Pee-wee's Big Adventure

Hey guess what? It's my 50th review. So since it is my 50th review I think I will review one of my favorite movies, Pee-wee's Big Adventure. So it seems like time to start, so lets get going. Also at the end, instead of a cartoon I have put in one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes comics. Now as long as Bill Watterson doesn't sue me I should be fine.

Pee-wee Herman (Manicus Chuldus)

We meet an eccentric man-child named Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) who lives in what can only be described as a re-purposed junkyard. After eating breakfast he takes out his wacky bike. But his neighbor Francis (Mark Holton) wants to buy the bike: Pee-wee refuses. So Pee-wee goes to the mall, locks his bike up and goes to the magic shop and the bike shop. While at the bike shop he talks to his kind-of girlfriend Dottie (Elizabeth Daily). But when he gets back to his bike it is stolen (dramatic music). Pee-wee goes nuts and will do any thing to get it back.

Large Marge (Nightmareicus Fuleicus)

So he goes to a con-artist named Madam Ruby (Erica Yohn) who tells him that his bike is in the basement of the Alamo. He hitches a ride with an escaped convict named Mickey (Judd Omen). While on the road Pee-wee almost crashes the car and Mickey decides to leave him on the side of the road. A trucker named Large Marge (Alice Nunn) picks him up. But after making a scary face, Pee-wee gets scared and escapes. He stops by a roadside diner. While at the diner he meets a waitress named Simone (Diane Salinger) who wants to move to France, but her boyfriend Andy (Jon Harris) doesn't want her to. Pee-wee convinces her to go regardless of what her boyfriend says. After that Pee-wee hitches a ride on a train. The train makes it to San Antonio. But it turns out that there is no basement in the Alamo. So Pee-wee doesn't know what to do. He goes to a bar where some bikers hang out. After making friends with the bikers they give him a bike. But then he crashes and wakes up in the hospital.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

While watching TV in the hospital it turns out that his bike was given to a child actor shooting a movie in Warner Brother Studios. He makes it to the studios and finds his bike. So he dresses as a nun, steps in and ruins several different movies being filmed. He escapes with his bike, but a pet shop is on fire. So he goes in and saves all the animals. The police find him and take him away. But the head of the studio says  that he wants to make Pee-wee's story into a movie. The movie ends with Pee-wee, Dottie, and all the other people he met gathering to watch the movie (which is nothing like what happened). The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

Pee-wee's Big Adventure is a great movie. It is really funny in how over the top and silly it is. The characters are really memorable. It's one of those movies that makes so little sense that you can't help finding it enjoyable. One complaint that I have is that there are some scenes in the movie that could have been cut. Like there is a scene in a rodeo that I skipped and there is another scene where he invades Francis's house. Other then those needless scenes this is a very good comedy-adventure. This has been my 50th review and i I hope to make many more.

Oh and before I go Waylon wants to say some words: If a Monkey sings throw it a coconut
 and it will probably kill you. I'm never letting you do that again.

Top Ten Most Cliched Character Types

I am back with another top ten list. This time I am talking about the character types you see everywhere. Oh, and by the way I was on vacation last week and I didn't have enough time for a cartoon. So without further ado I give you the Top Ten Most Cliched Character types.

10 The Comic Relief
Not all comic reliefs are bad. They just have to be done right. Like how Edna in The Incredibles helped Mr. Incredible and his family with new super hero costumes. Good examples of bad comic reliefs are Johnathon form Hotel Transylvania and Mater from the Cars franchise. They just seem to never shut up.


9 The Generic Love Interest
This could be considered cheating since the writing is what makes the character generic. But it is a cliched character type. They are just so one dimensional it hurts. It's like the only reason that the character exists is because the writer said "You know what this movie needs? A romance". A good example of this is Lola from Space Jam.





8 The Damsel in Distress
Not only is the character cliched but the set up is as well. In fact this set up is the plot of The Super Mario Brothers games, most of the Popeye cartoons, and the movie Labyrinth (however all of those thing are pretty awesome). Another thing about the damsel in distress that is confusing is that with some characters the character shows good ability defending themselves but hardly puts up a fight when getting captured.




