One Got Fat (1963)

Just perfect...

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Boring

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

One Got Fat is a bicycle safety video. In the short, a group of "kids" plan to ride their bikes nine blocks for a picnic. One kid has a large basket – big enough to hold everyone's lunch. The title refers to the one kid who actually made it to the picnic without having an accident or something else stop him. He ate all the lunches and got fat. The children who don't make it to the picnic are all dressed in monkey masks. The moral is don't be a monkey – practice safety when riding your bike.One Got Fat is especially creepy and dark. The frozen-face monkey masks are the stuff of nightmares. It doesn't help that just before each child has an accident, their eyes bulge out of the mask. It's quite a sight. As for dark, the whole premise of the video is that nine kids don't make it to the picnic. They're hit by cars, run over by road equipment, slam into pedestrian, or suffer some other horrifying accident. All the while, we hear the bright, chipper voice of Edward Everett Horton narrating events. Horton's melodious style is a stark contrast to the images on the screen. It's a bizarre experience. Was One Got Fat effective? Yes. While it may take it's time getting the message out, I don't think anyone who watches this would forget basic bicycle safety. Was One Got Fat entertaining? In a weird way, it was. It's not a laugh a minute, but it's hard to turn away from the surrealistic images on-screen. I'm giving it an 8/10.

Absolutely hilarious. This is one of those educational films they used to show elementary and junior high aged kids in class; this one deals with encouraging kids to follow rules of safety, proper use, and care of the bicycle. It makes its point of the seriousness of safety, by indulging in humorously bizarre images and exaggeration.Enter our heroes: a bunch of monkeys bicycling together; who each in turn dramatically suffers ill consequences for a variety of foolish "what-not-to-do" blunders. These range from violating several traffic safety rules to failing to keep proper maintenance of the bike. The "collision" sequences use cartoonish sound effects and animation. I love the bulging eyes surprised looks on the monkey masks as they make their respective exits. Except for Edward Everett Horton's brightly comical narration, nobody speaks (I guess monkeys don't talk), but the body- language expressions of the hapless bike riders says it all anyway. Oddly enough, the remaining monkeys never seem to notice the disappearances, or the their own steadily declining numbers.Find it, and run it with some friends. Not to be missed.

ONE GOT FAT. That's the name of this very strange educational short film from the '60s. From the title alone, you wouldn't know it was suppose to be an educational short film on bicycle safety. After watching it (either by itself or RiffTrax), you still won't see it as an educational short film. You'll see it as the weirdest short film since Mr. B Natural. These monkeys make the PLANET OF THE APES apes look normal in comparison. Creepiest. Masks. Ever. No, this is not suppose to be a horror short, but if I was a kid watching this, I'd have nightmares for days or never step foot in a zoo ever again.Rooty = stopped making hand signals Tink = forgot to watch street signsFloog = riding on the left side of the street Mossby = too distracted to get license and registration and lost his bike Slim = riding on Trigby's bike Trigby = blocked by Slim's body and both fell in manholeNel = riding on sidewalk and running into pedestrians Filbert = riding bike that's falling apart and no brakes Stan = riding with no lights nor reflectors Orv = not a monkey; gets fatDon't say you weren't warned. The five stars is for RiffTrax for their great riffing of this.

We'An early 60's documentary on bicycle road safety. This god forsaken nightmare has me reeling, There is no were to grasp, no safety nets. What is happening here? Trigby Phipps? Mossby Pomegranate? I can't help but feel an occasional undertone of apocalyptic human devastation manifest throughout the narrative, a hidden message about our doomed civilization. You may need some heavy duty counseling after sitting through this. ... a sensation. Dam! I need three more lines so that the IMDb accepts this review and I don't know what to write. Maybe if I just rattle on for just a few more words than that should just about be all the lines I need then I can have a hot chocolate and go to bed. There, all done :)