"When I was Your Age..."

[Killbert-Robby]

CAPTAIN PLANET KICKED YOUR COLLECTIVE ASSES




that is all

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

He tried to, but my dirty room made him cry and I kicked him out the window.

[Escushion]

I want to meet the marketing team that brought us the delightful Captain Planet. Green mullet, red undies and halter top, and those boots. Sheer genius.

Hey, style be damned, he had heart!!!


And wind, fire, water, and earth...

[Prettysenshi]

Hmm.

Shojo animes. I use to be addicted to them, but now, it's almost too cheesy to watch.

Power Rangers....actually, I still love that show. BUT JUST THE FIRST SEASON, SABAN!

All those ETV shows, like Wishbone and Puzzle Place, and Arthur. I use to watch those things all the time, now it's lame as hell. But I know all the theme songs still!

Hmmm....all those Nickelodeon shows. Like I know I sometimes say that those shows are awesome, but if I watched them now, it'd probably be lame to me. Oh well.

[Col]

Also, I seem to remember that Visionaries thing being pretty creepy compared to the other shows at the time.

You remember correctly. That was one of the other cool things about it.

There's one episode that comes to mind where the bad guys stole a book that almost brought about the Apocalypse. It was quite bleak.

In other news: I miss Rocko's Modern Life and AH! Scary Monsters.

[Jim North]

Also, I seem to remember that Visionaries thing being pretty creepy compared to the other shows at the time.

You remember correctly. That was one of the other cool things about it.

There's one episode that comes to mind where the bad guys stole a book that almost brought about the Apocalypse. It was quite bleak.

And my favorite episode!

[Ian Moulding]

When I was your age, kids TV sucked. Seriously. The only good stuff from the Eighties is whatever you can hide behind a veneer of warm nostalgia.

Captain Planet and the Soldiers of the Future?!

[Escushion]

When I was your age, kids TV sucked. Seriously. The only good stuff from the Eighties is whatever you can hide behind a veneer of warm nostalgia.

Captain Planet and the Soldiers of the Future?!

Hey, they were called Planeteers!


...and you can be one too.

[Jim North]

And, actually, Captain Planet was a 90's cartoon. Specifically, 1990 to 1996.

But perhaps you're thinking of Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, from 1987? Yah, okay. You're probably right on that one. But being able to shoot at your TV with your ship was still pretty damn cool, even if the show itself was completely asstastic.

[Ian Moulding]

My bad. Captain Power, not Planet.

Regardless of the name...

[McDuffies]

I'm going to believe the director before I believe you who doesn't have any interest in the movie itself.

That's a lousy arguement and you'll realise that when you re-read it tomorrow. Seems like I pissed you off with previous comment so much that you don't even bother replying fairly.

Again, assuming it's supposed to be one thing that it isn't. My sister does this too--she just assumes a bunch of films are supposed to be action movies, so when they're not, she gets upset and says they're bad action movies. Saying Pirahna isn't scary is redundant, because it's not supposed to be. Now, if you say "it's not funny," then you're basing your criticism off its own merits. But saying it's not scary is like it's not a great romance film: Doesn't mean anything. On that note, Gremlins was a really terrible space opera, and The Howling couldn't have been a worse noir.

Look, don't get smart. You're not even replying to what I was saying, you're replying to someone else's words. Perhaps your sister's.
Look, I don't know how many B-production exploitation flicks from that time you've seen, they're all pretty much like Pirahna. They're all very little scary, and they all rely on comedy to make up for what they couldn't do in reign of horror. They are all cynical about themselves simply because you can't make something with 40.000 dollars in a million dollars industry and not be cynical about the whole deal. Pirahna isn't spectacularly different from every film Troma has ever made.
On the other hand, with Gremlins and a few more films, Dante gained some (if not huge) cult following, and that following is not forcing reevaluation of his early work, looking for a quality that isn't there to fit their image of Dante as genuine genius. That'd be like looking for "Godfather" quality in Coppola's Corman-produced "Dementia 13".
Anyways, Dante's not a genuine genius or anything. You can't seriously compare him with Burton, Gilliam or Jeunet, all of whom work in a similar territory, and think much of him as a director. He never went against the system as you'd like to think, he's a well-adapted part of the system, another hired gun of Hollywood, perhaps on a bit more interesting because he grew out of exploitation cinema, but he isn't much more clever or witty than majority of exploitation directors.

