Our scheduled discussion about the Michael Crichton science fiction thriller “Runaway” (1984) on tonight’s Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner has been postponed until Sunday at 7 PM. Which means you are now free to enjoy my Viking show on “Picture Perfect” – that’s right, all music from Viking movies – tonight on KWAX at 8:00 EST (5:00 PST)! Stream it at the link.
ODINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!
I’ve been so damn busy this week I need to learn that trick they pull in “Star Trek” where they slingshot around the sun and travel back in time.
You can be guaranteed, then, that I’ll be paying extra-close attention when I rewatch “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986), in preparation for Roy and my discussion about the film on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. This is the one where Spock dons a bathrobe and headband in 20th Century San Francisco and mind melds with a humpback whale. With a high concept like that, is it any wonder it turned out to be the most financially successful of any “Star Trek” movie featuring the original cast?
With a new year approaching, my thoughts, in common with many others, I’m sure, are occupied with matters of time. If only we could travel back to 1986, maybe we too could save the world.
Weighty matters will be pondered, even as we embrace our inner geek. It will be all pointy heads and pointy ears as Roy and I discuss “Star Trek IV.” You’ll have a whale of time in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!
For those of us of a certain age, family movies were an essential part of the holidays, as the networks kept kids entertained so that adults could catch-up after the meal. In past years, we’ve reflected on “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”
On the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, we’ll take a nostalgic look back at George Pal’s “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” (1962). The narrative, as you would imagine, incorporates a number of familiar Grimm’s fairy tales, while also dealing with the brothers’ real-life struggles. The all-star cast includes Laurence Harvey, Russ Tamblyn, Claire Bloom, Barbara Eden, Jim Backus, Beulah Bondi, Walter Slezak, Yvette Mimieux, Buddy Hackett, and Terry-Thomas, among others.
Pal is certainly no stranger to the show, as we’ve discussed a number of his features in the past, including “The War of the Worlds,” “The Time Machine,” “Destination Moon,” “7 Faces of Dr. Lao,” and “Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze.”
There’s a certain amount of regret in having to view “Grimm,” originally shown in Cinerama, on a home screen, but it’s still an at times vertiginous experience. It’s easy to imagine what it must have been like to see it in the theater, with Tamblyn dodging branches on a wild ride atop a speeding coach, or gazing between his legs into a ravine as boards crack and tumble from a dilapidated bridge. The film also incorporates the producer-director’s trademark stop motion effects. Pal first achieved fame through his Academy Award nominated Puppetoons, which introduced subjects like “Tubby the Tuba.”
The music is by Leigh Harline. Harline was an integral part of the Disney team that scored an earlier fairy tale adaptation, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” He won two Academy Awards for his work on “Pinocchio,” including one for Best Original Song, for “When You Wish Upon a Star.”
Our conversation was originally scheduled to take place on Thanksgiving weekend, but had to be postponed, as Roy and I continued to metabolize our Thanksgiving tryptophan. However, since one of the film’s chapters, the Puppetoon-laden “The Cobbler and the Elves,” is a Christmas segment, the delay will do nothing to diminish the timely nature of the discussion.
We hope you’ll join us for a Grimm chat, as we remember George Pal’s “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.” Pal around grimly in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!
Anyone familiar with Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner knows that our nostalgia runs deep. I was at a post-Thanksgiving gathering the other night, and what was streaming on a wall-set in the television room, clearly visible from the kitchen, but “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”
For those of us of a certain age, family movies were an essential part of the holidays, as the networks kept kids entertained so that the adults could catch-up after the meal. Roy and I have shared our fond recollections of those halcyon days with salutes in recent years to “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” and (with apologies) the “Star Wars Holiday Special.”
This weekend, we had planned to carry on the tradition with a nostalgic recollection of George Pal’s star-studded Cinerama classic “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” (1962). However, the conversation has been postponed, as I suspect at least one of us is still in the process of metabolizing his intake of Thanksgiving tryptophan.
Since one of the film’s chapters, the Puppetoon-laden “The Cobbler and the Elves,” is a Christmas segment, the delay will do nothing to diminish the timely nature of the discussion. We hope you’ll join us for a Grimm time in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!
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Thank you for your understanding, and enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend!
After several unfortunate postponements, Roy and I seem to have finally wriggled out from beneath the curse of “The Exorcist” (1973). Now we can finally put Halloween – and Regan – to bed.
One of the unfortunate effects of talking about a film weeks after the fact is that I tend to forget some of the fascinating details that leap out at me while viewing. Even if I jot them down, I don’t always recall the precise trajectory of my thoughts. The difficulty is compounded as, even under the best of circumstances, I can be frustratingly wayward when attempting to express myself in speech. So I guess it’s a good thing I’ve worked for 37 years in broadcast media!
Hopefully we left you with some food for thought, or at any rate, kept you entertained, even as we got sidetracked discussing the relative merits of directors’ cuts and at what length a film should necessitate the inclusion of an intermission. There were plenty of loose ends as we got turned around in the labyrinth. But the journey is always the destination on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. If you missed our 50th anniversary discussion of this horror high-water mark, the entire lollaPazuzu is archived here:
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