                   

7 The Evil Businessman
One of the biggest cliche villains of all time. The guy who wants destroy a beloved something in the town and people don't like it blah blah blah. This has been used so much.  It's been used in The Lorax, The Country Bears, The Borrowers, Yogi Bear, Hey Arnold The Movie and so many more. The only times it work is in It's a Wonderful Life with Mr. Potter and The Muppet Movie with Doc Hopper.




 



6 The Dumb Parents
This character usually appears in movies and TV shows targeted at kids (kids not families). Normally they are just totally oblivious to their child's crazy whimsical adventure. Good examples of this are Timmy's parents from Fairly Odd Parents.




                                             5 The Dead Mother

This might be cheating but I don't think so. Normally when the writer doesn't  want to have the cliche of having the protagonist be an orphan they just kill off one of the parents usually the mother. Here is a list of movies with this cliche: Most animated Disney movies, A Simple Wish, Ghost Dad, Mr. Nanny, The Sound of Music and many more. Some of the few movie I have watched where the mother is alive and plays an important role is Brave and Coraline.

I have not seen this film...

4 The Underdog Hero
This is the hero who no one believes in but it turns out that he has the power and you know how the rest goes from there. This has been in too many movies. Mostly in family movies or sports movies. A more recent use of this character is Emmet in The Lego Movie.






3 The Conflicted Secondary Villain Who Will Eventually Become a Good Guy
In certain circumstances this set up can be good. But if the character isn't given enough development they can come off as very one dimensional. A good example of this is Good Cop/Bad Cop from The Lego Movie.







2 The Neglectful Father
While the Mother is dead the father is always at work and forgetting his children. But by the climax of the movie he has learned his lesson. Man this one has been done to death. Now for another list: Ghost Dad, Mr. Nanny, Mr. Poppers Penguins, The Haunted Mansion, Coraline, Jingle All the Way, and so many more. This cliche has worked a few times in movies such as Hook and Mary Poppins.





 1 The Crackpot Inventor
Yep this is the most cliched character type of all time. The Inventor who everyone thinks is crazy but then he builds a machine that will become the main plot device. There are so many movies with this: Gremlins, the Back to the Future movies, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Meet the Robinsons, The Nutty Professor, The Absent Minded Professor, all the Wallace and Gromit cartoons, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and many many many more. By the way another thing I noticed is that a lot of inventors like to make an insane breakfast making machine whats up with that?

Anyway this has been another top ten list. I hope you like it. But seriously what is up with the breakfast making machine? Anyway, see you next time.

Pete's Dragon

It is time for another review. This is Pete's Dragon. After the success of Mary Poppins, Disney decided to try and recreate the success by making movies that combined animation with live action. This is one of the movies. So it is time to start; this is Pete's Dragon.

The movie starts with a boy named Pete (Sean Marshall) running away from his evil step family lead by a woman named Lena (Shelly Winters). Fortunately Pete has a magical dragon named Elliott (Charlie Callas) (don't we all). Elliott has two abilities to talk like Scooby-doo and to turn invisible. They escape from the step family and after a musical number Pete and Elliott make it to the town of Passamaquoddy. But even with Elliott invisible he gets Pete in trouble. Eventually an old drunken lighthouse keeper named Lampie (Mickey Rooney) (yes his name is really Lampie) sees Elliott and he gets scared and tells his friends....in song. After the musical number "I Saw a Dragon" Lampie returns home with his daughter Nora (Helen Reddy). Pete and Elliott hide out near the lighthouse. Nora sees Pete and invites him in. Nora tells Pete about her boyfriend Paul (Cal Bartlett) and that he was a sailor and his ship sunk at sea. Pete asks Nora if Elliot can find him and Nora (thinking Elliott isn't real) says yes.

Dr. Terminus

 The next day a con man named Dr.Terminus (Jim Dale) and his bumbling sidekick Hoagy (Red Buttons) (wait Hoagy and Terminus? What is with the names in this movie?) come to town and start in selling ineffective medicine and tonics. Two musical numbers later the local fishermen complain about the fact that all the fish seem to have gone and they think that Pete is the reason that the fish are gone. Nora sings a song welcoming Pete which makes Pete and all the other kids late for school. The teacher Miss. Taylor (Jane Kean) punishes Pete for being late and talking about dragons. But Elliott bursts through the wall and saves Pete from school (well so much for staying invisible). Meanwhile after seeing this Dr. Terminus is convinced that Elliott is real and he wants to catch him, chop him to bits and use him to make (effective) potions. He even sings a song about it. Later Lampie and Nora say that they want to adopt Pete. They are so happy they sing the song "Brazzle-Dazzle Day". If you want to know what the song is about...I haven't got a clue. However Pete's original step family comes to town.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

