Tales of the Rat Fink (2006) User Reviews

I guess you just have to be the right audience to appreciate this one...

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 13 August 2008]

Lovers of hot rods and Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth are definitely the audience for this film, so the fact that I wasn't particularly enamored by the film is mostly because I am not a fan. Keep this in mind when reading my review--it's not for the hard-core fans but for someone who just likes to watch documentaries.

From my outsider point of view, this was a pretty weird documentary because of it's style. First, because Roth was dead by the time they made this film, John Goodman narrated the film as if he were Roth. And, other celebrities (such as the Smothers Brothers and Jay Leno) also lent their voices--so it's pretty unusual from the outset. Second, many of Roth's designs (especially his famous 60s "Rat Fink") were animated and many old clips were pieced together to make up the film--so you really didn't get much new content. Finally, the film tried very hard to be funny--with talking cars (like you'd see in "My Mother the Car") and rocking campers with personalities that DIDN'T make me laugh. Again, none of these are necessarily "bad", but a bit unusual and hard for non-fans. However, I have to give the film its due--it certainly was innovative and the sound was exceptional--with a great surround-sound quality.

Still, given my predisposition, the film didn't win me over because I just didn't get hooked by all the excitement. It wasn't me.

pretty cars, outsider art, not very personal

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 31 August 2013]

This is the story of famed hot rod & custom car designer Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, the creator of Rat Fink. It's a generally chronological description of his journey. It's style is mostly derived from the outsider art that he had such a hand in building. For a general documentary of everything hot rod, this one touches on all of it. It's not that personal of a story. It's not like it gets into his life or anything. It's all about the cars, and the art.

The movie has a lot of animation based on his style of outsider art. It has a lot of stock footage and narration. In fact, the cars get their own voice in narration. Like most car guys, they're trying to give personality to each car. However they all start to sound the same and not that individualized. There's a lot to like, but it's mostly for fans. We don't see anything personal, but we do see a lot of pretty cars.

Ed Roth Was Quite A Talented Guy.

[mikecanmaybee · 5/10 · 3 July 2020]

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth must have been a kick to be around and this documentary does a good job highlighting his many artistic and mechanical triumphs. The one minor downfall of the film involves having a little too much animation which made me feel like I had actually lost equilibrium at times with colors and objects crashing onto the screen. All in all I would say it's a fun watch with many actors having a blast voicing Ed's cars. Motorheads will especially enjoy Tales of Rat Fink with all the cool old custom Hot Rods.

Ed Roth Would Love it!

[dchod · 10/10 · 19 May 2006]

As a member of Rat Finks of America, I have a very high standard for all that is Fink, and Ron Mann's "Tales of a Rat Fink" did not disappoint. This jacked-up semi-animated documentary of the hotrod culture's greatest patriarch, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth is a film that entertains and teaches us how and why we are obsessed with customizing cars. Roth was an enigmatic soul, a freethinker and rule breaker, and Mann has captured his essence with original film making and stylized story telling. Though he was an iconoclast, Roth wanted his work to appeal to all audiences--kids and adults, and this film follows in that image. There is so much detail and substance here, yet the film speeds by and changes lanes as necessary without refueling. It was a joy to watch and will serve generations to come. Long live Rat Fink!!

Comprehensive Doc

[cinemart · 8/10 · 15 September 2006]

'm a shameful Detroiter. I grew up on the outskirts of the Motor City sheltered from the automotive world by my mechanic stepfather. He was determined to keep me out of the garage and following in his greasy footsteps. Through luck (and hard work), I managed to find employment at a string of jobs that had little-to-nothing to do with the auto industry (a feat in Motown). And, even after several years of attending the Woodward Cruise, I couldn't tell a kit car from a custom. I'm an automotive idiot.

I confess to these sins in order to give my complete "outsider perspective" when it came to seeing this Canadian documentary on artistic motorhead Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. I might have more knowledge of Rene Descartes than the Rat Fink.

I can say without hesitation after seeing Ron Mann's film that I now possess a good understanding not only of Roth and his accomplishments but also his impact on popular culture. Little did I know that my beloved "wacky packages" stemmed from such auspicious beginnings. Roth managed to warp the minds of millions via his custom cars, t-shirts, artwork, and glue used to piece together his series of model cars.

