kraakpott Spoiler ahead. There are stories you can tell and ideas you can raise in animation or science fiction that are too outrageous for a live action picture set in the present day. Compare this picture to "This Side of Paradise" (a Star Trek The Original Series episode, 1967). They're both parables about lysergic acid diethylamide and The Merry Pranksters. Roddenberry's story ends safely, with the trippers returning to "reality," but WSBAFG leaves open (that's the spoiler, sorry) the possibility that the "disease" might prevail and the world might be transformed. The topic is even more untouchable now than it was in '68. No distributor is going to risk the modern blacklists with a title that points out the real motivations of the War on Some Drugs. You'll know the War is over when this movie comes out on DVD and streaming.

rotatingframe Although the cast and script make this piece rather like "Beach Blanket Bingo in the Bronx", the internal analysis of the Beat philosophy makes this a classic comedic excursion into 20th century mentality.Fairly ordinary turns by Peppard and Moore are turned, by clever directorial work into a glib and pleasing commentary on the Cold War, American values and the paranoia of being the stalking horse of the Free World.Mary Tyler Moore is wonderful as a free-thinking positivist drawn by her boyfriend (George Peppard) into the grim world of "Hoffnungslosigkeit", the theory of Hopelessness proposed by a renowned German existentialist thinker.Given that your parents were either Beats, Hipsters or Hippys, you will wonder how you were ever conceived....

simnia-1 I almost can't find anything significant to criticize about this film. Amigo the toucan is as cute as can be, the humor is good, the mood is very positive, the scientific foundation is plausible, the political implications are right on target, the fragments of '60s psychedelic music are good, and there are deep philosophical issues underlying it all. Excellent! The only part I regard as a minor fault is that after the drop-out philosophers become euphoric with the happiness virus, they want to cut their hair, get jobs, and get married. The implication is that American society's current conventions are the optimal route to happiness. Sorry, but I can't buy that. Other than that one lapse of insight, though, the film is well thought-out, charming, and humorous.Some of the humorous high points are Liz (Mary Tyler Moore) giggling hysterically as the toucan hidden under her dress begins tickling her, Pete (George Peppard) putting on his German philosopher disguise in order to infect as many friends as possible with the airborne happiness virus, a morose beatnik lady called "The Sack" who lives with a sack permanently draped over her head, a hotheaded Greek freighter captain who undergoes a complete personality change, and the voyeuristic officials watching a couple on their honeymoon night via hidden cameras with suspiciously excessive eagerness.In this era of explicit torture films and child murder films, it's practically a sin that such an upbeat, positive film about happiness isn't even available while all those other depressing movies are. This film is definitely among my top 20 favorite films of all time.

jombie-2 What a terrific movie...and a profound comment on society in general...A timeless story, it could hold up very well if remade (a la Psycho). But since hardly anyone has seen the original, it would be a HUGE hit this time around... Amigo is the best !!! The title says it all-What's so bad about feeling good ?