Animation Celebration Saturday - KPop Demon Hunters

Sony (Columbia)/Netflix, 2025

Voices of Arden Cho, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, and Ahn Hyo-seop

Directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Applehaus

Music and Lyrics by various

This review is dedicated to the children in the after-school and summer camp program I work for. KPop Demon Hunters was all the older kids at the summer program could talk about all summer long. The girls admired the young women band and warriors. The boys drew artwork of the imaginative demons. Their teachers and caretakers constantly played the catchy soundtrack on their speaker and let the kids dance along. I'd only vaguely heard of this before it caught on in a big way. I'm not the biggest fan of Korean pop. It always seemed so cutesy, regardless of what part of the world it came from. This is about as far from cutesy as you can get. What is this, and why are all the kids into it? Let's head to a concert with Korean pop group Huntrix and find out...

The Story: Huntrix is in reality the most recent incarnation of three female demon hunters who stopped demons from taking human souls for their leader Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun) by creating a barrier from communal energy known as the Honmoon. They're also a wildly popular Korean rock trio, at least until the Saja Boys turn up on the scene with their smash hit "Soda Pop." Their rise coincides with their leader Rumi's (Cho) voice fading. Rumi herself is part demon, but she was raised to hide her demon marks and what she is by former demon hunter Celine (Yunjin Kim). 

The girls quickly figure out that the Saja Boys are demons, but after Rumi has an encounter with their leader Jinu (Hyo-seop), she begins to question what she is and her role in the group. Everything comes to a head at the Idol Awards, where the girls are to perform their new anti-demon song "Takedown." They decide it's too inflammatory and substitute their hit "Golden" instead...but then it seems like Rumi's fellow Huntrix Mira (Hong) and Zoey (Yoo) are against her. Rumi confronts Jinu, then Celine...but she finally learns that the best way to rescue her friends and everyone's souls is to love herself the way she is, demon marks and all.

The Animation: Wow. Done in a style similar to the Spider Man Spiderverse films, replacing that series' palate of primary colors with the bold black, white, gold, and neons of concerts and music videos. It's blocky and sketchy, computer animation that's made to look like hand-drawn, and it's most effective. The demons in particular are really creative, both in design and movement. No wonder the boys wanted to draw them.

The Song and Dance: Ok, I can see why the kids are into this. The action-packed story is very much in tune to Korean culture and the music that's wildly popular right now - and not a bit of it is cutesy. Cho and Hyo-seop are the stand-outs in the voice cast as the young woman who finds her voice when she accepts all of what she is and the man who gave himself to save his family, only to lose his soul. The music is genuinely catchy and well-done. They say as much in the film about "Soda Pop," but that applies to "Takedown," "Golden," and "What It Sounds Like," too. 

The Numbers: We open after Huntrix finally arrives at the last leg of a major concert tour with their confidant "How It's Done" and see just how much their fans adore them. "Look Back at Me" and "Strategy" show us more of Huntrix and their demon hunting past. "Golden" is first their big "I want" single, then Rumi's attempt to shine at the Idol Awards. They're outdone by the Saja Boys and their silly, simple, and totally earworm-worthy hit "Soda Pop." The members of Huntrix respond with "Takedown," their attempt to expose the demons and reveal their true natures to their fans. The Saja Boys replace the effervescent fizz of "Soda Pop" with the moody, eerie "Your Idol" at the Idol Awards. Rumi sings "What It Sounds Like" as she claims her own truth about being part demon. Mira and Zoey join in for the end of that song and a reprise of "Takedown." 

What I Don't Like: For all of their fidelity to Korean music and culture, the story isn't the most creative. You've seen something similar in a thousand sci-fi and superhero movies before it, including the Spiderverse films. Rumi and Jinu are the only characters we really get to know well. Even Mira and Zoey are more archetypes than actual characters, and the other Saja Boys aren't even that. The girls' manager Bobby (Ken Jeong) can occasionally bend into annoying stereotype territory.

The Big Finale: No wonder the kids love this. Stunning animation, admirable fidelity to Korean culture, and terrific music more than make up for the unimaginative story and characters. If you have kids ages 6 on up and a subscription to Netflix, you've probably already seen this. Even if you're an adult, it's still recommended for the animation and music alone. 

Home Media: It's a Netflix exclusive at the moment.

Netflix

Cult Flops - Earth Girls are Easy

Vestron Pictures, 1988

Starring Geena Davis, Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey, and Julie Brown

Directed by Julien Temple

Music and Lyrics by various

If you thought an animated musical about mutated street animals saving a post-apocalyptic world was weird, get a load of this one. This adaption of the hit Julie Brown song apparently had its genesis in 1986, but Warner Bros lost interest when Temple's previous project bombed and they couldn't interest any major stars in the film. It ultimately ended up with the De Laurentis Group and Vestron...but Temple's eye for detail drove up costs and flared up tempers. The fact that it was filmed while the De Laurentis Group was facing bankruptcy likely didn't help matters. By the time it limped into general release in 1989, it was an enormous flop, not even making its relatively small budget back. Does it deserve that fate, or should these aliens get a second chance to show their stuff? Let's begin with three hairy, horny aliens in a spaceship on their way to Earth and find out...

The Story: Valerie Gail (Davis) is having a really bad week. First of all, she let her girlfriend Candy (Brown) give her a complete makeover to put her fiancee Dr. Ted Gallagher (Charlie Rocket) in a more amorous frame of mind. He ends up bringing home a buxom nurse (Stacey Travis) instead, and Val kicks him out. Not long after that, a strange yellow alien ship crash lands in her swimming pool. She nearly drowns investigating it. The aliens turn out to be friendly and help her inside, but she has no idea what to do with them or how to keep Ted from finding them while her surfer friend Woody (Michael McKean) drains her pool

She ends up taking them to Candy for makeovers...revealing three hot, if goofy, guys under all that hair. Mac (Goldblum), the group's leader, ends up falling for Valerie during a trip to a nightclub. Ted, however, does not like Valerie hanging out with three weirdos and calls off their engagement. The aliens also know very little about human culture besides what they've gleaned off TV. When Zeebo (Damon Waynas) and Wiploc (Carrey) land in the hospital, Mac and Valerie go after him before Ted can figure out they're aliens. Valerie still thinks Ted might be the one, but when the spaceship is finally repaired, she begins to wonder if an out-of-this-world love might be better for her than an earthbound doctor who doesn't appreciate her.

The Song and Dance: This is one of the most original live-action musicals in an era where comedies about teen witches, alien stepmothers, and vampire besties abounded. Carrey and Waynas get to show early signs of the wacky, rubbery comic geniuses that would make them household names in the next decade, while Goldblum is charming as the sweetest and least-goofy of the three aliens. Davis is a riot as Valerie, desperately trying to bed Ted while figuring out what to do with these guys, and Michael McKean has a lot of fun as surf bum Woody who has probably had one too many falls off his board. The filming in real-life LA adds considerably to the film's weird charm.

The Numbers:  We open with the title song in the alien's ship and over a unique animated credits sequence depicting sci-fi tropes. Our first chorus number is at the salon where Candy and Valerie work, the Curl Up and Dye, as Candy and the hairdressers claim they're going to turn Val into a "Brand New Girl." Val and Candy take the shaved aliens for a night on the town, where they and the chorus "Hit Me." Mac impresses Val with a charming instrumental number at the piano. "Baby Gonna Shake" lets Zeebo show off his moves against another dancer in a cage. Candy reveals why she's so glad to have gone platinum at the beach in another signature Julie Brown number, the chorus routine "'Cause I'm a Blonde." Woody, Zeebo, and Wiploc "Shake That Cosmic Thing" during a huge car chase downtown. The aliens navigate being turned around on the highway to Depuche Mode's version of "Route 66." The movie ends with Hall & Oates' version of "Love Train" over the credits.

What I Don't Like: Did I mention how weird this is? Weird and very, very 80's. It plays on a lot of stereotypes of the time, including valley girls and their obsession with landing wealthy beaus. Nowadays, Val probably would have kicked Ted's rear to the curb permanently the first time she found him cheating. Brown's Candy can get annoying fast, especially in that "Blonde" number. (Incidentally, if the "Blonde" number seems a bit extraneous, it was added at the last minute to give the film a second hit Brown tune.)

The Big Finale: If you love the cast or other truly unique science fiction or fantasy comedies from this era, you'll want to ride the wave over to California to meet three of the most rockin' aliens to ever crash into a manicurist's swimming pool.

Home Media: Easily found on all formats, often for under $10. Tubi currently has it for free with commercials.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Tubi

Animation Celebration for Adults - Rock & Rule

MGM/Nelvana, 1983

Voices of Don Francks, Paul Le Mat, Susan Roman, and Greg Duffel

Directed by Clive A. Smith

Music and Lyrics by various

This week, we dive into the weirder side of the 80's with two cult flops from the decade of decadence that deserve to be better-known. Although most people still saw animation as merely children's fodder, there were attempts in the 70's and early 80's to move it beyond princesses and talking mice. We saw one such example with Ralph Bakshi's historical epic American Pop back in 2022. This one didn't start as an adult action fantasy. Canadian animation studio Nelvana originally intended their first animated film, about a post-apocalyptic world evolved from street animals like dogs, cats, and rats. Somewhere along the line, it turned into a hard-rock fantasy for grown-ups that filmed without a script. How does this singularly peculiar animated rock-and-roll epic look nowadays? Let's begin with a narrator (Chris Wiggins) explaining our story and find out...