Pete's step family find him Lampie and Nora and they sing the song "Bill of Sales". Fortunately Elliot makes the boat explode. But Dr. Terminus teams up with them and they form a plan. Meanwhile Pete says Elliot found Paul. But Nora says Elliot doesn't exist and that he should stop pretending. Wait why doesn't Nora believe in Elliott she saw a boat of singing hillbillies explode (I can't believe I just said  that) and how did the news about a giant dragon shaped hole in the wall of the school not reach her attention. Regardless, Dr. Terminus and the step family catch Pete and Elliott. But they manage to escape, defeat the villains, and Paul even comes back. So everything seems to be going well but Elliott has to go. So Pete say goodbye and they all live happily ever after. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

Pete's Dragon is relatively good. The effects on Elliott are impressive and Dr. Terminus is a really funny villain despite how over the top he is. Most of the songs are pretty good as well. But Pete doesn't have much of a personality besides being just a nice normal kid (with a dragon as friend). A lot of the songs go on for a while and start to lose focus. In my opinion Pete's Dragon is worth watching just be ready for some corny and over the top moments. See you next time.

AT THE HOT POCKET FACTORY

The Secret of Kells

Hello I am reviewing The Secret of Kells. The first time I rented it it didn't work, but the second time it did. So now that I finally saw it I am ready to do a review. So I might as well start, this is The Secret of Kells.









We open in the village of Kells where we meet a young boy named Brendan (Evan McGuire) who works for a group of scribes called The Illuminators and his uncle Abbot Cellach (Brendan Gleeson). Cellach is building a wall over the village and doesn't want Brendan to go over the wall. One day a Illuminator named Aidan visits Kells and he has a book with him. The book is supposed to contain all the knowledge in the world. There is one blank page in the book and Aidan say he wants Brendan to write it. So Aidan sends Brendan to go to the forest to gather berries for making ink.


While in the forest he comes across a fairy named Aisling (Christen Mooney). At first Aisling doesn't want Brendan to be there. But she finds out that he means her no harm and gives him the berries he wants. While searching for the berries they come across The Cave of the Dark One Aisling seems to get weaker near the cave so they block the entrance and run away. He makes it back to Aidan and they make the ink they need. Brendan practices writing and gets help from Aidan and Aisling. Aidan realizes that  he needs one more piece to make great writing. The eye of Collum-Cille. To get the eye he needs to go into The Cave of the Dark One.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

He goes into the cave with the help of Aisling. He battles The Dark One and defeats him by making him eat his own tail, and gets the eye. He brings the eye back to Aidan and Brendan starts to draw. But Cellach catches him and locks him in his room. But he sneaks out and finishes one picture. But vikings attack Kells and only Brendan and Aidan escape. After a really quick montage. Brendan becomes a master Illuminator and finds Cellach who is still alive and gives him the finished Book of Kells. The End

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

The Secret of Kell is amazing. It has really well developed characters that establish who they are very quickly. Unlike most modern kids moves it does take itself very seriously. The best part is the animation. It looks like illustrations from books in medieval times. I also like how the characters are made of geometric shapes it adds to the movies unique style. It is very beautiful and enchanting. It's too bad that most animated movies nowadays are being made with computer animation. Computer animation could not look like this. The only problem I had is that it feels like they didn't answer enough questions and the ending feels a bit rushed or like they skipped something. Other then that this is a good movie that  I am surprised that I didn't see sooner. See you next time.

"HEY WHY IS EVERYTHING RED"

Annoucement

Hello I have an announcement to make. Since the weather is finally getting nice and school will be over in June I have decided to post once a week throughout summer. I will be posting on Wednesdays. Some times if there is enough time I will post two. When school starts again I will post two again. Thank you.

Chicken Run

In my last review I mentioned I would review this movie and now it is time. From the makers of Wallace and Gromit behold one of the movies I regret leaving off my Top Ten Family Movies list, Chicken Run. Now that the overblown intro is out of the way let's start.

I thought hens didn't have teeth?

