knightni Posted December 22, 2008 Author Share Posted December 22, 2008 Now look what you've done! My bugs! My bugs! My bugs! 9. The Nightmare Before Christmas (7 of 21 lists - 65 points - highest ranking #1 SmashROT) The Nightmare Before Christmas (also known as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas) is a 1993 stop motion fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to "Christmas Town". Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters. The remaining principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, and Glen Shadix. The genesis of The Nightmare Before Christmas started with a poem by Burton as a Disney animator in the early-1980s. With the success of Vincent in 1982, Disney started to consider The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short subject or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, Burton and Disney made a development deal. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Walt Disney Pictures decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought Nightmare would be "too dark and scary for kids".[2] The Nightmare Before Christmas has been viewed with critical and financial success. Disney has reissued the film under their Disney Digital 3-D format in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Plot "Halloween Town" is a dream world filled with citizens such as deformed monsters, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, vampires, werewolves, and witches. Alphard Skellington ("The Pumpkin King") leads them in a frightful celebration every Halloween, but he has grown tired of the same routine year after year. Wandering in the forest outside the town center, he accidentally opens a portal to "Christmas Town". Impressed by the feeling and style of Christmas, Jack presents his findings and his (somewhat limited) understanding of the holiday to the Halloween Town residents. They fail to grasp his meaning and compare everything he says to their idea of Halloween. He reluctantly decides to play along and announces that they will take over Christmas. Jack's obsession with Christmas leads him to usurp the role of Santa Claus. Every resident is assigned a task, while Sally, a rag doll woman who is created by the town's mad scientist, begins to feel a romantic attraction towards Jack. However, she alone fears that his plans will become disastrous. Jack assigns Lock, Shock, and Barrel, a trio of mischievous children, to abduct Santa and bring him back to Halloween Town. Against Jack's wishes and largely for their amusement, the trio deliver Santa to Oogie Boogie, a gambling-addict bogeyman who plots to play a game with Santa's life as the stake. Christmas Eve arrives and Sally attempts to stop Jack, but he embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer, guided by the glowing nose of his ghost dog Zero. He begins to deliver presents to children around the world, but the gifts (shrunken heads, Christmas tree-eating snakes, etc.) only terrify the recipients. Jack is believed to be an imposter attempting to imitate Santa, and the military goes on alert to blast him out of the sky. The sleigh is shot down and he is presumed dead by Halloween Town's citizens, but in fact he has survived the crash. Although he is depressed by the failure of his plan, he quickly regains his old spirit, having come up with new ideas for next Halloween. He then rushes back home to rescue Santa and put things right. Meanwhile, Sally attempts to free Santa but is captured by Oogie. Jack slips into the lair and frees them, then confronts Oogie and unravels his outer covering to spill out all the bugs that live inside him. With Oogie gone, Santa reprimands Jack before setting off to deliver the right presents to the world's children. He makes snow fall over Halloween Town to show that there are no hard feelings between himself and Jack; the townspeople are confused by the snow at first, but soon begin to play happily in it. Jack reveals that he is attracted to Sally just as she is to him, and they kiss under the full moon in the cemetery. Voice cast * Danny Elfman (singing) and Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington: A skeleton known as the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town. He has a pet ghost dog named Zero, who has a small, glowing jack-o'-lantern nose. Jack tries to make Christmas "better" by adding elements of Halloween, but the ploy leads to disastrous results. * Catherine O'Hara as Sally: A rag doll-like creation of Finklestein. Sally forms a romantic attraction towards Jack and is the only citizen in Halloween Town who predicts Jack's disastrous results. * William Hickey as Doctor Finklestein: A mad scientist who "created" Sally. Finklestein creates the skeleton-like reindeer for Jack, and creates a soulmate at the end of the film. * Glenn Shadix as Mayor of Halloween Town: An enthusiastic leader who conducts town meetings and is excited by Jack's direction of taking over Christmas. * Ken Page as Oogie Boogie: A bogeyman and un-respected citizen in Halloween Town. Oogie Boogie has a passion for gambling. * Ed Ivory as Santa Claus: Responsible for the annual yearly celebration of Christmas by delivering presents to children around the world. Santa ends up saving Christmas when Jack almost (accidentally) destroys the holiday. Jack repeatedly and incorrectly pronounces his name as 'Sandy Claws'. Paul Reubens, O'Hara and Elfman also supply the voices of Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Reubens previously worked with Burton as Pee-wee Herman in Pee-wee's Big Adventure. In addition Elfman also plays "Clown with the Tear-Away Face". Production Burton wrote a three-page poem titled The Nightmare Before Christmas when he was a Disney animator in the early-1980s. Burton took inspiration from television specials of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas. With the success of Vincent in 1982, Disney started to consider The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short subject or 30-minute Holiday television special. Rick Heinrichs and Burton created concept art and storyboards, with Heinrichs also sculpting character models. "Back then, I would have done anything to get the project off ground," Burton explained. "There was a lot of talk of either a short film, like Vincent or a TV special, but it went nowhere. I also wanted to have Vincent Price as narrator." Burton showed Henry Selick, who was also a Disney animator in the early-1980s, the material he and Heinrichs developed. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project. In 1990, Burton found out that Disney still owned the film rights, and the two committed to produce a full-length film with Selick as director. Disney was looking forward to Nightmare "to show capabilities of technical and storytelling achievements that were present in Who Framed Roger Rabbit." Nightmare marked Burton's third film in a row to have a Christmas setting. Burton could not direct because of his commitment to Batman Returns and he did not want to be involved with "the painstakingly slow process of stop-motion". To adapt his poem into a screenplay, Burton approached Michael McDowell, his collaborator on Beetlejuice. McDowell and Burton experienced creative differences, which convinced Burton to make the film as a musical with lyrics and compositions by frequent collaborator Danny Elfman. Elfman and Burton created a rough storyline and two-thirds of the film's songs, while Selick and his team of animators began production in July 1991 in San Francisco, California with a crew of 200 workers. Joe Ranft worked as a storyboard artist. Elfman found writing Nightmare's 10 songs as "one of the easiest jobs I've ever had. I had a lot in common with Jack Skellington." Caroline Thompson still had yet to be hired to write the screenplay. With Thompson's screenplay, Selick stated, "there are very few lines of dialogue that are Caroline's. She became busy on other films and we were constantly rewriting, reconfiguring and developing the film visually." The work of Ray Harryhausen, Ladislas Starevich, Edward Gorey, Charles Addams, Jan Lenica, Francis Bacon and Wassily Kandinsky influenced the filmmakers. Selick described the production design as akin to a pop-up book. In addition, Selick stated, "When we reach Halloween Town, it's entirely German Expressionism. When Jack enters Christmas Town, it's an outrageous Dr. Seuss setpiece. Finally, when Jack is delivering presents in the "Real World", everything is plain, simple, and perfectly aligned." On the direction of the film, Selick reflected, "It's as though he [burton] laid the egg, and I sat on it and hatched it. He wasn't involved in a hands-on way, but his hand is in it. It was my job to make it look like "a Tim Burton film", which is not so different from my own films." When asked on Burton's involvement, Selick claimed, "I don't want to take away from Tim, but he was not in San Francisco when we made it. He came up five times over two years, and spent no more than eight or ten days in total." Walt Disney Animation Studios contributed with some use of second-layering traditional animation. Burton found production somewhat difficult because he was directing Batman Returns and in pre-production of Ed Wood. Soundtrack The film's soundtrack album was released in 1993 on Walt Disney Records. For the film's 2006 re-release in Disney Digital 3-D, a special edition of the soundtrack was released, featuring a bonus disc which contained covers of several of the film's songs by Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, Marilyn Manson, Fiona Apple, and She Wants Revenge. Six original demo tracks by Elfman were also included. On September 30, 2008, Disney released the cover album Nightmare Revisited. Impact Release Walt Disney Pictures decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought Nightmare would be "too dark and scary for kids". Selick remembered, "Their biggest fear, and why it was kind of a stepchild project, was they were afraid of their core audience hating the film and not coming. It wasn't too dark, too scary. Kids love to get scared. In fact, I don't think it's too scary at all. Even little, little kids, as young as three, a lot of them love that film and respond well to it." To help market the film "it was released as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas," Burton explained. "But it turned more into more of a brand-name thing, it turned into something else, which I'm not quite sure about." Around the release of the film, Touchstone president David Hoberman quoted, "I hope Nightmare goes out and makes a fortune. If it does, great. If it doesn't, that doesn't negate the validity of the process. The budget was less than any Disney blockbuster so it doesn't have to earn Aladdin-sized grosses to satisfy us." The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 9. Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas was given a limited release on October 15, 1993, before being wide released on October 29. The film earned $50 million in the US on its first theatrical run. Danny Elfman was worried the characterization of Oogie Boogie would be considered racist by National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Elfman's predictions came true; however, director Henry Selick stated the character was inspired from the Betty Boop cartoon The Old Man of the Mountain. "Cab Calloway would dance his inimitable jazz dance and sing "Minnie the Moocher" or "Old Man of the Mountain", and they would rotoscope him, trace him, turn him into a cartoon character, often transforming him into an animal, like a walrus," Selick continued. "I think those are some of the most inventive moments in cartoon history, in no way racist, even though he was sometimes a villain. We went with Ken Page, who is a black singer and he had no problem with it". The film was nominated for both the Academy Award for Visual Effects and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, but lost both categories to Jurassic Park. Nightmare won the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, while Elfman won Best Music. Selick and the animators were also nominated for their work. Elfman lost the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score to Kitarō of Heaven & Earth. Legacy With successful home video sales, Nightmare achieved the ranks of a cult film. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment first released the film on DVD in December 1997. It contained no special features. Nightmare was released a second time in October 2000 as a special edition. The release included audio commentary by Selick and cinematographer Pete Kozachik, a 28-minute making-of documentary, gallery of concept art, and storyboards, test footage and deleted scenes. Burton's Vincent and Frankenweenie were also included. On October 20, 2006, Disney reissued Nightmare (not under Touchstone Pictures) with conversion to Disney Digital 3-D. Industrial Light & Magic assisted in the process. It made a further $8.7 million in the box office. A more successful reissue under the Disney Digital 3-D format came on October 19, 2007. In its third run, Nightmare made a further $15.8 million, with the final gross under three releases at $74.88 million for the US market. These reissues have led to a reemergence of 3-D films and advances in Real D Cinema. Disney released the film again on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in August 2008 as a two-disc digitally remastered "collector's edition". Nightmare has also led to a brand name for Emo and Goth subcultures. In addition Nightmare has inspired video game spin-offs, including Oogie's Revenge, The Pumpkin King (on Game Boy Advance) and in the Kingdom Hearts series. A trading card game is also available. Since 2001, Disneyland has held a Nightmare Before Christmas theme for its Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction. Critical analysis The film has gone on to receive critical acclaim. Based on 67 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of the critics enjoyed The Nightmare Before Christmas with the consensus of "a stunningly original and visually delightful work of stop-motion animation." With 15 reviewers in the "Top Critics" category, the film has a 100% approval rating. By comparison, Metacritic calculated an average score of 77, based on 16 reviews. Roger Ebert, who mainly was not enthusiastic over Burton's previous films, gave a highly positive review for Nightmare. Ebert believed the film's visual effects were as revolutionary as Star Wars, taking into account that Nightmare was "filled with imagination that carries us into a new world". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it a restoration of "originality and daring to the Halloween genre. This dazzling mix of fun and fright also explodes the notion that animation is not kid stuff. It's 74 minutes of timeless movie magic." James Berardinelli stated "The Nightmare Before Christmas has something to offer just about everyone. For the kids, it's a fantasy celebrating two holidays. For the adults, it's an opportunity to experience some light entertainment while marveling at how adept Hollywood has become at these techniques. There are songs, laughs, and a little romance. In short, The Nightmare Before Christmas does what it intends to: entertain." Desson Thomson of The Washington Post enjoyed homages to German Expressionism, the Brothers Grimm and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. More recently, the film ranked #1 on Rotten Tomatoes Top 25 Best Christmas Movies. Sequel In 2001, Walt Disney Pictures began to consider producing a sequel, but rather than using stop motion, Disney wanted to use computer animation. Burton convinced Disney to drop the idea. "I was always very protective of [Nightmare] not to do sequels or things of that kind," Burton explained. "You know, 'Jack visits Thanksgiving world' or other kinds of things just because I felt the movie had a purity to it and the people that like it," Burton said. "Because it's a mass-market kind of thing, it was important to kind of keep that purity of it. I try to respect people and keep the purity of the project as much as possible." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightni Posted December 22, 2008 Author Share Posted December 22, 2008 Of course, sir! A fine night for spirits - of one form or another, sir! 8. A Christmas Carol (1938) (10 of 21 lists - 86 points - highest ranking #2 scenario) A Christmas Carol is a 1938 film adaptation of Charles Dickens's novelette. Production Made by MGM, and originally intended to star Lionel Barrymore, who played the role of Scrooge annually on radio, but was forced to drop out of the film because of his arthritis, the movie starred Reginald Owen as Scrooge and Gene and Kathleen Lockhart as the Cratchits. Terry Kilburn, better known for his portrayal of Colley in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, costarred as Tiny Tim and a young June Lockhart appeared as one of the Cratchit daughters. Leo G. Carroll played Marley's Ghost. The characters of Fred (Scrooge's nephew), and Elizabeth, his fianceé (his wife in the novelette), were greatly expanded in order to work in a romantic angle to the story that Dickens did not intend. The couple was played by Barry MacKay and Lynne Carver. Ann Rutherford, better known as Polly Benedict in the Andy Hardy films and as Carreen O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, was a young and attractive Ghost of Christmas Past, rather than the somewhat unusual creation that Dickens described. The music for the film was composed by Franz Waxman, in contrast to most MGM films of the period, whose scores were composed by Herbert Stothart. Some of the grimmer aspects of the story went completely unmentioned or unseen, in order to make this a "family film" in the style of other MGM literary adaptations. Although Marley's Ghost did appear, the phantoms wailing outside Scrooge's window were not shown. Scrooge's fiancee, who eventually leaves him because of his miserly ways, was completely dropped from the film, as were the two starving children "Want" and "Ignorance", who hid within the folds of the Ghost of Christmas Present's robe. Also gone were the thieves who ransack Scrooge's belongings after he "dies" in the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come segment. One of very many adaptations of the work, this version was frequently revived in theatres by MGM, was shown on local television stations throughout the 1960's, and was once a staple of Chicago's WGN television station. For years it remained the most famous film version of the story, and the most lavish, though it clocked in at only 69 minutes. But its popularity was eclipsed by the 1951 film, after the 1951 version began its television career in 1970. There are also those who have found Reginald Owen's portrayal of Scrooge to be rather lacking, especially in comparison to later ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Dec 21, 2008 -> 02:20 AM) Soxtalk has disappointed me yet again. Bad Santa at #12? Are all you GOOFY?! Yeah, I was shocked it was on the list also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dasox24 Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 QUOTE (Texsox @ Dec 22, 2008 -> 10:20 PM) Yeah, I was shocked it was on the list also I'll third that... I just don't think Bad Santa is a very funny movie, but lots of people do, so what do I know... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightni Posted December 23, 2008 Author Share Posted December 23, 2008 It's just like Santa's workshop! Except it smells like mushrooms... and everyone looks like they wanna hurt me... 7. Elf (13 of 21 lists - 106 points - highest ranking #1 Cowch) Elf is a 2003 Christmas comedy film directed by Jon Favreau and released in the United States on November 7, 2003. It stars Will Ferrell as the film's central character "Buddy", and Ed Asner as Santa Claus. As an infant in a New York City orphanage, Buddy had crawled into Santa Claus's bag on Christmas Eve, and Santa unwittingly brought him back to the North Pole. Not knowing to whom the child belonged, the elves decided that he would be raised by them and that it would never be disclosed to him that he was really a human. However, when Buddy overhears the other elves talking about the fact that he is human, he goes to his adoptive father Papa Elf, for advice. Papa Elf acknowledges that Buddy is, indeed, a human, and tells him the entire story of how he came to be raised by elves. Most important, he tells Buddy about his human father, Walter Hobbs, who lives in New York City. Buddy soon decides to head off on a quest to find his father which leads to all kinds of trouble. Plot Elf begins with narration by Papa Elf (Bob Newhart), explaining the only three jobs available to an elf: making shoes for a cobbler; baking cookies inside of trees; and working in Santa's workshop. He also explains Buddy's presence at the North Pole — as an infant in an orphanage, he crawled into Santa Claus's sack of toys one Christmas Eve and was accidentally taken to the North Pole. Santa (Edward Asner) decides to allow the child, called "Buddy" after a label on his diaper, to be raised by Papa Elf, who has no children of his own. As Buddy (Will Ferrell) grows, his height and poor toymaking skills raise awkward questions that his adoptive father continually waves away. Papa Elf also shows Buddy the jet engine he created in the 1960s to assist Santa's sleigh, which had run on the power of the Christmas spirit, until people began to doubt Santa's existence. After a string of accidents in which Buddy's non-elfness becomes obvious, Papa Elf finally breaks the news that he was adopted: his birth parents fell in love with each other when they were high school students in the 1970s, and nine months later, Buddy was born, in 1973. His late mother, Susan Wells, placed him for adoption at the orphanage. Buddy's now 46-year-old father, Walter Hobbs (James Caan), was never aware of Buddy's existence, and has since become a children's book publishing executive with offices in the Empire State Building; Walter is presently married to Emily (Mary Steenburgen), and has a 10-year-old son, Michael (Daniel Tay). However Santa informs Buddy that Hobbs is unfortunately on the Naughty List for being a heartless grouch, but has confidence that Buddy can be able to change his Scrooge-like father into a kind and caring human being. Buddy is overwhelmed by the news, and with information from Papa Elf and encouragement from a snowman (Leon Redbone), he sets off to New York to find his biological father. Upon arriving, he is puzzled with the culture of the city, but eventually finds his way to Walter's office, only to be thrown out as Walter has no idea who Buddy is and is otherwise pressured with getting a new book published before the end of the year. Buddy finds a department store called Gimbels and comes across their Christmas display "The North Pole", and is subsequently mistaken as an employee by the department manager (Faizon Love). Buddy also meets fellow employee Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) and befriends her. When the manager says that Santa Claus is coming, Buddy assumes that the real Santa is coming and becomes very excited. After Gimbels closes for the night, Buddy secretly stays to decorate "The North Pole" for Santa's arrival. When the employees return, they are amazed at Buddy's work, and the manager fears someone is plotting to steal his job. When the store Santa arrives, Buddy spots him as a fake and gets into a fight around "The North Pole", destroying much of the decoration. He is fired and then arrested. Walter retrieves Buddy from jail, after getting a card from him that includes a picture of Walter and Susan, and learns through a paternity test that Buddy is indeed Walter's son. Walter allows Buddy to move into his apartment, hoping to get him to adjust to a normal life so that he can then move out on his own. Buddy quickly becomes friends with Michael, and Michael suggests that Buddy should go on a date with Jovie. Buddy takes the suggestion, and he and Jovie see several sites around New York City, and share a kiss while ice skating at Rockefeller Center. Buddy excitedly tries to tell Walter of his date, but barges in on a Christmas Eve meeting between Walter and a famous children's author and a little person, Miles Finch (Peter Dinklage) as a last attempt to get a book before Christmas; Buddy mistakes Miles as a fellow elf, and causes Miles to walk out on Walter. Walter tells Buddy to get out of his life forever, causing Buddy to run away. Michael returns home to finds Buddy's final message, and runs to tell his dad what happened. Walter realizes what he has done, and promptly leaves in the middle of an important meeting with his boss to go find Buddy, resulting in his being fired from the publishing company. Buddy, wandering through Central Park, comes across Santa's grounded sleigh. Santa explains that the engine broke off somewhere over the Park, and that without Christmas spirit, the sleigh will not fly. Walter and Michael, searching the park for Buddy, happen upon the engine, and they are shortly reunited with Buddy. Buddy works on repairing the sleigh's engine, while Walter and Michael, along with help from Jovie, attempt to distract the park rangers who have come to capture Santa Claus, as well as encourage everyone around to believe in the Christmas spirit. Santa and Buddy manage to take off just before the rangers arrive, but while the engine still fails, the others' efforts, including Walter's new belief in Christmas, have given the sleigh enough Christmas spirit to continue on its way and saving Christmas. After Christmas, Walter starts a new publishing company, with their first book, "Elf" written by Buddy Hobbs, becoming an award winning children's novel. Buddy and Jovie get married and have a daughter named Susie (which is seen, stitched on her hat). Selected cast and crew * Will Ferrell - Buddy Hobbs * Edward Asner - Santa Claus * Bob Newhart - Papa Elf * James Caan - Walter Hobbs * Mary Steenburgen - Emily Hobbs * Zooey Deschanel - Jovie * Daniel Tay - Michael Hobbs * Faizon Love - Krumpet (Gimbel's Manager) * Peter Dinklage - Miles Finch * Amy Sedaris - Deb * Michael Lerner - Fulton * Andy Richter - Morris * Kyle Gass - Eugene * Artie Lange - Gimbels Santa * Chris Turner - Buddy's stunt double * Kobe Bryant - Makes a short cameo appearance during the spirit of Christmas scene Directed by Jon Favreau; written by David Berenbaum; distributed by New Line Cinema. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightni Posted December 23, 2008 Author Share Posted December 23, 2008 Hey. If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, fore-fleshing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey s*** he is. Hallelujah. Holy s***. Where's the Tylenol? 6. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (12 of 21 lists - 117 points - highest ranking #1 Steve9347, watchtower41) National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a 1989 Christmas comedy film directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. It is the third installment in National Lampoon's Vacation film series. The title song of the same name was written for the movie by the husband-wife song writing team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, performed by Mavis Staples. Plot Chicago suburbanite Clark Wilhelm Griswold Jr. (Chevy Chase) really has the Christmas spirit this year. The film opens with Clark taking his wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), son Rusty (Johnny Galecki), and daughter Audrey (Juliette Lewis) on the search for a perfect Christmas tree. After aggravating nearby motorists, getting stuck under a large truck, and walking in the woods for a long time, Clark and his family finally find the perfect tree. The tree has to be dug out of the ground because Clark forgot to bring a saw. Upon arriving home, the Griswolds' snobby next door neighbors, Todd Chester (Nicholas Guest) and his wife Margo (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) ridicule Clark for getting such a large tree. Clark breaks several windows and gets covered in tree sap setting the tree up. Clark has invited Ellen's parents Arthur Smith (E. G. Marshall) and Frances Smith (Doris Roberts), his own parents Clark Wilhelm Griswold Sr (John Randolph) and Nora Griswold (Diane Ladd), and his Aunt Bethany (Mae Questel) and Uncle Lewis (William Hickey) to spend Christmas at the Griswold house in Chicago. While shopping for gifts at the Marshall Field's on State Street in Chicago, Clark meets an attractive saleswoman named Mary (Nicolette Scorsese). He makes a series of sexually suggestive slips to her on their encounter. Surprisingly, she doesn't seem to mind and is quite flattered. Clark has been working on a project at his firm which he expects will bring in a good Christmas bonus. Clark plans to use the bonus to put in a swimming pool, on which he has already laid down a $7,500 check that his bank account can't cover yet. He's counting on his Christmas bonus from work will cover it. As Christmas approaches, the many members of Clark's extended family begin arriving to stay with him. Clark and Ellen's parents are the first to arrive. This drives Clark to go set up the lighting on the house with his son Rusty. During the struggle to put the lights on, Clark falls off the ladder and hangs from a gutter, which causes a gutter-shaped bar of ice to break through the Chesters' window and break their stereo. Clark covers nearly every inch of the home's exterior and yard with lights -- 250 strands of lights with 100 bulbs on each strand for a total of 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights. Clark becomes very frustrated after many failed attempts to get the lights working. Ellen discovers that the outlet in which the lights were plugged wasn't powered and so switches it on in a brilliant flash of light. After the lights are up and running, Ellen's cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn), her sloppy husband Eddie (Randy Quaid), and two of their kids, Rocky (Cody Burger) and Ruby Sue (Ellen Hamilton Latzen), show up to stay with the Griswolds for a month, with their dilapidated, rusty RV parked in the driveway. The next day, Eddie empties the R.V. toilet saying s***ter was full! Stifling his disappointment at their surprise arrival proves difficult for Clark. However, Clark and Ellen are concerned about Eddie's children, as they won't have many, if any gifts, for Christmas, due to Eddie's seven year unemployment. Later, Clark sexually fantasizes about Mary stripping,and skinny-dipping in the pool he hopes to get. On Christmas Eve, Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany arrive for dinner. Numerous disasters occur that evening: The turkey is cooked for far too long and dries out, Bethany's cat is seriously fried when it chews on a strand of Christmas lights, and Lewis accidentally burns the Christmas tree down, forcing Clark to quickly search for a replacement. Clark takes one from his yard and sets it up (while doing this, the tree breaks through the Chesters' window), and inside the house, a manic squirrel leaps out of the tree and "terrorizes" the family before jumping onto Margo followed by Eddie's dog as she comes over with the intention to slug Clark for the damages he caused them. A delivery from the company arrives at the house that evening, with Clark expecting it to be the long-awaited bonus. Unfortunately, Clark's boss, a scrooge named Frank Shirley (Brian Doyle Murray), has sent Clark an enrollment in the "Jelly of the Month" club. This final insult causes Clark to go over the edge, going through several outbursts out of profanity, and severe aggravation. The family attempts to leave due to the events of the evening, but Clark says they're not leaving. This situation gives Eddie the idea for the perfect Christmas gift for Clark after Clark offers to help Eddie treat Rocky and Ruby Sue to a good Christmas -- Eddie goes to Frank's house and brings Frank to the Griswold house, and then Eddie and the Griswolds help Frank see the error of his ways about the Christmas bonuses. Frank changes his mind, deciding that he will give out Christmas bonuses this year, adding 20% to what the bonuses were last year -- more than enough to cover the check Clark wrote to pay for the pool. a SWAT team, called by Frank's wife Helen (Natalia Nogulich), raid the home, but Frank explains that it's all a misunderstanding while Helen disagrees with Frank's original intent to cut the Christmas bonuses. Outside, Uncle Lewis' cigar ignites the gas from the sewage Eddie had earlier dumped down the street drain while emptying the holding tank on his RV, blasting a Santa ornament into the sky. Everyone watches the strange but touching sight, as Clark realizes his dream of the perfect family Christmas, saying simply: "I did it.", while Snots the dog happily looks up at him. Cast * Chevy Chase as Clark Wilhelm "Sparky" Griswold, Jr. * Beverly D'Angelo as Ellen Smith Griswold * Juliette Lewis as Audrey Griswold * Johnny Galecki as Russell "Rusty" Griswold * John Randolph as Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Sr. * Diane Ladd as Nora Griswold * E.G. Marshall as Art Smith * Doris Roberts as Frances Smith * Randy Quaid as Cousin Edward "Eddie" Johnson * Miriam Flynn as Cousin Catherine Johnson * Cody Burger as Cousin Rocky Johnson * Ellen Hamilton Latzen as Cousin Ruby Sue Johnson * William Hickey as Uncle Lewis * Mae Questel as Aunt Bethany * Sam McMurray as Bill * Nicholas Guest as Todd Chester * Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Margo Chester * Brian Doyle-Murray as Mr. Frank Shirley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightni Posted December 23, 2008 Author Share Posted December 23, 2008 Your soul is an apalling dung-heap, overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots. 5. Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Who Stole Christmas! (1966) (15 of 21 lists - 129 points - highest ranking #2 SmashROT, dasox24, Soxy) How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a 1966 American animated television special directed by Chuck Jones. It is based on the popular children's book of the same title by Dr. Seuss, the story of The Grinch trying to take away Christmas from the townsfolk below. The special, which is considered a short film as it runs less than an hour, is now considered by most Americans to be a timeless classic. Horror film icon Boris Karloff narrates the film and also provides the speaking voice of The Grinch (the opening credits state, "The sounds of the Grinch are by Boris Karloff. And read by Boris Karloff, too!"). The short was originally telecast on CBS, which repeated it annually during the Christmas season for many years, but it was eventually acquired by Turner Broadcasting System, which now shows it several times between November and January. It has since been broadcast on TNT, Cartoon Network, and The WB Television Network. Most recently, it has been shown on ABC, but with some scenes trimmed down because of time constraints. Plot The plot is faithful to that of the original book, with almost all narrations made verbatim from the book, and the only notable additions being the adding of color (the original book was in dichromatic red and black, with the occasional pink), the early appearance of the Grinch's dog Max, and the insertion of three songs, the Christmas carol "Fah Hoo Forres" (an apparent reference to June Foray, who also sang the song), the polka-styled "Trim Up the Tree" and the now famous "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," this last performed by an uncredited Thurl Ravenscroft. One major addition to the narration is a description of the noise-making Whos on Christmas morning; another is the substitution of mundane gifts such as bicycles and bubble gum as written with the book with nonsensical Seuss-like gifts such as "bizzle-binks." A protracted animation sequence, with no spoken parts, in which the Grinch and Max advance from the mountain to Whoville with comical difficulty on Christmas Eve was also added, to extend the time length of the special. It's Christmas Eve down in Whoville, and everyone's decorating for the big day tomorrow. Everyone, that is, but the Grinch (voiced by Boris Karloff), a depressed, wicked-tempered grouch with a sour attitude who lives in a mountain cave just north of Whoville. He absolutely hates everything about Christmas because of the noise surrounding the entire town on Christmas Day. The Grinch tries to come up with a plan of "keeping Christmas from coming." Just then, he notices his dog, Max (voiced by Chuck Jones), covered in snow in a Santa Claus-like way. The Grinch then gets the notion of disguising himself as Santa and stealing all of the Whos' presents, believing that that is enough to stop the holiday from coming. First, he cuts out a coat and a hat and sews some fluff onto them. Next, he takes a reindeer horn and ties it to Max. Finally, the Grinch brings out a big stack of bags, loads it onto his ramshackle sleigh, and starts down on his journey to Whoville in a very comical way. Down in Whoville, the Grinch starts to steal everything in the first house. Cindy Lou Who (voiced by June Foray) wakes up and asks him why he's taking the Christmas tree. The Grinch lies and tells her that something is wrong with a lightbulb on this tree and he'll fix it up. After tucking Cindy Lou back in bed, the Grinch stuffs up the tree, takes the log for their fire, and goes up "the chimney himself, the old liar." He does the same thing for every house afterwards. Loaded with everything the Whos owned, the Grinch and Max takes up the loot to Mt. Crumpit to send the whole load off the side of the mountain. Feeling joyous at the moment, the Grinch prepares for a sad cry from the Whos. Instead, the Whos are still happy and singing carols. Suddenly, the Grinch realizes the true meaning of Christmas. The Grinch barely retrieves the sled from falling over the edge of the mountain. He brings everything back to the Whos and is invited to participate in the holiday feast, where he carves the roast beast. Reaction Critics at the time gave the cartoon mixed reviews, but it has since been recognized by them as a classic, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 100% "fresh" rating on its website. Home video releases How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was released to VHS in 1995. The special was released to the DVD format in 2000. The DVD featured another Seuss-based special, Horton Hears a Who, and contained an audio commentary by Phil Roman and June Foray, interviews with Albert Hague and Thurl Ravenscroft, and the "Special Edition" documentary which aired alongside the special on TNT in the 1990s. The DVD was well-received for these bonus features, but also criticized for its subpar picture quality (many critics pointed out that the Grinch looked yellow in this release). The special was released on DVD again in 2006, labeled as a "50th Birthday Deluxe Edition". The "50th Birthday" inaccurately refers to the date of the book's publication - it was published in 1957, not 1956 as the cover would have buyers believe - and not to the date of the 1966 TV special. This DVD release presented the special in a better-quality digital transfer and contained all of the bonus features from the previous release, except for the audio commentary . The Grinch was restored back to his original green color. This DVD also featured a new retrospective featurette. Sequels A television special called Halloween is Grinch Night, created by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, aired on the ABC network in 1977, 11 years after the Christmas special. This special involved a tale of the Grinch coming down to scare the Whos every Halloween. It was less successful than its original. It was, however, given an Emmy. A later cartoon, The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (alternately titled The Cat in the Hat Gets Grinched), aired on ABC in 1982. Though credited to DePatie-Freleng, it was produced by Marvel Productions, which had taken over DePatie-Freleng in 1981. This special also earned an Emmy. Special TV Edition In 1994, a special edition of the original cartoon classic aired on TNT (Turner Network Television). Narrated by the late Phil Hartman, an extra 20 minutes was added for this special with several "behind-the-scenes" looks at the animation, the making of the cartoon, and special interviews, including Tim Burton. It also featured the Thurl Ravenscroft, the non-credited singing voice behind "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." Ravenscroft explained that the oversight, caught after the film was presented to the studio for airing, left him off the closing credits of the original short cartoon. He is credited at the end of the special edition. The Bonus special was revived in 2006 on the ABC broadcast (in recut form), with Hartman's narrations removed and new segments hosted and narrated by Tom Bergeron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soxy Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 The top 5 starts off well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightni Posted December 24, 2008 Author Share Posted December 24, 2008 This house is so full of people it makes me sick. When I grow up and get married, I'm living alone. 4. Home Alone (16 of 21 lists - 155 points - highest ranking #1 maggsmaggs, dasox24, WilliamTell) Home Alone is a 1990 Christmas film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film features Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation. While initially relishing time by himself, he is later greeted by two house intruders. Kevin eventually manages to outwit them with a series of booby traps. The film also features Daniel Stern, Joe Pesci, Catherine O'Hara, John Heard and Roberts Blossom. Plot The film opens with the McCallister family rushing around the house in preparation of a holiday trip to France. Eight year-old Kevin McCallister is constantly teased by his older siblings and is mistreated by his family, to which he screams that he wants to live alone. A burglar posing as a policeman (Joe Pesci) tries to get everyone's attention but he fails. The family does not realize that he is a burglar named Harry who is trying to raid houses by obtaining as much information from them as possible about the security of their homes. After an argument with his bullying older brother, Buzz, he is sent up to the third floor of his house for the night with nothing to compensate for his stolen pizza as a punishment, while Buzz is not punished in any way for his cruelty. Disgusted by his family's unfair and neglectful treatment towards him, he wishes that his family would simply disappear. An electric power-failure causes the family to oversleep and be late for their vacation. Kevin eventually ends up being left at home by himself when the eldest child, Heather, miscounts, mistaking a neighborhood child for Kevin. Kevin is initially pleased with the results. He begins to do things he would not have been permitted to do otherwise, such as jumping on his parents' bed, raiding Buzz's room and going through his personal belongings, eating junk food, riding down the stairs on a sled, shooting action figures down a laundry chute with a pellet gun, and watching an R-rated gangster film called Angels with Filthy Souls. However, a shooting in the film scares him and makes him shout for his mother, perhaps implying that the whole situation was not so good after all. Several hours later, while discussing feeling like she forgot something with Peter (Kevin's father), Kate (Kevin's mother) realizes that they forgot Kevin. Meanwhile, Harry, armed with all the information he received, and his partner Marv (Daniel Stern) begin to search the neighborhood looking for which houses to raid, focusing mainly on the McCallisters' house and calling it the "silver tuna". The two then begin to raid the vacant houses in the neighborhood, and then decide to head to the McCallisters'. However, Kevin sees their shadows and scares them away by turning on the lights and runs and hides under his parents bed. When Kevin leaves, proclaiming he is not afraid anymore, he is scared again, this time by Old Man Marley (Roberts Blossom), a man in the neighborhood who, according to a rumor Buzz told Kevin, killed his entire family with a snow shovel. When the Chicago Police Department tries to investigate the house for him upon his parents' request, he refuses to answer the door, because he is still scared from earlier. The next day, Kevin unintentionally shoplifts a toothbrush after being scared away from the drugstore by Marley while shopping with some of Buzz's money. On his way home he is nearly hit by Harry and Marv's van and is warned by them to be careful. Harry then wishes Kevin a Merry Christmas and smiles at him, flashing his gold tooth, which Kevin recognizes from when Harry, disguised as a policeman, was in the house, and runs away. Harry and Marv trail Kevin for a few blocks until he hides to get away from them. Kevin tricks Harry and Marv into thinking that the family is home from their vacation, by arranging his mother's mannequins around the house and moving their limbs with string.He also attached a cardboard Michael Jordan picture to a train set. The next morning the two intruders scout the house again, this time finding it quiet and arousing Harry's suspicions. Marv decides to try and break in by himself, but Kevin plays the same gangster movie at full volume and adds more noise during the gunshot scene by lighting some firecrackers he found in Buzz's room, which scares Marv away. Kevin's trick prompts Marv to believe that the prank was real, saying that someone was murdered by a robber in the house. This angers Harry, who says that the neighborhood was for the two to rob and no one else. So they decide to wait and see who was responsible for the 'murder' in the McCallisters' house. Meanwhile, in Paris, Kate is desperately trying to catch a flight back to Chicago as soon as possible, although her husband is only able to book a flight leaving two days later. Eventually, she manages to swap her watch that looks like a Rolex, $500, and some more jewelry for an economy seat back to Dallas. Her next flight puts her in Scranton on Christmas Eve, where her journey home is halted because there are no flights out of Scranton to Chicago. Fortunately for her, Gus Polinski (John Candy) and his stranded group of fellow polka musicians on their way to Milwaukee for a polka festival, offer to help her get home in their van. Back in Chicago, Harry and Marv are still trying to figure out what is going on and spot Kevin cutting down a Christmas tree. Harry then gets out, goes around to the side of the house, and spots Kevin mantling a tree, deducing that he is in fact home alone and is also an easy target. Kevin then overhears Harry and Marv plotting their next move, which is to come back that night. Meanwhile, Kevin decides to try and do whatever it takes to try to get his family back home, going first to the town's Santa Claus, and then to the neighborhood church to listen to the rehearsal of a choir. While there, he once again comes across Old Man Marley, and the two strike up a conversation. Kevin learns through the course of the conversation that none of the rumors about Marley are true - and in fact that he is a pleasant person once someone gets to know him. Kevin also learns that Marley's granddaughter is in the choir and that he has come to watch her sing, but he will not be there later because he is lonely as a result of a falling out with his son years ago. Kevin suggests that Marley should try and get in touch with him if he can just to see what would happen, and Marley agrees. After Kevin leaves the church it is now 8:00, and he runs home to set up a series of traps around the house. He finishes just in time and tries to eat dinner, but the clock chimes 9:00 and he prepares himself. Every trap Kevin sets succeeds in holding up the intruders and forces them to abandon their break-in plans and instead focus on catching Kevin. Kevin is able to escape, after calling the police, and runs across the street to the Murphys' house that Harry and Marv had raided and robbed before. However, he is captured by the the two, and just as they are planning to take revenge, Old Man Marley appears and hits them with his snow shovel. He then returns Kevin home safely. The police arrive and arrest the two. Kevin wakes up the next morning and immediately runs downstairs, hoping that his wish to get his family back had come true. It has not, but the van pulls up to the house and Kate runs inside and finds him. Moments later the rest of the family arrives at the house, having taken the other flight home, and Kevin tells them of his food shopping which impresses everyone. He does not tell them what happened the night before with Harry and Marv, but his father finds Harry's gold tooth on the floor. The final scene shows Kevin looking out his window next door toward Old Man Marley's house, where his son and family are reunited for the first time in years. While watching the scene and happy that Marley at least took him up on his suggestion, Kevin hears Buzz shout, "Kevin, what did you do to my room!" Kevin runs off and the film ends. Production As with most of Hughes's films, Home Alone was set—and most of the film was shot—in the greater Chicago area. Any other shots, such as those of Paris, are either stock footage or movie trickery. The scene where Kevin wades through a flooded basement when trying to outsmart the burglars was actually shot in a swimming pool in the former New Trier West School. A mock-up of the McDonnell Douglas DC10 business class was also put together in the school, on the basketball courts. The Home Alone House, or more precisely 671 Lincoln Avenue, is a three-story single family detached house used for shooting the movies Home Alone (1990) and parts of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). It is located in the inner-ring suburbs of Chicago, in the village of Winnetka which is located around 19 miles (30km) north of the city of New Trier Township, Cook County. The private property is worth just under $2.3 million as of August 2008, and was purchased by a single family on December 15th, 1988, who still own the house today. It was built in 1920 and features 3 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms and 2 half bathrooms, a fully-converted attic, a fireplace, a detached double garage and a greenhouse.. "Kevin's treehouse" no longer exists in the backyard, as it was built specifically for the film. It is listed as a Chicago-area tourist destination, as well as being cited as an example of "How to Get Your Home in the Movies". Cast * Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister * Joe Pesci as Harry * Daniel Stern as Marv * Roberts Blossom as Old Man Marley * Catherine O'Hara as Kate McCallister * John Heard as Peter McCallister * Devin Ratray as Buzz McCallister * Hillary Wolf as Megan McCallister * Angela Goethals as Linnie McCallister * Michael C. Maronna as Jeff McCallister * Gerry Bamman as Frank McCallister * Terrie Snell as Leslie McCallister * Jedidiah Cohen as Rod McCallister * Senta Moses as Tracy McCallister * Daiana Campeanu as Sondra McCallister * Kieran Culkin as Fuller McCallister * Anna Slotky as Brooke McCallister Music Bruce Broughton had composed the original score for Home Alone, but his material was rejected due to Columbus's dissatisfaction with Broughton's compositions. John Williams was hired to compose and conduct the score to Home Alone. A small portion of Broughton's score can be heard in the background of early Home Alone trailers and promotional television spots. Broughton is still credited as the film's composer in early trailers, which indicates that Williams had very little time to compose the score that people associate with the film. Home Alone: Official Soundtrack Released by Sony Music Entertainment in 1990, the soundtrack contained 19 tracks consisting of the original score composed by John Williams and other Christmas songs used in the film 1. Home Alone Main Titles (4:53) 2. Holiday Flight (0:59) 3. The House (2:27) 4. Star Of Bethlehem (Orchestral Version) (2:51) 5. Man Of The House (4:33) 6. White Christmas (2:40) 7. Scammed By A Kindergartner (3:55) 8. Please Come Home For Christmas (2:41) 9. Follow That Kid! (2:03) 10. Making The Plane (0:52) 11. O Holy Night (2:48) 12. Carol Of The Bells (1:25) 13. Star Of Bethlehem (2:59) 14. Setting The Trap (2:16) 15. Somewhere In My Memory (1:04) 16. The Attack On The House (6:53) 17. Mom Returns And Finale (4:19) 18. