National Lampoon’s Animal House

• Cat.no: PLFEB 36921
• Cert: 15
• Running time: 104 minutes
• Sides: 2 (CLV)
• Year: 1979
• Pressing: 1998
• Chapters: 42 (24/17+1)
• Sound: Mono
• Presented in Fullscreen
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : Trailer for “The Blues Brothers”

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Director:

John Landis

(An American Werewolf In London, Beverly Hills Cop 3, Blues Brothers, Blues Brothers 2000, Innocent Blood, Spies Like Us, The Stupids, Trading Places)

Producers:

Screenplay:

Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller

Music:

Cast:

John Blutarsky: John Belushi (1941, Blues Brothers, Goin’ South, Neighbors, The Rutles – All You Need is Cash)
Eric Stratton: Tim Matheson (Black Sheep, Drop Dead Fred, Stephen King’s Sometimes They Come Back, A Very Brady Sequel)
Dean Vernon Wormer: John Vernon (Airplane 2, Dirty Harry, Herbie Goes Bananas, The Outlaw Josey Wales)
Marion Wormer: Verna Bloom (After Hours, High Plains Drifter)
Larry Kroger: Thomas Hulce (Amadeus, Parenthood, Black Rainbow, Fearless, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein)
Dave Jennings: Donald Sutherland (6 Degress of Separation, Backdraft, Catholic Boys, Disclosure, Don’t Look Now, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), JFK, Klute, Lock Up, M*A*S*H, Outbreak, Shadow Conspiracy, A Time To Kill)
Kent Dorfman: Stephen Furst (“St. Elsewhere” (TV), “Babylon 5” (TV))
Chip Diller: Kevin Bacon (Tremors, The River Wild, Apollo 13, Diner, A Few Good Men, Footloose, Friday The 13th, JFK, Murder in the First, She’s Having a Baby, Sleepers)
Doug Neidermeyer: Mark Metcalf
Stork: Douglas Kenney
Hardbar: Chris Miller
Katy: Karen Allen (Radiers of the Lost Ark, King of the Hill, The Sandlot Kids, Voyage)
David Schoenstein: Peter Riegert (Coldblooded, Gypsy, Local Hero, The Mask)

National Lampoon’s Animal Houseis an outrageous, screwball comedy set atFaber College, a small NorthEastern campus, in 1962, following the hilariousoff-the-wall adventures of the rowdy Delta fraternity. The mayhem is centralisedaround Bluto Blutarsky – and he and the cast get up to a number of things youwouldn’t normally do such as smoking pot with your teacher, assassinating ahorse, a Toga party that they’ll never forget – and that’s not to mention theperformance of an impression of a zit being popped – and the problems ofgetting an erection while standing on a ladder peeking through the window to agirl’s dormitory…

Animal House began a whole series of films from the ‘National Lampoon’ stable,including the two ‘Vacation’ films starring Chevy Chase and BeverlyD’Angelo, although in the opinion of this reviewer it’s always the earlierfilms which have been the best.

Leader of the pack in this comedy is without a doubt, John Belushi, whoalso shone in other comedies such as The Blues Brothers andNeighbors. Those other members of the cast that stand out are JohnVernon as the embittered Dean of the school, Thomas Hulce as theone of the new guys who looks the least likely to participate in the crazymadcap happenings, Stephen Furst who suffers as the fall guy in a numberof sketches against the pranks carried out by the cooler members of thefraternity – and Donald Sutherland as the politically incorrect teacherwho has more than an eye for the ladies… 🙂

Most of the rest of the cast are people who have familiar faces, but havecertainly not had their fair share of fame since this outing, but one thatstands out is Mark Metcalf as Doug Niedermeyer, one of the egg-headsat Omega House, the first place Larry and Kent come to, who also starred in amore recent John Landis film, The Stupids, although I remember him bestas an angry teacher in the Twisted Sister promo video, “I WannaRock”. He’s one of the best people-who-shout-in-films and could be a finecontender to R. Lee Ermey‘s performance in Full Metal Jacket.

The picture quality is as good as it can get. A good print has been sourced – and while there are a few specks in the print from time to time, on the wholewatching this disc looks just as good as broadcast TV quality. The film ispresented fullscreen and while I have not seen a widescreen version beforethe film looks as if it has been shown open-matte which would add some extrainformation at the top and bottom while losing a little at the sides, althoughthere’s certainly nothing vital missing and the 4:3 composition looks perfectlycomfortable on the screen.

The mono sound is clear – and the disc has plenty of chapters (41 encompassingthe film itself) making all your favourite scenes easily accessible. Finally,the disc is rounded off by a trailer for another John Landis/John Belushicollaboration, “The Blues Brothers”, which is also available on PALLaserdisc – and quite a timely reminder of the film as its sequel, “BluesBrothers 2000” gets its cinema release this year.

It’s worth pointing out also that as it says on the back, some of the musichas been changed for this laserdisc (and also the corresponding video release).

Overall, this disc comes best recommended to those laserdisc owners who havelong-since worn out their copy of the video, as well as to anyone who wantsone of the best comedies of the 1980’s – and with the extensive chapteringproving a definite bonus, the low price puts the icing on the cake. Buy itnow!

Film: 5/5
Picture: 4/5
Sound: 3/5

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.