Moredecai Richler’s Jacob Two-Two books tell us that a child’s greatest difficulty is that adults just won’t listen to him. That’s why he has to say everything twice. That’s also the underlying idea in this tremendous little film. The conceit with which it’s communicated is as ridiculous, as simple, and as eye-opening as the one in Randy Newman’s Short People. They drafted a four-year-old.
Munro seems like a good satire—and really well drawn, directed, narrated, and sound-effected satire at that. But Catch-22 is only about a year away, and there’s 1962, and Vietnam just over the top of that hill. It’s got greater dimension and resonance, and a deeper anger besides, than you might think.