Thursday Movie Picks #38: TMP Television Edition: Prequels

 

 

Hey! Welcome to Thursday Movie Picks where you get to share your movie picks for each topic presented every Thursday!  Based on the theme presented each week, you can pick up to 3 to 5 movies and explain why you picked those movies! This meme is being hosted by Wandering through the Shelves!

This week's theme is: TMP Television Edition: Prequels!


So not too long ago, we did a topic about movie prequels that we've seen.  Now, it's time to talk about some of the TV prequel series that I have seen over the years!

1. Gotham

The story behind Detective James Gordon's rise to prominence in Gotham City, in the years before Batman's arrival.

To be honest, I actually stopped watching this show midway through the first season since I was losing interest.  But it's a prequel series about James Gordon before he became Commissioner Gordon and before Bruce Wayne became Batman.  I think I'll finish this series down the line to see if it has gotten better.

2. Muppet Babies

The Muppets, as babies, have adventures with their imaginations inside their nursery.

I remembered watching this show A LOT as a kid and I always enjoyed the crazy adventures that Kermit and the gang went on when they were babies!  Basically, this show made the whole "imagination is fun" craze WAY before "Rugrats" did!  It's a shame that this show doesn't have an official DVD release yet.  I mean, I can understand why that's the case (the show used a lot of footage from movies during the 1980s and copyright policies are a PAIN) but I still want to own this show in my DVD collection someday.

3. A Pup Named Scooby Doo

 

A pre-teen version of Scooby Doo, with a pint-sized version of the title character.

Even though this wasn't my first introduction to Scooby Doo (that would be "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" of course), I used to watch this show ALL THE TIME when I was little!  It's much wackier in tone than the original "Scooby Doo" series and it was quite entertaining to watch the early years of Scooby Doo!

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[SHORTS REVIEW] Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions (1991)

 

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Title: Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions

Country: United States

Genre: Surrealism / Horror / Science Fiction / Adventure

Company: MTV Networks

Directed by: Henry Selick

Year: 1991

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: N/A

Buy on:  N/A

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE!

The story starts off with two Siamese twin sisters getting out of their bed and sneaking up to the attic, where their brother Robert Potemkin stays in.  Just as the sisters were planning on pranking their brother, a group of sentient lizards ended up transporting Robert to another dimension where he has to save a town full of photographed people from an army of sentient scissors.

Now, I know what you are thinking:  what kind of plot line is this?  Lizards having the power to transport people to other dimensions?  People made out of photographs being tortured by an army of living scissors?  Yep, I thought that I've seen weirder from Henry Selick like "James and the Giant Peach" and "Monkeybone."  But "Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions" is probably the weirdest thing that I have ever seen from Henry Selick!  It's amazing that this short was Henry Selick's directorial debut and it was meant to become a TV series for MTV.  But around that time, Henry Selick got the opportunity to direct "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and this short ended up not being picked up for a TV series.  I would have to say that there was a good side and bad side to this.  The bad side is that this short was never picked up for a TV series, which is a shame because I would have loved to see more adventures with Slow Bob and the other dimensions and see more from these characters.  On the other hand, we did get "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which remains to be one of my all-time favorite movies!  What I loved about this short was the animation itself!  Henry Selick's talent in stop motion animation really shines here and I especially loved the way that the short had a great balance between live action and stop motion animation.  I especially loved the scene where Slow Bob goes to the dimension with the photograph people and the animation for the photograph people and the living scissors were bizarre yet so lively to look at.  It was also impressive seeing Slow Bob transform from a live action actor to a cut out version of himself once he enters the other dimension as it adds some creativity to the short.  I also loved how creepy this short was as the first half of the short takes place during the nighttime, which is a fantastic setting for anything creepy and the appearances of the scissors in the other dimension was probably the creepiest thing in the short!

The only problem that I have with this short is that the plot can be very confusing and I wished that they expanded more on the characters.  I found myself confused at how the world works in this short as I wondered about how Slow Bob was able to get lizards who can teleport him to another dimension and whether or not he had powers himself.  That's the main reason why I wanted to see this short get its own series; so that way they could expand more on the characters and the world that they live in.

Overall, "Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions" is a truly bizarre yet intriguing short that was pretty interesting to watch!  Even though this short never got the chance to become a TV series, I was still interested in the bizarre world of this short and maybe someday, they might revisit this short and turn it into a TV series someday!

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Thursday Movie Picks #37: School

 

Hey! Welcome to Thursday Movie Picks where you get to share your movie picks for each topic presented every Thursday!  Based on the theme presented each week, you can pick up to 3 to 5 movies and explain why you picked those movies! This meme is being hosted by Wandering through the Shelves!

This week's theme is: School!


Wow!  What an interesting topic!  I tend to watch a lot of movies that dealt with schools and it would be hard for me to narrow it down to just three movies that deal with school.  So, here's three movies that dealt with school that I have seen!

1. Dead Poets Society

Maverick teacher John Keating uses poetry to embolden his boarding school students to new heights of self-expression.

Oh man!  I used to watch this movie all the time in high school and the fact that it dealt with poetry while dealing with real life drama at the same time was really inspiring to me!  It was also one of the few movies I watched in my high school class that I actually enjoyed!  Also, it had the late Robin Williams in one of his most iconic roles!

2. Matilda

Story of a wonderful little girl, who happens to be a genius, and her wonderful teacher vs. the worst parents ever and the worst school principal imaginable.

I used to watch this movie all the time when I was little!  I found this to be a pretty fun movie about a little girl who has magic powers and uses them to teach her tormentors a lesson!  Mara Wilson was fantastic in this film and I was impressed with the Miss Trunchbull scenes!

3. Carrie

 

Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.

I have a confession.  My first experience with the character of Carrie White was not the original 1976 version starring Sissy Spacek.  It was actually the 2002 remake.  However, I watched the 1976 version eventually and I really enjoyed it!  Sure, this pick is about the horrible side of high school ( a young girl is being picked on relentlessly by everyone at her school), but it was a pretty interesting horror movie that takes place at school!

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