June 1, 2001 | If you've seen the trailer,
you know the pitch: A nebbishy would-be cop (Rob Schneider) gains superhuman
abilities after receiving transplanted body parts from various domesticated
beasts. And - again, if you've seen the trailer - you've already sampled
most of the movie's best jokes: The title character's dolphin-like dancing
across a small lake, his ill-considered flirtation with a goat and,
best of all, his close encounter with a huge bolder in the wake of an
auto mishap. If and when you get around
to actually seeing The Animal, there may be only one surprise
left in store for you, and that's how funny this genially haphazard,
high-concept comedy really is.
In
the lead role of Marvin Mange, a diffident, droopy-eyed evidence clerk
for a small-town police force, Saturday Night Live alumnus Rob
Schneider comes off as an amusingly and engagingly smaller-than-life
version of a comic-book hero.
Marvin
yearns to be a police officer, just like his dearly departed father,
but is too inept to handle anything more challenging than precinct-house
office work. On a day when all of the real cops are away at a picnic,
he answers a 911 call, takes a wrong turn - and drives off a cliff.
There isn't much left of Marvin after that. Even so, an eccentric scientist
(Michael Caton) is able to stitch him back together, using organs from
creatures great and small to make a better man of him. But the end result
is, at best, a mixed blessing for Marvin.
On
the plus side, Marvin's highly developed sense of smell enables him
to sniff out a drug smuggler in an airport lounge. He's also able to
hear the distant cries of a drowning child, and dash through the water,
friskier than Flipper, to save the youngster. On the minus side, there
are times when Marvin's other animal-like attributes - most notably,
his tendency to whinny and bellow during moments of sexual arousal -
are serious social handicaps, especially when he tries to woo a perky
animal-rights advocate played by winsome Colleen Haskell of the first
Survivor TV cast.
Schneider,
who co-wrote the script with Tom Brady, and first-time feature director
Luke Greenfield walk a very fine line here. They go for broad gags and
shameless silliness, but mostly avoid full-bore raunchiness and gross-out
excesses. Much like Schneider's last star vehicle, the disreputable
but fitfully hilarious Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, The Animal basically
is a sheep in wolf's clothing, a sweetly goofy trifle that, for all
its naughty-boy foolishness, is harmless and softhearted.
The
first-rate supporting cast includes John C. McGinley as a bullying cop,
Ed Asner as a none-too-bright police chief and Guy Torry as a black
security guard who bristles at any sign, real or perceived, of reverse
discrimination. The special effects are no better than they have to
be, and the plotting reflects a casualness bordering on the downright
sloppy, but the laughs come at a steady and satisfying pace.