Eight Crazy Nights (2002) on Netflix

PG-1320021h 16mAnimation Comedy Musical

Davey Stone, a 33-year-old alcoholic with a criminal record, is hauled before a judge on the first night of Hanukkah. Whitey Duvall, an elderly volunteer referee, offers him one last chance.

Netflix1.6/5
IMDb5.3/1028,633 votes
Rotten Tomatoes12%

Trailer

Plot summary

Davey Stone is 33, drinks heavily, and has a record of petty crime. In Dukesberry, New Hampshire, his neighbors have run out of patience with him. When the holiday begins, he stands before a judge over offenses that include dining and dashing, indecent exposure and damage to public property. Whitey Duvall, an eccentric, aging volunteer referee from the youth basketball league Davey once played in, persuades the judge to give him another route: community service as a referee-in-training. The judge warns that any further crime before his time with the league ends means at least ten years in prison. Davey needles the players at his first game, and Whitey suffers a seizure that halts play. Whitey then takes him to the mall, where he meets Jennifer Friedman, a childhood crush who has moved back to town with her son Benjamin.

Cast

Show all 20 cast

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Eight Crazy Nights (2002)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Director Seth Kearsley said the notorious scene of a deer eating feces, and Whitey's original higher-pitched, more grating voice, were both meant to be cut from the film but were kept after focus group screenings, with only Whitey's voice ultimately lowered; some of the movie's brand product placements were also used without the companies' permission.
The film's title comes straight from Adam Sandler's earlier "The Chanukah Song," which jokes that Hanukkah beats Christmas because "instead of one day of presents, we get eight crazy nights," and a new version of the song plays over the closing credits.
Eight Crazy Nights was animated mainly by Meatball Animation, whose staff reportedly came largely from Fox Animation Studios and Warner Bros. Feature Animation after those traditional 2D studios closed during Hollywood's shift to 3D; it remained Adam Sandler's only animated film until Hotel Transylvania in 2012, and the only traditionally animated one he has been involved with.
Adam Sandler was nominated for the 2002 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for both Eight Crazy Nights and Mr. Deeds, even as he separately won a Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie for this film.
The soundtrack contains a deleted song called "At the Mall", sung by Whitey as he strolls through the mall in an alternate opening that was included on the DVD release, and the album was later pressed onto vinyl in 2021 for the Vinyl Me, Please record club.