The Story: Mok Swagger (Francks) is a legendary rock musician who is seeking "one special voice" that will unlock a powerful demon from another dimension. He and his goons return to the village of Ohmtown to see one last band. Turns out the female member, Angel (Roman), has just the voice he needs for his machine. Mok and his henchmen Sleazy (Brent Titcomb), Toad (Wiggins), and Zip (Duffel) lure Angel and the male band members Omar (Le Mat), Stretch (Duffell), and Dizzy (Dan Hennessey) to his mansion. He kidnaps Angel and traps the other three in an energy ball to force her to sing.

After Omar and the other two are thrown out of Mok's mansion, they steal a police car and follow Mok to Nuke York. The cops catch up with them, and they end up in jail. Dizzy's Aunt Edith (Catherine O'Hara) bails them out. Angel escapes with Cinderella (Catherine Gallant), the eager sister of Mok's goons, but Mok gets his claws on her again. He also makes Omar think she doesn't want to be with him anymore and brainwashes him, Dizzy, and Stretch. They finally come out of when Mok moves his concert to Ohmtown due to the huge need for power. Now, it's a race against time as Omar and his friends try to save Angel from the hideous demon, and discover that it takes more than once voice to take down real evil.

The Animation: While still not at Disney's absolute best, this is light-years beyond anything Nelvana was doing on TV at this point. The designs are appropriately hideous and wildly unique at turns, like an urban 80's fever dream crossed with a faded Art Deco print. The special effects, with all its glitter, light beams, and very early CGI, screams "early 80's." The characters move well enough, but even the "good guys" like Omar can sometimes be a little too grotesque - and there's Mok Swagger and his collection of hairpieces and wildly dramatic expressions, too.

The Song and Dance: Well, you can't say this one isn't original. Canada's first dive into English-language feature-length animation is a really weird blend of the unique butting up against the mythic. Mok Swagger alone is something else, with his bony body and ever-changing headgear. Francks gives him just the right tone of oozing menace. Duffel does especially well with Zip, the sweetest of Mok's goons who questions what they're doing, and Gallant is hilarious as party-hearty Angel. 

The Numbers: We open with Omar and his band's noisy hard rock number "Born to Raise Hell." After they're cut off, Angel manages to sneak in her "Send Love Through" which is enough to impress Mok. Toad catches Angel and Omar making love in their car to "Angel's Song." "Hot Dogs & Sushi" introduces us to Mok's enormous and rather ugly mansion. The flickering beams in Lou Reed's "Triumph" is what hypnotizes Omar and the guys. "I'm the Man" takes Omar and the guys to Nuke York in their stolen cop car.

Cindy and Angel get into the nightclub and on the dance floor with "Dance, Dance, Dance." Mok gives us his big scheme at the first concert, complete with female dancers echoing his name, in "My Name Is Mok." "Ohm Sweet Ohm" is Omar's too-sugary song under hypnosis. Angel is forced to perform the "Invocation Song" while drugged at the second concert. "Pain and Suffering" gets scary - and kind of of gross - with freaky imagery and nasty lyrics. It takes Omar and Angel together to reprise her "Send Love Through" and send that freaky demon back where he came from.

Trivia: MGM had little faith in the film, giving it almost no promotion in the US, recutting it, and replacing Omar's original voice Greg Salata with the better-known Paul Le Mat. Needless to say, it was a monumental failure that remained hard to find for years.

What I Don't Like: Hooo boy, calling this one "weird" doesn't begin to do it justice. Some of the creepy, unsettling, or flat-out gross imagery, especially during the demon's arrival, almost pushes this into horror turf. This is most definitely not kiddie animation. There's sex, exposed rears, fairly strong violence, some suggestive humor. Frankly, neither Angel nor especially Omar are all that interesting. Omar in particular is such a jerk, you don't mind seeing him hypnotized all that much. He certainly can't match Mok's theatrical flair. The story is all over the place and occasionally dips into end-of-the-world cliches. No wonder audiences (and MGM) in 1983 had a hard time figuring out what was going on. 

The Big Finale: This dark dive into a wildly strange future isn't for everyone, but fans of Deborah Harry (who is Angel's singing voice) or those wanting to see some really unique adult animation might be willing to give this early 80's fever dream a shot.

Home Media: The US DVD is wildly out of print (though the Canadian copy is available). The best way to see this one in the US is on YouTube.

YouTube

Musicals On Streaming - O'Dessa

20th Century Fox/Searchlight Pictures/Hulu, 2025

Starring Sadie Sink, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Regina Hall, and Murray Bartlett

Directed by Geremy Jasper

Music by Geremy Jasper; Lyrics by Jason Binnick

Snow White isn't the only musical with a strong female protagonist the Disney Company released in the past week. This gender-flipped rock opera retelling of "Orpheus and Eurydice" set in a post-apocalyptic world got reviews that were nearly as bad, but is it really that horrible, or is it just different? Let's turn on the TV for a green scroll that tells us how this world came under the control of a mesmerizing man named Plutonovich (Bartlett) and the Seventh Son who will come from the mountains with their guitar and take him down and find out...

The Story: That "Seventh Son" is O'Dessa (Sink), the daughter of a wandering musician who left her nothing but a prized family guitar on his death. After the death of her mother, O'Dessa cuts her hair, wears man's clothes, and takes up in her father's footsteps as a traveling musician. She doesn't get far before a gang steals the guitar out from under her. Following them brings her to Satelyite City, one of the last outposts of civilization. Desperate to get the guitar back from a pawn shop, she joins a talent contest at a local bar. The only person who appreciates her bluesy style is Euri Dervish (Harrison), a nightclub singer she rescues from an overly-amorous patron. They spend the night together under the boardwalk and fall deeply in love. 

Euri tells her about Plutonovich, who uses all the plasma that's polluting the ground to power his addicting broadcasts, and inspires her to sing for pennies from the people. This does get her the guitar back, but not Euri. Turns out he has deals with Plutonovich's right-hand woman Neon Dion (Hall). After she kidnaps Euri during his wedding to O'Dessa, she follows them to Plutonovich's Onderworld lair to join his reality competition and prove once and for all the power of prophecy and true love.

The Song and Dance: The performances are the thing here. Sink does well by the tough, scrappy title character who truly believes Euri is her destiny, but the real stand-outs are the villains. Bartlett is so charismatic and bombastic as the dictator who uses the power of media to keep the people from rebelling, you can understand why they were all mesmerized. Hall does even better as the terrifying cross between Grace Jones and an especially angry pitbull, especially with those odd severe bangs. The grungy, junk-filled landscape outside of Satilyte City and the blue and neon world within it recall similar dystopia thrillers from the 80's like Streets of Fire and Blade Runner.

The Numbers: We open with the young O'Dessa performing "Under the Stars" for her mother. "Ramblin' Down the Road" shows the start of her journey after she leaves the dying farm. "Cursed Six Strings" is our first chorus number as she joins the group of thieves for a bite and a song. The rock-loving nightclub crowds fail to be moved by her "Ramblin' Blues." O'Dessa is proud to be "Feelin' Free" as she uses her makeshift guitar to sing for the people and earn money for the guitar and get closer to Euri in the second chorus number. Euri sings the darker "Johnny Fame," but is booed in the nightclub when he speaks out against Plutonovich. 

After she's attacked and Euri is hypnotized, they finally realize "Yer Tha One" and prepare to be wed with rings and tattoos. "Here Comes the Seventh Son" announces her intention to the world as she takes a neon boat to Plutonovich's lair. He's the commander of the "Onderworld" as we get our big chorus routines, complete with dancers in very skimpy costumes and a teen pop star in pink feathers wiggling behind him. When she finally gets onstage, O'Dessa pours her heart into "The Song (Love Is All)." She finally becomes that "Plasma Rose" who destroys Plutonovich and sends his lair ablaze. The girl she gave her hand-made guitar to carries on her legacy in the final reprise of "The Song." 

What I Don't Like: This isn't anything you haven't seen in movies set in similar hell scapes since the 1970's. It's basically a musical Hunger Games or Blade Runner. Like those movies, this is definitely style over substance. The story is weird, overly complicated, and ultimately kind of depressing, and the music isn't memorable enough to carry it. If you know anything about the original "Orpheus and Euridyce" myth, you're very aware that this isn't going to have a happy ending. It's also not for those looking for a more traditional or lighthearted romp. Like other movies in its genre, it gets into some very dark and rough territory that includes strong sci-fi violence, a few very brief sexual bits, scanty costumes, and heavy themes.

