Category: Film and TV

Enfant terrible Michael Moore, producer of the films Bowling for Columbine and the new Bush-bash Farenheight 9-11, has recently been accused of breaking two of the Ten Commandments, specifically the ones involving theft and lying.

Ray Bradbury, author of the classic dystopian sci-fi novel Farenheight 451, is hopping mad that Moore sideswiped his novel’s title and is assuing him of ripping it off. (NOTE: Bradbury is so mad the he us a . . . uh . . . colorful phrase to describe Moore.)

Regarding Moore’s receipt of standing ovations and the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) award at the Cannes film festival in the enfant terrible nation of France, Bradbury states:

“I have won prizes in different places and they are mostly meaningless. The people there hate us, which is why they gave him the d’Or. It’s a meaningless prize.”

Meanwhile, Conservative commentator Fred Barnes is accusing Moore of breaking the commandment against lying. In his book Stupid White Men, Moore recounted a phone call that showed Barnes acting like . . . well . . . . a stupid (and hypocritical) white man who didn’t know what The Iliad and The Odyssey are. Barnes flatly denies that the phone call ever took place and said Moore made it up. He writes:

The only problem is none of this is true. It never happened. Moore is a liar. He made it up. It’s a fabrication on two levels. One, I’ve never met Moore or even talked to him on the phone. And, two, I read both “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” in my first year at the University of Virginia.

Makes one wonder what other things in Moore’s work may be made up.

I don’t know if anybody out there gets the cable network TVLand (a spinoff of Nick at Night). I suspect that I am one of about six people who do get it.

Well, if you’re one of the lucky six, this weekend they’re having an Addams Family marathon. That show is SO cool.

As a boy I loved it, though I could seldom catch it in syndication. I infinitely preferred it to The Munsters, which struck me as a gaudy, less creative knockoff of The Addams Family. In the years since, I’ve decided that I *do* like The Munsters, but The Addams Family still has a kind of sophistication and subtlety that the Munsters didn’t.

The Munsters were all established types of monsters: Hermann was a Frankenstein monster, Lily and Granpa were vampires, and Eddie was a werewolf. Then there was Cousin Marilyn, the drop-dead gorgeous ugly duckling of the family.

The Addamses, by contrast, defy categorization. Morticia is vaguely Vampira-like, but she isn’t a vampire. Lurch is vaguely Frankenstein monster-ish, but he isn’t a Frankenstein monster. Gomez and the children aren’t monstrous in appearance at all, and Uncle Fester, Cousin Itt, and Thing defy classification. The only Addams that approximates an established stereotype is Grandmama, who is a hag.

The humor on The Addams Family also is more subtle than that on The Munsters. The writers didn’t go for as many predictable jokes. Thus, for example, in one episode this weekend Morticia offered a visitor to the house a dish of brazed giraffe whereas Lily Munster might have offered a wolfsbane casserole or something. Brazed giraffe is odd and exotic without being predictable and invoking a cliche.

That seems to be the main difference between the two oddball families (both of whom got their serieses in the same year: 1964). The Munsters are a fun romp through established monster motifs (mostly derivative of the 1930s and ’40s Universal monster movies), while The Addams Family is a quirky, understated, never-quite-predictable look at a family from The Twilight Zone.

One thing both shows have going for them is wicked cool main title sequences. The Munsters’ theme has those hard-driving (for 1964) electric guitars and saxophones, while The Addams Family has the lively harpsichord and finger snapping.

Both families also are functional, despite their oddballness. The family members care about each other, the mother and father in each are in love, and everbody has a kind of quirky zest for life. Gomez Addams (played by John Astin, father of Sean Astin or “Samwise Gamgee” from The Lord of the Rings movies) in particular seems to be thoroughly enjoying life with a passion that sometimes borders on mania.

When I was a boy, one of my favorite aunts (who reminds me of a non-spooky, Texas-accented version of Morticia, if that makes any sense) once compared my sense of humor to that of Charles Addams, the cartoonist on whose work the series is based. Maybe that’s why I like the show so much.

Now if they’d just put it out on DVD. It only ran two seasons, so it wouldn’t take much work to put the whole thing out. Just two, one-season volumes. Since TVLand has started releasing DVD sets of the shows it broadcasts, maybe it’ll put this one out. If so, I’ll get my copies pronto!

The last few weeks we here in California have been bombarded by ads for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s California Adventure theme park.

Don’t know if you’re seeing these ads in the rest of the country, but they’re all over the place here.

Now, as this photo essay, it’s Disney head Michael Eisner’s turn in the Tower of Terror, the ultra-expensive ride he has been backing to bring bucks into Disney’s latest lackluster theme park.

