KAFKA VS. ROB SCHNEIDER

To say that I'm not the biggest fan of Rob Schneider's work is probably an understatement.. There's just something about his humour that I don't get. Until recently, I put this down to the themes he chooses to deal with in his films.. Human metamorphosis has never really piqued my interest, regardless of whether the man involved is turning into an animal, a hot chick, or even a carrot. But then I stumbled across the works of Franz Kafka. In 1915, Kafka wrote one of the classic works of the 20th Century, Metamorphosis. In this short story, a man by the name of Gregor wakes up one morning to discover that he's been transformed into a giant insect.

As the piece progresses, it details his ongoing transformation, and how he learns to adjust to his newfound urges, body and senses. The crux of the story hangs on Gregor's ability (or inability) to deal with how other people now perceive him, and his struggle to adapt in a world where he has become an outcast. Essentially, Kafka uses this surreal concept to muse on the nature of disability, disfigurement, and other misfortunes which may invavriably alienate people from society. You can probably see where I'm going with this, so I'll save you the pain of having to go through a rather tedious segue way..


In the Rob Schneider film The Animal, the central character, Marvin, is injured in a car accident, and in the process of recuperation, his doctor slips him an animal organ or two. I'm not sure how commonplace this procedure is, but let's not get bogged down in details. Schneider's got the dog bladder, and thus the fun begins. Before you know it, he's leaping through the air catching frisbees in his mouth, hangin' large with monkeys at the local zoo, and sniffing a good few crotches along the way. Marvin's transformation is nowhere near as seemingly random as that of Kafka's Gregor, but if you minus the champagne comedy stylings of Schneider, you've basically got the same story.

So.. What's the deal? Is it possible that Schneider is attempting to bring the themes of Kafka's work to a broader audience? The answer would seem to be a resounding no, but then I could be missing something. Rob's films are frequently lumped in with those of Adam Sandler, and if you've ever seen their respective material on Saturday Night Live, you'll agree this is grossly unfair. Still, as good as Schneider's work on airplane peanuts was, I'm not entirely convinced he's got this sort of stuff in him.

Short of rifling through the three different audio commentaries available on The Animal DVD, I'm thinking this might be one of those mysteries best left unsolved. At the very least, it's an interesting example of how two people can pretty much get ahold of the same idea, and whilst one of them uses it to create a timeless work of art, the best the other can manage is a poorly crafted hodgepodge of forgettable one-liners. Though, it was written nearly a century ago, so I should probably cut the guy a little slack.