Scooby-Doo movie

2002

Anette, Gareth Hunt, and Steven Grives at a film premiere in early April of 1979 💜

I found some very fun old fan websites based on the series. They’re so nice and funny. I think the one based on Steven Grives even got an interview! Going to try to look at a few more links on the way back machine at some point…

Links:

http://flambards.flyingdreams.org/#about

https://stevengrives.tripod.com/

https://flambardsheaven.tripod.com/

https://lianki.tripod.com/index.htm

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

"Your birth was a curse on the whole of humanity; I will not allow it to happen again. You've brought me back to give you life, but now I must take yours."

"We'll see, bitch."

Alan Parnaby, Steven Grives, Sebastian Abineri and Christine McKenna in “Flambards”. 

The Wizard

Today I am covering a movie I have been itching to write about here for years. It is an admittedly subpar film from 1989, but seeing it then as a six year old videogame kiddo, I absolutely adored it. Yes I am talking about the 1989 Nintendo adver-film, The Wizard (trailer). I have had a nostalgia-driven love/hate/love relationship with The Wizard throughout my life. Absolutely loved it as a kid, when I got around to re-watching it with adult eyes for the first time shortly after its first DVD run in 2006, I realized a lot of it then was hard to watch and thought the film took itself way too seriously. I embedded an old episode of my old podcast I recently un-vaulted at the bottom of this entry where we do a roundtable breakdown of The Wizard right after its first DVD release in 2006. Watching it again in 2020, I kind of came around to digging it again as you will soon read on to see. The Wizard never got a deluxe edition home video treatment until this year. Its DVD release in 2006, and initial 2018 BluRay release saw a basic home video release with no bonus material other than a trailer. After much fan outcry, Universal finally granted access to home video distributor Shout Factory to release a much desired special edition jam packed with extras. It hit BluRay at the beginning of this year, shortly after the film’s 30th anniversary. If you are unfamiliar with Shout Factory, think of them as the equivalent as the Criterion Edition, but for beloved B-movies instead.

This is a road trip film, where through the magic of Nintendo, a broken family is reunited…..yes I am embellishing, but only ever-so-marginally! After an earlier childhood crisis that is not revealed until late in the movie, nine-year-old Jimmy Woods (Luke Edwards) is left in a quasi-autistic state (his condition is never fully explained). Jimmy consistently runs away from home until his mother decides it is too much and puts him in a permanent childcare facility. Jimmy’s half-brother Corey (Fred Savage) would have none of this treatment to Jimmy and sneaks him out of the facility. Jimmy infamously references ‘California’ throughout, Corey decides to take Jimmy on a road trip to California to see just what Jimmy wants to go over there for. Along the way they meet Hailey (Jenny Lewis), who joins them on the run and helps discover Jimmy’s hidden talents at getting top scores at arcade games. The trio decide to embark to a huge videogame tournament in California they see a flyer for and think that must be what Jimmy is talking about that is awaiting them there. Watching the Wizard now in 2020 compared to the last time I saw it in 2006 what popped out to me was surprisingly the ‘heart’ of the family dilemma the whole film is predicated on. As I stated in my entries here chronicling the seasons of Roseanne, the reason that show is one of my favorite sitcoms is because my family was not too far off from how dysfunctional the Conners were. The Woods family here has their own twisted backstory that gets kind of fleshed out on why the family is split up and struggling to overcome a recent crisis that has had a lasting impact on them. I can relate to that with my various family qualms over the decades, so seeing Corey & Jimmy’s brother, Nick (Christian Slater) and father, Sam (Beau Bridges) go from being on rocky turmoil throughout the film, but managing to put their differences aside to go on the road after them kind of resonated with me a little bit on this viewing.

Nick and Sam playing catch-up on the road is an entertaining B-plot to The Wizard. The father and son team have a comedic foil in one Mr. Putnam (Will Seltzer), a professional tracker of runaway kids who I would imagine would be a realistic good kind of person, but the film portrays Putnam as a ruthless, slimy scumbag in it solely for the money. It is laughable to see Putnam get the villain stereotype checklist treatment. Balding, slicked back hair? Check! Cowboy-collar-string-tie? Check! Always chomping on gum? Check! Weasel-y voice? Double check! During their father-son road trek, Nick introduces his dad to videogames, and soon enough Sam is just as hooked as Nick in trying to conquer the dastardly original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game on NES. Videogames are featured predominantly throughout The Wizard and goes to show how big arcades were in the late 80s to the point where you can find a stray machine or two at any gas station or restaurant. Watching Hailey and Corey train Jimmy to get as much gaming knowledge in time for the videogame tournament in Los Angeles was a riot. The requisite-training montage scene perfectly encapsulates NES-mania at the peak of its powers in 1989. As you can see in the linked video it has the perfect training material for any grade school game player of that era in the form of arcade game practice sessions, Nintendo Power magazines and calling the Nintendo-endorsed game counselor’s hotline for pro tips! Countless games are shown off throughout. One of the most recognizable scenes of the film is when Jimmy meets his antagonist in the form of pro-gamer, Lucas (Jackey Vinson) who makes his unabashed love of the Power Glove the must-have NES accessory of the ’89 Christmas season.