The Big Finale: This is not going to be for everyone, but if you're into other movies about dark futures or dystopian worlds, are a fan of rock or folk music, or just want to check out a darker take on a favorite myth, this is worth riding a neon boat for.

Home Media: Streaming only via Hulu and Disney Plus. 

Hulu

Disney Plus

Saluting Our Veterans - Sergeant Deadhead

American International, 1965

Starring Frankie Avalon, Deborah Walley, Eve Arden, and Fred Clark

Directed by Norman Taurog

Music by Guy Hemric; Lyrics by Jerry Stymer

Let's honor those men and women who explore the final frontier and travel to the far reaches of space this Veteran's Day with this unusual war comedy. Though it features many regulars from the Beach Party series, this one has more in common with the fluffy musicals Taurog directed from the 30's onward. How strange is this story of a soldier whose accidental trip into orbit ends up changing more than his knowledge of the stars? Let's begin at an Air Force Base, where the title soldier (Avalon) is trying to set off his own rocket, and find out...

The Story: Sergeant O.K Deadhead (Avalon) constantly ends up in the brig, thanks to his experiments and antics. His fiancee Airman Lucy Turner (Walley) works on the base as well and is frustrated when he turns up in the brig again. They were to have been married that day. After fellow prisoners Private McEvoy (Harvey Lembeck) and Private Filroy (Johh Ashley) break him out, he flees for what turns out to be an experimental rocket carrying a chimpanzee into space. After Deadhead ends up in orbit, General Fogg (Clark) and his assistant Lieutenant Kinsey (Arden) have no choice but to pretend that was the plan all along.

When Deadhead returns to Earth, he's a changed man. Turns out that his trip through space has blended his personality with that of the chimp. He's now egotistical and aggressive, to the annoyance of Fogg and disappointment of his fiancee, who preferred him when he was gentler. Fogg and Admiral Stoneham (Cesar Romero) hire look-a-like Sergeant Donovan (Avalon) to take his place with his fiancee at their wedding. After he ends up in the brig again, Deadhead begins to realize that he's changed and breaks out to take Donovan's place. Captain Weiskopt (Gale Gordon) still wants Donovan in his place, but no less than the President of the United States (Pat Buttram) is fine with Deadhead the way he is.

The Song and Dance: Avalon gives one of his better performances, both as the goofy Deadhead and the smoother Donovan, in this extremely peculiar attempt to cross the antics of the Beach Party films with a more traditional military-based musical. In fact, I'm impressed with just how much of a musical this is. No randomly-inserted rock bands or goofy dance routines here. There's a march number for the military ladies in the opening, a number for the girls, duets for Walley and Avalon, and even a comic number for Arden. Of the adults, Clark and Arden have the most fun as the exasperated head of the base who just wants his plans to work and the head of the women's corps who loves him. Also look for Reginald Gardiner as a distracted officer and Buster Keaton doing his own material as the base handyman.

The Numbers: We open with that march number performed by the women's corps over the credits as Lieutenant Kinsey leads Deadhead to the guardhouse, "Hurry Up and Wait." The girls wonder "How Can You Tell?" the guy is right for you in their barracks at night. Lieutenant Kinsey tells the girls that "You Should Have Seen the One That Got Away" at Deadhead and Lucy's wedding, while Donna Loren sings about that "Two Timing Angel." Lucy insists "Let's Play Love" on their honeymoon night to the shy Donovan...and Deadhead turns it around and chases her when he replaces him. When Lucy wonders why Deadhead acted so differently after he returned from space, he insists that "The Difference In Me Is You."

Trivia: There was to have been a sequel, Sergeant Deadhead Goes to Mars, but it was canceled after this was a disappointment at the box office. 

What I Don't Like:  Did I mention how strange and fluffy this is? The romantic comedy stuff with the kids getting married doesn't really seem to fit with the military story or with the shenanigans from Beach Party regulars like Harvey Lembeck and Buster Keaton. It's also a little unusual for one of the American International musicals. As mentioned, this is a full-out musical. There's the brief wedding party, but no rock groups, and no one goes to the beach. The military setting also explains the increase in character actors and the lack of Annette Funicello. She doesn't even turn up in a cameo. The music is ok, but not terribly memorable.

The Big Finale: Not the best of the American International teen musicals of the early-mid 60's, but worth a look once on Veteran's Day if you're a fan of Avalon or the Beach Party films.  

Home Media: Easy to find on DVD and streaming.

DVD

Amazon Prime                  

Cult Flops - Voyage of the Rock Aliens

Fox Lorber, 1984

Starring Pia Zadora, Craig Sheffer, Tom Nolan, and Alison LaPlaca

Directed by James Fargo

Music and Lyrics by various

For Halloween week, we leap into cult horror and sci-fi with two truly unique rock musicals.  This began life as a spoof of B horror, science fiction, and Beach Party-style teen musicals from the 1960's. Though the producers mostly sought singers rather than actors, they did get two actors for the lead roles and an actual New Wave rock band to play the music-obsessed aliens of the title. How well does this mess of weird drive-in cliches come off today? Let's begin in space with the arrival of the aliens' guitar-shaped spaceship and find out...

The Story: Beings from another planet (RHEMA) search the reaches of outer space for the source of rock music. After considering other planets, they finally land on Earth with their robot companion 1329 (Peter Cullen). Speelburgh is a pretty typical southern industrial town in Georgia...too typical for bored teenager Dee Dee (Zadora). Dee Dee would give anything to sing with her boyfriend Frankie (Sheffer) and his band (Jimmy and the Mustangs), but he thinks the band is fine without a singer. 

Lead alien Absiid (Nolan) falls for Dee Dee and asks her to be the lead singer at the high school's Cotillion Dance. Frankie is jealous, but Dee Dee is smitten, until she realizes why love is so foreign to Absid. Meanwhile, there's also two escapees from the local mental hospital (Michael Berryman and Wallace Merck) roaming around with a chainsaw, the Sheriff (Ruth Gordon) determined to figure out just what's going on here, and a huge tentacled monster emerging from the polluted lake...

The Song and Dance: "Weird" does not begin to do this movie justice. This is off-the-charts Looney-Tunes bizarre. If you're a fan of the synthesizer-laden "New Wave" dance music from this era, you might actually get a kick out of it. Zadora was more known at the time for being famous and her marriages than for actually appearing in anything, so it was kind of interesting to see her here. Nolan came off best as the alien trying to figure out just what this "love" thing is; Gordon has her moments as the tough Sheriff who wants to know what these invaders are up to.

This may be the most 1984 musical in existence. It reeks of "MTV in the mid-80's," with the ladies running around in baggy shirts, tight jeans, and poofy polka-dot sundresses and the guys either in tight shirts and leather, 50's-inspired pompadours and jeans and jackets. If the aliens hadn't thrown stuff around at the malt shop, they wouldn't have looked all that out of place in their tight metallic and studded jumpsuits. There's a few funny gags, and I love how some cliches are subverted, especially when Dee Dee's best friend Diane (La Placa) ends up befriending the chainsaw-wielding nut instead of getting killed by him.

The Numbers: We begin with "Openhearted" over the credits as we get our first glimpses of the aliens' guitar-shaped ship. "When the Rain Begins to Fall" was originally filmed as a music video...and it looks it. Zadora and Jermaine Jackson enact a Romeo and Juliet story on a warring planet that has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. "21st Century" describes how the aliens feel about their home and their roaming as they check the monitors on their ship. 

"New Orleans" gives us a glimpse of how the kids in Speelburgh defy the rules not to swim in the heavily polluted Lake Eerie. Dee Dee flirts and wiggles for Frankie as she sings about "Real Love," even as the tentacled monster invades the party. All of the kids really go wild for the Pack singing "Try To See It My Way" and "Justine" at the malt shop. Dee Dee sings in the bathroom about how "You Bring Out the Lover In Me," with the ladies in the stalls managing to dance along. "Combine Man" really gets New Wave as the aliens put Absid back together after he literally loses his head over Dee Dee and get him around the Sheriff. 

Absid dreams of a cosmically romantic relationship with Dee Dee in "Little Bit of Heaven." He claims "She Doesn't Mean a Thing to Me," even as he insists on his friends helping him find ways to impress her. "Come On" and "Troublemaker" provide the background for the introduction of the murders as they attack the deputy sheriff and others. "Let's Dance Tonight" is the big number at the Cotillion. Dee Dee finally gets her wish to sing with a band, much to the frustration of her jealous boyfriend. "Get Out and Dance" is the aliens' response. Frankie reveals his jealousy and how it's the "Nature of the Beast" in overwrought and badly written "I am" number. The aliens do their best to remove the remaining obstacles to Frankie and Dee Dee's romance in an encore of "When the Rain Begins to Fall." 

What I Don't Like: Hooooo boy. This is 80's cheese of the ripest and most ridiculous sort. For one thing, none of these people are remotely teenagers. (Pia Zadora was 30 during shooting.) The movie looks as cheap as it is, with a rubber tentacle spitting bubbles and cardboard sets. The music isn't terribly memorable, either, especially if you're not into New Wave. Frankie is such a sexist jerk, you can understand why sweet-if-dim Dee Dee rushes to the arms of an alien. The genre-mash-up gives it a real tone problem. It veers from near-horror to comedy to musical, sometimes within the space of seconds. The musical numbers tend to either get cut off or, as with the opening at the polluted lake and the Cotillion, go on for way too long. 

