I said a word about it in the Culture Diary I kept for the Paris Review Web site several months ago: The bumptious score by Henry Mancini prefigures his "Pink Panther" collaboration with Edwards; the strange, surreal visual comedy makes clear the profound influence of Frank Tashlin on the movies of the day.
Both at a loose end, Pat and Tiffany spend much of their day jogging around their neighbourhood, which provides much of the film's visual comedy and dynamism: the camera wheels around as Pat frantically tries to avoid Tiffany, who's forever running into his path from nowhere with a barked "Hey!".
The result is extravagant visual comedy, of the kind cooked up on "Dexter's Lab" by the Russian-born Genndy Tartakovsky or on vivid display in "Futurama," a sci-fi spoof from Matt Groening, who gave the world Bart Simpson.
Highlights of the fun include the intestinal, pulmonary and cardiac sounds of Mr. Collins's body and the busy and paranoid turmoil in his brain; the invisible dog that plays fetch with an equally invisible hand grenade; the sidesplitting "German visual comedy" of Hans and -- or is it und?
At the matinees he offers visual comedy as well as some of the Friday night stunts, like juggling 36 balls and sawing a woman in half.
Nick Park, the creator of Wallace And Gromit, and his fellow directors help judge the annual Excellence In Visual Comedy award.
There's even a bit of visual comedy in the train station, when the little boy, in his black suit and broad black hat, thinks he sees another member of the sect: he walks over to an elderly Orthodox Jew, and the two look at each other in wordless rejection.
The movie's family relationships are addressed with low-key realism, and the animation has a lovely, gentle precision, with plenty of room for visual comedy but less of the noise and chaos that have become the hallmarks of 3-D animation.