Apparently, the California Adventure is a cost-cut, trimmed-down version of what was originally envisioned to be a much larger park, but the reaction of the public has been “ho-hum.” That’s my reaction, too. The concept of “California” just doesn’t send me, and it hasn’t been paired conceptually with the concept of “Adventure” since the 1890s.

In any event, the photo essay–taken this past Memorial Day–shows very few people seem to have the park resonating for them, either.

Terror time for Michael Eisner.

This is the theatrical version, which will have to do for a few months until the extended version is out.

Already have mine!

This is the theatrical version, which will have to do for a few months until the extended version is out.

Already have mine!

A real one, two punch on the new Fox fearfest The Day After Tomorrow. First, a Fox News critic takes the film apart from a cinematic angle, then the senior environmental fellow of the Cato Institute (who seems to believe in global warming) takes it apart from a scientific angle.

The latter also confirms something that I’d suspected: The film is based on a book by Art Bell and Whitley Streiber with a similar premise. That gives the movie enough camp factor to tempt me to see it, but not if it’s as bad a cinematic experience as the Fox News critic says.

A real one, two punch on the new Fox fearfest The Day After Tomorrow. First, a Fox News critic takes the film apart from a cinematic angle, then the senior environmental fellow of the Cato Institute (who seems to believe in global warming) takes it apart from a scientific angle.

The latter also confirms something that I’d suspected: The film is based on a book by Art Bell and Whitley Streiber with a similar premise. That gives the movie enough camp factor to tempt me to see it, but not if it’s as bad a cinematic experience as the Fox News critic says.

I recently saw the movie Van Helsing, which is basically a two hour car chase disguised as a monster movie (and which doesn’t have a PG-13 rating for nothing). There are many religious elements of the movie, which might be boiled down to the summary: “Catholics = Good; Monsters = Bad.” Despite the non-stop action and the film’s other flaws (including a cleric who is implied to break his promise of chastity), it was kind of refreshing to see a movie where the heroes unashamedly pray to God for help–and get it.

I won’t do a full review now, but I thought I would point out that some folks in the world still take monsters very seriously, including vampires.

Consider this recent story from Romania about how locals are angry that the police are trying to stop them from slaying vampires.

Or consider this story from last year about enraged villagers in Malawi who staged riots and attacked a government official (as well as three Catholic priests) on the belief that their government was consorting with vampires.

Kind of makes you glad you’re living in America, doesn’t it?

On the other hand, who wouldn’t be upset if they thought their government leaders were consorting with vampires? Sounds like a case for Mulder and Scully to look into.

Finally! Johnny Quest is on DVD!

If you’re of the right age, you know without me even telling you that Johnny Quest used to be the coolest thing going on Saturday morning–by far!

In case you aren’t lucky enough to remember Johnny Quest, the series was a thirty minute action/adventure cartoon that started airing back in 1964. It instantly became a classic, and it has remained famous for the last forty years. The main cast includes:

• Dr. Benton Quest–a SCIENTIST (not specializing in any particular kind of
  science, just whatever the episode was about that week) who globetrots, solving
  mysteries for the U.S. intelligence community.
• Johnny Quest–his intelligent, irrepressible son who is drawn into the
  adventures by his father’s globetrotting.
• Roger "Race" Bannon–a government agent assigned to protect Johnny to keep
  him from being kidnapped and used to blackmail his father.
• Hadji–Johnny’s best friend, an orphaned boy from India, and
• Bandit–Johnny’s irrepressible, comic-relief dog.

Man, Johnny Quest was cool! The series was drawn on a limited, 1964 TV animation budget, so it used limited animation techniques in order to avoid breaking the budget, but it used the animation in creative and striking ways that make it far more interesting to look at than typical TV animation. It features the intriguing, stylistic designs of animator Alex Toth (who also designed Space Ghost and other classic animation series of the period) and detailed backgrounds that are covered with detail. The series’ premise takes the characters to exotic locations around the globe and confronts them with powerful, sometimes supernatural threats–further adding to the visual dynamism of the series.

Also outstanding is the writing. The scripts are intelligent and (despite the fantastic premise of the series) far more realistic than most animated series. Some of the stuff in the scripts would never make it onto Saturday morning TV today. Consider:

In one episode, Johnny, Hadji, and Race are in a South American jungle when they counter a panther who is about to kill a native man. Race has only a second to act, so to save the man he SHOOTS THE PANTHER. Notice that I didn’t say “stuns the panther with a sonic disruptor pistol.” He SHOOTS IT WITH A RIFLE. Then, rather than letting the boys approach the native, who has the panther laying at his feet, Race tells them to stay where they are and then he SHOOTS THE PANTHER AGAIN to make SURE it’s dead. (Remember: There’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal.)