Narrated by John Goodman as Roth (who passed during production) and sporting some nifty animation/photo manipulation, there are some weak moments in the film (the anthropomorphic talking cars) but overall TALES OF THE RAT FINK does a terrific job of avoiding staid talking head interviews while providing a comprehensive, organized portrait of a wonderfully multifaceted media pioneer.

Sorry to be a spoilsport, but...

[woody0023 · 2/10 · 3 December 2007]

This won't make me the most popular poster here, but things have got to be said.

Right off the top, I want to make it clear that I am a fan of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth as much as I am a fan of any of the other pioneers and artisans involved in the evolution of the art form. But I gotta say I was disappointed in this film. I really expected more from the guy who gave us Comic Book Confidential, which is a well done documentary, but this film is weak in comparison.

While Big Daddy was a pioneer, he wasn't the be-all and end-all of the kulture movement, as this film would have us believe. Other than Ed, there is a brief mention of Robert Williams, one quick shot of Baron Crozier, a short clip of Von Dutch and that's about it. The history of the movement seems to exist as an afterthought.

I know this is supposed to be a film about Big Daddy, but the fact is, he had help from others in doing what he did (Ed Newton was one glaring omission), yet the screenwriter and director make it sound like Roth was the only guy behind it all, and the average viewer would have no idea otherwise.

Unfortunately, this film is self-serving in that it perpetuates the myth of Roth as the Father of the Gods. His greatest claim to fame (besides inventing the message t-shirt) is that he had an uncanny knack for marketing. That he achieved his fame with the help of others and yet never fully publicly recognized them, was testament to his understanding that the public needed a figurehead to idolize. Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that, but it would be nice to give a little credit where credit is due.

Typifying this irreverence, there is a "dig" at George Barris near the end of the film. Barris was customizing vehicles when Roth was in knee-pants, and yet Mann & Co. give the impression that Roth invented kustoms. How are Barris' later TV/Hollywood-mobiles a less valid contribution to the kulture movement than Roth's studio-designed model kits? What makes Roth's Rotar any less ridiculous than Barris' Drag-u-la? (At least Drag-u-la was a car). The film seems to suggest here that the Golden Age of Kustoms ended when Roth said it ended. Maybe that was the screenwriter's and director's way of tying things up, but as with most of this film, they are essentially giving an inaccurate view of history.

Something more like an actual documentary would have been nice. For instance, you never hear about Ed's conversion to Mormonism. I can understand them not wanting to trumpet that fact, but it happened, and it affected Roth's career, so it should have at least been mentioned. Some interviews with contemporaries would have helped, might even have got this thing up to the 90 minute mark.

I guess I should have known better when I bought the DVD, that instead of an introspective, objective look at Ed Roth's career it would be nothing more than a love letter to Big Daddy (at which it wildly succeeds), but I was hoping that Mann would at least try to expand upon how his overall contributions fit into the big picture.

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth was a cultural icon, and this film leaves little doubt of that fact. But if you are looking for a comprehensive history of the kulture movement, you will have to look elsewhere.

Nice job on capturing the spirit of Ed Roth

[alfapainting · 9/10 · 23 August 2008]

As a fan of Kustom Kulture, I enjoyed this unique collaborative as a tribute to one of it's most influential and commercially successful icons. While it was not a complete biography, it did capture the spirit of Ed Roth which lives on through his work and his fans.

There are so few of the original "kings" of Kustom Kulture living today (like master pin striper Lyle Fisk shown on the film's "bonus features" and kustom builder George Barris) while most of the kulture's founders (Von Dutch, Boyd Coddington and many others in addition to Bid Daddy) have passed. I would love to see a feature-length documentary on the history of Kustom Kulture and how that kulture is alive and well today.

A Big Disappointment!!!

[U8RU486 · 3/10 · 12 July 2007]

What A Drag! This movie is 75 minutes of after effects animations set to surf music, nothing more. If you're really interested in learning something about Ed Roth read the book HOT RODS by "BIG DADDY" Ed Roth. The book contains all of the images used in the movie, and then some, as well as a plethora of information on his designs and techniques. This film would have made for a nice short subject. The animations are really cool, but there's just too much filler and not enough meat. In total there's probably four minutes of actual "footage" and most of this is stock footage. The rest of the film is made up of still images and animation. Read the book avoid the movie!