The Big Finale: If you're a fan of 80's music or cinema or like your movies on the cheesy or "so bad they're fascinating" side, this is worth checking out for the sheer camp value alone.

Home Media: It was only on DVD in Germany, but the Blu-Ray is widely available, and it's easy to find on streaming. (Tubi currently has it for free with commercials.) 

Blu-Ray

Tubi

Pajama Party

American International, 1964

Starring Annette Funicello, Tommy Kirk, Elsa Lanchester, and Harvey Lembeck

Directed by Don Weis

Music by Guy Hemric; Lyrics by Jerry Stymer

Let's celebrate summer with the last official Beach Party movie I haven't gotten to yet. The Beach Party films weren't the only genre that appealed to teens in the early 60's. Science fiction continued its popularity from the 1950's, especially as the space race picked up steam. American International somehow crossed the low-budget sci-fi films of the time with its musical beach capers with this story of an alien youth who comes from Mars to invade the planet and ends up falling for a teen girl. Does it still work today, or should it be dumped in the pool? Let's begin on a Martian ship, as spy Go-Go (Kirk) gets orders from head Martian Big Bang (Don Rickles) to prepare for an invasion and find out...

The Story: Go-Go's jet pack malfunctions, leaving him hovering in the air. He's rescued by sweet widow Wendy (Lanchester), who takes him in. She's having trouble of her own. Her neighbor J. Sinister Hulk (Jesse White) and his goons Fleegle (Ben Lessy) and Chief Rotten Eagle (Buster Keaton) would do anything to find the million-dollar inheritance Wendy supposedly has hidden in her home.

Wendy directs Go-Go to the beach to hang out with human kids close to his own age. Connie (Funicello) is trying to get Wendy's nephew Big Lunk (Joel McCrea) to pay attention to her and flirts with Go-Go to make him jealous. Not only does it not work, but Go-Go falls for Connie, and Lunk starts to give Rotten Eagle's Swedish bombshell assistant Helga (Bobbie Shaw) a second glance. There's also Erik Von Zipper (Lembeck) and his biker Rats, who have no love for beach bums, aliens, or eccentric old ladies. It'll take the biggest pajama party in the history of California to get everything settled and convince Go-Go that Earth isn't such a bad place after all. 

The Song and Dance: Well, you can't say this one isn't creative. This is the only Beach Party-type film to dive into science fiction, and the only one where Tommy Kirk isn't blatantly miscast. He's a wonderful wide-eyed Go-Go, sweetly naive with Lanchester's dotty old dear and adorable with Funicello, and not a bad singer. Funicello for her part has a great time playing the slightly more worldly one, and Lembeck is having as much fun as ever mauling malaprops with his Rats. Some nice costumes, too. Check out the gowns and outfits during the fashion show sequence and those pajamas at the party in the finale. 

Favorite Number: We open with the chorus number "It's That Kind of Day" as the aliens witness the teens wriggling by the pool and at the beach, enjoying the sunshine and each other. Connie's friend Vikki (Donna Loren) sings "Among the Young" at the pool with the Nooney Rickett 4 as the kids dance and Candy (Candy Johnson) literally breaks glass and makes soda bottles pop with her hot moves. 

The head saleswoman at the dress salon (Dorothy Lamour) wonders "Where Did I Go Wrong?" when her models keep dancing instead of showing off dresses. Go-Go insists "There Must Be a Reason" he's falling in love, while Connie claims it's a natural feeling. She laments to her "Stuffed Animal" that boys can be a pain to figure out at her smaller pajama party with Vikki and Jilda (Susan Hart). Connie kicks off the title song at the bigger pajama party in the finale, eventually joined by the Nooney Ricketts 4. They also perform an instrumental dance routine, titled "Beach Ball" after the one that keeps getting thrown around.

Trivia: Inspired by a play written by cartoon legend Joseph Barbara, The Maid and the Martian, which had a successful run in LA twice during the 50's. 

Dorothy Lamour's last musical number in a film. Columnist and What's My Line? panellist Dorothy Kilgallen has a brief cameo when she lands on one of the Rats' bikes and introduces herself. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, for a movie called Pajama Party, this is seriously lacking in pajama parties. We only see the brief one Connie holds with her friends and the one in the finale. Second, this is one of the strangest stories in a series that's notorious for them. Nothing makes sense, even by Beach Party standards. Von Zipper and the Rats and Hulk and his goons seem to have come from an entirely different movie. Lamour's musical number at the dress shop seems to have been dropped in to give her a number and for a few jokes from Buster Keaton. (Who definitely does not resemble anything like a Native.) Most of the remaining cast doesn't have a whole lot to do, including McCrea's aptly-named Lunk. The music is mildly cute, but other than Kirk and Funicello's duet, nothing great.

The Big Finale: This ended up being better than I thought it would from the nutty premise, but it's still not the first Beach Party movie I'd introduce to casual filmgoers. Start them on Beach Party or Beach Blanket Bingo first. Fans of the series, its many imitations, or Kirk and Funicello will want to dive right in. 

Home Media: Easily found on disc and streaming. 

DVD

Blu-Ray

Amazon Prime

Family Fun Saturday - Pixel Perfect

Disney, 2004

Starring Ricky Ullman, Leah Pipes, Spencer Redford, and Chris Williams

Directed by Mark A.Z Dippe

Music and Lyrics by various

This is Disney's second TV musical under the Disney Channel Movie banner, predating even High School Musical. The internet was still something new and relatively uncharted when this movie debuted. The sky was the limit when it came to how it worked and what could be done with it. AI was also in its primitive form as computer programmers worked on creating images that could be inserted anywhere, even real life. What happens when a teenage boy creates a program that literally takes on a life of its own? Let's begin with that teen, Roscoe (Ullman) and his father (Brett Cullen) as they argue over what can be done with this new technology and find out...

The Story: Roscoe wants to help his best friend Samantha (Pipes) and her band the Zetta Bytes get a gig. Samantha was told that her group needs to dance, but she's more comfortable behind her guitar. Roscoe creates a sentient human hologram he names Loretta (Redford) who is a composite of Samantha and many girls he's seen in magazines. 

Loretta has no difficulty singing and dancing for the group. She's a huge hit, even after people figure out she's a hologram. Samantha, however, has a crush on Roscoe and resents how perfect Loretta is. Loretta wishes she could be human like Samantha, to feel emotions and rain on her face. When the record company that signs the girls tries to take Loretta's programming to make more musical stars, but Roscoe realizes that would make them less individual. 

Loretta flees into the Internet and mails herself to the one person who can help her be truly human, the one who doesn't think she's perfect...Samantha. When Samantha falls off the stage during a concert, she enters her mind to convince her that being human is a far happier experience than unattainable perfection. 

The Song and Dance: This one ended up being a real surprise. I was expecting a Disney version of the John Hughes comedy Weird Science. What I got was the touching and sad story of a boy who creates what he thinks is the perfect girl, until that girl wants to be more than his idea of perfection. 

Ullman's not bad as well-meaning Roscoe, but the movie really belongs to his girlfriends. Pipes and Redford are wonderful as the very human teen girl who wants Roscoe to see her, flaws and all, and the computer program who wishes she had those flaws. The last twenty minutes when Loretta confronts Sam in her mind, then manages to feel rain for the first time, are among the most heartbreaking in any Disney Channel film.

Favorite Number: We open with "Perfectly" sung over the credits. Samantha and the Zeta Byttes insist "Nothing's Wrong With Me" at their audition, but that's not what the producer thinks. "Notice Me" is Loretta's first big number when she's introduced with the band. We also get "If You Wanna Rock" and "Don't Even Try It." "Get Real" is ironically the song Loretta's performing when she starts flickering out, and people realize she's not human. Samantha ends with "When the Rain Falls," and there's not a dry eye in the house as she sings about Loretta and how she changed her life and Roscoe's.

What I Don't Like: The story, while sweet and sad, is also cliched to high heck. This is nothing people haven't seen in everything from AI: Artificial Intelligence to the aforementioned Weird Science. It's pretty much the leads' story. Roscoe's dad is the only other person who really registers. We barely get to see the other members of the band, or even the record executives who caused so much trouble. I would loved to have seen more of the inner workings of the internet that Loretta travels through, too. I thought that was a nice touch.

The Big Finale: If you think a Disney Channel musical can't be sad or dramatic, give this early attempt a shot. 

Home Media: Perhaps it's appropriate that this is streaming only at the moment. You can find it at Amazon Prime and Disney Plus with a subscription.

Disney Plus

Amazon Prime

Animation Celebration Extra - Jetsons: The Movie

Universal, 1990

Voices of George O'Hanlon, Mel Blanc, Penny Singleton, and Tiffany

Directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbara

Music and Lyrics by various

First of all, Musical Dreams Reviews is going on vacation hiatus from the 22nd through the 28th. Regular reviews resume the 29th. 

