Something like Looney Tunes come to life, the film is bursting with colorful scenes, zany action, sight gags, slapstick, wordplay, irreverent humor and wild camera tricks. I have to applaud the energy and inventiveness, it's a unique, anarchic and bold film. However, it's still a bit obnoxious. Very little of the comedy appealed to my sense of humor. It's all too wacky and madcap. Like Hellzapoppin', I admire the spirit of it and had fun at times, but I doubt I'd ever sit through it again.

"An acquired taste, but for those who are big fans of challenging, chaotic new wave French cinema go wild."

A brash mix of slapstick and surrealism, it's like Looney Tunes on acid. A part of me feels its characters may be too insubstantial to justify feature length, and indeed a few of them are just plain obnoxious, but the sheer animated spirit and energy kept me laughing. It makes fun use of cinematic trickery, but still there's something holding it back from being great cinema.

funny, bizarre and one of the best visual interpretations of a work of literature so far

In the beginning of this movie, I was loving its frenetic, Looney Tunes style. But then it gets annoying.

awesome, hilarious, absurd comedy. the finale is among the best i've ever seen

The hyperactive style does get a bit tiring, but Malle's use of all these different techniques is just stunning and some of the sequences, especially the chases, are marvelous. I love the comparison to Looney Tunes, which is really quite accurate.

got unfortunately rather annoying in its last half an hour. still, 2/3 are very funny and inspiring.

Early Louis Malle film.

Inventive, but most of the sequences that seemed intended to be charming and free-spirited came across to this viewer as charmless and dated. Without doubt this is a minority opinion, but aside from a few moments I found the film painful and tedious, despite the fact the director is responsible for one of my all-time favourite movies (also a minority opinion).