Eventually Lucas and Jimmy clash at the ‘Videogame Armageddon’ tournament in LA. They are two of the three finalists and for their final challenge the AWESOME over-the-top host (Steven Grives) bestows upon them a brand new, unreleased game in the form of the madly anticipated Super Mario Bros. 3! The three compete for the next three minutes of film in what is essentially an infomercial for SMB3. Nintendo and Universal timed The Wizard to hit theaters several weeks before the release of the game, which only fueled demand and likely played a factor into SMB3 selling more than 17 million copies worldwide. I vividly remember being on edge in my childhood viewing of that contest finale making SMB3 seem like the coolest game ever, and re-watching it 30 years later the scene still gets me wrapped up all over again! Just click or press here to see it for yourself! Jimmy’s family is so proud of him that the whole family vaguely patches things up in a touching moment at a tourist attraction shortly thereafter to end the film on a feel-good note. As positive as I am on the film so far, it is all in a so-bad-its-good, B-movie way. I could rag on the many imperfections of The Wizard with its out of touch dialogue, overuse of New Kids on the Block in the soundtrack, misrepresentation of some of the videogames and some out of date cultural norms, but as you can tell The Wizard is somewhat of a special film for me so I will leave that to you to scour the Internet for those astutely valid points of criticism.

As I alluded to above, this Shout Factory edition of the film is loaded with extra features. There is 38 minutes of deleted scenes! Highly recommend checking them out, as the deleted scenes mostly consists of early first act backstory setting up brotherly differences with Corey and Nick, and also a whole abandoned sideplot that sees Corey sneak Jimmy out of the childcare facility multiple times to introduce him to the NES and becoming a pro at videogames. Director Todd Holland has a feature commentary track filled with tons of insightful factoids. Some highlights include regretting how unsafe parts of the production were, justifying why a lot of scenes were cut, pointing out a blink-and-miss-it Toby McGuire cameo, fighting to the bitter end to get his feel-good family reuniting ending and how a throwaway joke panning Universal Studios lead to a last minute final re-cut of the film to omit that line due to peeved Universal executives. There are two Q&A panels included totaling an hour and a half. Both feature Luke Edwards along with original writer, David Chisholm and producer, Ken Topolsky. A lot of good anecdotes and memories from everyone involved, but not necessarily required viewing since a decent amount of their responses are touched on in the last of the bonuses. Rounding off the extras are three more behind-the-scenes bonuses tallying up just under an hour. Critical Analysis of The Wizard is a 12 minute look at Jimmy’s childhood trauma and the psychological effects of his condition. How Can I Help You is a six minute interview with a former Nintendo Game Counselor detailing his work experiences. Road to California is the standout making of feature with it being a 40 minute comprehensive look at how The Wizard came to be with interviews with most of the cast and crew. It dissects the casting, selecting the gameplay footage from Nintendo-provided tapes, explaining the ending, making all the cuts down to a 90 minute film, dealing with the critical fallout and the belated public adoration from fans online who grew up with the film and spread the love once it hit DVD. There are a couple heartfelt fan testimonials it included towards the end with some passionate stories from serious fans of the film!

These last several days have been a ride to say the least while taking in everything this Shout Factory edition had to offer. I knew a part of me enjoyed The Wizard in a guilty pleasure kind of way, but taking it all in again with a 37-year old perspective made the family crisis element of the movie, regardless of how corny it is implemented, somehow make an impact on me and appreciate it in a way I was not expecting. Combine that with it capturing the aura of late-80s NES fever, and seeing all the ubiquitous love from the cast, crew and fans of the movie in the bonus feature interviews and it all adds up to The Wizard going from guilty pleasure to childhood favorite that I did not expect to find myself still a big fan of today.

If you somehow quench for more Wizard coverage, then check out this episode of my old podcast I recently re-uploaded to my YouTube channel where we reviewed The Wizard right after its first DVD printing way back in 2006.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Last Action Hero Major League Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Not for Resale Pulp Fiction The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

Deleted Scene: Velma’s Song

Why is yellow bubbled?

In my au yellow is one of the most cruelest diamond.