Second, this one means a lot to me. My sisters and I were major fans of Tiffany in the late 80's and early 90's. We had the soundtrack and listened to it constantly on our shiny pink and silver cassette player and eventually taped the movie off cable. We were big fans of the TV show too when it re-ran and debuted new episodes in syndication. Is the movie still enjoyable for today's kids, or does it look as dated as some of the "futuristic" inventions in the original show? To find out, let's begin later in the 21st Century, as normal working dad George Jetson (O'Hanlon) begins his day on the job, and find out...

The Story: After years of suffering verbal abuse from his miserly boss Mr. Spacely (Blanc), George is finally made vice-president of Spacely Sprockets. He and his family are sent to the Orbiting-Ore Asteroid, where metal is mined at 1/12th of the cost of running the factory on Earth. George is the only one who's happy. Elroy (Patric Zimmerman) looked forward to his spaceball championship game, and teenage Judy (Tiffany) is heartbroken when she loses out on the chance to date a rock star. George's wife Jane (Singleton) and his dog Astro (Don Messick) are more supportive.

Judy's much happier when she realizes that the elaborate apartment complex at the asteroid includes a massive mall. While she falls for a handsome blue-skinned alien teen named Apollo Blue (Paul Kreppel), Elroy befriends the kid robot on his new team, Teddy-2 (Dana Hill). Meanwhile, George discovers that Spacely's gone through four vice-presidents who were plagued with accidents at the factory. George recruits Teddy's father Rudy-2 (Ronnie Schell) to help him solve the mystery. The boys and their furry friend Fergie (Russi Taylor) follow them on their own...and are the ones who discover who's really behind the sabotage.

The Animation:  The character animation is similar to any Hanna-Barbara show on the air in 1990, but it's the backgrounds and building designs where this one really shines. This is one time where the early CGI standing out like a sore thumb actually works. Most early CGI tends to be boxy and plastic...and that's perfect for the show's retro-futuristic look. The exterior of the factory and the mall in particular are marvels, all translucent tubes and ovals and pearly colors.

The Song and Dance: First of all, I know many fans of the original show complained about pop star Tiffany playing Judy instead of original voice Janet Waldo, but I don't think she's that bad. At least she's an actual teenager who wasn't much older than Judy at the time. Zimmerman and Hall are hilarious as the feisty kid duo who are determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Their Scooby Doo-esque antics and some amusing slapstick from George provide a needed lift to the second half. The music my sisters and I loved so much are still decent examples of late 80's pop and remains catchy and hummable to this day. 

Favorite Number: We start off with "We're the Jetsons" introducing each member of the family and their day. Steve McCormick sings "Maybe Love, Maybe Not," the uptempo ballad rock star Cosmic Cosmo charms Judy with at the concert. "Staying Together" by Shane Sutton provides the background for the family's move to the asteroid. Rudy-2 and George lay into the twisty rhymes of "The Factory Rap" as they relate the rules for running the mining asteroid. "I Always Thought I'd See You Again" is Judy's heartbroken ballad at the mall when she thinks she'll never find another guy like Cosmo. Tiffany also performs the lovely "Home" in the finale as the Jetsons pack to leave the asteroid and bid their new friends a fond but sad farewell.

The big one here is another Tiffany song, the catchy "You and Me." The song Apollo wrote for Judy becomes a random but gorgeously animated abstract romantic reverie making use of everything from heart-themed surrealism to pop art to watercolors. 

Trivia: Last film for Penny Singleton, George O'Hanlon, and Mel Blanc; first theatrically released film for Brad Garrett, who voiced Fergie's father Bertie.

Blanc and O'Hanlon did manage to record their dialogue before they passed away during filming. O'Hanlon had a stroke and could only record one hour a day, but he died in the recording studio doing what he loved. Jeff Bergman filled in anything that had to be re-recorded. The film is dedicated to both men. 

Janet Waldo was set to voice Judy Jetson, but was replaced by Tiffany at the last moment to attract a younger audience. Apparently, she can still be heard as Judy in a few lines. 

While the movie didn't do badly at the box office, it was no blockbuster, either, and flopped only because of the high cost of marketing. It would be 27 years before another Jetsons project got off the ground, and that would be a made-for-video movie with WWE wrestling in 2017. (And apparently, there's a live-action version they've been trying to make since as far back as 1985.)

What I Don't Like: This movie has not dated well at all. The message about diversity and how different races can live together in harmony Apollo brings up in the end would have likely been enough to sustain a full plot. The environmental message with the beings who committed the sabotage feels preachy, dull, and tacked-on. There's no mention of environmentalism up to this point, and the resolution comes out of nowhere. Not to mention, both messages are driven home with all the force of those piledrivers in the asteroid. The perpetrators, when they do appear, are entirely too cutesy for a slapstick sci-fi action comedy and feel like they came from an early 80's Hanna-Barbara show like Monchikis or The Biscuitts. 

And...I think the Jetsons were a little hard on George. He wasn't really running out on them. The job and move WERE important. In fact, some of the characters they met were so interesting, I wonder what would have happened if they'd stayed and we'd seen more of them, especially the hilarious robot Two family. There's also the fact that Judy acted like a brat through most of the film. Yes, losing out on a date with a rock star was disappointing, but she barely met the guy, and she carries on like they'd been dating for years. 

The Big Finale: Opinion online seems to be sharply divided on this one. Some also have fond memories of catching this on video and cable and enjoy the cast and music; others, especially fans of the original show, find it to be too dated, silly, and lament the loss of Waldo. Put me in the former camp, but with reservations. Yes, it's dated, but if you love the original show or the cast or the music from this time period, you might actually have a lot of fun meeting the Jetsons and their friends new and old, too.

Home Media: Easily found in all major formats; the DVD often turns up for under $10.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Amazon Prime

Animation Celebration Saturday - The Fearless Four

Warner Bros/Munich Animation, 1997

Voices of James Ingram, Oleta Adams, B.B King, and Zucchero

Directed by Michael Coldway, Eberhard Junkersdorf

Music by Peter Wolf; English lyrics by Ina Wolf

By the late 90's, the popularity of Disney's animated fantasies were so all-encompassing, even overseas companies put out their own versions. Warner Bros got together with Munich Animation for this retelling of the Grimm's Fairy Tale "The Bremen Town Musicians." How does this tale of four unwanted animals who hope to become famous singers look nowadays? Let's begin on the hunt with the owner of Buster the Dog (Ingram), who would rather be singing than chasing foxes, and find out...

The Story: Buster encounters Fred the Donkey (King) when he's fleeing the miller who replaced him with a mechanical centaur. Gwendolyn the Cat (Adams) joins them after her late owner's family tries to kill her and get her owner's fortune. Tortellini the Rooster (Zucchero) is kicked off the farm after romancing one too many hens. 

Bremen's been taken over by the evil Dr. Greed (Ian James Corlett) and his henchman Platini (Garry Chalk). Dr. Greed doesn't allow laughter or singing...but he's so impressed with their singing, he hires them. Turns out he has a lot more in mind for them than singing a few songs. When they learn what he really has in mind for the unwanted critters of Bremen, the animals strike back and prove that every creature deserves another chance at life. 

The Animation: Pretty easy to tell Warners animators worked on this. It's about on par with their other movies from the era, like The Scarecrow and Quest for Camelot. It reminds me a great deal of Don Bluth's later films, but a bit cheaper. The early CGI, including in the factory and the mechanical centaur that replaces Fred, must have been fairly impressive in 1997 but just looks blocky and badly integrated with the 2D animation now. 

The Song and Dance: Kudos for them adapting "Bremen Town Musicians" at all. I can only think of two other versions of this story in North America, a rare Muppet special from 1972 and an episode of the HBO animated show Happily Ever After: Stories for Every Child from 1999. The first half before the quartet arrive in Bremen actually adapts the original fairy tale pretty well. And at the least, they chose a fairy tale that goes off the beaten track from Disney princess tales and romantic fantasies. 

Favorite Number: We open with Buster claiming he's "Never Been Better" to the animals in the near-by woods, even though he's supposed to be chasing a fox. Fred laments to the animals at the mill that "Life Is One Long Rainy Day" of hauling bags of flour. Powertool, the big mechanical centaur who replaces Fred at the mill, brags about his superiority to an animal that can get worn down as he sings "Powertool" and shows off how many bags he can lift. Gwendolyn's lament is the dark ballad "Big Girls Never Cry." "Song of Freedom" is the big number the Musicians perform at the election show for Mr. Greed to reveal what he really has in mind for all those animals he has at his factory.

What I Don't Like: The second half is where this one falters. The original folk story has the animals posing as a "monster" to scare off burglars and opting to stay at their abandoned home. It probably did need some padding to make it feature length...but how did this turn into a rather dark parable about corporate greed and repression? The middle feels more like an attempt at the big action films from this era with vaguely Orwellian overtones and is even a bit depressing. The generic pop and blues songs are pretty dull too, despite having two of the great voices in blues and R&B sing it. 

