outside after the electrocution number, the little creature meets Jar Jar Binks (Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace) who warns that "the ChubbChubbs are coming!".

On the horizon there is an atomic dust cloud out of which appears an advancing army. The creature rushes to the bar to warn of the coming holocaust but in doing so flattens the female singer behind the door and is immediately ejected once more. He lands next to some furry little chick type creatues and hides them from the approaching army in a handy wooden bucket (it happens in films, doesn't it?). As the ugly great brutes he believes to be the ChubbChubbs tower above him he falls over the bucket and reveals the 'chicks'. In fact, these chicks are really the ChubbChubbs with fearsome teeth who destroy the army and install our creature as the resident singer in the bar: They provide musical backing and the various terrified alien life provide the applause the little creature has always desired.

Well done Phil Sheard for obtaining such an entertaining fun-filled short which I understand originally went around with Stuart Little 2. The print (masked for Widescreen) is on acetate stock, though very slightly grainy, is of otherwise excellent quality with extremely good colour. The laminated stripe sound on our review copy was the best we had heard for some time. All in all the force seems to have been with this release. I wish it had been here in time for the 44th BFCC where it would have been a sure-fire hit. Highly recommended.

Print A- Sound A Keith Wilton