Ventriloquist comedian Jeff Dunham’s Achmed the Dead Terrorist stars in this animated flick. The whole gimmick of ventriloquism is that you can see the ventriloquist and you can see the puppet, the animated format removes the spectacle of it all. It’s amazing to me that any ventriloquist would allow his characters to be turned into a cartoon character.

Achmed (Dunham) is a moronic terrorist that dies during a failed bombing mission. Now, he’s just a skeleton in a turban. When he gets hit by a plane, he gets taken to America. He ends up in the most innocent suburban American town imaginable where he initially plots to carry out terrorist acts. However, he finds himself falling in love with America and its people.

The Achmed the Dead Terrorist is a brilliant character. I’ve seen many of Dunham’s specials and the scenes with Achmed are usually the best. This movie arguably gives the character more freedom as he can move fully without Dunham needing to operate him. However, I miss seeing the character brought to life by Dunham’s skills on stage. Still, the character is very funny here. The other characters are not so impressive. The animation is also pretty poor. This looks even worse than an episode of “Family Guy”.

“Achmed Saves America” definitely has some funny parts. People who like the humour of shows such as “South Park” will laugh at many of the gags here. However, the lacklustre animation is disappointing and there also is not really enough of a story to justify the length of this film. As much as I enjoyed some of it, I just kept thinking that I’d have much preferred watching a regular special with Dunham doing the ventriloquist act in front of a large audience. I’m a big Jeff Dunham fan but this sadly isn’t his best work.