Tales of the Rat Fink

joe.shearer

August 27, 2008 by joe.shearer

0 votes

If a Saturday night at The Suds isn't enough to whet your automotive appetite, check out "Tales of the Rat Fink" at Key Cinemas.

"Fink" tells the story of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, a legendary hot-rod enthusiast and one of the pioneers of making rides into works of art.

It's an eccentric look at an eccentric man, told through short video clips, animation and heavy photo manipulation.

"Fink" is played as a documentary, but told in first person, through narration featuring John Goodman as the pin-striping lothario, and "interviews" with some of the cars he built and painted. Car voices are provided by the likes of Jay Leno, Ann-Margret, the Smothers Brothers and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

The most entertaining (and perhaps telling) part of the film focuses on the Rat Fink, which Roth claims is his alter ego. He created the nightmarish hairy green "anti-Mickey Mouse" character and marketed it on T-shirts and other items.

The Fink, toothy and bulgy-eyed, looks like something underground comic book artist Robert Crumb might have created. It was one of a series of monster hot-rod-loving creatures Roth invented.

Strong as these gimmicks are, they also hamstring the film, pulling the viewer away from Roth as a character. The first-person approach gives us only a cursory look at the man himself, with no outside perspective to show how colorful and interesting he no doubt was.

There are no interviews with friends and acquaintances, no auto manufacturers discussing his innovations. It's like a quasi-autobiography that glosses over the main points of its subject's life.

We're told, for example, that "kids were kicked out of school for wearing my shirts," but left to guess why the establishment didn't embrace him.

Much of the film is spent on the early days of hot rods, from the roaring '20s, when older cars were cast aside, to the '50s and '60s, when many of Roth's innovations were copied by the major auto manufacturers.

You get the feeling that the filmmakers weren't sure who their audience is: gearheads familiar with the paint schemes and the cars they were slapped on or a less-seasoned audience that could be pulled in by the story.

There's a little something for both, but neither gets a full course.

Tales of the Rat Fink

Rating: 3 stars (out of five)

In a word: Promising.

Rated: Not yet rated.

Starring: Voices of John Goodman, Ted Rosnick, Brian Wilson, Steve Austin, Tom Wolfe, Paul LeMat.

Director: Ron Mann.

Posted in groups: Movies

Forum: Movies

Tags: 

Brian Wilson, john goodman, animation, documentary, Tom Wolfe, Steve Austin, Ted Rosnick, Paul LeMat, Ron Mann

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1 comment

ArtistDan
ArtistDan, August 29
0 votes

What a kick down memory lane. Alfred E. Newman, Batman, cinnamon oil soaked toothpicks, pegged pants, ... I better stop.

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