Rat Fink Rules!

[wintonick-1 · 10/10 · 26 July 2006]

The creator of Rat Fink was one of my graphic heroes when I was younger, I tried to emulate his style, and now, because of the movie, he still is. Rat Fink rules, and so does the director of this Documentary, Ron Mann, who has given us rockin'docs about comic books, the twist and poetry in motion. Ron is one of the rare filmmakers who manage to preserve and capture important sections of American Popular Culture. He does so with wit, incredible attention to detail, music tracks, graphic presentation and engaging editing. He also seems to capture the zeitgeist in a way that no one else does in documentaryland. Who would've guessed that a film about Rat Fink could be an artful metaphor for many of the issues that define America today? I say 10 outta 10.

brought back lost memories

[thefensk · 8/10 · 13 September 2007]

Well, some of the silliness of the animations was a bit over the top but I figure they didn't have enough real footage to fill out an entire movie.

It was imaginative, and to its credit, it was a primer on the tremendous impact of this forgotten artist.

Forgotten? Well, I forgot about him. Wow, my brother was really into hot rods and he had all the magazines and the CARtoon books and such and I read all of the latter and marveled at Big Daddy's creativity, even in my early teens. Everything came rushing back when I saw this movie.

Let's face it, the guy was far out, he was into his thing, and he really did provide an inspiration for the art/media/design/culture that was to come in just a few years.

Wow.

A Southern-Californian Peter Pan:

[robertguttman · 4/10 · 22 January 2020]

I just came across this film. I never heard of it before, but I do remember the subject. There was a time when I thought Ed Roth and his cars were "cool". Of course, I was about nine years old, then. By the time I was twelve years old I no longer thought his cars were cool anymore. That is because, by that time, I had actually learned something about cars through helping my father work on them in the garage. In other words, I grew up. And therein lies the essence of Ed Roth. One might well characterize Ed Roth as a latter-day Peter Pan, a little boy who never grew up, only living in "La-La land" rather than "Neverland".

It is not the outrageousness of Ed Roth's with which I came to object. I have always loved cars that were designed by people who thought "outside the box". The aspect that I objected to was the fact that Roth's cars were never realistic as cars. Nobody could ever have actually driven any of his cars on the street, even if they wanted to. Apart from everything else, even a cursory examination reveals that Roth's cars actually lacked many of the basic components that a car requires to function, such as a radiator. Just think about that for a moment, just how far do you suppose a car with a huge, super-charged V-8 engine will go without any cooling system at all? You see, Ed Roths cars were never really cars at all, they were merely pieces of sculpture on wheels. As such, one might admire them as works of abstract art, but never as motor vehicles. That is why, by the age of twelve, my automotive admiration had shifted from Ed Roth and his unrealistic world of "Kustom Kars" to real vehicles designed by people who really thought outside the box, such as Citroen and SAAB.

Greatness

[cordless801 · 9/10 · 29 June 2008]

This documentary is greatness. All of those who wonder where the present day hot rod culture is from need to see this film. Those of you who need to pay homage to the rodder Gods need to watch this film. Those of you who need to learn that hot rod culture is not a fashion statement need to watch this film. Thank you for letting all the punks who think that street racing is a right know that your little world isn't crap without people like American auto makers and Ed Roth. Thank you to good people like John Goodman, Jay Leno and most of all, the hard working artists and Ilene Roth who work their tails off every day to keep Big Daddy's work alive. If you think REAL Hot Rodding is dead, just take a ride up to Manti Utah and go to the Rat Fink reunion, or go to the Blackhawk Museum in California. You'll see that ALL car culture is because of people like Ed. LONG LIVE BIG DADDY!!!

BIG RatFink fan here. This "documentary" leaves alot to be desired.....

[mrgoodvibrationsmichigan · 3/10 · 30 May 2020]

This "documentary" is almost painful to watch, cheesy animation, thin facts and short stories of Big Daddy's life. 25mins seemed like 1 hour of viewing time, I only finished watching this drivel just to finish it, it seemed like a endurance race in slow-motion.