One Shot Posts: All Summer in a Day

One Shot Posts 

                I have done  a post about an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's work before with a look at "The Halloween Tree"   This time I'm going into a short story from  from 1954 called  "All Summer in a Day"  published in the The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.  This is a short story, it's about 4 pages  and the story is simple, the idea of adapting it might seem to need a little filler or something to make it work. 

        Today, we are looking at  an episode of the PBS series Wonderworks  which did television adaptations of different stories mostly targeted towards kids and families.  It's kind of  a shame PBS doesn't do this anymore.  This adaptation aired in 1982 and takes the 4 pages of story and goes for 30 minutes. 

            It's  a little hard to quantify what exactly is a good adaptation of a work when a medium is switched. There's a difference between print (like this post) and if I was doing videos. Following everything beat for beat  from a story in print to a television and visual medium does require some changes.  Bringing that up, the start of the short, I think is well done. It's about a minute of rain just the sound and setting of rain and some children walking, the sound design is amazing here and really does set up something. If you already know what the work is about, then the rain would already be known of why it's important, but if you haven't, then you'll figure the rain is important to the story. 

rain rain rain rain 

             The music comes in, about a minute in and sounds dramatic, while children are playing kick the can in the rain.  The can rolls over and the camera pans to a girl, who is off in the shadows and seems detached from the other kids. All of the first almost 3 minutes is doing story with any dialogue and words, and does a great job of really doing visual storytelling using it's medium well. 

               Then we see the kids wearing swimsuit and goggles  like things standing and turning when a buzzer goes off in front of a giant lamp. The children are talking about something is supposed to be coming at 12:15pm. There's some worry, but one boy is like  nothing bad happened the last time it came. Keeping it really vague and mysterious.  It doesn't feel too slow either, it feels like it's building up and keeping the viewer interested and wondering what's going on.  

         A boy sees a girl, who is still fully dressed and over by a globe of Venus standing and pointing a flashlight at it. He walks away from the lamp and asks what's she's doing, then says he was put in charge and had to make sure everyone was under the lamp. The girl says the sun is coming out this day and therefor she doesn't need to stand under the lamp.  The boy is annoyed and mentions a tidbit for us, that they aren't on Earth, but the girl was born there. 

Girls are from Earth, boys are from Venus, well at least one girl is from Earth

               I like how it's taking aspects of the story, but is using it's medium to keep it vague and dropping hints as needed. The kids having to stand in front of a bright lamp  and turn, the globe being Venus and not Earth, and the talk about the sun coming out, as if this is a rare event. Then, having it be where a girl from Earth being amongst them, this is the same girl we saw in the shadows earlier, this is well done. 

                    The  boy, named William, calls a teacher through a video screen, to tell her that the girl, Margot, doesn't want to stand in front of the lamps. The teacher asks why and Margot says she wants to wait for the real sun.  These are names that are mentioned in the story.  The teacher wants to talk to Margot,  alone and tells her don't get  her hopes too high.  The teacher mentions the last time the sun was seen was nine-years-ago and for an hour.  The teacher still wants her to go under the lamps.  

In Venus, TV watches you! 

            Margot does as told, and William shows up. He's annoyed by her talking about the sun and she says she remembers the sun.  The scene transition is really cool.  It's art class time, and Margot makes a painting that impresses the teacher, whom we know see in non television form. The painting is what she was remembering from being in Ohio, and how there was sun all the time, but she can't paint it.  William wanted to show is his painting but hides it when he sees that Margot is getting some praise, his was a simple more dark and gray painting. 

This is Ohio, children 

            Later, it's science time!  The kids give some facts about Venus, like Earth. is able to sustain life because of the sun and their proximity to it. (Uhh)  There is also some sun talk too. During this part, William gets scolded by the teacher for not giving her something new about the sun. (Doesn't she know there's nothing new under the sun? huh)  Margot impresses the teacher with a poem. The foreshadowing is nice too where the camera  goes to William again after the teacher praises Margot. Her poem comes from the short story. A notable change is how there is a lack of the other kids objecting to it and saying she didn't write it. 