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (3:05) 19. We Wish You A Merry Christmas/ End Title (4:15) Novelization and deleted scenes A children's novelization of Home Alone was published several months prior to the film's initial November 1990 opening. This adaptation features chapters and pictures that showcase several large scenes that were filmed but deleted from the final film. One of the many notable cut scenes features Marv impersonating a police officer. This particular scene takes place directly after Kevin's family leaves for their vacation in Paris. The novelization also includes the surnames of the burglars: Joe Pesci's character, named Harry Lyme, is a reference to the 1940s film The Third Man. Video games The first Home Alone game was released in 1991. Home Alone video games were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Sega Game Gear, the Game Boy, the Sega Master System, the Amiga and personal computers. The Home Alone game on the SNES system used still images and character's voices from the film in its gameplay. It also features the characters from the movie as well as new enemies created for the game including a fat gangster, ghosts, large rats and very large tarantulas. A video game simply titled Home Alone was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. It was not released in the United States. Reception In its opening weekend, Home Alone grossed $17 million in 1,202 theaters, averaging $14,211 per site and just 6% of the final total. Home Alone proved so popular that it stayed in theaters well past the Christmas season. It was the #1 film at the box office for 12 straight weeks, from its release weekend of November 16-18, 1990 through the weekend of February 1-3, 1991. It would remain a top 10 draw at the box office until the weekend of April 26 that year, which was well past Easter weekend. It would make two more appearances in the top 10 (the weekend of May 31-June 2 and the weekend of June 14-16) before finally falling out of the top 10. The film ended up making a final gross of $285,761,243, the top grossing film of its year By the time it had run its course in theaters, Home Alone was the third highest grossing movie of all time, according to the home video box. In the year 1990 the film was the highest grossing film. In total, its cinema run grossed $477,561,243 worldwide. Though the film was a great success in theaters, the film received mixed reviews from critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times felt that the plot was too implausible and the entire movie too contrived. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film got a "Rotten" score of 47%, although the user section on the site was much more positive with a "Fresh" score of 83%. Sequels The film was followed by a sequel, the 1992 release Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which brings back the original cast from the first film. Home Alone 3, release in 1997 has completely different actors, and a different storyline. A fourth film followed in 2002, Home Alone 4: Taking back the House. This film features some of the same characters featured in the first two films, but with a new cast and storyline that does not fall into the same continuity. Parodies In a comedy scene entitled "Home Alone Again with Michael Jackson" on the sketch comedy television series, In Living Color, Tommy Davidson as Michael Jackson performed the blunder scenes of Marv and Harry. Jonathan Taylor Thomas played the role of Macaulay as Kevin McCallister, parodying Jackson's friendships with child stars Culkin and Emmanuel Lewis. In the spy-parody film Spy Hard, the role of Kevin was parodied by a kid named McCluckey (performed by Mason Gamble). His booby traps backfired on him when he was chased by goons. In the movie Dogma, a muse named Serendipity tells a woman that she inspired 19 out of the 20 top grossing movies of all time. When asked why it was nineteen out of twenty, she replies "Yeah, the one about the kid, by himself in his house, with the burglars trying to get in and he fights them off? I had nothing to do with that one. Somebody sold their soul to Satan to get the grosses up on that piece of s***". The 1995 Goosebumps episode "The Cuckoo Clock of Doom" had a scene where Michael Webster realizes he becomes six years old, looks in the mirror at his now-young reflection, and turns to the camera and does Kevin's famous scream and pose. In the animated series "The Critic", Jay Sherman reviews the movie "Home Alone 5". The scene then cuts to Kevin's parents on a jet. Kevin's mother then states, "We left Kevin home alone—and he's only 23!" The next scene shows an adult Kevin, with a 5 o'clock shadow and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, bringing his hands to his face and screaming. He looks at his reflection and recreates the scene when Kevin puts on aftershave in "Home Alone". The scene then cuts back to Jay Sherman where he gives his opinion on the movie, "It stinks." In an episode of Seinfeld, Jerry finds George Costanza crying while watching Home Alone as he tearfully exclaims "The old man got to me." Angels with Filthy Souls Johnny informing Snakes that he isn't welcome anymore. Angels with Filthy Souls, a parody of the 1938 Warner Bros. film Angels with Dirty Faces, is a fictional gangster film that appears within the movie. The film acted dramatically within Home Alone as Kevin used it repeatedly to make outside characters think that there were adults in the house by either playing the whole tape or fast forwarding to the useful parts. In the Home Alone sequel Home Alone 2, Kevin rented and watched a film titled Angels with Even Filthier Souls. Plot The film involves several gangsters who apparently have business to be dealt with. Snakes enters Johnny's office and questions him about the money owed for getting the stuff. Johnny smugly replies that A.C. no longer has any authority, and implies that he isn't about to give Snakes any money. Snakes shows discomfort when he finds out that A.C. is "upstairs, takin' a bath" and almost immediately Johnny takes out his Tommy Gun. Johnny tells Snakes to get out before he counts to 10, however, Johnny cuts the count short, counting to two, then jumping straight to ten, and fires repeatedly while laughing maniacally. Snakes' body is shown lying dead on the ground, while Johnny continues to fire. At the end of the clip, Johnny says, "Keep the change, you filthy animal!" For humorous effect, Kevin mouths this line to the audience upon scaring Marv away. Characters The main characters include: * Johnny - (Ralph Foody) new mobster boss that wastes no time in informing Snakes that he isn't welcome anymore. * Snakes - (Michael Guido) dressed in a coat and hat, he has come to collect his 10% dues from Johnny and A.C. * A.C. - repeatedly referred to by Snakes as the man in charge who owes him money. It is implied that he is dead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightni Posted December 25, 2008 Author Share Posted December 25, 2008 Where's that money, you silly stupid old fool? Where's that money? Do you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal and prison. That's what it means. One of us is going to jail - well, it's not gonna be me. 3. It's A Wonderful Life (14 of 21 lists - 157 points - highest ranking #1 BigEdWalsh, Rex Kicka**, Soxy, mreye, scenario, & Balta1701) It's a Wonderful Life (1946) is an American film produced and directed by Frank Capra and loosely based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern. The film takes place in the fictional town of Bedford Falls shortly after World War II and stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve gains the attention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers) who is sent to help him in his hour of need. Much of the film is told through flashbacks spanning George's entire life and narrated by Franklin and Joseph, unseen Angels who are preparing Clarence for his mission to save George. Through these flashbacks we see all the people whose lives have been touched by George and the difference he has made to the community in which he lives. The film is regarded as a classic and is a staple of Christmas television around the world, although, due to its high production costs and stiff competition at the box office, financially, it was considered a "flop." The film's break-even point was actually $6.3 million, approximately twice the production cost, a figure it never came close to achieving in its initial release. An appraisal in 2006 reported: "Although it was not the complete box-office failure that today everyone believes … it was a major disappointment and confirmed, at least to the studios, that Capra was no longer capable of turning out the populist features that made his films the must-see, money-making events they once were." It's a Wonderful Life was nominated for five Oscars without winning any, but the film has since been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made, and placed number one on their list of the most inspirational American films of all time. Plot On Christmas Eve 1946, George Bailey is deeply depressed, even suicidal. Clarence Odbody, an Angel Second Class, is sent to Earth to save him — and thereby earn his wings. Joseph, the head angel, is told to review George's life with Clarence. George as a boy (Bob Anderson) saved the life of his younger brother Harry from falling through ice — at the cost of the hearing in one ear; weeks later, George stopped his boss, local druggist Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner), from accidentally poisoning a child while grief-stricken over the death of his son (from influenza). From childhood, George's greatest ambition has been to see the world and design bridges and skyscrapers. However, George repeatedly has to sacrifice his dreams for the well-being of the people of Bedford Falls. Four years older than Harry, he puts off going to college until Harry graduates from high school to take over the family business, the Bailey Building & Loan Association, essential to many of the disadvantaged in town. But on Harry's graduation night, as George discusses his future with his date Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) — who has had a crush on him since she was a little girl — his father suddenly has a stroke and dies. Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), a vicious slumlord, seizes the opportunity to gain control of the Board of Directors and decides to end the "sentimental hogwash" of home loans for the working poor. George persuades the board members to stop Potter; they agree, but only on condition that George himself run the business. George stays. Harry goes on to college, but George's hopes of leaving Bedford Falls upon his return are dashed once again when Harry unexpectedly brings home a new wife. Her father has offered Harry a job in his company too good to turn down. Although Harry offers to do precisely that to help his brother, George cannot bring himself to ruin his brother's prospects. George's mother conspires to set George up with Mary, despite her having a boyfriend — Sam Wainwright (Frank Albertson), an insouciant friend of George working in New York City, who has the catchphrase "Hee haw!" — and George and Mary do eventually get married. On their wedding day, George and Mary witness a run on the bank that leaves the Building & Loan in serious danger. Potter, sensing another opportunity, offers George's clients "50 cents on the dollar", but George & Mary decide to use their honeymoon cash to lend the townspeople what they need to quell the panic until their funds are restored. Later, Mary (with the aid of cabbie Ernie and Bert the cop) concocts an elaborate mock honeymoon in their new house. George then starts up Bailey Park, an affordable housing project, with bar owner Martini and his family as the first homeowners. They and the other residents are rescued from paying high rents in Potter's Field; Potter grouses that their homes "are worth twice what [they] cost... to build." Potter tries to derail the competition by tempting George with a job at eight times his current salary, but George realizes that Potter is trying to bribe him and vehemently rejects the offer. Over the next several years, George and Mary raise a growing family. When World War II erupts, George is unable to enlist due to his bad ear. Harry becomes a Navy pilot and is awarded the Medal of Honor for shooting down 15 enemy aircraft, including two kamikaze planes that were about to crash into a Navy troop transport.