The Chubbchubbs! (2002)

I'd never heard of the Chubbchubbs but they apparently won an Academy Award. We're at a bar on an alien planet and the clumsy karaoke loving janitor is dreaming of being the singer. Outside the Chubbchubbs are coming and that spells serious danger. There's really not a lot here except two things: one is to play with our expectations and the other is to throw in a bunch of cool pop culture references. The Ale-E-Inn is full of them: Darth Vader and Yoda arm wrestling, ET escaping on a bicycle, Robbie the Robot and the Lost in Space robot dancing the robot, you get the picture. Jar Jar Binks even gets to forsake his accent.

I enjoyed the short but there's not really any substance. It was pretty obvious what was going to happen from moment one and sure enough, that's what happened. It's done very well and it's pleasing to the eye but I doubt I'll come back to it except to point out the Star Wars references to Michael the Star Wars nut.