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neilsarver 's review for:
Giraffes on Horseback Salad: Salvador Dali, the Marx Brothers, and the Strangest Movie Never Made
by Tim Heidecker, Josh Frank
I really enjoyed this and will find a good place for it on a my shelf to refer back to it.
Now, I don't buy the author's essential conceit that this ever could have been made. I think the notion that Irving Thalberg would have championed this pitch and made it as one of those expensive MGM Marx Brothers movies is as ridiculous as a Marx Brothers story. If it was what he needed to give himself a opening to develop it, I understand, and it's worth it. And [a:Harpo|19895|Harpo Marx|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1469289317p2/19895.jpg] with all of this dialog? I'm sure something like that was [a:Dalí|165858|Salvador Dalí|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1218295974p2/165858.jpg]'s intent, but I'm not sure he would have done it, even less that the other brother's would have accepted him receiving this kind of role.
So, for me, it works best as a kind of fantasy.
(Although if I picture it as a sixth Paramount Marx Brothers movie with Jimmy being played by [a:Zeppo|8152573|Zeppo Marx|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] in his real world form, it might come close in close to working... close.)
While reading it, though, I couldn't stop thinking how much this needs to be an animated movie. The snappy dialog that sometimes works, sometimes struggles on the graphic novel page could really pop. The surreal events, so wonderfully visualized by [a:Manuela Pertega|18112583|Manuela Pertega|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], would be absolutely incredible. Just take the rails off and imagine the limits of what a Marx Brothers and a Dalí movie could be without trying to keep them anywhere near the limits of what could have happened... mind you, the book does do that, whether it quite intends to or not.
Although, the anachronisms, meta references and comments for a present day audience don't work at all. That would be my exception to taking the rails off. I suppose not in that they couldn't work, just that they most definitely do not.
As a whole, the graphic novel feels half-realized to me, like one more piece in a puzzle rather than a complete work.
The full four-stars I'm giving it is because it's a helluva thing to even half-realize. It's a terrific story with funny gags and ending that feels good in a Hollywood movie way and an anarchic Marx way as well, which is very satisfying on the whole.
Now, I don't buy the author's essential conceit that this ever could have been made. I think the notion that Irving Thalberg would have championed this pitch and made it as one of those expensive MGM Marx Brothers movies is as ridiculous as a Marx Brothers story. If it was what he needed to give himself a opening to develop it, I understand, and it's worth it. And [a:Harpo|19895|Harpo Marx|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1469289317p2/19895.jpg] with all of this dialog? I'm sure something like that was [a:Dalí|165858|Salvador Dalí|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1218295974p2/165858.jpg]'s intent, but I'm not sure he would have done it, even less that the other brother's would have accepted him receiving this kind of role.
So, for me, it works best as a kind of fantasy.
(Although if I picture it as a sixth Paramount Marx Brothers movie with Jimmy being played by [a:Zeppo|8152573|Zeppo Marx|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] in his real world form, it might come close in close to working... close.)
While reading it, though, I couldn't stop thinking how much this needs to be an animated movie. The snappy dialog that sometimes works, sometimes struggles on the graphic novel page could really pop. The surreal events, so wonderfully visualized by [a:Manuela Pertega|18112583|Manuela Pertega|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], would be absolutely incredible. Just take the rails off and imagine the limits of what a Marx Brothers and a Dalí movie could be without trying to keep them anywhere near the limits of what could have happened... mind you, the book does do that, whether it quite intends to or not.
Although, the anachronisms, meta references and comments for a present day audience don't work at all. That would be my exception to taking the rails off. I suppose not in that they couldn't work, just that they most definitely do not.
As a whole, the graphic novel feels half-realized to me, like one more piece in a puzzle rather than a complete work.
The full four-stars I'm giving it is because it's a helluva thing to even half-realize. It's a terrific story with funny gags and ending that feels good in a Hollywood movie way and an anarchic Marx way as well, which is very satisfying on the whole.