I’m trying to remember some movies that I saw at a very young age and haven’t seen since. You know how it is with childhood memories; they become more disjointed over time and you can only recall short bursts, the odd voice or memorable object, etc.
It’d be interesting to see how you guys get on with these:
I believe this is a children’s fantasy film along the lines of Labyrinth. All I can recall is a boat with a talking duck character that tells the child(ren) in the boat that they are infact floating on acid, not water. This duck creature then goes on to pluck a feather from himself and put it in the acid where it bubbles away to nothing.
I’m quite sure that this memory is part of the same film as 1. but you never know. A child can materialise any object he wishes and uses this ability to conjur a paint spraycan with which he sprays a robot. There’s also some sort of escape up a wall, and this child keeps making bricks slide out from the wall one by one to use as footholds.
This is a sort of sci-fi film set in the present. It opens with a robot working in a field that picks caterpillars off plants and mushes them up. There are also ‘evil’ robot spiders that appear at various points, including some sort of scary finale in a construction elevator. There are some weird zoomy sequences in an alley where a character is trying to evade what seems like heat-seeking bullets.
(I’m not sure if the following scene is in the same film as 3.) There’s also a part where the main characters have to evade remote controlled cars with bombs on them while in traffic. I can vivdly picture two cars speeding adjacently with the opposing front doors open and the main characters transferring from one car to the other in order to avoid these bombs.
A film revolving around some kind of wacky inventor. He creates a car that splits completely in half lengthwise. He gets involved in some heist/con/robbery and, along with his partner(s), requires an ice cream van. They are sitting in traffic next to the police and a policeman asks for ice cream. The criminals say that they’ve run out, obviously feeling very tense and nervous.
A young girl is walking up/down a stair case that has little alcoves in the adjacent wall, each containing some scary heads, faces or masks. She might be imprisoned at a witch’s house or something along those lines but I’m not too sure.
Apologies for any vagueness and thanks to any movie buffs who can guess what I am talking about!
If anyone wants to hijack the thread with their own requests, feel free.
I’m 21 (born in '84), which puts these films in the 80s or early 90s. Naturally, due to the wonders of home video technology, one or two might be a bit older.
Binarydrone: Thanks a lot. Having checked IMDB, Runaway appears a match. Wow, Tom Selleck, I’d never have guessed. Typical trashy 80s sci-fi, yep, that sounds exactly right.
#4 sounds familiar. Wasn’t there a scene where the friend asked the inventor what one of his inventions does, and the wacky inventors says “that’s the beauty of it! It doesn’t DO anything!”?
#4 is Malcolm, an Australian film starring Colin Friels as a slow-witted inventor who loves trams. It’s a charming sweet film. It does have remote control car racing around with cameras and (I think) bombs so that’s probably also #3a.
#2 is Neverending Story II. It’s when Bastian lands in the Silver City and is greeted Wimbly, a bird-like creature, who is supposed to persuade Bastian to make wishes, thereby advancing the evil designs of some wicked witchy woman.
Im pretty certain this is “Never Ending Story 2.” The sea of acid surrounds some “great city” and its explained that the city is made of silver (?) and the acid keeps it shiny.
Not sure, but it sounds a little like the same movie.
Definitly “Runaway” (You rock Binarydrone )
Once again, not sure. Sorry
Sounds very similar to “Return to OZ,” the very underrated sequal of Wizard of Oz.* The evil witch stole the heads of some dancers and now treates them as show would dresses, a different head for different moods.
Sorry about #'s 2 and 3
*I really can’t say enough good things about “Return to Oz.” As I understand it, it was a much more faithfull adaptation of the books then “Wizard.” Having never read the books all I can say is take “Wizard,” keep the magic and sense of wonderment but turn the creepyness WAAAAAY up…just mention “wheelers” to anybody who has seen “Return” and watch them squirm.
So pretty much all that’s uncertain is #2, although it’s quite possible that it’s also The Neverending Story II? That the kid conjuring up spraypaint and bricks is actually this Bastian kid wishing for spraypaint and bricks?
fallapart: now that you mention Oz, it’s clicked in my head that it was infact some Oz story. Funny how it all seems obvious after someone triggers a memory. Same with Malcolm, I can really remember the trams now that they have been mentioned. Kudos for getting Return To Oz from such a short and vague description.
The timeframe for these movies, 1984-1990, pretty much nails down perfectly the age for the feelings of horror and wonderment, and of course the nostalgia I’m feeling now.
Dude. “Runaway” is available on Netflix. I’m ready to revel in its awfulness, having bumped it immediately to #2 on the list (just behind “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.”
Return To Oz popped into my mind too, and I agree with everything said here. It’s a wonderful film!
Here’s an image of Dorothy with a couple of Mombi’s heads in their glass cases.
This site (http://www.returntoozthemovie.com/) has tons of pictures from the movie. I haven’t looked through them all yet, but on page 12 of Image Gallery > The Master Photo Album > The Master Gallery, Image 144, is another nice picture of more of the heads. Page 18, Image 206 is another one. Page 21, Image 247 is yet another one.
Wow, this is a great web site! The previous paragraph took me a half-hour to write because I kept bopping around to various pages of the web site, including listening to extracts of the soundtrack. God I love Return to Oz! We saw it in the theater when it was first released, and even though I was a grown-up then, I thought it was magical. I immediately wanted to see it again. I knew it would have its day, and the time is coming ever closer that it will be declared a classic. One of the problems holding it back is that all the idiotic critics who trashed it because they failed to judge it on its own terms and in regard to the books, are too embarrassed or stubborn to watch it again and admit how wrong they were.
I never saw this movie, and all I remember is one scene from a preview.
It’s from the early 80’s, probably '83 or early '84. The preview showed a hallucinogenic scene in which a group of kids wearing Groucho Marx glasses with the fake nose and mustache are restrained in either chairs or desks undergoing continuous electrical shocks. There is a middle-aged man with a mustache in the center harrassing and verbally abusing them at the top of his lungs as they squirm with pitiful expressions on their faces. Totally weird scene. The reviewer said that it was meant to be a comedy, but he couldn’t see it. Looking at the scene, neither could I.