[4][5] On Christmas Eve, while on his way to deposit $8,000 for the Building & Loan, Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) encounters Mr. Potter and, bursting with pride, shows him the newspaper article about his nephew, about to be honored by the President. Absentmindedly, he leaves the deposit envelope with the $8,000 in the folds of the newspaper; Potter discovers it later in his office and keeps it. That day, the bank examiner is to inspect the Building & Loan's records; George discovers Billy's mistake and becomes unhinged while searching town for the money. Returning home, George sees his whole life as a massive failure and meaningless sacrifice. In desperation, George tells Potter that he has misplaced the $8,000, and appeals to him for a loan to rescue the company. Potter, knowing that Uncle Billy has actually misplaced the money, reacts with subtle surprise to George's admission. Potter turns George down and, smirking, insults him. Later, George crashes his car into a tree during a snowstorm and runs to a nearby bridge, intending to commit suicide. Before George can leap in, however, Clarence the angel jumps into the water. After a shocked George saves him, Clarence reveals himself to be George's guardian angel and pleads to help him. George bitterly wishes he had never been born. Clarence then shows him what the town would have been like if George had never existed. Bedford Falls is called Pottersville and is mostly a slum with Main Street dominated by pawn shops and sleazy bars. Bailey Park was never built; the land is part of a desolate cemetery. George's home remains a run-down, abandoned mansion. George sees the people he knows and loves, but in this alternative world, none of them recognize him and their lives are hard and grim. His mother is a widow running a boarding house, and Mary is a spinster librarian; both are lonely, embittered women. Uncle Billy has been in an insane asylum for years, while Harry is dead, since George was not around to save him when he fell through the ice. Consequently, the men Harry would have saved in the war have also perished. Violet is a dancer who gets arrested as a pickpocket. Mr. Gower was convicted of poisoning the child and is reduced to panhandling. Martini no longer owns the bar. Ernie and Bert, although still friends, are much darker characters, and think George is insane when he claims to know them. George returns to the bridge and calls upon Clarence and God to let him live again. His prayer is answered and George is returned to the moment he met Clarence. George runs home, filled with a new appreciation of what he has accomplished. There, he finds that his friends and family have collected a huge amount of money to save George and the Building & Loan from scandal and ruin. Seeing how many lives he has touched, and the difference he has made to the town (and having helped Clarence earn his wings), George Bailey realizes that despite his problems, he "really had a wonderful life". Cast As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified): Actor Role James Stewart George Bailey Donna Reed Mary Hatch Bailey Lionel Barrymore Henry F. Potter Thomas Mitchell Uncle Billy Bailey Henry Travers The angel - Clarence Odbody (angel 2nd class) Beulah Bondi Mrs. Bailey Frank Faylen Ernie Bishop Ward Bond Bert Gloria Grahame Violet Bick H. B. Warner Mr. Gower Todd Karns Harry Bailey Samuel S. Hinds Peter Bailey Lillian Randolph Annie Mary Treen Cousin Tilly Frank Albertson Sam Wainwright Virginia Patton Ruth Dakin Bailey Charles Williams Cousin Eustace William Edmunds Mr. Martini Bobby Anderson Little George Bailey Sheldon Leonard Nick the bartender Charles Lane The rent collector Karolyn Grimes Zuzu Bailey Carol Coomes (AKA Carol Coombs) Janie Bailey Charles Halton Carter, bank examiner (uncredited) Joseph Kearns Angel Joseph (voice, uncredited) Jimmy the Raven Uncle Billy's pet raven Featured cast George Bailey (James Stewart), Mary Bailey (Donna Reed) and their youngest daughter Zuzu (Karolyn Grimes). The contention that James Stewart is often referred to as Capra's only choice to play George Bailey is disputed by film historian Stephen Cox, who indicates that "Henry Fonda was in the running." Although it was stated that Jean Arthur, Ann Dvorak and Ginger Rogers were all considered for the role of Mary before Donna Reed won the part, this list is also disputed by Cox as he indicates that Jean Arthur was first offered the part but had to turn it down for a prior commitment on Broadway before Capra turned to Olivia de Havilland, Martha Scott and Ann Dvorak. Ginger Rogers was not considered. Originally dubbed Herbert Potter, a long list of actors were considered for the pivotal role of Mr. Potter (Henry F. Potter): Edward Arnold, Charles Bickford, Edgar Buchanan, Louis Calhern, Victor Jory, Raymond Massey, Vincent Price and even Thomas Mitchell. However, Lionel Barrymore, who eventually won the role, was a famous Ebenezer Scrooge in radio dramatizations of A Christmas Carol at the time, and the similarity of Scrooge to Mr. Potter is obvious, so it is likely that he was first choice for the role. Jimmy the Raven appeared in You Can't Take it With You and each subsequent Capra film. Production Background The original story "The Greatest Gift" was written by Philip Van Doren Stern in November 1939. After being unsuccessful in getting the story published, he decided to make it into a Christmas card, and mailed 200 copies to family and friends in December 1943. The story came to the attention of RKO producer David Hempstead, who showed it to Cary Grant's Hollywood agent and, in April 1944, RKO Pictures bought the rights to the story for $10,000 hoping to turn the story into a vehicle for Grant. RKO created three unsatisfactory scripts before shelving the planned movie with Grant going on to make another Christmas picture, The Bishop's Wife. At the suggestion of RKO studio chief Charles Koerner, Frank Capra read "The Greatest Gift" and immediately saw its potential. RKO, anxious to unload the project, sold the rights in 1945 to Capra's production company, Liberty Films, which had a nine-film distribution agreement with RKO, for $10,000, and threw in the three scripts for free. Capra, along with writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett — with Jo Swerling, Michael Wilson, and Dorothy Parker brought in to "polish" the script — turned the story and what was worth using from the three scripts into a screenplay that Capra would rename It's a Wonderful Life. Filming It's a Wonderful Life was shot at the RKO studio in Culver City, California, and the RKO Ranch in Encino, where "Bedford Falls" was a set covering four acres, assembled from three separate parts with a main street stretching 300 yards (three city blocks), with 75 stores and buildings, a tree-lined center parkway and 20 full grown oak trees. For months prior to principal photography, the mammoth set was populated by pigeons, cats and dogs in order to give the "town" a lived-in feel. Due to the requirement to film in an "alternate universe" setting as well as during different seasons, the set was extremely adaptable. RKO created "chemical snow" for the film in order to preclude the use of dubbed dialogue when actors walked across the earlier type of movie snow, made up of crushed cornflakes. Filming started on April 15, 1946 and ended on July 27, 1946, exactly on deadline for the 90-day principal photography schedule. The RKO ranch in Encino, the filming location of Bedford Falls, was razed in the mid-1950s. Because of this there are only two remaining locations from the film. The first is the swimming pool that was unveiled during the famous dance scene where George courts Mary. It is located in the gymnasium at Beverly Hills High School and is still in operation as of 2008. The second location is the Martini home in fictional Bailey Park. This home is located at 4587 Viro Road in La Canada Flintridge, California. During filming, in the scene where Uncle Billy gets drunk at Harry and Ruth's engagement party, George points him in the right direction home. As the camera focuses on George, smiling at his uncle staggering away, a crash is heard in the distance and Uncle Billy yells, "I'm all right! I'm all right!" Equipment on the set had actually been accidentally knocked over — Capra left in Thomas Mitchell's impromptu ad lib. The full extent of Mr. Potter's deviousness is never revealed to the other characters in the film, and he is never brought to account for sequestering the $8,000, although Capra filmed an alternate ending that was subsequently cut wherein Potter receives a "comeuppance". Later, a Saturday Night Live skit reprised the scene, this time with Potter(played by Jon Lovitz) comically being beaten up by George(Dana Carvey), Uncle Billy (Phil Hartman), and Harry(Dennis Miller). While George sees what life would be like without him, Harry's would-be grave displays the dates 1911–1919, contradicting Clarence's statement that Harry died at the age of nine. Reception It's a Wonderful Life premiered at the Globe Theatre in New York on December 20, 1946 to mixed reviews. While Capra considered the contemporary critical reviews to be either universally negative or at best dismissive, Time magazine said, "It's a Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie. It has only one formidable rival (Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives) as Hollywood's best picture of the year.… Director Capra's inventiveness, humor and affection for human beings keep it glowing with life and excitement." Bosley Crowther, writing for The New York Times, complimented some of the actors, including Stewart and Reed, but concluded that "the weakness of this picture, from this reviewer's point of view, is the sentimentality of it — its illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are charming, his small town is a quite beguiling place and his pattern for solving problems is most optimistic and facile. But somehow they all resemble theatrical attitudes rather than average realities." One motion picture industry source reported to the FBI in 1947 that the movie resembled Communist propaganda in its making a banker the most despised person in the story. The film, which went into general release on January 7, 1947, placed 26th in box office revenues for the year (out of more than 400 features released), one place ahead of another Christmas movie, Miracle on 34th Street. In 1990, It's a Wonderful Life was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry. In 2002, Channel 4 ranked It's A Wonderful Life as the seventh greatest film ever made in their poll, "The 100 Greatest Films" and in 2006, It's A Wonderful Life reached #37 in Channel 4's "100 Greatest Family Films" poll. It's A Wonderful Life currently ranks 30th on the IMDB's top 250. In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten" — the best 10 films in 10 "classic" American film genres — after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. It's a Wonderful Life was acknowledged as the third-best film in the fantasy genre. A more iconoclastic viewpoint was expressed by Wendell Jamieson in a 2008 New York Times article, which posited that the film "is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife." Awards and honors Prior to the Los Angeles release of It's a Wonderful Life, Liberty Films mounted an extensive promotional campaign which included a daily advertisement highlighting one of the film's players, along with comments from reviewers. Jimmy Starr wrote, "If I were an Oscar, I'd elope with It's a Wonderful Life lock, stock and barrel on the night of the Academy Awards". The New York Daily Times also wrote an editorial in which it declared the film and James Stewart's performance, to be worthy of Academy Award consideration. It's a Wonderful Life received five Academy Award nominations: * Best Actor for James Stewart * Best Editing for William Hornbeck * Best Director for Frank Capra * Best Sound Recording for John Aalberg * Best Picture for Frank Capra The Best Years of Our Lives, a gritty and topical drama about servicemen attempting to return to their pre-World War II lives, won most of the awards that year, including four of the five for which It's a Wonderful Life was nominated. (The award for "Best Sound Recording" was won by The Jolson Story). The Best Years of Our Lives was also an outstanding commercial success, ultimately becoming the highest grossing film of the decade, in contrast to the more modest box office returns of It's a Wonderful Life. Capra won the "Best Motion Picture Director" award from the Golden Globes, and a "CEC Award" from the Cinema Writers Circle in Spain, for Mejor Película Extranjera (Best Foreign Film). Jimmy Hawkins won a "Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Young Artist Awards in 1994; the award recognized his role as Tommy Bailey as igniting his career which lasted until the mid-1960s. American Film Institute recognition * 1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #11 * 2002 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions #8 * 2003 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains: o George Bailey, hero #9 o Henry F. Potter, villain #6 * 2006 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers #1 * 2007 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #20 * 2008 AFI's 10 Top 10 #3 in the genre of Fantasy Ownership and copyright issues Television rights Liberty Films was purchased by Paramount Pictures, and remained a subsidiary until 1951. Paramount owned the film until 1955, when they sold a few of their features and most of their cartoons and shorts to television distributor U.M.&M. TV. Corporation. This included key rights to It's a Wonderful Life, including the original television syndication rights, the original nitrate film elements, the music score, and the story on which the film is based, The Greatest Gift. National Telefilm Associates (NTA) took over the rights to the U.M.& M. library soon afterward. However, a clerical error at NTA prevented the copyright from being renewed properly in 1974. Despite the lapse in copyright, television stations that aired it still were required to pay royalties. Although the film's images had entered the public domain, the film's story was still protected by virtue of it being a derivative work of the published story "The Greatest Gift," whose copyright was properly renewed by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1971. The film became a perennial holiday favorite in the 1980s, possibly due to its repeated showings each holiday season. It was sometimes mentioned during the deliberations on the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. In 1993, Republic Pictures, which was the successor to NTA, relied on the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Stewart v. Abend (which involved another Stewart film, Rear Window) to enforce its claim of copyright. While the film's copyright had not been renewed, it was a derivative work of various works that were still copyrighted. As a result, the film is no longer shown as much on television (NBC is currently licensed to show the film on U.S. network television, and only shows it traditionally twice during the holidays, with one showing primarily on Christmas Eve from 8-11 Eastern time) and now Paramount (via parent company Viacom's 1998 acquisition of Republic's then-parent, Spelling Entertainment) once again has ancillary rights for the first time since 1955. Due to all the above transactions, this is one of the few RKO films not controlled by Turner Entertainment/Warner Bros. in the USA. Home video market Among the companies that released the film on home video before Republic Pictures stepped in were Meda Video (which would later become Media Home Entertainment), Kartes Video Communications (under its Video Film Classics label), and GoodTimes Home Video. After Republic, Artisan Entertainment (under license from Republic) took over home video rights in the mid-1990s. Artisan was later sold to Lions Gate Entertainment, which continued to hold US home video rights until late 2005 when they reverted to Paramount, who also owns video rights throughout Region 4 (Latin America and Australia), and in France. Video rights in the rest of the world are held by different companies; for example, the UK rights are with Universal Studios. Technological first In 1993, due in part to the confusion of the ownership and copyright issues, Kinesoft Development, with the support of Republic Pictures, released It's a Wonderful Life as the first commercial feature-length film on CD-ROM for the Windows PC (Windows 3.1). Predating commercial DVDs by several years, it included such features as the ability to follow along with the complete shooting script as the film was playing. Given the state of video playback on the PC at the time of its release, It's a Wonderful Life for Windows represented another first, as the longest running video on a computer. Previously to its release, Windows could only play back approx. 32,000 frames of video, or about 35 minutes at 15 frames per second. Working with Microsoft, Kinesoft was able to enhance the video features of Windows to allow for the complete playback of the entire film — all of this on a PC with a 486SX processor and only 8 MB of RAM. Belated success The film's success, decades after its initial release, came as a welcome surprise to Frank Capra and others involved with it. "It's the damnedest thing I've ever seen," Capra told the Wall Street Journal in 1984. "The film has a life of its own now and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it. I'm like a parent whose kid grows up to be president. I'm proud … but it's the kid who did the work. I didn't even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea."