I just saw the Spongebob Squarepants movie on DVD with my kids this weekend, and as anyone who’s alreasy seen it knows, it’s “framed” by a sequence of a pirate crew getting tickets (in a treasure chest), going to the theater and watching the movie itself.
The only other film I recall such a thing in was the Muppet Movie.
Also, in both cases, there was an interruption in the middle of the movie where we see the audience again for a bit.
Any other examples? And, in those other examples, did the movie get interrupted in the middle for an audience sequence?
I can think of three, offhand, and a possible fourth.
Mel Brooks’ BLAZING SADDLES has the villain Hedly LaMarr escape the Warner Brothers’ lot into Grauman’s Chinese Theater for the theatrical release of the movie, BLAZING SADDLES. But it happens near the end of the movie.
In GREMLINS 2, the movie film appears to break and snap in the middle of the film. A gremlin is responsible! A helpful Hulk Hogan emerges from the audience, dispatches the gremlin and the movie resumes.
THE LAST ACTION HERO’s more metaphysical sequences, the characters within-the-movie appear at a Hollywood movie premiere for THE LAST ACTION HERO.
There’s a scene in OUTBREAK where the path of a viral pathogen is shown being inhaled by lots of different people, including a movie theater… only I can’t remember if the movie is supposed to be OUTBREAK or not.
Blazing Saddles didn’t have it as a framing sequence - it was only present as a diversion near the end. Ditto Spaceballs - They use Spaceballs : The Video during the middle of the movie.
Let’s see… off the top of my head, the 30’s version of A Star Is Born was framed by shots of the first page, and last page of the script. Similar, at least.
The MST3K movie has Mike and the Bots sit through its own credits…
I seem to recall an old Warner Brothers cartoon (Roadrunner, perhaps) in which we break from the action to see two kids sitting in front of a television set watching (and critiquing) the cartoon.
There’s at least one other old Warner Brothers cartoon in which the cartoon is interrupted by someone in the audience (shown in silhouette) getting up and noisily excusing himself through an aisle. Finally a distracted Yosemite Sam (IIRC) turns his gun on the guy.
As I recall for Blazing Saddles… spoilers, by the way - Bart rides off into the sunset, does he not, well after the whole bit with him chasing Hedy (Hedley!) through the theater? I’ll have to watch it again just to make sure of the sequence of events now…
But even if the theatre bit is the last thing we see, it’s still just fourth-wall humor, and not a true framing device as described in the OP. Since the “framing” would have to start at the beginning.
As to your first, I can’t remember if it’s an actual part of the original cartoon, or if it was tacked on when that cartoon was later shown on TV as part of one of the various Bugs Bunny and Friends shows - either way, it’s available on the Golden Collection, Vol. 2.
Looney Tunes did the fourth-wall humor quite often. (“Is there a doctor in the house?” “I’m a doctor.” “Ehhhh… what’s up, Doc?”) Most memorably, to me, in Duck Amuck - the 1953? classic Daffy-starrer by Chuck Jones.
Not excatly but there is a horror film called Anquish that has something similar.
The move starts and it is going along and then it jumps to two girls watching the movie in a theatre. They have their own plot besides the one that is on the screen.
The recent Cole Porter De-Lovely started out with a “watching the play” framing device, which switched to a “watching the movie” device when the Porters went to Hollywood.
Return of the Killer Tomatoes. I probably the Only non-lurker here who will admit to loving the Animated show based off of it. The movie is itself a movie being watched by a local afternoon movie host, and the viewers are simultainously people watching it at home on their VCR and local tv watchers.
CandidGamera. Bart shoots Hedley, and he and the Waco Kid go into the theater and sit among the audience with soda and popcorn and watch themselves onscreen ride off into the sunset. They don’t break the fourth wall at all.
This also occurs in THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN – a bit more convoluted way, with some of the audience and stage performers of the play about the Baron being part of the meta-narrative weaved by the Baron.
There’s Laurence Olivier’s version of Henry V. It starts out showing the play performed on a stage, then slowly moves to live action on a set and finally onto the fields of Agincourt, then slowly moves back to the stage again.
Well, I meant they don’t break the fourth wall during the sequence when they’re watching the movie IN the movie. Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder stay in character as Bart and the Waco Kid.
Those two examples aren’t breaking the fourth wall, though. Breaking the fourth wall means “directly addressing the audience” not “being self-aware that you’re in a fictional story and cracking jokes about it.”
After Bart takes himself hostage with his own gun and looks right at the audience and says, “They’re so dumb!” – that was breaking the fourth wall.
… Or it could be we’re both right, and I need to start looking up definitions BEFORE popping my mouth off! I’ll just slink off over here… don’t mind me.
Fair enough. Still subject to review when I have time though…
Your example is breaking the fourth wall, but so are mine. They’re just the subtler forms of the same thing. By demonstrating the character has awareness of their role in a movie, they completely recharacterize their actions - they’ve interacted with the audience, as sure as saying “Don’t worry folks - it’s just a movie.”