Oh, and why did they build up what happens when you pull Buster's tail early in the film, only to not use that device again? Likewise, Powertool appears, sings his one song, and promptly vanishes. And apparently the English version cuts out a lot of the finale. You barely see Dr. Greed's fate, how Gwendolyn finally pays for her home, and the party in the very end. It also gets fairly violent, especially in the factory. 

The Big Finale: While I do give them credit for trying something different, this one just gets too strange for its own good. A few folks in Europe, especially England and its native Germany, seem to have seen this and kids and have fond memories. For everyone else, it's a quick curiosity at best for families with animal or music-lovers on hand. 

Home Media: As far as I can tell, this one is currently streaming only in North America.

Amazon Prime

Apple TV 

Vudu

Moonwalker

Warner Bros, 1988

Starring Michael Jackson, Joe Pesci, Kellie Parker, and Brandon Quintin Adams

Directed by Jerry Kramer and Colin Chilvers

Music and Lyrics by Michael Jackson and others

And now, we take a deep dive into my 80's childhood for something seriously out of left field...or not even in the ballpark. By the time Moonwalker finally debuted in late 1988, Michael Jackson was THE hottest celebrity on the planet. His Thriller album from 1982 was the biggest-selling LP of all time; Bad, his second, wasn't far behind. His music videos were influential on film and stage for their ground-breaking choreography and use of storytelling. There was trouble behind the scenes, though, including his discovery of a disease that made his skin grow paler and a great deal of eccentric behavior that made tabloid headlines.  He reflected on all that in the album Bad and this movie, which went through its own troubles. Was it worth the headaches, or should this one get blasted by that giant robot in the finale? Let's begin by seeing just how huge Michael was actual footage of him performing "Man In the Mirror" during his Bad World Tour and find out...

The Story: Actually, we have seven music videos strung together here...

Man In the Mirror - Michael reveals what kind of man he wants to be as we see footage of historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa intercut with scenes of the crowds going wild for him.

Retrospective - Ten-minute rundown of Michael's career, from his start with his brothers as the Jackson 5 to the start of the Bad World Tour. 

Badder - Michael's famous "Bad" music video is recreated by hip street-dancing kids, including one (Adams) who is a dead ringer for him.

Speed Demon - Now an adult again, Michael has to outrun the Claymation crowds who want his autograph while morphing into whatever it is that'll get him away from those nutty autograph seekers. He leads them on a merry chase, appearing as different celebrities and a motorcycle-riding rabbit...but it's the rabbit who gets the last word when he and Michael have a dance-off in the desert.

Leave Me Alone - This one jumps into surrealism as Michael depicts his roller coaster life as a circus, and one he just wants to break free of. 

Smooth Criminal - The longest segment with the most story. Michael befriends homeless kids Katie (Parker), Zeke (Adams), and Sean (Sean Lennon). While chasing their dog in the park, he and Katie inadvertently discover the hide-out of drug kingpin Mr. Big (Pesci). Michael makes use of a little smooth dancing - and a lot of wish fulfillment magic - to rescue Katie and save every child on Earth from being drugged to death.

Come Together - We end with another concert, this time with Michael performing a cover of the Beatles hit for the delighted kids. 

The Animation: Name a style of animation that was faddish in the late 80's - Claymation, surrealism, computer graphics, stop-motion - and you'll probably see at least one sequence representing it here. The "Leave Me Alone" and "Retrospective" segments resembles Terry Gilliam's absurdist cartoons from Monty Python's Flying Circus, with its dogs riding roller coasters over the sleeping Michael. "Speed Demon" plays with the Claymation that was popular on television then - we even see the California Raisins and Domino's the Noid. It all moves decently, but even Michael's rabbit form is grotesque, creepy, and more likely to freak kids out than amuse them.

The Song and Dance: Hoo boy, this is a weird one. This is probably one of the strangest musicals I've reviewed on this blog, In fact, only Head, another surreal bit of lunacy made by rock musicians, gets anywhere near this on the nuttiness level. At the very least, some of the bits are really creative, especially for the time. "Speed Demon," with its mind-blowing quick-change editing, and the incredible dance sequence in "Smooth Criminal" are by far the best of the segments and have the most interesting story, though the colorful surreal imagery in "Leave Me Alone" rates a mention. 

Favorite Number: Adams and a group of ultra-tough pre-teen boys show off their "Bad" side in a spoof of the adult music video that feels more like "Bugsy Malone in the 80's," up to and including the kid-sizes sets. This goes directly into "Speed Demon," as Michael morphs into different celebrities to avoid the crowds who want his autograph and somehow ends up dancing with his Claymation rabbit costume. "Leave Me Alone" depicts Michael's life as a circus, with him finally attempting to escape from the barking dog heads of the press in the end.

The most famous number from this one by far is "Smooth Criminal." Michael is supposed to meet the kids at the Club 30's. They miss him, only seeing dust and dirt. They really should have stuck around. Michael's imagination turns it into an incredible dance routine, with gangsters in snappy pin-striped suits and stylish dames in elegant gowns dancing along with Michael as he takes on several mobsters and shows everyone some of the best moves in any 80's film. It has a level of style and elegance that puts it several notches above anything else in the movie.

Trivia: Two of Michael's nephews are dancers in the "Bad" segment. 

Though this was released to theaters in other parts of the world, the cost made it too expensive for Warners to put out in the US. It still made a mint when it came out on video in North America in January 1989.

What I Don't Like: Um, I think you can guess by now that if you're not a fan of Michael Jackson or weren't around when he was considered to be a near-god in the mid-late 80's, you're going to be incredibly confused. The segments mostly jump from oddball sequence to oddball sequence with no rhyme or reason. "Retrospective" makes him look like he's bragging about all his success...and then "Leave Me Alone" contradicts this, with him claiming he just wants the press to get out of his life. 

And what audience did Michael and Warners intend "Smooth Criminal" for? Sure, there's kids, action, and robots straight out of Transformers, but the kids and Michael are beaten and shot at by vicious drug lords, there's the dancers all rubbing against Michael in a near-orgy during the "Smooth Criminal" routine, and the spiders and cobwebs straight out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It can be a bit much for kids Katie's age and younger. Not to mention, the idea of Michael running around with a group of little kids may come off as more creepy than sweet nowadays, after his allegations of child abuse in the late 2000's. 

The Big Finale: My sisters and I loved Moonraker when it debuted on cable in mid-1989. We recorded it and watched it constantly. The scattershot structure and weird barely-there plots show their age nowadays. Unless you're a massive fan of Michael Jackson or have fond memories of those cable showings, I'd look up the "Smooth Criminal" number online and skip the rest. 

Home Media: That prohibitive cost has also kept it from being released on disc in North America. Streaming is your only bet on this side of the pond. 

Amazon Prime

Cult Flops - Repo! The Genetic Opera

Lionsgate, 2008

Starring Anthony Head, Alex Vega, Paul Sorvino, and Sarah Brightman

Directed by Darren Lynn Bouseman

Music and Lyrics by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich 

This seems to be the month for really bizarre musicals...but I think I finally found one of the strangest musicals ever created. Some of you won't be surprised to hear it comes from the same writers and crew as the equally strange The Devil's Carnival and Alleujah! The Devil's Carnival, which I reviewed last year. Let's trade a not-so-heavenly theme park for a sci-fi dystopia that makes The Hunger Games films look cheerful and see just how weird a rock opera can get...

The Story: It's the year 2056, and an epidemic of organ failures spreads across the Earth. GeneCo, the world's largest corporation, provides organ transplants for desperate people on a payment plan. Those who miss the payments are hunted down by "Repo Men" who repossess the organs. Among those men are Nathan Wallace (Head), who is trying to shield his daughter Shiloh (Vega) from the terrors of the outside world. He's told the girl she has a genetic illness like her late mother, but she's desperate to see the outside world. Rotti Largo (Sorvino), the head of GeneCo, lures the girl into his clutches in the hope that she'll take over his empire in the place of his three spoiled children. Meanwhile, Nathan, unable to kill Magdalene (Brightman), a friend of his wife's who has Geneco eyes, is now pursued by Rotti's men...and he'll do anything to keep Rotti from harming anyone else he loves.

The Song and Dance: Hoo boy. Well, you can't say this one isn't unique. Science fiction stories about evil corporations controlling bleak futures have become rather popular over the past 30-40 years or so, but this is the first time I've seen one such story done as a rock opera. The bombastic style is very much in line with the European rock operas of the 80's and early 90's, closer to what Stage Fright attempted to parody. Sorvino and Head take top honors as the nasty corporate exec and the lackey with the tragic backstory, but Vega isn't bad as the sheltered daughter, and even Paris Hilton, of all people, works out better than you might think as Rotti's surgery-obsessed youngest child. 

Also love the opening and closing sequences, drawn in the style of fairly realistic comic book panels as the Grave Robber (Terrance Zdunich) explains about the genetic failures and what happens after Rotti dies and Shiloh flees.

