The Balloonatic is always on a high when it comes to entertainment value present in Keaton shorts. For the first time, it begins with a close up shot of a spooked Keaton at The House of Trouble, a haunted house at an amusement park. As the camera zooms out of his face, we see him walk towards three different rooms, each time to be surprised by a spooky figure. Once he gets out of the house, he watches a stout lady enter the same place. She loves the haunted house so much she enters the second time. Keaton however moves on to another thrill and soon finds himself on top of a hot air balloon. The balloon crashes and Keaton lands on a tree. While fixing the balloon, he also goes to a lake and tries fishing; in his Keaton-esque manner, he tries to block the flow of water by placing a barricade rocks at the shallow point, only for the water to collect on the other side and soon crash into the barricade and take Keaton along. He encounters a girl who attacks him at first for coming in her way when she dives into the lake, but later becomes close to him. The ending takes you by surprise as you fully expect a disaster only to be baffled. That's the high point of The Balloonatic, another triumph in the joyful Keaton shorts.

This Buster Keaton short has a very good title. But as you will discover there really isn't much actual ballooning in it. As you might expect from a short film its pretty simplistic. It begins at a fun-house where Keaton accidentally hitches a ride in a hot air balloon. He is propelled miles away and winds up in the wilderness. He meets a girl out here who isn't initially too keen on him but together they get in to all manner of scrapes including some memorable scenes with grizzly bears.It would be fair to say that this is not a great feature. It doesn't have a very cohesive narrative and essentially boils down to a series of gags loosely connected into the synopsis above. It's really mainly recommended to fans of Keaton and/or silent slapstick in general. Others might be a bit underwhelmed.

The Baloonatic is a lightly amusing twenty minute short film that draws much of its comedy from loosely connected scenes which are slapstick, and mostly routine for Mr. Keaton. The story here revolves around a man, who as a result of his ever growing bad luck ends in the middle of an unfamiliar forest after a miscalculated ride on a stray hot-air balloon. It's a simple, short and relatively empty feature, outside of its comedic appeal, and so although Buster does well to bring the most out of his script, moments where the jokes fall flat can get a little tiresome. Again, a romantic subplot is consistently played underneath all the slapstick, and while it lacks any real solid involvement, nevertheless brings the entire feature together in a neat, cute and poignant manner; both funny and sweet. Regardless, if silent, short comedy films are your thing, then Keaton will be sure to please in some way or another throughout the twenty minutes, given that you care little for any other substance. By no means is this a classic, nor is it something you should go out of your way to see, but for historians and Buster Keaton fans alike, it's a small and welcome treat.For more of my reviews, please visit here: http://www.invocus.net

This is the only short feature of Buster Keaton's I have seen, it is funnier than I thought, what with the bear chases and the hot air baloon. However, it didn't seem as sophisticated, clever or as funny as "The General" or "Our Hospitality", it was lacking the usual clever, knowing edge of silent films e.g. Sunrise, The Kid. Which has now been replaced by CGI. Saying ll that, some of the stunts in it are extremely cool and really funny, perhaps the best introduction to Keaton. It is available on "Seven Chances" and on "Buster Keaton Shorts (Volume 1), along with Convict 22 and other things.Good, not brilliant, ****/****