[30] In a 1946 interview, Capra described the film's theme as "the individual's belief in himself," and that he made it to "combat a modern trend toward atheism." Colorization Director Frank Capra met with Wilson Markle about having Colorization, Inc. colorize It's a Wonderful Life based on an enthusiastistic response to the colorization of Topper from actor Cary Grant. The company's art director Brian Holmes prepared ten minutes of colorized footage from It's a Wonderful Life for Capra to view, which resulted in Capra signing a contract with Colorization, Inc., and his "enthusiastic agree[ment] to pay half the $260,000 cost of colorizing the movie and to share any profits" and giving "preliminary approval to making similar color versions of two of his other black and white films, Meet John Doe (1941) and Lady for a Day (1933)". However, the film was believed to be in the public domain at the time, and as a result Markle and Holmes responded by returning Capra's initial investment, eliminating his financial participation, and refusing outright to allow the director to exercise artistic control over the colorization of his films, leading Capra to join in the campaign against the process. Three colorized versions have been produced. The first was released by Hal Roach Studios in 1986. The second was authorized and produced by the film's permanent owner, Republic Pictures, in 1989, with better results. Both Capra and Stewart took a critical stand on the colorized editions. The initial colorized versions of the film have been withdrawn, and the only version shown on TV is the original black-and-white version. On November 13, 2007, Paramount released a two-disc "special edition" DVD of the film that contained both the original theatrical black-and-white version, newly restored, and a new, third colorized version, produced by Legend Films using the latest colorization technology. Theatrical versions A musical stage adaptation of the film, titled A Wonderful Life, was written by Sheldon Harnick and Joe Raposo. This version was first performed at the University of Michigan in 1986, but a planned professional production was stalled by legal wrangling with the estate of Philip Van Doren Stern. It was eventually performed in Washington, DC by Arena Stage in 1991, and had revivals in the 21st century, including a staged concert version in New York City in 2005 and several productions by regional theatres. It’s A Wonderful Life was also adapted into a play in two acts by James W. Rodgers. It was first performed on December 15, 1993 at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. The play opens with George Bailey contemplating suicide and then goes back through major moments in his life. Many of the scenes from the movie are only alluded to or mentioned in the play rather than actually dramatized, for example in the opening scene Clarence just mentions George having saved his brother Harry after the latter has fallen through the ice. Popular culture It's a Wonderful Life has been popularized in modern cultural references in many of the mainstream media. Due to the proliferation of these references, only a few examples will suffice to illustrate the film's impact. * The Sesame Street Muppets characters Bert and Ernie share their names with the cop and the taxicab driver in the film. Longtime Muppets writer and puppeteer Jerry Juhl said he believed there was no connection and that this was a coincidence. The Capra-esque episode Elmo Saves Christmas (1996), which featured a clip from the film, pokes fun at the persistent reports of a connection, having them look at each other in disbelief as George calls Bert and Ernie by name.[34] * In the Broadway musical Rent, the film is referenced by character Roger Davis, who tells Benny that he "can't wipe out an entire tent city, then watch 'It's a Wonderful Life' on TV." * In the episode "The One Where Old Yeller Dies" from season two of the NBC sitcom Friends, Monica suggests It's A Wonderful Life to Phoebe as a great movie that will lift her spirits. * In the movie Home Alone 4, the McCallister family have a tradition of watching It's A Wonderful Life every Christmas. * In the movie The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, the lost groupie is named Zuzu Petals. * Minneapolis band The Wannabe Hasbeens' song "Hey, George Bailey" was strongly influenced by the movie's protagonist, George Bailey, and recounts his struggles and lessons learned. Antecedents * Film historian and reviewer James Berardinelli elaborated on the parallels between this film and the classic Dickens tale A Christmas Carol. In both stories, a man revisits his life and potential death (or non-existence) with the help of supernatural agents, in the end experiencing a joyous epiphany and a renewed view of his life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightni Posted December 25, 2008 Author Share Posted December 25, 2008 Lucy Van Pelt: Are you afraid of responsibility? If you are, then you have hypengyophobia. Charlie Brown: I don't think that's quite it. Lucy Van Pelt: How about cats? If you're afraid of cats, you have ailurophasia. Charlie Brown: Well, sort of, but I'm not sure. Lucy Van Pelt: Are you afraid of staircases? If you are, then you have climacaphobia. Maybe you have thalassophobia. This is fear of the ocean, or gephyrobia, which is the fear of crossing bridges. Or maybe you have pantophobia. Do you think you have pantophobia? Charlie Brown: What's pantophobia? Lucy Van Pelt: The fear of everything. Charlie Brown: THAT'S IT! [Lucy goes flying out into a field of snow] 2. A Charlie Brown Christmas (17 of 21 lists - 166 points - highest ranking #2 Rex Kicka**, watchtower41) A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) is the first of many prime-time animated TV specials based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Meléndez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy. Initially sponsored by Coca-Cola, the special aired on CBS from its debut in 1965 through 2000, and has aired on ABC since 2001. For many years it aired only annually, but is now telecast at least twice during the Christmas season. The special has been honored with both an Emmy and Peabody award. A Charlie Brown Christmas is also one of CBS's most successful specials, airing annually more times on that network than even The Wizard of Oz. Oz was shown thirty-one times on CBS, but not consecutively; between 1968 and 1976, NBC showed the film. Synopsis On their way to join the rest of the Peanuts gang all skating on a frozen pond, Charlie Brown confides in Linus that even though the holidays are approaching he is still feels depressed despite all the presents and cards and tree decorating. His depression and aggravation only get exacerbated by the goings-on in the neighborhood. Though his mailbox is empty of Christmas cards, he tries sarcastically to thank Violet for the card she "sent" him, though Violet says she didn't send him a card. Ultimately Charlie Brown visits Lucy in her psychiatric booth. On her advice, he gets involved in directing a school play about the Nativity. She also sympathizes with Charlie Brown about holiday depression, always getting "a lot of stupid toys" instead of what she really wants: real estate. On the way to the auditorium, Charlie Brown is drawn to Snoopy, who is frantically and gleefully busy decorating his doghouse. After Charlie Brown demands an explanation, Snoopy hands him a flier about a neighborhood lights and display contest. Charlie Brown walks away in frustration at his own dog's being bitten by the commercial bug. He then gets accosted by Sally, who wants Charlie Brown to take dictation for a letter to Santa, in which she ultimately asks him (Santa) to "just send money", particularly tens and twenties, causing Charlie Brown to run away in exasperation of even his sister's commercial corruption. Charlie Brown arrives at the rehearsals, but try as he might, he cannot seem to get control of the situation as the uncooperative kids are more interested in modernizing the play with dancing and lively music. Charlie Brown, on the other hand, is determined to not let the play become commercial by directing the traditional side of the story. Thinking the play requires "the proper mood", Charlie Brown decides they need a Christmas tree. So Lucy takes over the crowd and dispatches Charlie Brown to get a "big, shiny aluminum tree...maybe painted pink". With Linus in tow, Charlie Brown sets off on his quest. But when they get to the tree market, Charlie Brown zeroes in on a small baby tree which, ironically as well as symbolically, is the only real tree on the lot. Linus displays surprise upon seeing the tree and exclaims, "Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees?” Linus is reluctant about Charlie Brown's choice of this tree, but Charlie Brown is convinced that decorating it will be just right for the play. They return to the school auditorium with the tree, only to be verbally castigated by everyone, especially Lucy, about his choice of tree. Second guessing himself, Charlie Brown begins to wonder if he really knows what Christmas is about, loudly asking in despair. Linus quietly says he can tell him, and walks to center stage to make his point. Under a spotlight, Linus quotes Scripture, particularly the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses 8 through 14: "'8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.' That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." Charlie Brown now realizes he does not have to let commercialism ruin his Christmas. With a newly found sense of inspiration, he quietly picks up the little tree and walks out of the auditorium, intending to take the tree home to decorate and show the others it will work in the play. On the way, he stops at Snoopy's decorated doghouse, which now sports a first prize blue ribbon for winning the display contest. Letting his dog's commercialism roll off his back, Charlie Brown takes an ornament off the doghouse and hangs it on his tree, but the ornament's weight is too much for the small branch and pulls it to the ground much to Charlie Brown's shock. Charlie Brown (seeing the ornamented branch droop to the ground): I've killed it. AUGHH! Everything I touch gets ruined! (he walks away, his head hanging in shame) Unbeknownst to Charlie Brown, the rest of the gang, having also heard Linus' recitative, began to realize they were a little too rough on Charlie Brown and quietly followed him from the auditorium. Linus goes up to the little tree and gently props the drooping branch back to its upright position, ornament and all: Linus: I never thought it was such a bad little tree. (wrapping his blanket around the base of the trunk) It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love. The rest of the kids grab the other decorations off of Snoopy's doghouse and add them to the tree. When they're done, even Lucy concedes to Charlie Brown's choice: Lucy (in wonderment): Charlie Brown is a blockhead, but he did get a nice tree. The kids then start humming the traditional Christmas carol, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." When Charlie Brown returns, he demands to know what is taking place. When he sees what they have done with the tree, he cannot believe his eyes, and all the kids shout: "MERRY CHRISTMAS, CHARLIE BROWN!" At this point, the kids, now with Charlie Brown, begin singing "Hark.." as the end credits roll... and the snow again begins to fall. Themes The story touches on the over-commercialization of Christmas, and serves to remind viewers of the true meaning of Christmas: the birth of Jesus Christ, continuing a theme explored by satirists such as Stan Freberg and Tom Lehrer during the 1950s. History Bringing the Peanuts characters to television was not an easy task. The strip's creators, with funding from sponsor Coca-Cola, presented the CBS network with an idea for a Christmas television special starring Schulz's characters. The production was done on a shoestring budget, resulting in a somewhat choppy animation style and, from a technical standpoint, poorly mixed sound. With the exception of the actors who voiced Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins) and Lucy (Tracy Stratford), none of the children had any experience doing voice work. This was especially challenging for Kathy Steinberg, who voiced Sally: she was too young to read and needed to be cued line by line during the soundtrack recording. The technical issues are in evidence on the show's audio track, which to some may seem noticeably choppy and poorly enunciated. One of the more noticeable quirks in the special include a shot in which Schroeder abruptly stops playing the piano, but several of the characters continue dancing for a couple of seconds. Melendez has said he remains somewhat embarrassed to see the show repeated every year with all its problems, but Schulz vetoed his idea of "fixing" the program years later. Network executives were not at all keen on several aspects of the show, forcing Schulz and Melendez to wage some serious battles to preserve their vision. The executives did not want to have Linus reciting the story of the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke; the network orthodoxy of the time assumed that viewers would not want to sit through passages of the King James Version of the Bible. A story reported on the Whoopi Goldberg-hosted version of the making of the program (see below) that Charles Schulz was adamant about keeping this scene in, remarking that "If we don't tell the true meaning of Christmas, who will?" Another complaint was the absence of a laugh track, a common element of children's cartoons at the time. Schulz maintained that the audience should be able to enjoy the show at their own pace, without being cued when to laugh. (CBS did create a version of the show with the laugh track added, just in case Schulz changed his mind. This version remains unavailable.) A third complaint was the use of children to do the voice acting, instead of employing adult actors. Finally, the executives thought that the jazz soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi would not work well for a children's program. When executives saw the final product, they were horrified and believed the special would be a complete flop. The show first aired on Thursday, December 9, 1965, preempting The Munsters and following the Gilligan's Island episode entitled "Don't Bug the Mosquitos." To the surprise of the executives, it was both a critical and commercial hit. None of the special's technical problems detracted from the show's appeal; to the contrary, it is thought that these so-called quirks, along with several other choices, are what lent the show such an innovative, authentic and sincere feeling. For instance, Linus' recitation was hailed by critics such as Harriet Van Horne of the New York World-Telegram who said, "Linus' reading of the story of the Nativity was, quite simply, the dramatic highlight of the season." A full 50% of the televisions in the United States were tuned to the first broadcast. A Charlie Brown Christmas won an Emmy and a Peabody award, and is considered by many to be a timeless holiday classic. Watching it is an annual tradition for countless viewers. The success of A Charlie Brown Christmas gave rise to a series of animated Peanuts TV specials, several full-length animated feature films, and a Saturday morning cartoon over the years. In January 2000, one month before Schulz's death, the broadcast rights were acquired by ABC (as part of a deal between the network and Schulz), which is where the special currently airs (and has aired there since CBS's final airing of the special on December 25, 2000). On September 12, 2000, the special was released to DVD. The show enjoyed its 40th anniversary with its broadcast of Tuesday, December 6, 2005. This broadcast had the highest ratings in its time slot. On December 6, 2001, a half-hour documentary on the special entitled The Making of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (hosted by Whoopi Goldberg) aired on ABC. This documentary was released (along with the special Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales) as a bonus feature with the special I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown on October 26, 2004. Versions The special has not been seen in its original, uncut form since the first three telecasts in 1965, 1966 and 1967. Much of this is due to the opening and closing credits containing references to Coca-Cola, the show's original sponsor. Specific, acknowledged cuts are: * The main titles have Linus crashing into a Coca-Cola sign after Snoopy has spun both him and Charlie Brown around with Linus' blanket. In the versions currently available, the viewer never sees where Linus' trajectory lands him. Instead, they see Charlie Brown landing towards a pine tree which causes more snow to fall on top of him. * In the "fence" scene, where several of the Peanuts gang are attempting to knock cans off a fence with snowballs, Linus is seen knocking down a can with his blanket. In the original airing, this was a Coke can, but it was later replaced with a nondescript can. * The final end credit originally had text and graphics wishing the viewer a "Merry Christmas from the people in your town who bottle Coca-Cola." This is why the "Hark!" chorus sung at the end trails off oddly before the song would normally end, as an announcer originally did a voice over at this point in the credits to repeat and reemphasize the local bottler's well wishes to the TV audience. Although the FCC eventually imposed rules preventing sponsor references in the context of a story (especially in children's programming), this had no effect upon the decision to impose these edits. The Coca-Cola product placement elements were removed when the company ceased being the sole sponsor, replaced in 1968 by Dolly Madison snack products, who continued to sponsor the Peanuts specials through the 1980s, along with McDonald's. When CBS aired the special in the 1990s, the network made further cuts to the special, including standardizing closing credits (removing the closing carol outright in the process), and trimming out a series of scenes where the characters belittle Charlie Brown for picking a small Christmas tree (cutting straight to laughter), and removing references to commercialism. These cuts were made ostensibly to fit the special into the 30-minute time slot; commercial time had increased by approximately 2 minutes between 1965 and the late 1990s. ABC, upon acquiring the rights to the special in 2000, restored all