The Happy Microbes (1909)
A scientist has acquired a microscope and is showing it off to his friend. He takes various body samples - hair, phlegm, etc. - and puts them under the microscope. The "microbes" coalesce and form different shapes, creating caricatures of various people, such as mothers-in-law and drunks. These animated characters goof around in traditional cartoon fashion.
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Overrated and overhyped
Fantastic!
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
The Happy Microbes (1909)*** (out of 4) A healthy man goes to a rather weird doctor and tells him that he's feeling great. The doctor insists that they check him for microbes and sure enough, what comes back on the screen is quite shocking. Here's another animated tale from Emile Cohl who once again delivers something rather original and certainly not was custom for 1909 movie audiences. As I go through Cohl's filmmography I can't help but wonder what people thought of the filmmaker's movies back in the day and it's easy to see why the films were forgotten for decades but over the past decade or so more and more people are checking them out. THE HAPPY MICROBES is certainly a good little film that features some nice animation and it's just weird and surreal enough to where even those who aren't usually fond of these types of movies should enjoy.
When you watch the earliest silent films, you really need to adjust your expectations. What might seem like a very inconsequential film today might have been a huge hit and innovative title in its day. That's how it often is with the films of the French filmmaker and animator, Émile Cohl.This is a particularly weird film--and I appreciate that. A guy goes to the doctor and the doctor insists on doing some microbial cultures--even though the man says he's feeling fine. Here's where it gets weird. He has the man look through his microscope and you see germs mutate into cartoon images! He tells him that he has microbes from a politician, civil servant, mother-in-law, chauffeur and a drunkard--and little animated vignettes play on the screen. It's all very bizarre but what is even more bizarre is the end of the film--the patient is hysterical and the doctor is laughing himself silly at the patient's expense! Wild and weird.