KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

ghosthardware I only just now ran across this film on IMDb because for years, I couldn't remember its title. I first saw it when I was around the age of 10 in the mid eighties. I picked it up at the video rental store thinking it was a kids animated movie. I didn't get the dark humor and adult themes but the melancholy certainly came through loud and clear. I would feel depressed after watching it. And yet I loved it at the same time. I was (and am) a weird kid :) The film obviously suffered from a mismatched marketing campaign. Had it received the "independant animated feature" -type of advertising and presented as a mature satire, maybe reactions would have been a little different. But it's difficult to say, since the Broadway musical it was based on didn't fare very well either. I have yet to go back and watch it as an adult but will definitely do that next chance I get. For a long time, I was very confused by this film. It's definitely a mixed bag. There are some dark themes and yet the animation style is rather juvenile and visually similar to that of Hanna-Barbera.I think most people would feel confused by this film. It seems as though it's trying to be several different things and none of these themes seem to blend together too well. IMO, it seems much less random when one considers its background. According to Wikipedia, the characters of Mehitabel and Archy originate from a series of newspaper columns written by Don Marquis in the 1910's and 1920's for the New York Evening Sun. They served as fictional social commentary.Later, a musical was written and recorded in the 1950's and sold as part of a Columbia Masterworks series. A few years after the album release, the material was used as the basis for a short-running Broadway musical titled Shinbone Alley, one of whose collaborators on the project was Mel Brooks (which explains some of the randomness for me). The musical was then adapted into an animated film in 1971.I remember at the time realizing there was more to this film than I could fully understand. The weight of the material was palpable for me but went over my head as a 10 year old. But one thing that was very clear to me was that this wasn't an animated feature aimed at children. Looking back, I appreciate what this film was attempting to do. I had never watched an animated film that was so serious in subject matter. It was a little shocking to me at the time but gave me a very early view of what animation could be. I recommend this film based mostly on its uniqueness. It is certainly a flawed film and somewhat odd but that seems to add to its quirky allure.

FCWilson14 Shinbone Alley is not like every other animated film. It brings a unique approach to animation. It is almost like viewing an animated jazz opera in some respects. The characters are well defined and quite good, and some of the backgrounds are almost works of art on the New York scene. It is true that some very small children might not understand it, but a vast majority of people who view the film will find aspects of it that they will love; like the George Herriman sequence when archy declares war on humans. Carol Channing is wonderful as mehitabel, especially when she sings Shakespeare. Eddie Bracken is great as archy. This is the type of film that can be viewed again and again, and you find something new and interesting each time you see it. It was definitely a style setter in 2D animation, and should be applauded for its unconventional approach. Throughout the years, there have been a handful of animated films that could truly be called one-off, style setting, animation treasures -- Fantasia, Yellow Submarine, Toy Story, for example. I feel that Shinbone Alley easily fits into this select group of animated films.

Robert Armstrong A story I heard, that filmmakers once considered doing an animated version of the musical Cats, has just reminded me of that disappointing 1971 cartoon of Shinbone Alley, based on the Joe Darion/George Kleinsinger stage musical. Eddie Bracken and Carol Channing recreate their roles from the still-earlier "concept album" archy and mehitabel. Where these two had been cute and intimate, and, above all, musical, cockroach and cat were now rasping, whining and screeching -- characteristics that could have worked fine for those particular actors, but in sufficiently small quantities.One of the most disappointing characters was Bill, the big blackhearted tomcat originally sung by Percival Dove (best known for the singing voice of Brock Peters as Crown in Porgy and Bess). The prospect of an apparently offensive ethnic stereotype inspired filmmakers, as far as I can observe, to eliminate black performers from the piece altogether -- the part is done by Alan Reed, aka Fred Flintstone!Yes I know: Carol is "black" now.Aside from singing cats, it parallelled the Lloyd-Webber musical Cats in the deployment of a flying manhole cover, during the song Flotsam and Jetsam: "Only Mehitabel could get that high on a 'lid'" is the tag (penned by Mel Brooks, incidentally).Compared to George Pal's classic 1946 treatment of an earlier Kleinsinger work, Tubby the Tuba, the limited animation here was flat and ugly. Adult content of story is not of interest to children I suppose (although probably not harmful either), so the problems of marketing this picture probably helped bury it. I'll say this though: it just may be better than Fritz the Cat!

devans7331 The animation is certainly different. Early- and pre-cinema enthusiasts will recognise some of the psychedelic effects as magic lantern chromotropes, and there are shades of Georges Melies in some of the sequences. Carol Channing is brilliant as Mehitabel! Good jazz-like sound track.