Because it is not a movie. It is not even a play or a coherent video project. "Fun in Balloon Land" appears to be an amateur's video that was somehow released as a feature length film at some point in the distant past. This is genuinely one of the weirdest things I've ever seen and I am not exaggerating.
So the "movie" begins with an attempt at a story, a little kid falls asleep and dreams of going the eponymous balloon land. In balloon land, he encounters dancing children, balloon people, a lobster wearing jogging pants and really offensive caricatures of Native Americans. After that, the film turns into a torturously long recap of a Thanksgiving Day Parade and the balloons involved. And at the very end, a "guessing game" where the narrator calls out a bunch of random nonsense and instructs the viewer to talk to the TV screen.
This is genuinely one of the weirdest things I have seen in my entire life and I am not joking. This video feels wrong. It feels like found footage of a missing persons case. There is no direction here, no attempt to be coherent, not even a dedicated storyline. I suspect that it was made to advertise the Big Balloon company whose work is all over, but who in the world was inspired to buy anything from them? Their balloons are grotesque, they are disgusting and freaky, even for 60s standards. But why the weirdness with the kids? Why is one little boy in golden short shorts hanging out with adult men and women dressed like mermaids? Why are there so many zooms and close ups focusing on the kids at the parade and no one else? And worst of all why is there a lingering upskirt shot on a little girl who is at most 7 years old? That last one is especially bad because she and the boy she's next too can see the cameraman and seems to be uncomfortable. I'll get back to those two later.
The parade, as I mentioned, is bizarre and goes on way too long. But the craziest part is the narration. Presumably by Dorothy Brown Green, who has done other weird movies such as "Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny" and "Santa's Christmas Elf." But here she sounds out of her mind, as if she's drugged. Constantly slurring, going on these crazy tangents about the balloon animals and their backstories that often get sexual. Here's something I noticed: her narration only starts and stops when the balloons are in the shot, which means that Dorothy was never there in person. There was just a cameraman silently watching the crowd and zooming in on the kids in attendance while at the same time doing a horrible job actually capturing the parade. If the balloon company financed all this, what the hell was he there for if not to capture the balloons properly?
Anyway, once that's over it's back to the weird vibes. One thing I noticed was that those two kids I mentioned, one boy and one girl, show up a lot. I believe that they were related to someone who made the film and thus were part of the "production" of the movie. They only catch my eye because as happy as they sound and appear, we don't see them from the front most of the time. Just the back. I suspect that they weren't actually excited to be there and you'd be able to tell by their faces so they were instructed to cheer.
Overall, this is a horrible film and it deserves all the flack it gets. But I am so enraptured by it right now that I would encourage whoever's reading this to go and watch it again just to see if you notice anything odd like I have.
Film I don't know what this is
Because it is not a movie. It is not even a play or a coherent video project. "Fun in Balloon Land" appears to be an amateur's video that was somehow released as a feature length film at some point in the distant past. This is genuinely one of the weirdest things I've ever seen and I am not exaggerating.
So the "movie" begins with an attempt at a story, a little kid falls asleep and dreams of going the eponymous balloon land. In balloon land, he encounters dancing children, balloon people, a lobster wearing jogging pants and really offensive caricatures of Native Americans. After that, the film turns into a torturously long recap of a Thanksgiving Day Parade and the balloons involved. And at the very end, a "guessing game" where the narrator calls out a bunch of random nonsense and instructs the viewer to talk to the TV screen.
This is genuinely one of the weirdest things I have seen in my entire life and I am not joking. This video feels wrong. It feels like found footage of a missing persons case. There is no direction here, no attempt to be coherent, not even a dedicated storyline. I suspect that it was made to advertise the Big Balloon company whose work is all over, but who in the world was inspired to buy anything from them? Their balloons are grotesque, they are disgusting and freaky, even for 60s standards. But why the weirdness with the kids? Why is one little boy in golden short shorts hanging out with adult men and women dressed like mermaids? Why are there so many zooms and close ups focusing on the kids at the parade and no one else? And worst of all why is there a lingering upskirt shot on a little girl who is at most 7 years old? That last one is especially bad because she and the boy she's next too can see the cameraman and seems to be uncomfortable. I'll get back to those two later.
The parade, as I mentioned, is bizarre and goes on way too long. But the craziest part is the narration. Presumably by Dorothy Brown Green, who has done other weird movies such as "Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny" and "Santa's Christmas Elf." But here she sounds out of her mind, as if she's drugged. Constantly slurring, going on these crazy tangents about the balloon animals and their backstories that often get sexual. Here's something I noticed: her narration only starts and stops when the balloons are in the shot, which means that Dorothy was never there in person. There was just a cameraman silently watching the crowd and zooming in on the kids in attendance while at the same time doing a horrible job actually capturing the parade. If the balloon company financed all this, what the hell was he there for if not to capture the balloons properly?
Anyway, once that's over it's back to the weird vibes. One thing I noticed was that those two kids I mentioned, one boy and one girl, show up a lot. I believe that they were related to someone who made the film and thus were part of the "production" of the movie. They only catch my eye because as happy as they sound and appear, we don't see them from the front most of the time. Just the back. I suspect that they weren't actually excited to be there and you'd be able to tell by their faces so they were instructed to cheer.
Overall, this is a horrible film and it deserves all the flack it gets. But I am so enraptured by it right now that I would encourage whoever's reading this to go and watch it again just to see if you notice anything odd like I have.