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Monday, January 25, 2016

Short Subject: How to Be Smart (2001)



What the hell happened to the narrator in this one?



Sure the narrators have been different before in these how to shorts, but that was used for the theme of the short like the football announcer and the detective short this is just grating. Seriously it sounds like the guy is on helium and I find it really annoying.  And why would you change the narrator at all?  If there was ever a time for the deadpan flat tone of the traditional narrator you’d think this would be it, considering he has that lecturing professor vibe.  

Also the short overall is boring.  I laughed at three things: mini Von Drake running over Goofy in elementary school, Von Drake insulting Goofy with sentence structure in junior high, and the A Farewell to Arms gag that’s it.  Everything else is just meh.  The math gag does nothing but bring back my own bad memories of school days suffering through that subject.  The transitions are just words on loose leaf notebook paper and the Heavens to Betsy gag I found too overplayed.  Sure the catchphrase needs to be said so Goofy saying it at the end doesn’t come from nothing, but if they had had him say a few less times I think it might have been a bit more subtle. 

For me this short is just dull and one to avoid from now on.  

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