Other Titles • Animal House • National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) • Ich glaub' mich tritt ein Pferd (1979) • Im College sind die Affen los (1979)
Synopses for Animal House (1978)
1.
This is one of those movies that works for all the wrong reasons--disgusting, lowbrow, base humor that we are all far too sophisticated to find amusing. So, just don't tell anyone you still think it's a riot to watch John Belushi as the brutish Bluto slurp Jell-O or terrorize his less-aggressive fellow students. This crude parody of college life in the '60s spawned many imitations, but none could match the fresh-faced talent or bad taste of this huge box office success. (Remember all those toga parties in the '80s?) The first of the National Lampoon movies, this was originally released as National Lampoon's Animal House. Keep an eye out for a very young Kevin Bacon in his first credited screen appearance. --Rochelle O'Gorman
2.
ANIMAL HOUSE is the film that launched National Lampoon as a comedy powerhouse. Developed by the editors at the Harvard Lampoon, the film is a collection of true-life experiences and memories with a great deal of embellishment. Nothing is sacred in this film, in which every gesture, phrase, and song became de rigueur in fraternity houses nationwide after its release. Decadence, debauchery, and delinquency prevail at Delta House, the scourge of the fraternity system at Faber College in 1962. In an effort to rid himself of the troublesome brothers, Dean Wormer (John Vernon) hatches a plan in cahoots with the brown-nosing Greg Marmalard (James Daughton) of rival fraternity Omega to have the Deltas kicked off campus. Unfortunately for them, the determination and drive of the Deltas is more than anyone counted on. In their last stand against the uptight dean, the antiheroes of Delta drink, smoke, romp, frolic, and dance--going out with a bang. This outrageous, much-loved comedy classic features the first major film role of the late, great John Belushi as John "Bluto" Blutarsky, the hard-partying, beer-guzzling champion of Delta house.
3.
It was the Deltas against the rules... the rules lost!
This title has been put on moratorium by the Vendor. This version is no longer available, however a new special edition will be released in the futureOne of the most popular movie comedies of all time is also the film that made food fights an art form and John Belushi a star. This raunchy, screwball comedy offers a relentless spoof of 1960's college life by following the hilarious adventures of the Delta fraternity. There's nothing this motley collection of students won't do to get the best of Dean Wormer who secretly conspires to revoke Delta's charter. In addition to Belushi as the guitar bashing, beer can smashing, garbage eating Bluto Blutarsky, the outstanding cast includes head skirtchaser Tim Matheson, innocent Thomas Hulce and Stephen "Flounder" Furst, and Otis Day and the Knights with their show-stopping performance of "Shout."
Toga! Toga! Toga!
4.
One of the most popular movie comedies of all time is also the film that made food fights an art form and John Belushi a star. This raunchy, screwball comedy offers a relentless spoof of 1960's college life by following the hilarious adventures of the Delta fraternity. There's nothing this motley collection of students won't do to get the best of Dean Wormer who secretly conspires to revoke Delta's charter. In addition to Belushi as the guitar bashing, beer can smashing, garbage eating Bluto Blutarsky, the outstanding cast includes head skirtchaser Tim Matheson, innocent Thomas Hulce and Stephen "Flounder" Furst, and Otis Day and the Knights with their show-stopping performance of "Shout."
Toga! Toga! Toga!
5.
Faber College has one frat house so disreputable it will take anyone. It has a second one full of white, anglo-saxon, rich young men who are so sanctimonious no one can stand them except Dean Wormer. The dean enlists the help of the second frat to get the boys of Delta House off campus. This film gives high-jinks and fooling around a bad name. P The dean's plan comes into play just before the homecoming parade to end all parades for all time.
6.
In National Lampoon's first film, a parody of 1962 college life, it's campus hijinks galore as the rowdiest fraternity at Faber College battles rival fraternities and administrators, chases women, and throws toga parties. Chief animal John "Bluto" Butarsky (John Belushi) leads the fraternity in wacky hijinks and raunchy debauchery as they take on the establishment of the college. This extremely popular college comedy became an instant classic, quickly beoming one of the most oft-quoted films ever made.
7.
A groundbreaking screwball caper, 1978's National Lampoon's Animal House was in its own way a rite of passage for Hollywood. Set in 1962 at Faber College, it follows the riotous carryings-on of the Delta Fraternity, into which are initiated freshmen Tom Hulce and Stephen Furst. Among the established house members are Tim Matheson, Peter Riegert and the late John Belushi as Bluto, a belching, lecherous, Jack Daniels guzzling maniac. A debauched house of pranksters (culminating in the famous Deathmobile sequence), Delta stands as a fun alternative to the more strait-laced, crew-cut, unpleasantly repressive norm personified by Omega House. As cowriter the late Doug Kenney puts it, "better to be an animal than a vegetable".
Animal House is deliberately set in the pre-JFK assassination, pre-Vietnam era, something not made much of here, but which would have been implicitly understood by its American audience. The film was an enormous success, a rude, liberating catharsis for the latter-day frathousers who watched it. However, decades on, a lot of the humour seems broad, predictable, boorish, oafishly sexist and less witty than Airplane!, made two years later in the same anarchic spirit. Indeed, although it launched the Hollywood careers of several of its players and makers, including Kevin Bacon, director John Landis, Harold Ramis and Tom Hulce, who went on to do fine things, it might well have been inadvertently responsible for the infantilisation of much subsequent Hollywood comedy. Still, there's an undeniable energy that gusts throughout the film and Belushi, whether eating garbage or trying to reinvoke the spirit of America "After the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour" is a joy.
On the DVD:Animal House comes to disc in a good transfer, presented in 1.85:1. The main extra is a featurette in which director John Landis, writer Chris Miller and some of the actors talk about the making of the movie. Interestingly, 23 years on, most of those interviewed look better than they did back in 1978, especially Stephen "Flounder" Furst. --David Stubbs
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