Spin's "Exposure" section, film column
Sat., Jan. 7, 2006. 1:30 AM
Dr Dreidel - Adam Sandler gives cartoons a whirl in his animated musical, Eight Crazy Nights
by Jacob Kalish
Adam Sandler has always been an animated character, but for once, everyone else in his movie will be, too. In a gambit only the Waterboy might be able to comprehend, the Punch-Drunk Love star's second offering in less than two months is a cartoon musical about Chanukah, titled Eight Crazy Nights (opening November 27). But at a time when you're trying to convince the world you're a serious thespian, why go the Hanna-Barbera route? "Because this way Adam can look really muscular and handsome," jokes cowriter and producer Allen Covert, a Sandler associate since Airheads. "Also, we can have characters who look like our relatives."
Aside from satirizing family members, the Crazy Nights team wanted to create a Chanukah/Christmas flick with the feel of the holiday specials they'd grown up watching ad infinitum on television -- "something with a strong message and some shelf life," says director Seth Kearsley. "Something that could air on TV every season." Of course, the final product has been Sandlerized -- rated PG-13 for poop jokes, heavy drinking, and prodigious belching. In the heartwarming tale, Sandler is the voice of Davey Stone, a hard-boozing troublemaker who's been a no-goodnik ever since his parents died when he was a kid. When Davey accidentally destroys his hometown's ice sculptures in a drunken snowmobile accident, he is put in the care of kindheared, doddering senior citizen Whitey Duvall (also played by Sandler) and his half-sister Eleanore (Sandler yet again), and it's up to the elderly pair to teach him the true meaning of Judaism's greatest gift-giving bonanza.
With a supportcast that features Saturday Night Live alums Jon Lovitz, Rob Schneider, and Kevin Nealon and a soundtrack that includes six original numbers and a regiggered version of Sandler's seasonal standard "The Chanukah Song," all involved are expecting a payoff sweeter than a bottle of Manischewitz. "This is going to be the biggest Chanukah movie in history," vows Covert. "With no competition from anybody, ever."