Favorite Number: We're introduced to Shiloh as she and the Grave Robber search for a "21st Century Cure" for her condition. She admits she's tired of being "Infected" after her father reminds her why she has to stay at home. Nathan sings of his nasty job being a "Legal Assassin" with the help of a ghostly chorus. Mag explains "The Tao of Mag" to show why she needed those eyes. Shiloh angrily sings to her father why it's tough being "Seventeen" when you have few choices in life, but it's worse being an adult who doesn't understand. "At the Opera Tonight" brings together most of the cast as they prepare for a big GeneCo variety show. In the end, when Nathan's shot and almost gone, father and daughter admit "I Didn't Know I'd Love You So Much."

What I Didn't Like: Did I mention how weird and depressing this movie is? Weird, loud, and even bloodier than Smith's Devil's Carnival and Saw movies. If you don't love rock opera, bloody horror, flashy in-your-face musicals, or stories about ultra-pitch-black futures, this is absolutely not the movie for you. The heavy violence, swearing, skimpy costumes, and sexual references makes this absolutely, positively not for children, too. 

The Big Finale: There's few musicals out there quite like this one. Worth checking out at least once if you're a fan of bleak sci-fi, really bloody horror, or other recent flashy musical extravaganzas like Moulin Rouge. 

Home Media: Easily found in all major formats. Tubi currently streams it for free. 

DVD

Blu-Ray

Tubi

Musicals On TV - It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman!

ABC, 1975

Starring Lesley Ann Warren, David Wilson, Kenneth Mars, and David Wayne

Directed by Jack Regas

Music by Charles Strouse; Lyrics by Lee Adams

Yes, even Superman, one of the biggest comic book characters ever, has been the subject of a musical. It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman debuted on Broadway in 1966. It wasn't a hit, but it did have a few songs that went over well. In 1975, ABC commissioned this updated version, featuring several major stars of the time, plus a newcomer as the Man of Steel. It was intended for prime-time...until ABC saw the results and dumped it on their late-night show Wide World of Entertainment. Does it deserve better nowadays, or should it be blown to bits? Let's start at The Daily Planet, just as its workers are revealing how they feel about Superman, and find out...

The Story: Everyone at The Daily Planet wants to know who Superman (Wilson) is and when he'll help Metropolis again. Reporter Lois Lane (Warren) has a crush on him after writing many articles about his activities. Gossip columnist Max Menken (Mars) is insanely jealous of all the love Superman gets from the public. His secretary Sydney (Loretta Swit) would rather he paid attention to her and his writing. Neither Lois nor Max realize that Superman is really quiet, unassuming Clark Kent (Wilson), whom Lois never notices. Planet editor Perry White (Allen Ludden) wishes they'd all pay attention to getting bigger scoops.

Menken isn't the only villain who has a bone to pick with Superman. Scientist Dr. Abner Segewick (Wayne) is furious and bitter over being snubbed for a Nobel Prize yet again. He is determined to destroy Sweden, and figures he has to get rid of Superman before that plan can proceed. Even a group of gangsters has it in for Superman - he keeps disrupting their operations. When Segewick unleashes his evil plan, it'll take Lois' faith and a reminder that he still has fans to remind Superman that generic gangsters and scientists are no match for the Man of Steel!

The Song and Dance: There's a reason this keeps getting revived regionally, even though the plot is no great shakes. Strouse and Adams crafted a decent score, with at least one showstopper in "You've Got Possibilities." Mars is thoroughly enjoying chewing that paper scenery to bits as the egotistical gossip hound, and Swift tosses in a few good zingers, usually at her boss' expense. And they do occasionally manage to make the cheap production work, especially when "bricks" fall in after Superman bursts through the paper walls. 

Favorite Number: We open with all of Metropolis, from the journalists on The Daily Planet to the cops and college kids on the street, explaining why "We Need Him." Lois gives her own opinion on why she's so crazy about a man she only knows when he's rescuing her with "It's Superman." The gangsters reveal why they love their homeland - and robbing it blind - in the one new song written for the show, "It's a Free Country."  Max tries to convince Lois "You're the Woman for the Man" in a charming soft-shoe, but despite her seeming interest, Lois remains faithful to Superman. Sydney tries her own seduction of Clark in the show's only standard, "You've Got Possibilities." It's Lois who reminds the gangsters that "I'm Not Down Yet" and Superman will save her when they've all been captured in the end.

Trivia: Though the original 1966 Broadway cast went over well with critics, it couldn't find an audience and shut down after four months. It's never been back on Broadway, but it has seen several well-received concerts, including an Encores! show in 2013. 

What I Don't Like: Other than Lois, Superman, and Perry White...what does any of this have to do with Superman? What's wrong with Lex Luthor for the villain? Worked in several movies and all of the cartoon series featuring Superman. Why didn't they use other regular Superman characters like Jimmy Olsen? The plot is witless, boring, and badly dated. Their attempts at the camp elements that still make the 1966 Batman TV show a hoot, like the paper comics sets, look cheap and silly here. Sedgewick takes down Superman with psychology? Why not kryptonite? And the same writers would go on to pen the screenplay for the first Christopher Reeve movie. Obviously, they did a lot more homework in the four years between this and the release of that blockbuster. 

The characters don't come off so great, either. Warren's Lois is too cutesy and annoyingly gosh-golly-gee. Her overwhelming desire to marry Superman is not only condescending, it doesn't at all match the narrator's (Gary Owens) description of her as a spunky reporter, or the tenacious Lois most people recognize today. Her ballad "What I've Always Wanted" is dated and overly-sweet, with its silly fantasy sequence, even if Warren does sing it well. Wilson is annoying and whiny whether he's Superman or Clark Kent. No wonder Lois doesn't notice him. 

I'm not a fan of the updated tempos on the songs, either. "You've Got Possibilities" in particular sounds totally wrong with funky guitar riffs and extra synthesizers. They cut a lot of the stage score, too. While I have to admit I enjoy "Free Country" (though some of its lines sound a little too on-the-nose right now), among the losses are another number for Clark ("Doing Good"), for Max Menken ("So Long, Big Guy"), and a nice ballad that admittedly was for a character who didn't mean much to the plot ("We Don't Matter at All"). 

The Big Finale: The cast and a few good songs can't overcome the cheap production, badly dated plot, lousy villains, and dull performances. Only if you're a really, really huge Superman fan. Look up the not-bad original cast album for this show on CD instead. 

Home Media: Currently, this rarity can only be found on YouTube.

YouTube

Cult Flops - The Return of Captain Invincible

Jensen Farley Pictures/Seven Keys, 1983

Starring Alan Arkin, Kate Fitzpatrick, Christopher Lee, and Michael Pate

Directed by Phillppe Mora

Music and Lyrics by various

Superheroes, especially of late, have conquered almost every media they've appeared in, from comics to TV to radio...except the musical stage. As anyone who saw Spider Man, Turn Off the Dark on-stage a decade ago can tell you, superhero cliches, with people flying and throwing things around and villains with insane world-domination plans, don't really mix well with bursting into song and huge dance routines. Spider Man wasn't even the first attempt to mix superhero and musical conventions, as we'll discover with our first two entries this week. How does this major sci-fi flop from Australia look nowadays, with far more serious science fiction hitting theaters? Let's start with a newsreel detailing more about the incredible career of Captain Invincible and find out...

The Story: Captain Invincible was the most beloved hero in the United States during the late 30's and 40's, defeating gangsters and Nazis alike...until he went under suspicion in the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950's. Before he can be arrested, he takes off into the horizon, never to be seen again.

In the early 80's, New York is hit by a strange ray that makes immigrants want to instantly leave their homes and move to a certain housing project on the edge of the mainland. The President of the United States, who a huge Captain Invincible fan, wants the Man of Magnet back on the job. Policewoman Patty Patria (Fitzpatrick) is the last person to have seen him...wandering around, muttering and drunk. It's up to Patty to get him back into fighting shape and bolster his confidence in truth, justice, and the American way. Supervillain Mr. Midnight (Lee) has his own plans for Invincible...and he won't let him get in the way of his plans for world domination.

The Song and Dance: This is one of those movies where everything is so weird, after a while, you just sit back and run with it. Arkin and especially Lee throw themselves into their roles, chewing every bit of scenery in sight, and have a marvelous time doing so. And who knew Lee in particular had a pretty darn decent voice? His part of "Mr. Evil Midnight" is a rich, campy delight. For an Australian production, there's also more goofy jokes about America than you can shake a red, white, and blue flag at, especially involving Midnight's hideout in the deli and Patty's speech over "The American Eagle Network."

Favorite Number: "We Need a Hero" starts with the President cursing out his underlings when they can't figure out how to handle Midnight's scheme, and ends with him leading the heads of a military in a chorus routine saluting the government's need to call in for help. Meanwhile, Captain Invincible laments about his lost career pointing out that the good and the bad aren't so different in the country flavored "Amazing How They're Alike." 

