Review: Achmed Saves America

CMT does this one right…

Spoilers Below

When I first heard that Jeff Dunham was producing an animated piece inspired by his world famous ”Achmed” character, I honestly thought that we were just going to get a bunch of lame setups for ”I KEEEL YOU!” punch lines. Thankfully, Achmed Saves America proved itself worthy and could have a fighting chance for best animated film of the year.

The premise of the movie mostly takes place in Americaville where Achmed ends up being confused for a French foreign exchange student named ”Claude” and as such is taken in by the Wilson family. It’s here where Achmed goes from being a terrorist hell-bent on blowing up whatever he can get his bones on, to that of a patriotic hero worthy of a parade. Eventually, the guy who ordered Achmed to set off a bomb in Americaville in the first place, Hassan, shows up to blow Achmed’s cover that he is not in anyway a foreign exchange student and is in fact a terrorist. This of course lands Achmed and Hassan on the run into Mexico and away from federal agents trying to haul in the terrorists. But, when Achmed gets word of the Wilson family being arrested for harboring a terrorist, he convinces Hassan that America is the home of free food and more importantly that the duo should  turn themselves in so that the American family he grew fond of doesn’t get put away for his wrong-doings.

For the most part, Achmed Saves America actually brings a very Looney Tunes-influenced setting where the laws of physics don’t always apply and big sticks of dynamite really don’t kill. Along the way we see a lot of the humor that Jeff Dunham is known for, that being jokes that pack a punch, but don’t obliterate. Dotted throughout the film are jokes at the expense of American folk-lore like Tom Cruise, fast food consumption, and how easy it really is to get live fire arms. And yes, a bunch more of Jeff’s characters, other than Achmed, make cameos in the film, but the one I really wanted to see, Achmed Jr., was nowhere to be found and you would have thought he would have showed up SOMEWHERE in a movie all about Achmed.

No one really blew me away with their voice acting with the exception of Jeff Dunham whom not only played Achmed, but also a number of the ancillary characters that we meet during Jeff’s journey. Tom Kenny (Brickleberry) probably played the most normal role of his entire life with his depiction of Wayne, with another nod going to André Sogliuzzo as the other terrorist ”Hassan” whom certainly had the unenviable task of turning a fierce bad guy into a lovable oaf.

The animation was a collaboration between Rough Draft and Bento Box, which means that when Jeff wanted to make an animated film, he wanted it done right and not surprisingly the special looked gorgeous. The characters are fleshy, the backgrounds occasionally give us the gift of gag, and the designers really did knock out of the park the look of the titular character in somehow finding the means to translate a live-action ”dummy” and turn him into a usable animated character.

I could go into detail about some of the scripted dialogue which seemed somewhat cliched with occasional jokes that have been done better elsewhere. But, given CMT’s recent track-record of screwing up good animation geared towards an older crowd, Achmed Saves America certainly helps the network point the needle in the right direction for future projects of this variety which I hope includes more of Jeff’s characters in future animated specials…starting with a sequel!