The Movie Career of Eric Idle
The Former Monty Python Star on Film
Sep 10, 2009 Jonathan Squirrell
When the cult television show Monty Python’s Flying Circus came to an end, the troupe continued to work together, both en masse and in smaller groups. The initial success they found with Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and the controversial Life of Brian (1979) allowed them some lee-way in Hollywood, both as writers and performers.
Eric Idle’s first foray into the film world without the full team still involved plenty of familiar faces. Yellowbeard (1983) a farcical pirate adventure, was written by Python Graham Chapman, along with another British comedy giant, Peter Cook, and the cast also featured another member of the Flying Circus, John Cleese.
Collaborating With The Monty Python Team
Yellowbeard
Later, in 1996, Idle worked in a film written by a third Python, Terry Jones. In fact The Wind in the Willows was not only written by Jones, he also directed the movie and starred as Mr Toad. Idle took the part of Ratty in a cast which also included Cleese and Michael Palin in smaller roles. This film did garner huge praise, but remains a charming family comedy.
Idle Provides Voices for Animated Characters
As well as appearing on-screen in numerous films, Idle has leant his distinctive voice to a wide range of animated characters. As early as 1986, long before a live action film was possible, he played Wreck-Gar in the animation The Transformers: The Movie. And if Idle seems a strange casting choice, the dramatis personae also included Leonard Nimoy and Orson Welles.
In 1998 Idle voiced Slyly the fox in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: The Movie, and he followed that performance with another animated film from the opposite end of the spectrum, providing the voice of Dr Vosknocker for South Park, Bigger, Longer, Uncut in 1999. A year later he was heard and not seen on film again, voicing Waddlesworth in the Disney live action sequel 102 Dalmations. He also narrated another live action adventure Ella Enchanted in 2004.
Idle also had a cameo in the Dreamworks hit Shrek the Third (2007) which also featured the voice of John Cleese. Idle played Merlin, a role he is set to reprise in Shrek Forever After, due in 2010. A less successful animated appearance came in Delgo (2008) in which Idle voiced a character named Spig.
Highs and Lows in Idle’s Film Catalogue
Idle’s live action performances have, on the whole, been in lesser films. Too Much Sun (1990) which was directed by Robert Downey Snr and starred Robert Downey Jnr, marked the start of a run of poor films for Idle. Missing Pieces (1991) An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997) Dudley Do-Right (1999) and Hollywood Homicide (2003) were all poorly received, despite featuring Idle alongside Hollywood stars such as Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford.
However, it has not been all bad for Idle. He made a cameo as a bike rider in the popular Chevy Chase vehicle National Lampoon’s European Vacation in 1985, and found some success with the family fantasy Casper in 1995. Between those two performances, he made what was probably his best performance in a leading role, starring alongside Robbie Coltrane in the hit British comedy Nuns on the Run in 1990. The crime caper, which saw inept gangsters Idle and Coltrane hiding out in a Nunnery, proved that Idle could star without his fellow Python’s, although it is probably fair to say he has never made a truly classic film without them.
In 1988 Idle had better fortune with The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen, in which he played the Baron’s henchman in an anarchic tale of sea-monsters and lunar travel. This film was written and directed by the Python’s special effects genius, Terry Gilliam, and was nominated for effects, costume, art direction and make-up Oscars.
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