He's thinking if he left the sun on or not 

            William starts to tease Margot and trying to tell her the sun isn't coming. She's firm in that it is coming.  Margot asks William why he hates her so much and he says it's because she's a know-it-all and doesn't believe she remembers the sun. Though, this adaptation doesn't give how long she's been on Venus to see if that would be a factor in her remembering something.  It does make you wonder, yourself if the sun will be coming.  The  short gives a melancholy feel to match with the constant rain. The school is concrete and has thick walls around the windows giving it a depressing, cold feeling. 

I need you to design me some windows that also make me feel like I'm watching people from inside

        A lot of the cinematography gives the impression really not much warmth or happiness. It also feels like it's taking some hallmarks from 1980's movies about dystopias as an example. The teacher was first introduced in a video screen, even though later she's doesn't seem as mean or intimidating, her introduction felt like she like was this cold distant watching force. The children having the same swimsuits and standing in front of a light and listening to buzzer to turn, and William getting bothered about Margot not doing it, not falling in line,  then the classroom doesn't look like a classroom it's not really warm and inviting it, the coloring is cold. There are lots of grays, blacks, and blues being used.  

We can finally play golf 

             The teacher hands out sun kits, which has visors and skin cream for the sun. Michael says they aren't going to need this stuff, the sun isn't coming, the teacher says if, causing Margot to have some doubt, but she still believes. 

             Finally, it reaches 12:15pm. ( I wonder how many time zones Venus has?)  It seems the sun hasn't come out yet.  William smiles at Margot in cheeky "I told you so" smile. Margot runs out of the classroom. She pulls away a vent  where there's  diorama , that shows a depiction of  Willard, Ohio. ( a real place!)  Paula goes to see Margot.  Paula is not a name the shows up in the story. She shows Paula the the diorama the different objects like a butterfly and a flower.  Margot talks about how her mother grew flowers on Earth. 

Ohio. 

             Then Margot think she hears the rain stop and yet no one seems to care. Then it goes back to taking from the source story.  So William takes her sun kit and the other kids, not Paula, do a keep-a-way from her. Paula went to the find the teacher who left to find Margot.  It turns into a chase and William locks her up a room. Then the rain does indeed stop. The other kids hear it stop and they are stunned, while Margot cries out from the locked room.  They slowly walk away from the girl crying and banging at the door as they go outside to see if the sun has come out.  

"Hey it's me" 

            Paula and the teacher find the others outside. I like how everyone stops talking and the music gets grander as the sun starts to show up in the break of the clouds. (The kids don't have their visors, they are going to die, help them!) The kids start to run around as they take in the sun existing.  You could say it's Sunday.  (boo!)  

Flowers apparently grow here 

            Anyway, Margot sees some light and realizes what it is. Apparently grass and flowers are still able to grow on Venus with years of rain, as the kids play in the high grass and flowers. There's no dialogue, but the music changed to being more happy and joyous in tone, then starts to get more dower as the clouds show up again and the sun starts to go away.    Then the respite of the sunny moment ends as the rain starts to fall again. 

    

ouch the rain it burns! 

             The children run to murder the flowers before the rain gets heavier. Paula wonders where Margot is and the other kids decide to just pin everything on William. Which fits well for a mob mentality where they did nothing to help  Margot and then now pin it on the person they could have stopped.  William goes to get Margot and sees her dower face, and he offers flowers but she just walks away from and the other students and goes outside.  She starts to cry in the rain, you can see her pain. Especially, since she was the one who was the most anticipating it. The shots here are really well done and present her anguish well, while showing the other kids  holding the flowers.  Paula walks up and gives her flowers.  Then others walk up and give her their flowers too, William walks away in shame with his. The nearly shot is like a reverse of the first , where the kids around Margot and William is by himself. The only difference is Margot goes to him, while he's crying, she takes his flowers and walks him into the building. Then it ends with rain and shots of the building.

His wife left him 

             The final part being all no dialogue was nice touch and really gives the story a great feel. The ending gives a more positive than the original story where it ends where Margot is let out of the room.  Both show the sense of guilt the other kids had after locking her in the room. The change from the story where the other kids at moments taunt her through out until they lock her in a room, to just being William was a good idea to really contain it, and even giving a girl, Paula, a way to be disconnected from it there really put the weight in how she feels bad  and being the first to approach Margot. I think it was a good change, and still goes along with how they were able to fall in line with William later because they really did think it was a joke, but goes back to the part at the start where they were sun bathing and how Willian seems to be able to command. 