Whatever Dante's saying... he may be reevaluating his own work, current events may have affected his memory - it's not unknown that authors sometimes re-read their works to add intentions that originally weren't there - or he may just be faking.
In the end he might me talking about some ideas that he had, but not being skilled at least at that point, couldn't properly apply them in film. If the viewer can't see them, then they aren't there. Not if you need the director to tell you about them (as you seem).
You know not to rely to author's word that much. Or if you really want to, then do believe me when I say that my comic is the masterpiece and, in fact, your personal favourite. Hey, you'd believe to author rather than to someone who hasn't got interest in the comic, right?

[Escushion]

I'm going to believe the director before I believe you who doesn't have any interest in the movie itself.

That's a lousy arguement and you'll realise that when you re-read it tomorrow. Seems like I pissed you off with previous comment so much that you don't even bother replying fairly.

I can re-read it now and notice exactly the same thing I did when I posted it that I'm going to see tomorrow. Dante had no intention of doing a sequel. None. They wanted him to do one though, and as Jim mentioned, he made the deal he wanted. Notice it's taken over a decade for them to consider making another one, that still hasn't happened, despite the success of sequel? The studio wasn't happy with Gremlins 2 despite audiences being so. And since you've brought up Tim Burton, the same happened with him and Batman. He didn't want to make Batman Returns, but the studio did. He made what he made and despite its success, the studio wasn't happy with it.

Again, assuming it's supposed to be one thing that it isn't. My sister does this too--she just assumes a bunch of films are supposed to be action movies, so when they're not, she gets upset and says they're bad action movies. Saying Pirahna isn't scary is redundant, because it's not supposed to be. Now, if you say "it's not funny," then you're basing your criticism off its own merits. But saying it's not scary is like it's not a great romance film: Doesn't mean anything. On that note, Gremlins was a really terrible space opera, and The Howling couldn't have been a worse noir.

Look, don't get smart. You're not even replying to what I was saying, you're replying to someone else's words. Perhaps your sister's.
Look, I don't know how many B-production exploitation flicks from that time you've seen, they're all pretty much like Pirahna. They're all very little scary, and they all rely on comedy to make up for what they couldn't do in reign of horror. They are all cynical about themselves simply because you can't make something with 40.000 dollars in a million dollars industry and not be cynical about the whole deal.

Who'd wanna' do that? No, it's you. In this case: Pirahna with horror and not comedy.

I grew up on crummy B-movies. I know the difference between one that's trying to be horror and failing and one that's trying to be comedy and failing. So again, saying it's not horror doesn't mean anything because it's not supposed to horrify you; however it is supposed to make you laugh, and if it didn't do so, then it failed at its intent.

That said, your argument is bascially that they if someone tried to do a comedy in that style of horror-cheese, they were giving up and that doing a comedy was a cop-out. Which is ridiculous reasoning. If they realized they didn't have the budget to make a straight-horror film, it'd be idiocy to try. Setting out to make a comedy from there would be the smart thing to do. It's not a matter of putting an after-the-fact spin on it, it's looking at the decision when actually making the movie.

Comparison stuff

I never said he was a genius.

Whatever Dante's saying... he may be reevaluating his own work, current events may have affected his memory - it's not unknown that authors sometimes re-read their works to add intentions that originally weren't there - or he may just be faking.
In the end he might me talking about some ideas that he had, but not being skilled at least at that point, couldn't properly apply them in film. If the viewer can't see them, then they aren't there. Not if you need the director to tell you about them (as you seem).

But of course, there's no way in hell that, y'know, what is clearly present in the film (the humor) is what the director was intending. That's just madness!

You know not to rely to author's word that much. Or if you really want to, then do believe me when I say that my comic is the masterpiece and, in fact, your personal favourite. Hey, you'd believe to author rather than to someone who hasn't got interest in the comic, right?

In that case, you're telling me what I think, not something about your own work. To do the same application would be this:

"Accomplished Person is one of the worst Lord of the Rings-style fantasy comics I've ever seen, to be honest."
"It's not supposed to be a Lord of the Rings-style fantasy."
"Stop trying to cover up your failed intentions."

[Blackaby]

I used to like Captain Planet.

Worst. Show. Ever. The world was broken, and CP make it better!

I LOVED THAT SHOW

HERAT HEART HEART

I actually ended up doing an advertisement/movie thingy about 'cleaning up Australia' after joining some clean-up society thanks to Planet's super influence.

Did anyone else have the hots for Blight?

[McDuffies]

I can re-read it now and notice exactly the same thing I did when I posted it that I'm going to see tomorrow. Dante had no intention of doing a sequel. None. They wanted him to do one though, and as Jim mentioned, he made the deal he wanted. Notice it's taken over a decade for them to consider making another one, that still hasn't happened, despite the success of sequel? The studio wasn't happy with Gremlins 2 despite audiences being so. And since you've brought up Tim Burton, the same happened with him and Batman. He didn't want to make Batman Returns, but the studio did. He made what he made and despite its success, the studio wasn't happy with it.

