Benny's Bathtub

Streaming video - 1971

How can you not love a psychedelic animated kids’ film in which a young boy, bored with the dreary and gray Adult World, follows an enchanted tadpole into his bathtub – where he discovers a surreal and musical undersea world?? Populated by singing (and barely dressed) Mermaids, a funky hepcat Octopus and whiskey-drinking Skeleton Pirates, the underwater kingdom is the grooviest scene this side of YELLOW SUBMARINE, with helpings of Dr. Seuss, Sid & Marty Krofft and Harry Nilsson’s THE POINT thrown in. (Danish kids’ entertainment in the early 1970s was truly outtasite!) In addition to the candy-colored, kaleidoscopic visuals, the film is famed for its incredibly addictive soundtrack featuring Jazz heavyweights of Copenhagen circa ...1970, with vocals sung by the cream of Danish late 60s Pop and Rock on tracks like “Octopussong/ Blækspruttesangen" and "seahorsesong/ Søhestesangen". Considered a national treasure in Denmark where it was selected for the country’s Cultural Canon alongside works by Carl Th. Dreyer, Isak Dinesen and Hans Christian Andersen, BENNY’S BATHTUB has been beautifully restored from the original camera negative and sound elements by Fiasco Film for its first-ever U.S. release by Deaf Crocodile. more