Mel Brooks: The Critic (1963)

Did you know that Mel Brooks' first two film projects won Academy Awards? Of course, The Producers, his seminal 1968 debut as screenwriter and director, won a surprise Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Less well-known is The Critic, an animated short released five years earlier. It was directed by Ernest Pintoff, and featured a hilarious improvisational voiceover from Brooks, and it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.

The Critic is three and a half minutes of abstract animation, which was in vogue at the time. The animation was handled by Bob Heath, in mockery of artists like Oscar Fischinger and Hans Richter. While the abstract images move around the screen to music, we hear the voice of Mel, playing an elderly, Jewish, New York character who is sitting in the audience. The character is not unlike The 2000-Year-Old Man, and as you might expect, he does not have a high appreciation for modern art.