"If anything were to happen, we have two lifeboats." Thumbtanic, the third entry in writer/director Steve Oedekerk's (Kung Pow: Enter the Fist) Thumbation live action/animated featurette spoofs--after Thumb Wars: The Phantom Cuticle (VL-1/02) and The Blair Thumb Project--is all thumbs in more ways than one. Featuring an "all thumb" cast (with eyes and mouths superimposed), this puerile homage takes the expected juvenile potshots at aging, sex, and bodily functions as it parodies select scenes from James Cameron's 1997 Oscar winner (which, even at 194 minutes, did not seem to go on as long as this half-hour shy parody) about rich-girl-poor-man love on an ill-fated luxury cruise ship. While Thumb Wars struck me as a semi-clever original idea, the formula seems to have worn pretty thin at this point. Here's hoping that future efforts will focus less on enhanced digits and more on funnier dialogue. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)
Thumbtanic
(1999) 27 min. VHS or DVD: $9.99. Image Entertainment (avail. from most distributors). Color cover. Volume 17, Issue 5
Thumbtanic
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