We open on a farm called Mrs. Tweedy's Bird Farm. A hen named Ginger (Julia Sawalha) is trying to escape but keeps getting stopped by Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) and her husband Mr. Tweedy (Tony Haygarth). Ginger and her friends try everything. After Mrs. Tweedy finishes counting them Ginger and her friend Mac (Lynn Ferguson) come up with a plan to go over the fence. That idea doesn't go over so well with the other hens. Meanwhile Mrs. Tweedy realizes that egg farming is only turning on small profits so she  buys a odd machine she sees in an ad that claims it can turn chickens into pie. Ginger is sitting on the roof of the hen house when a rooster named Rocky (Mel Gibson) fly's in.

While landing he breaks his wing. The hens take him to the hen house and hide him from Mrs. Tweedy. Ginger asks Rocky to teach the hens to fly. Rocky says yes. He starts training them but it seems to go nowhere. Meanwhile Mrs. Tweedy finally gets the machine she ordered. The next day Mrs. Tweedy counts the hens and finds out that a hen named Babs (Jane Horrocks) hasn't laid any eggs. But rather than turning her into a thanksgiving dinner she just measures her and tells Mr. Tweedy to feed the hens more.That night it appears that Rocky's broken wing has healed. Eventually Ginger decides to go check out the machine for herself. But she gets caught and tossed into the pie machine. So Rocky makes it into the barn and climbs into the pie machine. Rocky saves Ginger and Ginger sabotages the machine. The next day is the day Rocky is supposed to give a flying demonstration.

          ***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

 But when the next day comes Ginger goes to check on him, but he is gone and Ginger finds a piece of paper saying that when he flew in he was just fired out of a cannon at a circus. So with Rocky gone everyone starts turning agents each other. But Ginger convinces them to try and escape by building a plane. They hire two rats named Fetcher (Phil Daniels) and Nick (Timothy Spall) to get all the stuff they need. They build the airplane and Rocky comes back. They are about to escape but Mrs. Tweedy grabs onto the plane they made. Ginger and Mrs Tweedy have a final fight and Ginger wins. They sail away in the plane and go to live in a bird sanctuary. The End


                                       ***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

Chicken run is a stop motion spectacular. The animation is very nice and the characters are memorable. The two rats and the character Babs are very funny. But it never becomes too cutsie and it takes it self seriously despite its silly premise. This is some of the best work of Aardman Animation and I am glad to have seen it. See you next time.

I CAN'T TELL IF THIS IS BLOOD OR KETCHUP. EITHER WAY WERE EATING GOOD.

Shorts Package: Daffy about Daffy Duck

Hello I am going to do another Shorts Package. This time it is about The Looney Tunes, specifically Daffy Duck. So without further delay I give you the first short. Oh, and since yesterday was mothers day I ran out of time while getting ready for it to draw a cartoon.

Drip-Along Daffy: Daffy Duck (Mel Blanc) and his sidekick Porky Pig (also Mel Blanc) are trying to bring order to a lawless western town. What makes this one so funny is that there is one scene in particular in which an outlaw makes a drink and forces Porky and Daffy to drink it. This causes them to sing Mary had a Little Lamb and do other crazy stuff. Another scene at the beginning involves the town being full of crime, but I won't give the punchline for that one away. It's Daffy and Porky in the old west, what more can you say?






The Ducksters: Daffy Duck is hosting a radio game show called Truth or AAAHHHHH! (brought to you by The Eagle Hand Laundry) and Porky is a contestant. But being Daffy, the show is rigged. So Porky is in constant pain. The best part of this is the end where Porky gets his revenge on Daffy. It is great fun to laugh at the ridiculous trivia questions that Daffy asks on the show. This is a great Looney Tunes short and I am glad I chose it to be one of the shorts I reviewed.






Yankee Doodle Duck: Porky Pig runs a talent agency and he decides to go on vacation but Daffy holds him up because he has a kid named Sleepy Lagoo that he wants to audition. Porky tries to escape from Daffy but he follows Porky everywhere. What makes this one so funny is all the corny musical numbers that Daffy performs and all the ways he tries to catch Porky. In my opinion this is my favorite short that I reviewed so far.






I hope you like this review. You can watch all these shorts on The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Disk 2. Next I am reviewing Chicken Run.