The part of his statement (as quoted by you) I was refering to was where he was "sticking it to the studio". Not the one about wanting or not wanting to make a sequel.

I grew up on crummy B-movies. I know the difference between one that's trying to be horror and failing and one that's trying to be comedy and failing. So again, saying it's not horror doesn't mean anything because it's not supposed to horrify you; however it is supposed to make you laugh, and if it didn't do so, then it failed at its intent.

That said, your argument is bascially that they if someone tried to do a comedy in that style of horror-cheese, they were giving up and that doing a comedy was a cop-out. Which is ridiculous reasoning. If they realized they didn't have the budget to make a straight-horror film, it'd be idiocy to try. Setting out to make a comedy from there would be the smart thing to do. It's not a matter of putting an after-the-fact spin on it, it's looking at the decision when actually making the movie.

You're just repeating the same thing over and over again.

Simply said, B-horrors are often made as spoofs. Why, I don't care. The fact is that straight horrors can be made on shoestring budget too, but many authors prefer to make horror/spoofs. Perhaps because they prefere them to straight horrors, perhaps because they think it's easier, whatever the reason is, my point is that Dante wasn't original or special in what he was doing in Pirahnas, he was simply following well-known and established guidelines of B-horrors.
If you are saying that it's not a horror, then you might just say that half of B-production horrors aren't horrors either because they go for spoof.

You say that they aren't supposed to scare us. Define "scare". Is "Toxic avenger" supposed to scare us or not? Is "I spit on your grave" supposed to scare us? If you define "scare" as the regular "jump from their seat", atmospheric kind, then you are closing the definition of horror on many cult horrors. But you have to include gross-out and gore into that definition, because horror fans often share affestion for "jump from their seat" and "grossed out" feeling as well. Average horror fan doesn't look "Toxic avenger" (or "Hellraiser", for that matter) because he wants to be scared, he watchs it because he enjoys looking at unpleasant sights of mutilation. Those goals are fair part of horror genre, perhaps not as respectable as genuine fright, but there it is. Pirahnas is such film. It won't make you jump from your seat, but that's not the only requirement for horror. The point is that the film doesn't twist conventions of the genre, it closely follows conventions of one part of the genre.

But of course, there's no way in hell that, y'know, what is clearly present in the film (the humor) is what the director was intending. That's just madness!

You may see something in it, I don't see it. Therefore, that arguement has no value for me because what you claim is there, for me, isn't, You linger very much on director's quotes, which leads me to believe that you trust them very much when you've evaluating the film. I suggest that he may be reevaluating his film differently than he did when he was making it, that his opinion is skewed and that, relying on his opinion, your opinion is too.

In that case, you're telling me what I think, not something about your own work. To do the same application would be this:

"Accomplished Person is one of the worst Lord of the Rings-style fantasy comics I've ever seen, to be honest."
"It's not supposed to be a Lord of the Rings-style fantasy."
"Stop trying to cover up your failed intentions."

That's not the point. The point is not to be so goddamn guilible and to judge film based on what you saw in it, not based on what it's author told you you should see.

[Doll]

I used to like Captain Planet.

Worst. Show. Ever. The world was broken, and CP make it better!

I LOVED THAT SHOW

HERAT HEART HEART

I actually ended up doing an advertisement/movie thingy about 'cleaning up Australia' after joining some clean-up society thanks to Planet's super influence.

Did anyone else have the hots for Blight?

I forget which one Blight was, but I do remember that we used to 'play' Captain Planet as kids. Me & my sis would alwayd make our little brother be Heart and to restore his 'Heart Powers' we'd make him eat dirt and grass.

[Blackaby]

I forget which one Blight was, but I do remember that we used to 'play' Captain Planet as kids. Me & my sis would alwayd make our little brother be Heart and to restore his 'Heart Powers' we'd make him eat dirt and grass.

Blight was the evil doctor with the hidjus scar face who was obsessed with being beautiful!

I wanted to have HEART powers...

[Doll]

Ooh, we had a Blight doll! Her hair was moveable so you could alternately hide and see her scar! *flashbacks*

[Escushion]

Stuff

EDIT EDIT: Nevermind, because the most I have to accomplish here is you hating the movie in a different way from before; and that's not a goal worth wasting time over.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Heart has the power to make people agree with each other.

[Jim North]

Did anyone else have the hots for Blight?

Indeed.