"Mr. Evil Midnight" is another huge chorus routine, as Invincible explains to Patty and the riders on the subway what Midnight does, while Midnight sings about his delight in being nasty with his scantily-clad chorus girls. Lee also gets to show off his wonderful voice as he and his devilish dancers try to coerce Invincible to "Name Your Poison" and return to drinking.

What I Don't Like: Even for a satire, this doesn't make a shred of sense. The movie just cuts from incident to action sequence to musical number with no rhyme or reason. Many important bits of information, including how Midnight finally regains his powers and him rescuing the trapped new home owners in the end, are alluded to but not shown. 

Midnight's plan revolves around forcing ethnic families out of the country in the hopes that white Americans will cheer him for it...and it tends to hit a little too close to the mark with the racial tension in the US lately. Other aspects, including those stereotypes and all of Invincible's bellyaching about the changes in America between 1950 and 1983, are almost annoyingly dated. It's also pretty obvious Kirpatrick was dubbed (although the bad sync may have been intentional), and her soft rock ballad is the silliest and most boring song in the film.

The Big Finale: No movie with Christopher Lee can be all bad, and indeed, while not a lost treasure, this one can be a lot of fun. It really lives in its own warped world where the usual logic doesn't apply. If you can run with that and are a fan of superhero movies or Lee, you may get as much of a kick out of this one as I did.  

Home Media: As far as I can tell, currently DVD only.

DVD

Cult Flops - The Apple

The Cannon Group, 1980
Starring Catherine Mary Stewart, George Gilmour, Grace Kennedy, and Vladek Sheybal
Directed by Menahem Golem
Music by Coby Recht; Lyrics by Iris Recht

Even low-budget studios wanted to cash in on the disco craze. Inspired by his difficulties with a major French music company, Recht started writing this one in 1977. He couldn't get anyone to sign until he hit on Golem, an old friend. Golem thought it would make a wonderful movie and started filming in West Berlin in 1979 It's creators thought it was going to be the next big thing. By the time it came out in June 1980, it ran into that huge disco backlash and wound up being one of the bigger failures of the year. How does this disco Faust allegory look now? Let's start at the Euro...er, Worldvision Song Festival at West Berlin's Internationales Congress Centrum in 1994 and find out...

The Story: Naive young Canadians Alphie (Gilmour) and Bibi (Stewart) enter the contest with their gentle love song, but sabotaged by the evil Mr. Boogalow (Sheybal) and his minions. They want the pair from Boogalow International Music, Dandi (Allan Love) and Pandi (Grace Kennedy), to win. Boogalow invites them to a party at his home, and then to his office to sign a contract. Alphie insists both times that something is wrong. Dandi comes onto Bibi at the party, convincing her to sign the contract. She becomes the biggest star on the planet, spreading the evil message of BIM until everyone is under Boogalow's influence.

Alphie is still trying to sell his pop ballads, but he's not doing well. He lives in a falling-down building run by a fussy Jewish lady (Miriam Margoyles) who wishes he'd pay the rent. He tries to get Bibi back, but is first beaten by Boogalow's mooks, then seduced by Pandi. Realizing how much he loves her, Pandi finally sends Bibi after her sweetheart. They fall in with a group of hippies...but it'll take literal divine intervention to save this biblical pair and the people who have protected them...

The Song and Dance: This movie is so insane, it's in a class by itself. The glittery sci-fi costumes and wild neon makeup say less "1994" than "Rainbow Brite on every recreational drug available in 1980." Everyone either overacts with a rabid ferocity or fades into the woodwork, and it's oddly complimentary to the movie's in-your-face style.

Favorite Number: Dandi initially seduces Bibi with "Made for Me" at Boogalow's party as the guests throw in their own dance moves to help convince her. Boogalow, his second-in-command Shake (Ray Shell), and the chorus introduce Alphie and Bibi to the world of "Showbizness" in a huge, glitzy dance number in the lobby of Boogalow International Music shortly before they go upstairs to check out their contracts. Alphie thinks he sees Dandi giving "The Apple" to Bibi in an extremely obvious Adam and Eve allegory. Pandi gets her own seduction number with "Coming," as she and the chorus make love and try to sway Alphie to their side.

What I Don't Like: Nothing in this movie makes the slightest bit of sense. There's plot holes the size of Europe. We don't find out how they invited Alphie and Bibi to the party after they sabotaged them, or what happened to Alphie's landlady, or how BIM took over so quickly, or why Pandi suddenly changed sides. The movie frequently shows it's the cheap cash-in it is, from bad special effects to the lousy script and acting to the ridiculous, out-of-nowhere ending. This movie has all the subtlety of a ten-ton brick to the face.

The Big Finale: ...And yet, for all the idiocy, I still liked it better than Can't Stop the Music. It's obvious they took this seriously and were trying hard to make a decent biblical allegory, using the music of the time. Is it great? No. Is it even good? Not at all. But it's definitely it's own thing. If you love movies that are so bad, they're fascinating, you'll want to take a look at this.

Home Media: It's cult status makes it easy to find in all formats.

DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime

Cult Flops - Just Imagine

Fox Studios, 1930
Starring El Brendel, Maureen O'Sullivan, John Garrick, and Marjorie White
Directed by David Butler
Music by Ray Henderson; Lyrics by B.G DeSylva and Lew Brown

With musicals still doing big business early in 1930, many studios were experimenting with the format. Even now, science fiction musicals aren't exactly common; in the early sound era, the mere idea may have been insane. Fox built a gigantic, heavily detailed futuristic model city and early special effects, some of which still look good to this day. The rest...well, let's start with a prologue detailing the changes in the world from 1880 to 1930, and then from 1930 to the glittering future world of 1980, and find out...

The Story: In 1980, all humans now have letters and numbers for names, and all marriages are sanctioned by the state. The marriage tribunal sanction the union of LN-18 (O'Sullivan) to wealthy but nasty MT-3 (Kenneth Thomson), but LN really loves J-21 (Garrick). Meanwhile, scientists have revived a man who was struck by lightning in the past, a Swedish immigrant now known as Single-O (Brendel). J-21 and his buddy RT-42 (Frank Albertson) take Single-O under their wing and introduces him to the pills that are now their dinners and drinks. They visit LN and her best friend D-6 (White) at their apartment. Her father went out with MT, but the despicable suitor thought there was something wrong and returned. Unfortunately, Single-O, who is addicted to liquor-pills, gives the men away.

Hoping to prove himself worthy of LN, J-21 joins RT on a three-man ship heading for Mars. Single-O stows away, hoping to snitch more of those liquor pills. On arrival, the trio discover the natives-like Queen LooLoo (Joyzelle Joyner) and King Loko (Ivan Linow) and their tribe. In the middle of an opera put on by Martian orang-outangs, the King and Queen's evil twins invade the country. Turns out that everyone on Mars has an evil twin, and the royals are no exception. Now these strange visitors from another world have to figure out how to stop the uprising and make it home in 4 days, before J-21's beloved LN marries the wrong man.

The Song and Dance: I give Fox's art direction department credit. This movie still looks incredible, and at a time that's way before computer effects. The detailed city was done entirely in miniatures, with amazing details, down to flickering lights and things that did come pass like warm-air hand dryers. The sequence where the scientists revive Single-O is equally cool and detailed, even managing a little suspense. The Martian invasion is also fairly detailed and action-packed.

Favorite Number: Garrick gets the first number, as J-21 explains why he loves his sweetheart so much in "There's Something About an Old-Fashioned Girl." Garrick gets the ballad "(I am the Words) You are the Melody" to woo his sweetheart in her room; she sings it later before he leaves for Mars. Marjorie White and Frank Albertson duet on the sole hit from this score, the cute "Never Swat a Fly," at the party for the two Mars explorers' departure.

Trivia: The miniature city was so big, it took a team of 205 technicians to build it over five months in a former balloon hanger, was wired with 15,000 miniature lights, and cost Fox $168,000.

By the time the movie came out in November 1930, musicals had fallen rapidly out of fashion. The sci-fi angle alone wasn't enough to save it, and it wound up being one of the year's bigger flops. Fox finally got their money out of the movie by renting the miniature city out to other studios, including Universal for their Flash Gordon serials. The studios wouldn't try a major sci-fi movie again until 1950.

The equipment that revived Single-O was also rented to Universal later in the 30's. If it looks familiar, it's the equipment that helped bring Frankenstein to life in the 1932 film version.

What I Don't Like: For all the elaborate sets and futuristic details, this is pretty much a standard romantic triangle. The dialogue is stiff and the acting is worse. The characters, especially J-21 and LN-18, are dull and cliched, and between Joynelle's scanty costumes and the oddly stereotyped native business, the entire Mars sequence comes off as more weird than anything. The score is just as cliched, with only "Swat a Fly" coming off well. Brendel was a wildly popular comedian during the late silent and early sound years, but a lot of his Swedish hayseed gags haven't dated well and makes him more annoying than funny for most audiences now.

The Big Finale: If you want to check out a musical that's truly unique or are a fan of early sci-fi, this is worth digging around for at least once as a curiosity.

Home Media: This is another rarity that at press time can only be found at museums and on YouTube.

YouTube