National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis. The film is about a misfit group of fraternity men who challenge their college's administrators.

The screenplay was adapted by Douglas Kenney, Chris Miller and Harold Ramis from stories written by Miller and published in National Lampoon magazine based on Miller's experiences in the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity at Dartmouth College (the character Pinto is a thinly veiled version of Miller, whose actual fraternity nickname was, in fact, "Pinto"), Ramis' experiences in the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University in St. Louis, and producer Ivan Reitman's experiences at Delta Upsilon at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

Of the young lead actors, only John Belushi was an established star, but even he had not yet appeared in a movie. Several including Karen Allen, Tom Hulce and Kevin Bacon were just beginning their careers, and within a few years would star in such popular films as Amadeus, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Footloose.

Upon its initial release, Animal House received generally mixed reviews from critics, but Time and Roger Ebert did proclaim it one of the year's best. Filmed for $2.7 million, it is one of the most profitable movies of all time; since its initial release, Animal House has garnered an estimated return of more than $141 million in the form of video and DVDs, not including merchandising.

The film launched the gross-out genre. In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed Animal House "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. This film was #1 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. It was #36 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list of the 100 best American comedies. In 2008, Empire magazine selected Animal House as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.

I love the toga party.

No, but seriously, this movie is tame (now) but funny as hell.

Ebert's review is awful. He gives it four stars, but, he makes so many excuses to justify it - the same kind of excuses he doesn't make for a similarly funny movie like Old School or Van Wilder.

A-

Finally saw it.

I liked it, but... I was a little disappointed. I've heard things like "best comedy film ever," and I didn't think it even came close. But it's still pretty funny.

B-ish.