The Balloonatic (1923)

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.

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.

Buster Keaton was a man who liked to tinker with things and survive maelstroms. Both of these things come together in this short to tell the tale of a man who first gets trapped on a balloon, and then has to survive in nature in the middle of nowhere while trying to win the affection of the belle nearby.The beginning starts out in a carnival and isn't really that interesting. Surreal, to be sure, but after the audience figures out what's going on, most of the comedy of the situation doesn't work out as much. However, once Keaton gets on the balloon, it becomes a whole different story altogether, and definitely shows the inventiveness of such a comedic genius. When he's in the wild, as well, the situations he finds himself in is worth more than just a laugh.Overall it's definitely worth a good watch or two. Buster Keaton is the type of artist where everything he does is good enough to take a look-see, and definitely to rave about. Plus, being that this is a short, it's a quick thing you can watch with friends during a party or something. Highly recommended.--PolarisDiB

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.