Starring: Rob Schneider and Michael Caton
Director: Luke Grenfield
Rated: M15+
THE Animal is a very slight film, filled with references to other stories and quotations of other films.
Marvin (Rob Schneider) is a clerk at a police station. He wants to join the force, but keeps failing the physical entrance exam.
Marvin is a small man, accident-prone, and goofy. After a car accident, in which Marvin almost dies, he is saved by Dr Wilder (Australia’s Michael Caton) who transplants animal organs into him.
Marvin emerges from surgery a new man, except he begins to manifest animal traits in his dietary, personal and romantic appetites. His animal strength and keen sense of smell sees him admitted to the police force, but when the town discovers the source of his new-found ability they hunt him down as a freak.
The Animal is a combination of slapstick comedy, Jekyll and Hyde and the Six Million Dollar Man. Its humour is derivative, coarse and in-your-face. It has about three genuinely comic scenes.
That said, not all is lost here, for The Animal explores important ethical issues in regard to organ transplantation, human personality and dignity.
The film cops out of satisfactorily answering any of the questions it humorously poses, knowing that the premise upon which this popcorn comedy is built is not a laughing matter at all.