of these cuts, increasing the length of the special to 32 minutes including commercials. Home Video Releases In September 1994 the special was released by Paramount on VHS. In September 2000 it was released on DVD. Bonus features included the 1992 special It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown. On September 23, 2008, was released by Warner Home Video (to which the rights to the Peanuts specials reverted earlier in the year, due to Melendez's connections to WB) as a "remastered" DVD. Bonus features include a restored version of Christmastime Again and a new documentary titled "A Christmas Miracle: The Making of A Charlie Brown Christmas". It is also available in a 4-disc box set with It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, also including an audio CD of Charlie Brown holiday music. This is also available as a download on the PlayStation Network's video store, and includes It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown and It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown. Recording * According to Bill Meléndez, some of the child actors could not read, so were given their lines to recite one at a time. Long lines sometimes had to be spliced together in the studio after the recording session was over. This led to the now-familiar Peanuts delivery style Full cast Peter Robbins: Charlie Brown Christopher Shea: Linus van Pelt Tracy Stratford: Lucille "Lucy" van Pelt Kathy Steinberg: Sally Brown Chris Doran: Schroeder and Shermy Geoffrey Ornstein: Pigpen Karen Mendelson: Patty Sally Dryer: Violet Gray Ann Altieri: Frieda Bill Meléndez: Snoopy Influence The musical soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas, by jazz composer Vince Guaraldi, has become as well-known as the story itself. In particular, the instrumental "Linus and Lucy" has come to be regarded as the signature musical theme of the Peanuts specials. Additionally "Christmas Time is Here" has become a popular holiday tune. A soundtrack album for the special was released by Fantasy Records and remains a perennial best-seller. (While the soundtrack contains some music that does not appear in the TV special, it also fails to include two musical themes which appear in the special.) A Charlie Brown Christmas is often credited with spearheading the popular stigmatization of artificial Christmas trees. A Charlie Brown Christmas has also been performed as a charity stage program in live theatrical venues across the country. A politically incorrect parody called A Charlie Brown Kwanzaa, that mixes the unauthorized use of footage from the classic TV special with a new soundtrack featuring dialogue performed in exaggerated African American voices, has been available on the Internet since 2000. A popular viral video combining footage from the special with Outkast's 2003 single Hey Ya! was created by Venis Productions' Ryan King and Dan Hess, leading to a "ceast and desist" order from United Media/United Features Syndicate [4], distributor of the Peanuts comic strip. although removed from many mirror websites in 2004, the video can still be found occasionally on web video hosting sites. A Charlie Brownstain Christmas is a short radio skit written by Steve Morrison and produced by the Preston and Steve Morning Show. It is played every year around Christmas Time. The skit features children voice actors brought into the studios and stars Charlie Brownstain and his friend Anus in a discourteous retelling of the classic Christmas tale. It was later animated by a listener in 2007. Sequels Three lesser-known sequels were produced decades after the 1965 original. * It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (1992). This special was 30 minutes in length with commercials and aired on CBS. It was abandoned by CBS shortly thereafter; it was released on DVD as a bonus feature with A Charlie Brown Christmas. * Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales (2002). This special is a slightly shorter 25 minutes with commercials and debuted on ABC. It has been released on DVD along with I Want a Dog for Christmas... * I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (2003) This special is a full hour long with commercials and debuted on ABC. It is available on DVD. While not true sequels, three other Charlie Brown holiday season specials were produced: 1973's A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (still aired annually on ABC), 1966's It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (also aired annually on ABC), and Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! from 1985. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightni Posted December 25, 2008 Author Share Posted December 25, 2008 Be sure to drink your Ovaltine. Ovaltine? A crummy commercial? Son of a b****! 1. A Christmas Story (17 of 21 lists - 172 points - highest ranking #1 rangercal, Iwritecode) A Christmas Story is a 1983 American/Canadian comedy film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, including material from his books In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories. It was directed by Bob Clark. Plot The movie takes place in 1940 in the fictional northwest Indiana town of Hulman (based on real-life Hammond, Indiana). 9-year-old Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) wants only one thing for Christmas: "an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time." Between run-ins with his younger brother Randy (Ian Petrella) and having to handle school bully Scott Farkus (Zack Ward), Ralphie does not know how he will ever survive long enough to get the BB gun for Christmas. The plot revolves around Ralphie's overcoming a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to his owning the precious Red Ryder BB gun: the fear that he will shoot his eye out. In each of the film's three acts, Ralphie makes his case to another individual; each time he is met by the same retort. When Ralphie asks his mother (Melinda Dillon) for a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, she says, "No, you'll shoot your eye out." Next, when Ralphie writes a theme about the BB gun for Mrs. Shields (Tedde Moore), his teacher at Harding Elementary School, Ralphie gets a C+, and Mrs. Shields writes "P.S. You'll shoot your eye out" on it. Finally, Ralphie asks an obnoxious department store Santa Claus (Jeff Gillen) for a Red Ryder BB gun, and Santa responds, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid." One day, Scott Farkus and his sidekick Grover Dill (Yano Anaya) tease Ralphie on the way home from school. The frustrated Ralphie knocks Grover Dill to the ground and beats Scott's face bloody. During the fight, Ralphie begins to swear non-stop. This part of the film occurs shortly after a scene where Ralphie gets into trouble for saying a swear word while the family is out looking for a Christmas tree. Ralphie is worried about the swearing and is sure he will be in big trouble when his father gets home from work. Instead, Ralphie's mother tells his father about the fight casually at the dinner table. She then changes the subject of the conversation to an upcoming football game, distracting his father and getting Ralphie off the hook in the process. On Christmas morning, Ralphie looks frantically for a box that would hold the BB gun to no avail. He and his brother have quite a few presents, but he is disappointed because he did not get the gun. His disappointment turns to joy as his father (Darren McGavin) points out one last half-hidden present, ostensibly from Santa. As Ralphie unwraps the BB gun, Mr. Parker explains the purchase to his wife, stating that he had one himself when he was 8 years old. Ralphie goes out to test his new gun, shooting at a paper target perched on top of a metal sign, and predictably gets a ricochet from the metal sign. This ricochet ends up hitting just below his eye, which causes him to flinch and lose his glasses. While searching for the glasses, Ralphie ends up stepping on them with his snow boot, subsequently breaking them. However, he concocts a story to his mother about an icicle falling on him and breaking his glasses, which she believes. Suddenly, a horde of the next door neighbor's dogs, which frequently bother Ralphie's father, manages to get into the house and eat the turkey. Making a last-minute decision, Ralphie's father takes everyone out to a Chinese restaurant where they eat what the narrator calls "Chinese Turkey". According to the narration by Billingsley and Clark in the DVD edition, Melinda Dillon was not told the nature of this scene beforehand, and her hysterical reactions are genuine to the Chinese singers, the duck, and the "beheading". At he end of he story, we see Ralphie lying in bed on Christmas night with his gun by his side. Randy is holding the zeppelin. The voice over states that this was the best present he received, or would ever receive. This refers to the main theme of the story, which is that of a young boy trying to rid himself of the apron strings of his mother and getting the go ahead to grow up from his father. Throughout the film, the mother is in charge. When Ralphie gets the BB gun from his father, it is a surprise to both him and the audience. Subplots Several subplots are incorporated in the body of the film, based on other separate short stories by Shepherd. The most notable involves the Old Man (Darren McGavin) winning a "major award." He entered a trivia contest out of the newspaper, which asked for the name of The Lone Ranger's nephew's horse (thanks to his wife, who supplied the answer). A large crate arrived and inside was a lamp shaped like a woman's leg wearing fishnet stockings, much to Mrs. Parker's displeasure. Just two days later, Mrs. Parker broke the lamp, infuriating the Old Man. The leg was the logo of the contest's sponsor, the Nehi bottling company (the details of the contest were not necessarily made clear in the movie). Other vignettes include: * Ralphie's friends Flick and Schwartz disputing over whether a person's tongue will stick to a frozen flagpole. Schwartz ultimately issues Flick a "triple dog dare" (the most serious of those used by the kids; he bypasses a "triple dare" from a "double dog dare", a serious boyhood protocol breach), and Flick's tongue gets stuck to the pole, much to his terror. A suction tube within the flagpole was used to simulate the freezing of Flick's tongue to the pole.[2] * Ralphie receiving his Secret Society decoder pin, and learning a lesson about being ripped off (his first secret message with the pin turned out to be an Ovaltine radio commercial). * Ralphie and his friends dealing with the neighborhood bully, Scott Farkus (Zack Ward). * The Old Man's legendary battles with the aging and malfunctioning furnace. * Ralphie letting slip the dreaded "f-dash-dash-dash" word (after his father knocks a hubcap from his hands, spilling its contents, the lug nuts from a flat tire) and later, when asked where he'd heard the word, falsely blaming his friend, Schwartz, instead of pointing out that his father utters the word daily. * The numerous smelly and bothersome hound dogs of the next door neighbors, the Bumpuses, including the dogs destroying the Christmas turkey (prompting the family to go out and have Peking duck in its stead, resulting in a giggling fit by the mother and the boys). * Several fantasy sequences depict Ralphie's daydreams of glory and vindication, including the vanquishing of prison-striped villains with a Red Ryder BB gun, an extremely good grade for his written theme about the BB gun, and parental remorse over a case of "soap poisoning" (related to his swearing). Cast * Peter Billingsley as Ralphie Parker - the film's protagonist, a nine year old imaginative dreamer * Jean Shepherd as adult Ralphie - the narrator (also has an on-screen cameo; see below) * Ian Petrella as Randy Parker - Ralphie's younger brother, who will not eat his meatloaf * Darren McGavin as Mr. Parker (The Old Man) - Ralphie's dad is at the center of the Major Award vignette, and is depicted using colorful nonsensical invective. His first name is never revealed. * Melinda Dillon as Mrs. Parker - Ralphie's mom is the primary dispenser of the oft-repeated phrase, "You'll shoot your eye out." Her first name is never revealed either * Scott Schwartz as Flick - Ralphie's friend, who learns about tongues and cold metal the hard way * R.D. Robb as Schwartz - Ralphie's other friend, on whom Ralphie pins the blame for his knowing "the f-dash-dash-dash word" * Zack Ward as Scott Farkus - the neighborhood bully, who torments Ralphie and his friends en route to and from school * Yano Anaya as Grover Dill - Scott's toadie, who is promoted to main bully in My Summer Story * Tedde Moore as Miss Shields - Ralphie's fourth grade teacher, the only onscreen character played by the same actor in the sequel, My Summer Story * Jeff Gillen as Santa Claus - the rather frightening and cranky department store incarnation of "the Head Honcho," who delivers the last blow to Ralphie's hope for a BB gun * David Svoboda as Goggles - weird little boy in line waiting to see Santa Claus, wearing aviation goggles. * Drew Hocevar as one of the two Christmas elfs - He is the one paired with the Department Store Santa. In the DVD commentary, director Bob Clark mentions that Jack Nicholson was considered for the role of the Old Man; Clark expresses gratitude that he ended up with Darren McGavin instead, who also appeared in several other Clark films. He cast Melinda Dillon on the basis of her similar role in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Peter Billingsley was already a minor star from co-hosting the TV series Real People; Clark initially wanted him for the role of Ralphie, but decided he was "too obvious" a choice and auditioned many other young actors before realizing that Billingsley was the right one after all. Ian Petrella was cast immediately before filming began. Tedde Moore had previously appeared in Clark's film Murder by Decree, and Jeff Gillen was an old friend of Clark's who had been in one of his earliest films. The movie was written by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and Bob Clark. Shepherd provides the movie's narration from the perspective of an adult Ralphie, a narrative style later used in the dramedy The Wonder Years. Shepherd also has a cameo appearance in the department store scene, as the man who directs Ralphie and Randy to the end of the line. Director Clark has a cameo as Swede, the neighbor who questions the Old Man about the Leg Lamp. History and related works Three of the semi-autobiographical short stories on which the film is based were originally published in Playboy magazine between 1964 and 1966. Shepherd later read "Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder nails the Cleveland Street Kid" and told the otherwise unpublished story "Flick's Tongue" on his WOR Radio talk show, as can be heard in one of the DVD extras. Bob Clark states on the DVD commentary that he became interested in Shepherd's work when he heard "Flick's Tongue" on the radio in 1968. Additional source material for the film, according to Clark, came from unpublished anecdotes Shepherd told live audiences "on the college circuit." Initially overlooked as a sleeper film, A Christmas Story was released a week before Thanksgiving 1983 to moderate success, earning about $2 million in its first weekend. Critics generally supported the film. Leonard Maltin proclaimed it a "Top screen comedy," while Roger Ebert proclaimed it "Funny and satirical...a sort of Norman Rockwell crossed with MAD magazine." The film would go on to win two Genie Awards, for Bob Clark's screenplay and direction. Years later, Ebert would re-evaluate the film, this time more favorably, writing that "some of the movie sequences stand as classic." On December 24, 2007, AOL ranked the film their #1 Christmas movie of all time. By Christmas 1983, however, the movie was no longer playing at most venues, but remained in about a hundred theaters until January 1984. Gross earnings were just over $19.2 million. In the years since, due to television airings and home video release, A Christmas Story has become widely popular and is now a perennial Christmas special. Originally released by MGM, Warner Bros. (through Turner Entertainment Co.) now has ownership of the film due to Ted Turner's purchase of MGM's pre-1986 library and Time Warner's subsequent purchase of Turner Entertainment. Television In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the film began airing quietly on SuperStation WTBS and Superstation WGN (now known as WGN America). From 1988-1992, the film had a short-lived tradition of airing on the American Thanksgiving night (or the night after Thanksgiving) to open the holiday television season. In 1988, then-fledgling FOX aired the movie the night after Thanksgiving. In 1989-1990, TBS showed it Thanksgiving night, while in 1991-1992, they aired it the night after. Turner broadcasting, now a part of the TimeWarner