            The visuals are used wonderfully to tell the story and gives a sense of melancholy and uneasiness showing a distant world and disconnect. It's a well done short and takes the short story and uses it well.  This is a great short and it was well done. It takes short content and fills it out well, by building up anticipation and doubt and wants you  to feel something to it.  I think both reading the story and watching this are great experiences and bring their own ways and strengths of their media.  Also Bradbury made a very interesting version of Venus. 

        That's it for now, tune in next time when thunder only happens when it's raining and Players only love you when they're playing. 

            

            

               

One Shot Posts: The Simspons: Homer the Father

The Simpsons  One Shot Posts 

          I'm once again taking a dip in the period of "The Simpsons"  that aren't called "Classic Simpsons™"  though calling anything after that "modern Simpsons ®"  would be silly if that modern is now like a decade or something  ago. It's also because I want to do something different and take a look at maybe some nuggets of post season 9 Simpsons that can be enjoy and and/or interesting.  Anyway, I did a long thing when I wrote about  a season 33 episode.   I don't feel like almost repeating myself here (you don't want that either).  Let's get started.  This time I'm going with season 22 / episode 11, which came out in 2011. (Ah simpler times)  The episode is called "Homer the Father". 

   

               This episode speaks to me from the start.  First off, remember TV Land? Yeah I still watch it sometimes for some reruns of stuff, but the channel was once an all classics network that brought you shows from the 50's to 80's.  Homer find a channel Tube Town (which also sounds like a place you'd buy a TV from when thought Circuit City was just out of the way. ) which I mean look at it. It' mentions some random old sitcom parodies.  There's a parody sitcom from the 80's the show wants us to notice called "Thicker than Waters" which is a parody of "Growing Pains" I give it more that it's hopefully referencing Alan Thicke from that sitcom.  Later, there's sitcom parody that combines Fresh Prince of Belair and Alf , and I wish we lived in that timeline. 

   

               Homer gets enraptured by  not Growing Pains sitcom rerun like a mad man. (good thing he wasn't watching a true crime show then, for the rest of the plot happenings) Meanwhile, Bart needs to gasoline to the fire of the plot and get this burning. (what?)  He sees a cool mini bike and he wants it.  He asks his father for it, but because of the sitcom he decides to have Bart has to buy himself.  Marge seems to like this new approach Homer is taking. 

Points for keeping 4:3, but points off for not having a screen bug with annoying promo like 2011 TV would do/ Copyright Disney

             Bart talks to Lisa and wonders if he got good grades , Homer would buy him the bike. Also, apparently the sitcom Dad wears a (darn it) Bill Cosby sweater  and Homer now wears one too. Bart decides to study and actually get to work. (wow) 

                Bart gets A. (That's not an episode title) He sadly finds out the reward was the reward of good work. The cheesiness of that works well. Bart is upset because he really wants a bike. Thankfully, the plot needed some help to get something, Apu shows up because Homer left his badge at the store by accident and Bart overhears and gets an idea to sell nuclear secrets to countries in exchange for a bike. (silly scamp, kids these days)  

   

             The CIA finds Bart but it's not the CIA, but China's CIA.  (Also the a stupid joke works for me, so an extra point there)  This CIA is interested in Bart's deal. Bart really starts to doubt the issue. One of the men gives him a loophole.  

            Homer's obsession  with the show made him watch The E! True Hollywood Story about the show. (oh Homer no!)  Bart pretends he's going to spend more time with Homer so he can get the secrets and sell them for the bike. (We're just gonna forget that a nuclear power plant wouldn't have nuke secrets of the government, alright)  There is a nice montage with the two hanging out. I do think Homer and Bart moments are fun, even if he's faking.   Also, we're not going mention that's not how USB thumb-drives work. 

        Bart gives the secrets to China and gets his bike, but wait, there's a twist! Oh sitcoms you always twisting on us! (The Simpsons is a sitcom fight us)  Homer got Bart the bike too. (the studio audience gasps)  Bart now feels bad and decides to go back to the zoo where he got the first bike to get the secrets back.  The not CIA returns just in time , but Bart eats the thumb-drive. Homer comes to stop the men from hurting Bart.  Homer ends up in China and they open a nuclear plant and it explodes. 

            It ends with Homer and Bart watching The Itchy and Scratchy Show to fill up some time and have a nice ending.  

