Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie
Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie is a 2013 American adult animated comedy film directed by Branden Chambers and Eric D. Chambers, featuring the voices of longtime comedy partners Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong.[1] The film marks the duo's first animated project and their first joint feature-length effort since 1984's The Corsican Brothers, compiling and visualizing classic sketches from their 1970s stand-up routines and albums into a series of interconnected stoner-themed vignettes.[2] Released directly to home video by 20th Century Fox on DVD and Blu-ray, it centers on the titular characters navigating absurd, drug-fueled escapades aided by a hallucinatory crab named Buster, delivering crude humor rooted in counterculture tropes of the era.[3] Despite its nostalgic appeal to fans of the pair's original material, the movie garnered lukewarm critical reception, with a 50% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on limited reviews and an IMDb user score of 4.7 out of 10, often critiqued for lacking fresh content and relying heavily on dated profanity-laden bits.[2][1] No significant box office data exists due to its straight-to-video distribution, underscoring its status as a niche release rather than a mainstream revival.[4]Background and Development
Origins in Comedy Routines
Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong met in Vancouver, Canada, in the late 1960s, where Chong operated an improv comedy club called City Works, and Marin, fleeing the U.S. draft, joined to develop satirical routines mocking authority, drug culture, and Chicano stereotypes. Their partnership formalized in the early 1970s, transitioning from live performances at clubs and coffee houses to recorded sketches that emphasized verbal interplay, exaggerated accents, and absurd scenarios rooted in countercultural experiences. By 1971, they released their self-titled debut album on Ode Records, compiling 11 live-derived routines including the breakthrough "Dave," a repetitive knock-knock exchange highlighting miscommunication under intoxication.[5] [6] These early routines formed the foundation for their Grammy-winning albums, with Los Cochinos (1973) and Cheech & Chong's Wedding Album (1974) each securing Best Comedy Album honors for tracks like "Sister Mary Elephant," a deadpan nun narration parodying school discipline, and game-show spoofs such as "Let's Make a Dope Deal." The duo's humor relied on minimal props and sound effects in live and audio formats, achieving commercial success through over 5 million album sales by the mid-1970s, as their sketches captured the era's underground ethos without visual reliance.[7] [2] Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie, released in 2013, originated as an extension of these 1970s routines by animating select album segments, including "Dave's Not Here" and "Earache My Eye," to visualize the implied chaos of stoner logic and authority clashes like those involving Sgt. Stedanko. Produced over a decade after their last joint film, the project repurposed verbatim dialogue from their greatest hits compilation, adding rudimentary Flash-style animation to depict surreal elements such as hallucinatory crabs and trippy sequences, thereby reviving audio sketches for a new medium while maintaining fidelity to the original comedic structure. This adaptation underscores the routines' self-contained nature, designed for endurance beyond live stages, as evidenced by their prior success in inspiring films like Up in Smoke (1978).[4] [1] [8]Production History
Development on Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie began in December 2008, marking the duo's return to feature-length collaboration after nearly three decades, with the project focusing on animating segments from their classic 1970s comedy routines.[9] The screenplay was penned directly by Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, adapting audio sketches from their albums into visual narratives without a continuous plot, emphasizing episodic stoner humor.[10] Production was led by directors Branden Chambers and Eric D. Chambers through Chambers Brothers Animation and Houston Curtis Pictures, with producers including Houston Curtis, the Chambers brothers, Keith A. Chambers, and longtime collaborator Lou Adler.[2] Animation work, completed primarily in 2012, employed hand-drawn techniques augmented by computer-generated enhancements to create a stylized, low-budget aesthetic suited to the material's irreverent tone.[11] The film reached completion in April 2013, enabling a limited theatrical rollout on April 18 followed by DVD and Blu-ray distribution on April 23, distributed initially by 20th Century Fox.[9] This timeline reflected a deliberate, low-key approach, prioritizing voice recordings from Marin and Chong over elaborate on-set production, consistent with the project's roots in their recorded comedy legacy.[12]Creative Team and Animation Techniques
The film was directed by brothers Branden Chambers and Eric D. Chambers, marking their feature directorial debut, with the animation produced under their Chambers Bros. Animation banner.[13][1] Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong served as screenwriters, adapting material primarily drawn from their 1970s comedy album routines into visual segments, including added sound effects and editing for the animated format.[2][10] Producers included Houston Curtis via Houston Curtis Pictures, alongside Branden Chambers, Eric Chambers, and music industry veteran Lou Adler, with distribution handled by companies such as Big Vision Entertainment.[1][14] Animation techniques employed a digital 2D style characterized by limited animation, featuring static backgrounds, exaggerated character designs, and episodic vignettes that directly visualized audio sketches from the duo's discography, such as "Earache My Eye" and "Basketball Jones."[10] This approach prioritized comedic timing and surreal, drug-themed visuals over fluid motion, resulting in a production that reviewers have likened to low-budget Flash animation or retro cartoon specials, with repetitive title card sequences involving smoke effects.[14][15] Key animation credits included layout, storyboarding, and animatics by Jerrell Conner, who also supervised technical direction, contributing to the film's straightforward, cost-effective workflow suitable for a direct-to-video release.[16] While some assessments noted the style's crudeness and simplicity, others highlighted effective character rendering and artistic concepts aligned with the stoner comedy genre.[13][14]Plot Summary
Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie (2013) comprises an anthology of animated sketches adapting the duo's comedy routines from their 1970s and 1980s albums, including Grammy Award-winning material.[2][4] The film lacks a conventional linear narrative, instead presenting loosely interconnected vignettes centered on stoner humor, drug-induced absurdity, and irreverent social commentary.[17] A framing device features Buster the Body Crab, a cannabis-craving pubic louse voiced by Tommy Chong, who attaches to Chong and pursues highs amid the weed-scented chaos, linking the segments through its misadventures.[13][18] Prominent routines include "Sister Mary Elephant," depicting a nun's futile attempts to discipline rowdy students by bellowing "SHADDUP!", and "Dave's Not Here," showcasing comedic miscommunication between door-bound characters.[19][20] Additional sketches adapt classics like Sgt. Stedanko's law enforcement parody and Afghanistan-poppy field antics, emphasizing exaggerated cannabis use, bodily functions, and dim-witted protagonists.[21] The structure highlights the duo's signature blend of foggy punchlines and cultural satire, with Buster's quest underscoring the pervasive theme of marijuana obsession.[17][22]Voice Cast and Characters
Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong provide the principal voice work for Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie, reprising their roles as the central stoner duo and voicing multiple characters across the film's animated sketches adapted from their 1970s comedy routines.[1] Marin voices characters including Pedro de Pacas, a laid-back Mexican-American everyman, while Chong voices the unnamed "Man," his dim-witted counterpart in their signature interplay.[23] [2] The ensemble includes supporting figures like Sergeant Stedanko (a caricature of authoritarian drug enforcement), Blind Melon Chitlin (a welfare recipient), and Ralph "The Church of the Full Moon" (a bizarre cult leader), all voiced by Chong in various sketches such as "Dave's Not Here" and "Up in Smoke" adaptations.[16] Marin also lends voices to ancillary roles like show hosts and incidental figures in routines including "Basketball Jones" and "Earache My Eye." No additional credited voice actors appear in production records, emphasizing the duo's self-contained performance style.[24]| Voice Actor | Notable Characters Voiced |
|---|---|
| Cheech Marin | Pedro de Pacas, various hosts and supporting roles[1] |
| Tommy Chong | The Man, Sergeant Stedanko, Blind Melon Chitlin, Ralph[16] |