umbrella of cable networks, has maintained ownership of the broadcast rights, and since the mid-1990s, airing the movie increasingly on TBS, TNT and TCM. By 1995, it was aired on those networks a combined six times over December 24-25-26, and in 1996, it was aired eight times over those three days. Due to the increasing popularity of the film, in 1997 TNT began airing a 24-hour marathon dubbed "24 Hours of A Christmas Story," consisting of the film shown twelve consecutive times beginning at 7 or 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve and ending Christmas Day. This was in addition to various other airings earlier in the month of December. In 2004, after TNT switched to a predominantly drama format, sister network TBS, under its comedy-based "Very Funny" moniker, took over the marathon. Clark stated that in 2002, an estimated 38.4 million people tuned into the marathon at one point or another, nearly one sixth of the country. TBS reported 45.4 million viewers in 2005, and 45.5 million in 2006. In 2007, new all-time ratings records were set, with the highest single showing (8 p.m. Christmas Eve) drawing 4.4 million viewers. In 2007 the marathon continued, and the original tradition was revived. TNT also aired the film twice the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend (November 25). In 2008, the 24-hour marathon continued, on TBS, for the 12th overall year, starting at 8 p.m. eastern on Christmas Eve. Subsequent works A sequel involving Ralphie and his family, titled My Summer Story (alternate title It Runs in the Family) was made in 1994. With the exceptions of Tedde Moore as Ralphie's teacher (Miss Shields) and Jean Shepherd as the narrator (the voice of the adult Ralphie), it features an entirely different cast. A series of television movies involving the Parker family, also from Shepherd stories, was made by PBS, including Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss, The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters, and The Phantom of the Open Hearth. In the year 2000, an authorized stage play adaptation of A Christmas Story was written by Philip Grecian and is produced widely each Christmas season. In 2003, Broadway Books published the five Jean Shepherd short stories from which the movie and stage play were adapted in a single volume under the title A Christmas Story (ISBN 0-7679-1622-0), with stories including: "Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder nails the Cleveland Street Kid", "The Counterfeit Secret Circle Member Gets the Message, or The Asp Strikes Again", "My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award that Heralded the Birth of Pop Art", "Grover Dill and the Tasmanian Devil", and "The Grandstand Passion Play of Delbert and the Bumpus Hounds". This collection was also released as an audio book (ISBN 0-7393-1674-5), read by Dick Cavett. The book Excelsior, You Fathead! The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd (2005, ISBN 0-55783-600-0), has several sections which comment on the movie A Christmas Story. Settings Locations The movie is set in a fictional town in Indiana, strongly resembling Hammond, Indiana where writer Jean Shepherd grew up. Local references in the film include Warren G. Harding Elementary School, and Cleveland Street (where Shepherd spent his childhood years). Other Indiana references in the dialogue include a mention of a person "swallowing a yo-yo" in nearby Griffith, Indiana, the Old Man being one of the fiercest "furnace fighters in northern Indiana" and that his obscenities were "hanging in space over Lake Michigan," a mention of the Indianapolis 500, and the line to Santa Claus "stretching all the way to Terre Haute." The Old Man is also revealed to be a fan of the Bears (who he jokingly calls the "Chicago Chipmunks") and White Sox, consistent with living in northwest Indiana. The school scenes were shot at the Victoria School in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. The school was sold to developers in 2005 and has been remodeled into a women's shelter. The Christmas tree purchasing scene was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, as it was the only location that still used red PCC streetcars - in fact, TTC streetcars can be seen during the scene. Ralphie beating up the neighborhood bully was also filmed in Toronto, as was the soundstage filming of interior shots of the Parker home. The St. Catharines' Museum owns some props used in the film, including two pairs of Ralphie's glasses (one of which is the smashed pair), and two scripts. Director Bob Clark reportedly sent location scouts to twenty cities before selecting Cleveland, Ohio, as the principal site for filming. Higbee's department store in downtown Cleveland was the stage for three scenes in A Christmas Story. The first is the opening scene in which Ralphie first spies the Red Ryder BB Gun. The second is the parade scene, filmed just outside Higbee’s, on Public Square, at 3 AM. The final scene is Ralphie and Randy’s visit to see Santa which was filmed inside Higbee’s. Higbee’s kept the Santa slide that was made for the movie and used it for several years after the movie’s release. Higbee's was known for decades as a cornerstone of Public Square, as well as for its elaborate child-centered Christmas themes and decorations (e.g. the Twigbee Shop ), with Santa as the centerpiece, until the store, which became Dillard's in 1992, closed for good in 2002. Higbee's was exclusive to Northeast Ohio -- there were no Higbee's stores in Shepherd's hometown. As such, he was most likely referring to Goldblatts in downtown Hammond (with the Cam-Lan Chinese Restaurant three doors down on Sibley Ave.) The exterior shots (and select interior shots, including the opening of the leg lamp) of the house and neighborhood where Ralphie lived were filmed in the Tremont section of Cleveland's West Side. The house used as the Parker home in these scenes has been restored, reconfigured inside to match the soundstage interiors, and opened to the public as A Christmas Story House. The "...only I didn't say fudge" scene was filmed at the foot of Cherry Street in Toronto. In 2008, two fans from Canada released a fan film documentary that visits every location used in the movie. Their film, Road Trip for Ralphie, was shot over two years and includes footage of the film makers saving Miss Shields black board from the dumpster on the day the old Victoria School was gutted for renovation, discovering the antique fire truck that saved Flick, locating all the original costumes from the movie and tracking down the real-life location of the movie's Chop Suey Palace in Toronto. Their fan film is for sale online. Vehicles Cleveland car buffs donated the use of a number of vintage vehicles for the film, which helped to enhance the authenticity of the production despite a limited budget. During filming in downtown Cleveland, members of a local antique automobile club, following a preset route, repeatedly circled the square. At the end of filming each day, the cars were thoroughly washed to remove road salt, and parked underground beneath the Terminal Tower. The Parker family car was a 1937 Oldsmobile Model 6 four-door sedan. Dating the story Based on some of the key references to popular culture in the film, the story might take place in December of 1939, the year the MGM film The Wizard of Oz came out. In December 1940, Ovaltine's sponsorship of the Little Orphan Annie radio broadcasts had been over for 11 months. Additionally, the Old Man's negative reference to the Chicago Bears would make 1939 most likely, since on Dec. 8, 1940 the Bears had just beaten the Washington Redskins 73-0 for the NFL Championship and his Chicago "Chipmunks" comment would hardly make sense. Also, the fact that Ralphie's father is reading color newspaper comics on Christmas morning would indicate that Christmas fell on a Sunday, which would date the year as 1938. Randy receiving a Zeppelin for Christmas indicates 1936, before the Hindenburg disaster. To the contrary, Ralphie's new Radio Orphan Annie decoder pin is the 1940 model. 1939-40 is slightly later than author Jean Shepherd's own childhood (he was 19 years old in 1940) but earlier than that of director Bob Clark (who was born in 1939). While Shepherd was age 10 in 1931, Clark was age 10 in 1949 - a separation of 18 years. If the consensus between Shepherd and Clark was to find a "middle-ground" for their youths, they may well have divided the difference in half (9), then added that amount of years to the earliest date (1931), thereby arriving at 1940. However, these apparently contradictory clues make more sense when it is understood that the writers and producers actually intended, as director Bob Clark states in the movie's commentary, to set the film in the "amorphously later Thirties, early Forties." This is probably the best way to consider the film - it is not, nor was it intended to be, a movie about a particular year - it is a film about a particular era in American family life. The Red Ryder BB gun was available during this period and for many years afterward, but never in the exact configuration mentioned in the film. Ralphie's parents at one point are talking in the living room while the Bing Crosby/Andrews Sisters version of "Jingle Bells" - recorded in 1942 - is heard on the radio. A World War II time frame is consistent with the presence of shoppers in military uniforms peering into the display window, which contained a toy tank. However, the presence of so many shoppers as well as the normalcy of domestic life and Christmas festivities suggest that the events did not take place in the thick of the USA's involvement in the war. During the flagpole scene, an accurate-period 48-star U.S. Flag is displayed. Despite the many props and other indications of a 1939-1942 setting, there are a few noteworthy anachronisms, such as Scut Farkus (and the Old Man in a fantasy sequence) wearing a coonskin cap, a piece of apparel more evocative of the 1950s. Ralphie's father complains in the movie that "the Sox traded Bullfrog!" which is a reference to Chicago White Sox pitcher Bill Dietrich, who was in fact released from the Sox, not traded, in 1946. The police car (which can be seen through the classroom window) that responds to the stuck tongue is a 1947 Chevrolet. Following the tire change scene, a "49" year tag can be seen on the license plate. Finally, Ralphie's father wears a Royal Air Force issue flight cap in one scene, indicating that Mr. Parker was probably a volunteer American pilot for the RAF, which would imply a post-war setting. Such fuzziness of dating may be seen as a way to generalize the nostalgia for Ralphie's childhood as applying to other time periods as well. Music The mock heroic tone of the narration, filled with such hyperbole as "the legendary battle of the lamp", is matched by the extensive use of familiar classical music themes. For example, when the character Scut Farkus appears, the Wolf's theme from Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf plays in the background. ("Farkas" is a Hungarian name, but literally means "Wolf") The piece that plays after Ralphie says "fudge", after the lamp breaks for the second time, and after Ralphie breaks his glasses is the opening of Hamlet by Tchaikovsky. The Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofé is featured prominently in the movie. Movement 3 [On The Trail] provides a suitable Western feeling to a Red Ryder rifle fantasy sequence, and bits of Movement 1 [sunrise] and Movement 4 [sunset] were also freely arranged and adapted throughout the score. The music in the dream sequence with Ralphie in a cowboy outfit shooting at bandits and later when he finally plays with his BB gun outside of the house is based on the main theme from the classic John Ford western Stagecoach (1939). The harp solo from Benjamin Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols" is briefly excerpted for the scene in which Ralphie observes a snowy Christmas morning from his bedroom window, which follows a segment of celeste music which comes, again, from the latter half of Movement 3 [On The Trail] of Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite which plays as Ralphie awakens on Christmas morning. The classroom fantasy scene where Mrs. Shields is grading Ralph's paper features two excerpts from Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture." Whenever the scene involves the hounds belonging to the Bumpus family, "our hillbilly neighbors", snatches of American barn dance music are heard. Popular music of the time was also used, ostensibly as coming from the radio. This included three Christmas songs sung by Bing Crosby, two of them in conjunction with the Andrews Sisters. Original music for the film's score was by Carl Zittrer, who worked with director Bob Clark on at least ten films between 1972 and 1998; and by Paul Zaza, who has worked with Clark on at least sixteen films, including Murder by Decree and My Summer Story. In popular culture * The television show The Wonder Years was allegedly inspired by the film. The show, set in the 1960s, centered on its young male character, Kevin Arnold and his experiences growing up. It was narrated by an older, wiser Kevin (voiced by Daniel Stern), describing what is happening and what he learned from his experiences. Fantasy sequences, much like those in the film, were also used on occasion. Peter Billingsley makes a guest appearance as one of Kevin's roommates in the series finale. * The Starz! cable network has an animated online parody of the film entitled "A Christmas Story in 30 Seconds(and Re-enacted by Bunnies)," produced in 2005 by Jennifer Shiman. * For the 2006 Christmas season, Cingular Wireless commissioned a television commercial that featured a condensed version of the film's story where the lead character has a similar obsession with getting a particular type of Motorola cell phone. The repeated admonition is "You'll run the bill up!" (the commercial is for a prepaid service). * A series of passwords from The Lost Vikings II (specifically, the pirate-themed levels) spell out "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine", the coded message on the "Little Orphan Annie" show in the film. * In a special Christmas episode of MythBusters, the plot of the "triple dog dare" was tested. It was found to be true: it is possible to get one's tongue stuck to a pole and have difficulty getting it off. * The Less Than Jake album "Hello Rockview" features a song called "Scott Farcas Takes It On The Chin", a homage to the bully in the film. * Fall Out Boy were featured on the album "A Santa Clause", with a song entitled "Yule Shoot Your Eye Out". * Lupe Fiasco made a reference to Ralphie. On the unreleased song, "Gangsta [up In Here]." He stated, "They wanna shoot out I/EYE like Ralphie." * In a Christmas commercial for Cartoon Network, Eustace dressed as Santa Claus from Courage the Cowardly Dog tells Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory who asks for a ray gun for Christmas, "you'll shoot your eye out, kid", a homage to the film. * In the Fallout videogame series, the Red Ryder LE BB gun is one of the most powerful weapons that a player can wield. * "Cleveland Stole Our Christmas Story" The Times of Northwest Indiana Dec. 24, 2006 * In "The Cookie Clause" episode of Good Eats, Alton Brown asks Santa for a Cookie Master 3000 Power Gun, and is told "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!". * In The Fairly OddParents Christmas-themed episode, "Merry Wishmas", the character of Elmer is seen wearing pink bunny pajamas while singing about his lack of good Christmas presents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dasox24 Posted December 25, 2008 Share Posted December 25, 2008 Fantastic job with the movie list, Knightni! It turned out great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clyons Posted December 25, 2008 Share Posted December 25, 2008 Thanks, K, I appreciate your efforts. Great job and Merry Christmas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MHizzle85 Posted December 25, 2008 Share Posted December 25, 2008 I didn't vote, but the list turned out well. Thanks for putting together yet another list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigEdWalsh Posted December 25, 2008 Share Posted December 25, 2008 Great job again, Knightni! Nice touch doing the final 3 when you did, so that we could see what they were on Christmas morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted December 25, 2008 Share Posted December 25, 2008 Applause again for fair knight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 25, 2008 -> 04:44 PM) Applause again for fair knight Brave. Well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted November 27, 2009 Share Posted November 27, 2009 QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 25, 2008 -> 04:44 PM) Applause again for fair knight bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.