                  This is a not a bad episode. It's fun to see it be on even ground where Homer uses a sitcom to good parent, but it doesn't go so over the top that he becomes unbearable except in Bart's eyes because it was an obstacle to his wanting a bike. I also like that is a Bart and Homer episode and not being something where it's too one sided or a mess. There's some fun in Bart's part where he really just wants a bike, and going the over the top Simpsons way by having him sell nuke secrets to a country. The episode's parodies are fun without being too much.  As someone who loves older TV shows it's fun to see some of the shmaltzy stuff that 80's sitcoms did being featured.  It's a fun episode and from season 22. The jokes are fun.  I actually think the weakest thing in the episode is the China stuff and the selling secrets stuff just because the rest of the episode, it makes it feel more out of place.  It's still a good episode even with that and it doesn't ruin it, so yeah do check this one out. 

        That's it for now tune in next time, not making a state secrets for sale joke. 

                    

                 

Something Something Movies: Mummies

Movies

        I haven't done a movie in a while on this blog.  This is an interesting case of a movie,  not because it's new [made in the same year as I am posting about it].  Is that it did well, but not well-known?  That's because this movie is from Spain, but did get some worldwide release. I had heard about the movie and was kind of surprised it did well and even was like "I heard about this movie" when it was brought up.  "Mummies" not to be confused with "The Mummy", "The Mummy", "The Mummy" , or "The Mummy", or "Mummy Dearest" (that last one isn't real, yet), is again a 2023 movie, and is Spanish animation that Warner Bros. decided "eh let's distribute it". This is a movie I thought that would end as a random movie in a couple years on Tubi, but it didn't it was Hulu. (moving up!)   Mummies is directed by Juan Jesús García Galocha  and the screenplay by  Javier López Barreira and Jordi Gasull.   

        Mummies grossed  $52 million worldwide, against its budget of $12 million. It's the number 9th Spanish made movie in that ranking outside of its home market. (source)  That's pretty cool. 

        As I said before, I heard about this movie coming out, it was apparently delayed a bit, it was supposed to come out 2021, apparently. [I wonder why it was delayed what was going on then? Hmm anyway]  I didn't even know what it was but did see a quick trailer thing and wrote it down it to pick up on later, which might be a bad idea- for me.  Of course, you use a song like "Walk Like an Egyptian" or any other Bangles song, you've got me, well maybe. 

            I am also interested in media/animation that comes from outside the US. which is another reason why this movie made it my radar, before it was more known or whatever. Also, this is the part where I say the movie has an English dub, that's what we're working from.  They apparently worked with the United Kingdom to the dub, so it's British talk, so we have a Spanish movie about kind of Egypt (more on that soon), with a British English dub.   

            The movie starts with what be an incident where a character named Thut (too-it) [spell check is going to hate this post today] was a chariot racer but one day his wheel fell off and crashed. The awkward cut could make one think he died.  Umm... hmm.  The movie also sets our villain an archeologist. What's his goal? To be famous, that's what drives him. A simple goal. His name is Lord Sylvester Carnaby, voiced by   Hugh Bonneville , whom you may know from Downton Abbey or at least know of the series like I do, since didn't watch it.   There's also a running gag with him where his mom calls and they used the "Psycho" sound. Which someone found funny.  I'm not going to be saying the movie is perfect. Though I do hope they had his mother be a running gag ,because mummy, mummy. British... I'm going back now. 

         Silvester has found a tomb, like archeologists do, and notices that the mummy is not in the tomb. (He should have really checked if the mummy is in the museum)   He also notices there's a portal that leads to the underworld where mummies reside. I'm not sure why the mummies or Egyptians or whomever, yeah this going to be something I'll mention soon, would just everyone about the underworld. but I guess we need plot.  Also Silvester has two bumbling people working with him because sure. I do think it was funny later on in the movie, he can't even tell them apart- he was aware after all. 

He should really go after whoever made his moustache like that 

        I will also give a post spoiler: I didn't hate or dislike the movie, but it does have some things that do make it bit weak and could been improved slightly.  A balanced approach as always. (Also, it's really hard to be angry in text form, except on Twitter... Facebook.. Pinterest?) 