1. She abused pink on purpose

2. She wasn't there for blue well she was griving.

3. She poofed white diamond and put her in a mirror plus took over homeworld.

4. She continued her fusion experiments

5. She even tried to destroy earth

But the worst of all is that she was the one who pulled out Steven's gem. but luckily Steven and purple Steven fused witch caused a exploxson witch poofed her.

Hers what she looks like

Shes Bigger then white diamond. And she uses yellow pearl for her cap

Shes Bigger then white diamond and she uses her pearl for her cap

BILAN CULTUREL - SEPT./OCT. 2021

Cinéma :

Délicieux - Éric Besnard

Dune - Denis Villeneuve

Mourir peut attendre - Cary Joji Fukunaga

À la vie - Aude Pépin

Livres & bandes dessinées :

L’Usine - Hiroko Oyamada

The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel

Quatres soeurs, tomes 1 à 4 - Malika Ferdjoukh

Le Consentement - Vanessa Springora

Outresable - Hugh Howey

Révolution, tome 1 - Florent Grouazel, Younn Locard

Tunnels - Rutu Modan

New York Cannibals - Jérôme Charyn, François Boucq

George Sand, ma vie à Nohant - Chantal Van den Heuven, Nina Jacqmin

Préférence Système - Ugo Bienvenu

Le roman des Goscinny - Catel

Gold Star Mothers - Catherine Grive, Fred Bernard

Gombri - Elín Edda

Le manifeste des 343 : histoire d’un combat - Adeline Laffitte, Hélène Strag, Hervé Duphot

Little Tulip - Jérôme Charyn, François Boucq

L’Âge d’or, vol. 2 - Roxanne Moreil, Cyril Pedrosa

Sacrées sorcières - Pénélope Bagieu, d’après Roald Dahl

Woman World - Aminder Dhaliwal

Dans la forêt - Lomig

Facteur pour femmes, livre 2 - Didier Quella-Guyot, Emmanuel Cassier

Expos :

Vivian Maier - Musée du Luxembourg, Paris

Jeux vidéo :

Pokémon Épée - Game Freak

Projections privées :

Peninsula - Yeon Sang-ho

Slalom - Charlène Favier

Le Parapluie bleu (court-métrage) - Saschka Unseld

Rick and Morty, saison 5 - Dan Harmond, Justin Roiland

What We Do In The Shadows, saison 3 - Jemaine Clement

See, saison 2 - Steven Knight

The Handmaid’s Tale, saison 4 - Bruce Miller

En thérapie - Éric Toledano, Olivier Nakache

Luna Park, saison 1 - Isabella Aguilar

Only Murders in the Building, saison 1 - Steve Martin, John Hoffman

Découvertes musicales récentes :

( Stranded Horse - Towards A Waning Glow )

GABRIELLA HARRIS STORY

NAME: GABRIELLA HARRIS AGE:24 BIRTHDATE: DECEMBER 20TH PERSONALITY- GABRIELLA HARRIS IS VERY SMART YOUNG WOMEN WHO GETS STARES ALOT FROM GUYS SHE IS ALSO A BOOK WORM TOO SHER LIKES CREEPY STUFF TOO. HOMETOWN: COLLAGEVILLE PENNSYLVANIA BOYFRIEND: TIM SUTTON :AGE:25 : BRITHDATE : UNKNOW: PERSONALITY- TIM SUTTON IS SOME WHAT CONFRONTAL DUDE AND A VERY GOOD LISTNER TOO. EX-BOYFREIND- TYLER BAILEY : AGE: 28 : BRITHDATE: MAY 13TH. PERSONALITY- TYLER BAILEY IS VERY STRANGE YOUNG MAN WHO LIKE TO CREEP GIRLS OUT AND MAKE FEEL LIKE UNSAFE.

BACKSTORY- 'GABRIELLA HARRIS AND TYLER BAILEY WERE DATEING FOR A LONG TIME LIKE ALMOST A YEAR NOW BUT THERE LOVE FOR EACH OTHER WILL NOT LAST LONG CUZ OF ISSUES WITH EACH OTHER WITH HIM BEGIN A CREEP AND MAKEING GIRLS FEEL UNSAFE BEING AROUND HIM AND FOR THAT GABRIELLA DUMPED HIM TYLER DID NOT TAKE THAT WELL'.