Yes! That’s what you’re SUPPOSED to do in that situation! Save human life and keep it safe, even if it means killing an animal–a valuable lesson in life (one that everybody used to learn) that you’d NEVER see on a modern, politically correct, eco-friendly, Captain Planet-y cartoon.

What a breath of fresh air a show like Johnny Quest is after years of agenda-driven pablum in animated form. It’s striking, intelligent, focused–and even delightfully scary at times for a boy of a certain age. It stresses virtues like loyalty, determination, inventiveness, and facing one’s fears–and it does so without preaching at the audience. The heroes display these virtues naturally while the series stays focused on the STORY instead of wallowing in introspection and self-doubt before finally summoning up the courage to do the right thing.

The current DVD set includes ALL the original Johnny Quest episodes (despite the misleading “Complete First Season” label; the manufacturer apparently is treating a 1986 sequel series as the “second season”), so when you buy this you’ll be getting all the favorite episodes you remember from childhood.

Whether you want to revive memories of Johnny Quest from your own childhood, want to share it with your own, appropriately-aged children, or appreciate it for the first time, hop on board the hovercraft and watch Johnny and the gang face a truckload of evil scientists, enemy agents, and wicked cool monsters.

BUY IT!

Finally! Johnny Quest is on DVD!

If you’re of the right age, you know without me even telling you that Johnny Quest used to be the coolest thing going on Saturday morning–by far!

In case you aren’t lucky enough to remember Johnny Quest, the series was a thirty minute action/adventure cartoon that started airing back in 1964. It instantly became a classic, and it has remained famous for the last forty years. The main cast includes:

• Dr. Benton Quest–a SCIENTIST (not specializing in any particular kind of

  science, just whatever the episode was about that week) who globetrots, solving

  mysteries for the U.S. intelligence community.

• Johnny Quest–his intelligent, irrepressible son who is drawn into the

  adventures by his father’s globetrotting.

• Roger "Race" Bannon–a government agent assigned to protect Johnny to keep

  him from being kidnapped and used to blackmail his father.

• Hadji–Johnny’s best friend, an orphaned boy from India, and
• Bandit–Johnny’s irrepressible, comic-relief dog.

Man, Johnny Quest was cool! The series was drawn on a limited, 1964 TV animation budget, so it used limited animation techniques in order to avoid breaking the budget, but it used the animation in creative and striking ways that make it far more interesting to look at than typical TV animation. It features the intriguing, stylistic designs of animator Alex Toth (who also designed Space Ghost and other classic animation series of the period) and detailed backgrounds that are covered with detail. The series’ premise takes the characters to exotic locations around the globe and confronts them with powerful, sometimes supernatural threats–further adding to the visual dynamism of the series.

Also outstanding is the writing. The scripts are intelligent and (despite the fantastic premise of the series) far more realistic than most animated series. Some of the stuff in the scripts would never make it onto Saturday morning TV today. Consider:

In one episode, Johnny, Hadji, and Race are in a South American jungle when they counter a panther who is about to kill a native man. Race has only a second to act, so to save the man he SHOOTS THE PANTHER. Notice that I didn’t say “stuns the panther with a sonic disruptor pistol.” He SHOOTS IT WITH A RIFLE. Then, rather than letting the boys approach the native, who has the panther laying at his feet, Race tells them to stay where they are and then he SHOOTS THE PANTHER AGAIN to make SURE it’s dead. (Remember: There’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal.)

Yes! That’s what you’re SUPPOSED to do in that situation! Save human life and keep it safe, even if it means killing an animal–a valuable lesson in life (one that everybody used to learn) that you’d NEVER see on a modern, politically correct, eco-friendly, Captain Planet-y cartoon.

What a breath of fresh air a show like Johnny Quest is after years of agenda-driven pablum in animated form. It’s striking, intelligent, focused–and even delightfully scary at times for a boy of a certain age. It stresses virtues like loyalty, determination, inventiveness, and facing one’s fears–and it does so without preaching at the audience. The heroes display these virtues naturally while the series stays focused on the STORY instead of wallowing in introspection and self-doubt before finally summoning up the courage to do the right thing.

The current DVD set includes ALL the original Johnny Quest episodes (despite the misleading “Complete First Season” label; the manufacturer apparently is treating a 1986 sequel series as the “second season”), so when you buy this you’ll be getting all the favorite episodes you remember from childhood.

Whether you want to revive memories of Johnny Quest from your own childhood, want to share it with your own, appropriately-aged children, or appreciate it for the first time, hop on board the hovercraft and watch Johnny and the gang face a truckload of evil scientists, enemy agents, and wicked cool monsters.

BUY IT!