            The movie's intro is kind of creative, while the music for the start sounds generic, the intro is colorful and nice.   The movie has a setting of being a world were apparently mummies are alive and the people though look more like they would be if they weren't mummies. The world seems to be like an ancient city you'd think of as in ancient Egypt but also feeling doing like an ancient spin of current things.  There's a guy being a traffic light we see kids throwing around small piece of stones to send messages and look kind of like phones. I do like the concept here of having a kind of blend thing going on.  I will mention though, overthinking it might hurt a bit. The people -mummies look like they aren't dead, so they weren't going for a "Tutenstein" vibe of being a dead person but alive, uh undead. The only really mummy thing the characters have here is that they are wrapped up in gauze and if a bright enough light, in our world is shown upon them they give off a 'skeleton'? look.  Everything seems fine other wise, there's no jokes about body parts falling off or in that vain. I don't think it was a bad idea , there is some sense to the idea that this the after life and they have full skin and stuff.  The other ways the movie could have made the look work was have it be an alternate parallel  universe where ancient Egypt still runs the way it did or the fun part that that we think of, or time travel, time travel works. 

It's downtown Hartford 

        I will talk about how it looks with characters more soon, but the animation is good. They spent $12 million on this movie and doesn't look bad, they could have really cut some corners, but they didn't- or give the appearance.  Some would try to compare it to Pixar/ Disney or DreamWorks/Illumination which is a dumb thing to do. This is a smaller operation and not even a Warner Bros. made the movie affair, from the country of Spain. I'm not going to say wow it doesn't look like "Minions Rise of Gru" or "The Good Dinosaur" which had budgets higher than this movie, where you could make Mummies , Mummies 2: Electric Tomb-alo, Mummies 3: Return of the Mummies,  Sekhem: the Movie,  Mummies 4: The Last Pharoah: Part 1, Mummies 5: The Last Pharaoh: Part 2: Part 1 , Sekhem 2, and Mummies 6: The Last Pharaoh :Part 2 :The Final Beginning, if you used the same budget of this movie each time. (Really went long on that huh?) I think it looks good.  I don't think it would be bad to look at for the 88 minutes it goes. 

            Back to the story, Thut (voiced in English by Joe Thomas, whom the UK readers, hello! will know from "The Inbetweeners")  was the guy we saw at the start, he is now like those retired sports stars who lives off his past, he meets with fans and ladies want him. (Just like umm nevermind) It also helps that he's young....uhhhh ok. He's also afraid of commitment an doesn't want to marry, I wonder how that will end up in the - uh oh. The next character is his little brother, Sekhem (sek-him)(voiced by Santiago Winder, whom you may know as the voice of Noddy from "Noddy, Toyland Detective", random)  He plays the spunky younger brother role who looks up to his older brother.  It also looks like Thut takes takes care of his brother like a single parent. They never showed any parents, which also makes me wonder, did-can-their parents die?  There is mention of like Thut being afraid of being killed at times in the movie, so I'm a little confused.   Sekhem wants his brother to get back into racing because he thinks it's really cool and thinks his brother was really good at it.  But because of the INCENIDENT  mentioned earlier - he won't. 

That crash was pretty cool 

          Starting with Thut, I do like how the character is introduced, while he's being embraced by fans and ladies, and taking autographs, he does give a bit of confidence without feeling too arrogant or unlikeable, With his brother, he's happy to see him, and seems to take care of him.  You also see he's not as confident as he showed by remembering the fear of the bad incident. I like how he does put on a fake confidence or maybe it's a bit of it he had from before the bad thing, either way, it works. We see him be kind like helping an elderly lady across the street.  The story isn't really about having to change as a person because of being over arrogant or unlikable to being someone who isn't and is, but someone who is shaken by an event that was bad and feels kind of lost about who they are; I think they went a good direction. I'll do a bit more on him, later. 

Weren't you in Downton Abbey? 

         The third main character in this movie runs into Thut, literally. Their first interaction is brief.  She is the princess and even does that thing where she wants to be more than just the princess. This is Nefer, (voiced by Elanor Tomlinson in English, I'm going to mention she was in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging because I want to mention that. Her signing voice is Karina Pasian, who  is an American singer, and can speak multiple languages). Nefer gets a song , she sings that she's kind of tired of things being monotonous and wants to do more. Yes, one of those songs. No, it's a musical movie, but will have some music, but there's a reason for she wants to be a singer- but princesses can't do that.  I also kind of have to like that they decided that it wasn't just some random song, but that she was singing it and some others heard her singing, that was kind of funny. The other part of her plot is the plot she doesn't want to get married. I wonder who will get picked? 

