Browse: Home / ANDRE: 20 Years Later

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here
  • Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

ANDRE: 20 Years Later

Posted By Raoul Gonzo on August 20, 2014 in Reviews | 13 Responses

The Simpsons taught us many things, but perhaps the most important is that animals are much funnier when they are acting like animals.  Consider “Bart The Elephant.”  Stampy is a jerk who destroys things, puts people in his mouth, and shows no signs of understanding or caring about the people who are feeding him.  This is not the approach of Andre, directed by the Other George Miller.  Andre the Seal may as well be Rocket Raccoon sans speech.  He knowingly makes fart noises at mean people, watches TV religiously, and as the filmmakers present him, he’s able to read and feel human emotions.

These aren’t necessarily criticisms.  Plenty of films featuring animals have been made that don’t suck, even if they were more than generous in their anthropomorphic tendencies.  (It may not count, but that basset hound in Triplets of Belleville is my personal favorite movie dog.)  And the moments of the film when the characters, young Toni included, recognize that Andre isn’t a human are the strongest, getting at the joy and pain of becoming attached to an animal and then having to part ways.  If that were the primary focus of Andre it would probably have a legitimate shot at classic status.

But that’s the problem – there is a lot of stuff that works here, but none of it gets enough attention to feel deliberate.  Aside from the focus on pet-owner psychology, there is 1) a coming of age story that never works because the three years of movie time feel like a month, 2) a family drama that is focused on a good father (which is already rare enough) trying to do what’s best for his family even when they don’t like it, and 3) a portrait of the dynamic in a small, tight-knit fishing community (this is the least interesting of the three).  If Miller and Co had bothered to decide which of those movies they wanted to make, they might have had something, but instead they go for a generic story with too many climaxes and too many endings, such that none of them has the effect they should.  A little more verve and he could get away with such a lumpy script, but this Miller was always the hired hand of the Two Millers.

Ideally, an animal movie should be less about the animal and more about the people.  Like Au Hasard Balhazar or even Warhorse, the animal isn’t a character so much as a lens to see the characters more clearly.  At the end of Andre, I feel like I don’t any more about the Whitneys or the Bakers than I knew from the first few minutes, and Andre hadn’t even showed up yet.  By the end of the movie, the only thing different is that everyone gets along a little better (sometimes inexplicably so) and everyone really loves Andre.

This was one of those formative movies that I watched way too many times as a kid, simply because my grandmother owned it.  I had no idea who Keith Carradine was or what it meant when Harry tells his wife that he saw her Sears catalogue “in the bathroom.”  And even as an adult I still find myself moved by several scenes, such as when Paula tells her mom that she hates her dad, or the very manipulative scene where Andre is taken to the aquarium.  What can I say, I’m an easy target for tear jerkers.  If anything, the greatest crime of Andre is not being a better movie.  It is an interesting, not boring look at an era when they still made “family movies,” and that makes it worth quite a bit in an era when that genre is dominated by faith-based films.  Andre is honest in that regard – it’s about a family becoming closer (kind of) and it’s actually a film that all ages will find something to enjoy, or at least be amused by.

Posted in Reviews | Tagged 1994, Andre, Au Hasard Balthazar, Bart The Elephant, George T. Miller, John Swartzwelder, Keith Carradine, Robert Bresson, Simpsons, Steven Spielberg, Warhorse

About the Author

raoulfgonzo@gmail.com'

Raoul Gonzo

Raoul F. Gonzo is a young aspiring filmmaker who also happens to love writing.

Related Posts

And that talented young man grew up to be... some douchenozzle at Vice.Miller’s 2022 Double Features: To Shreds, You Say→

Tales from the Dark Age: The End of an Error→

Tales from the Dark Age: Meanwhile, Back in the States→

Year of the Month: James Williams on NASHVILLE→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    38385 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    30724 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    30342 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Gordon with Mr. Looper

    Attention Must Be Paid: Will Lee

    27650 views / Posted January 7, 2023
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    23344 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The truth is FAR out there.

    The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here

    December 6, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • This is a way lower res image than I will be allowed to get away with at the new site.

    Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer

    December 5, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE

    December 4, 2024 / ZoeZ
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    December 3, 2024 / Greta Taylor
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

    December 2, 2024 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

    ©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

    Menu

    • Home
    • Who We Are
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!