The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle

The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle

The initial TV show of “Rocky & Bullwinkle” was smarter than it needed to be and many grown-ups took a peek from time to time. It helped pave the way for such latter-day crossover animated sitcoms as “The Simpsons.” And now comes the movie version of the TV show (which was canceled in 1964), and it has the same mix of dumb puns, corny sight gags and sly, even sophisticated in jokes. It’s a lot of fun.

The film mixes the animated moose and squirrel with live action and even yanks three of the characters (Natasha, Boris and Fearless Leader) out of the TV set and into the real world (where they’re played by Rene Russo, Jason Alexander and Robert De Niro respectively, and explain “we’re attached to the project”).

“Expensive animation characters are converted to even more expensive movie stars!” portentously explains the breathless Narrator. The Narrator always seemed to stand outside the action anyway, knowing that “Rocky & Bullwinkle” was only a cartoon. In this version, he (Keith Scott) at one point complains he has been reduced to narrating the events of his own life. And so is this movie; when someone (I think maybe Fearless Leader) breathlessly announces that “There has never been a way to destroy a cartoon character until now!,” he is asked, “What about ‘Roger Rabbit’?”

Fearless Leader plots world domination through hypnotizing everyone with RBTV (really bad TV). Only Rocky and Bullwinkle have long years of experience at foiling his evil schemes with Natasha and Boris’, so as they fumble toward each other we also get a coast to coast road movie (cheerfully acknowledged as a cliche by you know who).

There are lots of funny moments in this movie; I could destroy them by quoting, but won’t. (Oh, all right: At one point Rocky cries, “We have to get out of here!,” and Bullwinkle bellows: “Quick! Cut to a commercial!”) As much fun as the wit is the film’s overall sense of well-being; this is a happy movie, not the desperate sort of scratching for laughs we got in a cartoon retread like “The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas.” It’s that kind of movie.

De Niro parodies his famous “Are you talking to me?” speech with such good-natured fun that instead of groaning, we reflect well, everyone else has ripped it off, so why shouldn’t he get his own turn? The movie is wall to wall with familiar faces (including Janeane Garofalo as a studio exec, Randy Quaid as the FBI chief, Whoopi Goldberg as a judge and John Goodman as a cop), Russo makes a persuasive Natasha (all red lipstick and power high heels) and De Niro’s patent leather hair and little round glasses will remind movie buffs of Donald Pleasance.

But the real discovery in this movie is its (human) lead actress, 23-year old newcomer Piper Perabo. She has fine comic timing and is so fetching she sort of stops the clock.

The comedy is so delicate. Not any smarter, wittier or more imaginative than the other good for nothing revamps of old cartoons and sitcoms. But it’s more fun. I often think of George C. Scott’s Rule No. 3 for judging movie acting: “Is there a joy of performance? Can you tell that the actors are having fun?” This time, you can. There is a word for this movie, and that word is jolly.

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