One of the wildest, funniest movies of all time, a 25th anniversary version of National Lampoon's Animal House comes out on DVD tomorrow with bonus material "Where Are They Now? A Delta Alumni Update," "Did You Know That (Universal Animated Anecdotes)," and "The Yearbook: An Animal House Reunion."

Animal House is the only work of popular art to successfully recreate the empowerment of youth that was the impetus behind the rock 'n' roll explosion of 1955. All of those pent up juices running rampant within all of those adolescent bodies, hyperheating themselves into gas, had to blow eventually. When the sound connected to the feeling, that stuff blew out of there like lava out of Mt. St. Helens. Dust from Mt. St. Helens circled the earth for years after the blast. The dust from 1955 has yet to settle.

Animal House, set in the early '60s, recreates the conditions under which rock 'n' roll was launched. Larry (Tom Hulse) and Kent (Stephen Furst) are Freshmen at Faber College and are rushing the fraternities. The first one they visit is Omega. "Now I'm not going to say that Omega is the best house on campus, but a lot of outstanding guys figure they'll pledge Omega or they won't pledge at all. We do have more than our share of campus leaders. Something that never looks bad on your permanent record, Chip," who is Kevin Bacon in his first screen role, setting up the first degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Kent is oblivious to the fact that he couldn't possibly fit into this rarefied social environment, where the Social Dance is as complex as a gavotte. Larry is painfully aware that he is an "unacceptable candidate" at the Omega house. He and Kent are, after all, "a wimp and a blimp."

So they press on, Larry discouraged, Kent ever optimistic. Larry's problem is that his social ambitions far outstrip his social prospects.

Kent - "Look no sweat, my brother Fred was a Delta, that makes me a legacy. They gotta take me, it's like their law. Don't worry, I'll put in a good word for you."
Larry - "Great, I heard Delta is the worst house on campus."

This is the penultimate moment. In my birth of rock 'n' roll analogy, this pause represents the days just before The Blackboard Jungle was released. The calm before the storm. The world would never be the same after the next instant.

In real life, the revolution came with the "Rock Around the Clock" intro to Blackboard Jungle. In Animal House, the change comes as the severed lower torso of a mannequin comes hurtling through a second story window of the Delta house, liberating the sound of "Louie, Louie" from within. The dam is burst. The forces of anarchy and social dislocation swirl and expand to reach their full height, like the forces unleased from Pandora's box.

The next figure that they meet is the embodiment of these forces, the embodiment of rock 'n' roll: John Belushi as Bluto. He pees on their feet, not out of maliciousness but out of a preoccupation with the responsibilities encumbent upon such an archetypal figure. He takes his job seriously.