STORY- Gabriella Harris was youngest of fives kids in her family, Gabriella was studying for parasociogly Gabriella loved anything about the paranormal, Gabriella dad was  Cop of collageville Gabriella loved Tim Sutton so much Tim Sutton came by Gabriella house to hang out and they drank beer and watch movies, Gabriella loved Tim Sutton Gabriella father Brady Harris did not mine Tim Sutton, one night Gabriella and Tim went out of town to Pittsburge Pennsylvina, they went there to party at a bar there Gabriella and Tim drank and laughed it up Gabriella and Tim left the bar that night, Gabriella and Tim drove back to there homes Tim Sutton lived blocks down from Gabriella, Gabriella drove into her driveway Tim Sutton walked to his house and Gabriella did the same, Gabriella went into her house Gabriella went up stairs Gabriella went into her room to her bathroom to take a shower Gabriella got out of the shower Gabriella got dress and went out of the bathroom that was a feet from her bedroom, Gabriella had glasses and Gabriella took her glasses off and just laid down on her bed Gabriella feel asleep not knowing that her night was going to be a nightmare she won't forget, it was midnight Gabreilla could not sleep she woke up feeling like something was watching her from outside of her window, Gabriella went to her window there Gabreilla saw a young man standing in her yard stareing up at her Gabriella backed away and ran down stairs to lock the front door, and all the windows, but when Gabriella went to lock the back door her stalker bust it open and came though the door with a axe, Gabriella gasped and ran for the front door but the stalker garbbed Gabriella and threw her down to the ground Gabriella began to back away while on the ground the stalker took off his mask it was Tyler Bailey Gabriellas ex, Gabriella got up tyler dropped his axe and charged at Gabriella Gabreilla fought back but she could no longer hold Tyler off Tyler began to punch and pull Gabreillas hair and began to punch Gabriella  more Tyler throwed Gabriella began to kick her in the head Gabreilla suaroundeings became black Tyler kept kicking Gabriella, then Tyler grabbed the blunt part of the axe Tyler  hit Gabriella with itover and over again,  then front door began to open Tim Sutton had a spare key to Gabreillas house that Gabriella gave him , When Tim Sutton walked in he saw Gabriella barley alive bleeding from her head Tyler took the blunt side of the axe handle and began to beat Gabriella again , Tim saw this and rushed Tyler Baliey Tim began to take blunt side of the axe that Tyler used on Gabriella, Tim  used the blunt side of the axe to beat Tyler with it Tim kept going beating Tyler Balieys face in, Gabriella breathing was getting shallow, Tyler Baliey was not moveing that time, Tim droped the handle of the axe Tim walked towards Gabriella and kneeled down and picked Gabriella up Tim took off Gabriellas clothes and took Gabriella up stairs to the bathroom, there Tim began to bathed her to wash the blood off of Gabreilla face, then Tim called 911 with his cell phone Tim told the cops to come to this address, Tim hunged up on the police and warpped Gabreilla up in towel, Tim went back down stairs with Gabriella in his arms the cops came they pulled up to thr front door one of the officers was Gabriellas dad, steven harris came to his daughters aid and held her in his arms he screamed and cried, Tim told the cops that the attcker is inside dead, Tim told Gabriellas dad that it was Tyler Baliey that did it Tim also said that he saved Gabriellas life one cop was about to arrest Tim, but Steven Harris told his cop buddy  'don't arrest Tim please he saved my daughter' said Steven Harris, the morge people went into Gabriellas house and brought out Tyler Baileys limp body everybody showed up to see what was going on the crowed of people were shocked to see what went down the cops told the crowed of people what happned, Gabreilla was rushed to the hosptial with Tim along side her, the doctors came out of the hosptial took Gabreilla to the ER room to get prep for sugrey on Gabriellas face, Tim and Steven Harris waited in the waiting room, the doctors worked on Gabriella for over a hour, the doctors came out and told Tim and Steven Harris about Gabriella 'that she is going to make it but is in a short term coma the doctor also said that Gabriella will not have any memeory of what happned that night', the following day Gabreilla was sent home and was told to take it easy for about a week, Steven looked at Tim and said ' thank you son' said Steven harris, the following mounth Gabriella and Tim moved in with each other but dechide to leave Collagevillie and head to South Carolina to start a new life, and leave there old life behind, but before this Gabreilla chld hood was filled with sorrow her mother Sara Harris died form cancer, her sliblings died also from the same dieases, then the following year that Tim and Gabreilla moved in her father Steven Harris died from a from heart failer from stress of his job Steven lost his partner in a shoot out with a crimnial which drove Steven to start drinking till his heart gave out do to drugs and beer, Gabreilla buried her father that very same year, Tim was with Gabriella though the whole griveing process, three mouths later, Tim and Gabriella moved into there house in Gaffney South Carolina, there Tim and Gabriella got married and had six kids three girls and three boys Tim and Gabriella were both stay at home parents working from home and Tim and Gabriella could not be more happyier'.

THE END.

Inseminoid (Horror Planet, 1981)

"You can't get away from me, you know. It doesn't matter what you do. You have to come out sometime. There's no other way. So why don't you... all just come out now."