She wants a whole new world.be part of our world... also is surprised to see you

         Her father , the pharaoh (voiced by Sean Bean, that's right Sean Bean!) tells his daughter that the phoenix bird with the help the goddess of love be picking her husband today. (That's helpful) Yes, they are doing a standard thing here where she doesn't want to, doesn't feel ready and wants things to move on.  The pharaoh seems to be a nice guy, but he also wants to keep tradition and hopes that his daughter will understand and want to keep tradition. Also, there's a stargate... what? 

I have a meeting some guy named Moses at 3pm 

        

            Sekhem is playing with a boomerang. (But wait a minute...how is)  This is the part where'd say that the mummy movie about living mummies that also have their normal skin and flesh and also can do pop music is being silly in having a boomerang, but (big but) no they did their homework. Ancient Egypt had boomerangs. Though not a really a children's toy, but the movie gets points for doing that, it's alright to have some fun too.  He's trying to throw it into a ringed statue and a lady opens a window at the same time throwing the boomerang off course, and hits the phoenix of love which lands where Skehem and Thut live.  Of course, you can see where this is going. 

This thing will help you get a mate, but not get channel 58. 

              Now that we have our three mummies and a pet croc of Skehem's named Croc, we can get to the characters' styling.  It is pretty basic, the people-mummies plus the livings are kind of basic there's that a lot that stands out for them. Except for the two henchmen they did make the people look different from each other to stand out.  When the movie enters the mummy world and goes to the children I can tell Sekhem out from the other kids.  Thut and Nefer don't look each other.  Humans in the living world don't look the same, and it works.   Also someone really wanted to make Thut and Nefer have an attractive look, so good for those character designers.  Croc is interesting as the only creature we really see in the film, it's a classic every animal acts like a dog thing, but he's cute and if this was a bigger movie there'd be Croc toys and plushies all over the place.  Of the mummy trio, Sekhem stands out the most in design, not just because he's a kid -whatever that means here-  though that make him the shortest, he's also bald minus the little side lock there.  I think if they had more budget or had a way to work in more expressions especially for him, it would have been even more interesting.   I can't say I feel they didn't put any though in the designs and the effort, again I think the movie works well with its limitation. 

How you do fellow, mummies

           You can see where part of the plot is going.  Nefer and Thut are arranged to be married.  Thut doesn't want to marry Nefer and she doesn't want to marry her. They have the clear goal of not wanting that. To be frank, the movie is not going really going to do anything of a surprise any different of where you might be expecting it to go. (Unless you were expecting something different.) It's a simple movie, simple doesn't mean bad, it means it's not going for high complexity. I do like they do at least add nuance a bit. I do wonder how different anything they say or do is different in the original Spanish.  Yes, Nefer has simple motivations she wants to be a singer and do that and that's fine. Thut finds out that if he goes against wishes of the god, he'll lose his eyes and tongue. (That's a bit much)  One more thing to um set up for other part of the plot is a ring (I don't mean on the phone, Santa Baby) that they give to Thut to hold until the wedding day. Which is kind of stupid thing to do, like why? Hold the thing until the day of the wedding. 

Here's your plot device, sir.

             Since that's coming up soon, I'm kind of sad that this whole movie won't be taking place in this strange version of whatever they are trying do here. The idea of ancient world that also things like old fashion phones, the ones where you hold it up to your mouth and speak with the ear piece on the side  held up to the ear. [ This thing]  You see kids playing on stone smart phone shaped things. It's kind of messy fun. There's a part where apparently some guys are called to make it night time. There's a lot of fun moving parts to this movie that I wish had more going on here.  I'll this here, this environment and still having Nefer and Thut get to know each other as they find ways to not get married and have Sekhem and Croc there doing stuff could have worked too, no need for a villain and etc. Oh well. 

          Good thing, the guards picked the right one, would have been odd if they thought it was him or Croc. 

