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5.4/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.4/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Puzzled Pals remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you've ever had a long day and just want to see a cat and mouse get absolutely destroyed by a toddler, Puzzled Pals is basically your holy grail. It's not for people who need a coherent plot or character growth. It's for people who want to watch a vacuum cleaner become a weapon of mass destruction in a living room.
The whole thing starts with a jigsaw puzzle, which feels like a weirdly calm setup for what follows. Then the stork shows up, clearly having a bad day, and drops the kid off like he's returning a library book. The audacity of that bird.
There is this moment where the baby ends up in the closet with the vacuum that just feels... weirdly intense? It's not the most graceful animation I've ever seen, but the sheer panic on Tom's face when the suction starts is gold. It’s like watching someone try to hold back a hurricane with a dustpan.
I found myself thinking about Monkey Business in Africa halfway through, mostly because both films share this frantic, high-energy rhythm where nobody knows what's going on. The stork coming back at the end to just clock them both is the kind of blunt, no-nonsense ending I really respect. He doesn't apologize, he just takes the kid and leaves.
It's not high art. It’s barely even a story. But if you're bored and want to see a house get wrecked in about seven minutes, you could do a lot worse. Just don't expect the baby to be cute; he's more of a tiny agent of chaos. 🍼