It's Tough to Be a Bird

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Fabrizio A After watching it, I thought "It's Tough to Be a Bird" wasn't bad at all, unlike what many people here at Rotten Tomatoes try to make others believe. It's certainly not a masterpiece but it remains an important piece of animation history, being the last short Disney released (until 2013's Paperman) and the one that effectively ended the Golden Age of Animation. I genuinely found it funny (although for today's taste it might be too slow-paced) but it does feel very pessimistic about the aggressive and invasive nature of human being with the other species, specifically with birds. Hunting, shooting, extinction... All good serious topics to discuss, but I wished they spoke about them with a bit more hope for the future. You can tell this was done after Walt's death, as they took a lot of creative freedom with some jokes he would never approve. The ending is pretty shocking for a Disney movie, even at the time. The coda "alla Monty Python", which ends with the wounded narrator, looking sadly at the viewer, and the mournful ringing of bells at The End titles, is certainly somber. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/08/25 Full Review Audience Member The camp feels more desperate than funny. There's a lot of humor, but few hard laughs. The songs weren't really memorable, and the characters were fairly weak-Superman included. This TV musical is more painful than enjoyable. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member Based on the Broadway production 'It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Superman!', this cheap, once-screened, made-for-television version of the well-received musical is infamously the Man of Steel's worst representation to date. David Wilson is an admittedly likeable presence, but is simply not right to play the iconic superhero, and Leslie Anne Warren, despite a wonderful singing voice, appears to be vying for the Worst Actress of All Time award (she auditioned to play the role of Lois Lane again when Richard Donner was casting his 1978 blockbuster). The song and dance routines here are fun and, really, the fact that the sets are made out of cardboard don't matter after a while, but the piece simply doesn't come together as well as it did on stage with Bob Holiday in the title role. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member This campy musical about Superman aired only once on TV in the 70s. But the internet is a wondrous place where you can find any odd pop culture artifact seemingly lost in time forever. So I watched this, much like I watched the Star Wars Holiday Special before...and just like that odd special...this is pretty awful. This is decidedly better...but not by much. The music isn't great, and the production values are super lame and weak...but it is interesting if you like odd stuff the way I do. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member I have seen student films that are better than this one. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member I have seen student films that are better than this one. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Read all reviews

It's Tough to Be a Bird

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