On land, sea, and air Buster Keaton delivers gag after gag at a rapid fire pace in The Baloonatic. Moving from an amusement park to the great outdoors the hapless Buster for once ends blissfully, this time among the clouds.Once again the Great Stone Face endures a quite a pounding as a bear, a waterfall, a runaway balloon and a corpulent young lady put his life in peril. Accessing both urban and rural stages Keaton squeezes into the short's brief (23 min.) running time some tiny gems especially in the field and stream segment. Keaton's gadgets (a three piece canoe) and methodology catching fish along with his narrow escape finale are calamitously hysterical and ever more so by the implacable response of the irrepressible Buster. Phyllis Haver like the love interests in other Keaton comedies endures some roughhousing well enough and shows the right amount of snobbish imperiousness to give as good as she gets. The Balloonatic is one short satisfying high.

This minor offering from Keaton is really just a collection of sketches cobbled together to make a 20 minute short; as such, it lacks any cohesion and struggles to hold the viewer's interest despite containing a number of decent sight gags and Keaton's ever-reliable comic timing. In this one he finds himself atop a hot air balloon that has drifted from its moorings and which transports him deep into the countryside where he encounters young Phyllis Haver, a rather strapping young wench whose initial coolness towards him thaws after a number of escapades. There's very little that is memorable here, and probably the best moment is Keaton's reaction when he realises he is standing beneath a chute that dispatches visitors from the 'House of Trouble' fairground ride just after a heavy young lady has entered.

A BUSTER KEATON Silent Short.Intrepid Buster faces danger on land, on water & in the air - generally because of his disastrous attempts to impress lovely young women.THE BALLOONATIC - which actually gives very little screen time to the hot air balloon - is rather a jumble of disjointed (but funny) scenes which bare scant relation to each other. With any other star it would be easy to dismiss, but Keaton holds it all together (barely) by the sheer force of his undeniable talent and some very amusing moments. Highlight: the trajectory of a large lady sliding precipitately out of an amusement park's horror house causes some impact problems for Buster.Born into a family of Vaudevillian acrobats, Buster Keaton (1895-1966) mastered physical comedy at a very early age. An association with Fatty Arbuckle led to a series of highly imaginative short subjects and classic, silent feature-length films - all from 1920 to 1928. Writer, director, star & stuntman - Buster could do it all and his intuitive genius gave him almost miraculous knowledge as to the intricacies of film making and of what it took to please an audience. More akin to Fairbanks than Chaplin, Buster's films were full of splendid adventure, exciting derring-do and the most dangerous physical stunts imaginable. His theme of a little man against the world, who triumphs through bravery & ingenuity, dominates his films. Through every calamity & disaster, Buster remained the Great Stone Face, a stoic survivor in a universe gone mad.In the late 1920's Buster was betrayed by his manager/brother-in-law and his contract was sold to MGM, which proceeded to nearly destroy his career. Teamed initially with Jimmy Durante and eventually allowed small roles in mediocre comedies, Buster was for 35 years consistently given work far beneath his talent. Finally, before lung cancer took him at age 70, he had the satisfaction of knowing that his classic films were being rediscovered. Now, well past his centenary, Buster Keaton is routinely recognized & appreciated as one of cinema's true authentic geniuses. And he knew how to make people laugh...

With a promising beginning, Keaton finds himself atop a balloon, descends to the basket only to find there is no floor and then uniquely brings the balloon down to ground. What follows are a series of loosely connected and often amusing gags. However, the whole ends up being less than the sum of the individual parts. No compelling strand effectively connects these humorous moments. The movie is worth watching because Keaton's genius always offers the unexpected; it will, however, provoke chuckles rather than laughter.