        I do like Thut and Nefer's interactions and yeah you can kind of tell that it's written that way. It also could have been badly done. Thut works well in this because he's not some playboy or big shot acting character who is like "Hey I get to marry a Princess and be all rich and stuff";  He doesn't act the way they could have stock had him act. Nefer does point out that he's some chariot racer, but that's her way of trying to make sure the wedding doesn't happen and that she didn't have a good view of him when she thought he was just standing the road there, but she's more against this whole thing than being against him for being "beneath her or something". Their banter is kind of fun and they are at least likeable, we're not supposed to be annoyed by them so, good work? 

They look like people who just met... oh yeah that's right 

more after the jump

So Weird: Banglebye

So Weird  Disney 

            I'm back with another look at a random episode of the late 90's/ Early 2000's Disney Channel Original series, "So Weird". This time we are taking a dip with season 3.  Season 3 is the final season of the series. The main character, Fi, decides to traveling , as the actress ,Cara DeLizia, decided to leave the series. They replaced her with a family friend, Annie, Alexz Johnson)  joining instead. (Didn't even do the Ben 10 route, of making Annie a cousin)  Season 3 also was noted for toning the show down from it's first two seasons.   

      The episode we look at today is season 3, episode 6 called "Banglebye" 

         The episode has Molly, Fi and Jack's mom, along with Jack, Clu, Carey, Irene, and Ned are in a town as Molly is speaking to a school, about music stuff , I guess.  Annie notices the kids at the middle school are seemingly acting very nice and respectful- unlike kids. Jack, Clu, and Carey notice later that the kids in the town aren't very acting like kids.  Some boys let Clu score a free goal in soccer. The place where group is staying, the owner's son , Kenny is playing a video game called Bangle Bye (roll credits!) The game seems to be powerful, when Clu and Jack play it , the next morning they are wearing shirts with ties, and acting like what I think yuppies acted like.  

Is he drinking both orange juice and tea? / Copyright Disney 

    

            This show is good at making it feel very creepy. It's also funny. It's kind of noticeable how much the episode like even about 10 minutes in has very much lacked having Annie.  But she does come up to the plot when Annie finds a remote that controls a plane and decides to fly it.  It lands in the yard of the neighbors. The man and woman that Clue and Jack saw earlier. The man isn't very happy that it did, because he's worried about his wife. (Gee, I wonder who is behind the video game?) 

Get out of here , Dennis, Mr. Wilson is ticked! / Copyright Disney 

            Annie begins to suspect that the video game is what made Clu and Jack. She finds a store with Carey that's selling the video game. The guy at the store, the same guy from before, is adamite that she and Carey take a game, it's even free.  (not even sure how he's supposed to make money, bros)  She does get tempted and it cuts to the next day, and Annie seems to be acting differently, but she is still normal and talking to the angry man from the day before. 

I brought you cookies to kill the garden with/ Copyright Disney 

        She talks to the woman who remarks that children kept running her garden, then they just stopped.  The ends up visiting the store where the game was being sold, which wasn't locked, hmm anyway, she and Carey see the man making the video game by adding hypnotism,  He easily gives the reason why he made this game, because he wants kids to be well behaved.  He blames his wife's heart attack on children.  He used to be a hypnotist.   

Oh no! I've been caught making pirated copies of Mariah Carey's Glitter Album/ Copyright Disney

              I like here how the man's intentions - while not the right idea, weren't evil, but misplaced. He wanted his wife to be comfortable. He seems to know it was wrong, and doesn't even really go after Annie and Carrey to force them to be hypnotized. Annie talks to him and tries convince but says he can't un do it.  Until, Carey says try to make a game 2. (sequel fun) 

   

            Man makes games faster than you can even get them now. His new game works and undoes the hypnotism. Jack and Clu are back to normal.  The other kids are back to normal again, and the woman's garden is back to being destroyed.  The woman seems to be back to moving around and gardening. 

             Yeah, it's a very light toned episode.  It still is kind of unsettling how Clu and Jack act, but it doesn't feel like anyone was in any danger, and the person who was behind it wasn't really a nefarious dark evil. It's not a bad episode, it's light, and straight forward though. It is lacking some bite that could truly have made it it feel more tense and a bit scary. I do like how they did kind of do something to make one think that Annie did play the game and got all hypnotized, and didn't drag it out too long to find out what happened.   

          It's probably a weaker installment if you compare to an episode from seasons 1 or 2, but it's not bad. There's some fun here. 

        That's it for now, tune in next time when we start a store and start giving away Nintendo DS's .