Time has not been kind to this short. What was seen as a model family back then now seems boring, creepy, and robotic. Our story begins with two siblings named Brother and Sister. Actually, nobody in this move is named. They're just coldly referred to as Brother, Sister, Father, etc. So, Brother and Sister are excited for dinner with the family. Mother is hard at work in the kitchen, where she belongs. Everyone wears vacant eyed grins, rarely showing any emotion other then "excruciatingly happy". As the short progresses we see Brother helping Junior clean up, Sister help Mother in the kitchen, and Father come home from whatever he does. The narrator drones on and on about what behaviors are appropriate, such as not saying anything unpleasant or showing emotion. We get to see them eat dinner and the short ends.
Really, this short just screams 50s, and not in a good way. Everything is happy and nice (Don't want to trigger Father's WWII flashbacks, do we?), and it just feels stifled and repressed. Someone could make a dark parody of it where Father is a repressed homosexual, Mother needs alcohol to get through the day, Sister is sleeping with everyone at school, Brother is a habitual drug user, and Junior is just trying to survive.
Some nostalgics might like it so they can fondly remember the good old days before "those goldang ghetto emulating kids with their X-Stations and computers and marihuanas." The rest of us can just laugh at the MST3K version.
Really, this short just screams 50s, and not in a good way. Everything is happy and nice (Don't want to trigger Father's WWII flashbacks, do we?), and it just feels stifled and repressed. Someone could make a dark parody of it where Father is a repressed homosexual, Mother needs alcohol to get through the day, Sister is sleeping with everyone at school, Brother is a habitual drug user, and Junior is just trying to survive.
Some nostalgics might like it so they can fondly remember the good old days before "those goldang ghetto emulating kids with their X-Stations and computers and marihuanas." The rest of us can just laugh at the MST3K version.