Can you ever really get enough of Steven Spielberg’s 1984 summer release Gremlins? Many things come to mind about this movie: the fact it was released in June but clearly was a Christmas movie, the memorable Gizmo theme by Jerry Goldsmith that we got to play in junior high band, appearances by Hoyt Axton, Keye Luke (Kung Fu, Star Trek and 200 other TV appearances), Corey Feldman, and Phoebe Cates, and the great Mogwai creatures created by special effects Academy Award winner Chris Walas.
And Gizmo. And Stripe. And the Rules.
Like every other classic movie from the past few decades, Funko is releasing a line of Kenner-style action figures for Gremlins in their ReAction line. Funko seems to be getting better and better with each new series of sculpts. Just compare the original Alien and Firefly figures to the 2015 figures discussed here at borg.com this year and the improvements in the artistry of these figures is obvious. That great Christmas Gizmo figure looks like it could be a sell-out for a stocking stuffer this Christmas.
Funko released images of the final sculpts and packaging and all can be pre-ordered now from online superstore Entertainment Earth. Just click on the photos above to see more details about the figures at the store’s website.
Did you miss out on San Diego Comic-Con this year? Taking the sting out of missing the big annual show, both Gentle Giant and Entertainment Earth are making their SDCC 2014 exclusives available to everyone. Although a few items have already sold out, there are plenty of great busts and action figures that will provide something of interest for every sci-fi, superhero, and fantasy fan. Click on any image above or below to go to the store listing for prices and availability.
Number One on our list of the coolest action figures of the year is the above variant Predator figure from Funko’s ReAction retro-action figure line. We’ve seen one of these up close and not only is this a nicely constructed figure with great packaging, it looks like the character cloaked in the film and it comes with green blood splatter applied to the figure and even the box–splatter that was part of the plot of the movie and not just a sales gimmick. This figure sold out fast, but don’t worry, you can pre-order now for its re-release. After the break check out several variant retro-Kenner figures only available for a limited time, including Firefly’s Jayne Cobb and his famous hat, a Malcolm Reynolds with Browncoat. Even new figures from The Twilight Zone of William Shatner and Burgess Meredith!
The high point of the Gentle Giant exclusives is this great Rocket Raccoon bust that we previewed earlier at borg.com. You can just hear Rocket ranting about something, gritting his teeth as he rescues the Guardians of the Galaxy team.
For retro fans, Gentle Giant has three other SDCC exclusives for sale. Check out this two-foot tall Alien figure–inspired by the unreleased Kenner figure from the 1980s:
And how about the latest in Gentle Giant’s line of jumbo-sized classic Kenner Star Wars action figures, one of Kenner’s best, the AT-AT Driver from The Empire Strikes Back:
Funko’s classic Kenner style 3 and 3/4-inch ReAction series of action figures are sure to be a big focus at Sunday’s annual Toy Fair in New York, and we have a first look at the sculpts and packaging courtesy of Entertainment Earth. We revealed the new Predator, Terminator, Escape from New York, Rocketeer, and The Nightmare Before Christmas figures here at borg.com last week, and we couldn’t be more excited about the rest of the line of 1980s style action figures.
The rest of the figures include Back to the Future, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Pulp Fiction, the Universal Monsters, Horror Classics, Goonies, and The Crow.
Some highlights can be found in the Firefly line. Zoe’s sculpt looks particularly well done, Wash comes with his toy dinosaurs, and Jayne comes with his favorite weapon: Vera. Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer comes with his guitar. Hellraiser’s Pinhead comes with a tiny puzzle cube. And Bruce Willis finally gets an action figure–his Pulp Fiction character is wearing his dad’s watch from the film. Several characters are represented in the Pulp Fiction line, but no Christopher Walken, yet. There’s no Xander from Buffy, either, or Josh Brolin’s character from Goonies, or a River or Simon for the Firefly line.
Each of these can be pre-ordered from Entertainment Earth at the early bird prices by clicking on the images below. We’re betting this first line will be a big success and that Funko will move on to expand these lines and add more licensed properties in the future. Check out these great series:
Funko toys figured out the secret to the collectible action figure, and their new line of licensed action figures that launched last month with the Alien line is beginning to take shape. Entertainment Earth has just released photos of the action figure sculpts and cards for several of their new series: Escape from New York, Predator, Terminator, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and The Rocketeer. The action figures begin shipping in April, and you can pre-order them now. Keep checking back here at borg.com as we reveal the new sculpts and cards for other series in the line, including Back to the Future, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Universal Studios Classic Monsters, Firefly, Goonies, Pulp Fiction, Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, Halloween, and The Crow. It’s the biggest ever mass release of multiple franchise action figures. And all of the first line of figures are available for pre-order now.
The new retro ReAction figures from Funko are stylized as 3 3/4-inch figures from the “golden age” of action figures, with approximately five points of articulation, accessories, and period-authentic blister card packaging. These intentionally are not photo-real images like you might find in modern action figure lines.
Funko figured out that classic packaging and nostalgia are what many fans are after, not a picture-perfect sculpt. Compare the original 1970s Star Wars action figure line–the clear inspiration for the new ReAction line–to the 1980s updated Star Wars line or even the current Star Wars Black Series line that has been updated yet again. If you still prefer the 1970s figures to today’s series, then the new ReAction line is for you. Here is an early look at a few of the figures:
We first mentioned the ReAction line here at borg.com back in November with news of the Alien release. Since then they released the full Alien series and they look great, including these:
Fantasy movies have been around since the beginning of cinema itself. The earliest filmmakers themselves were magicians of sorts, and what better way to dazzle an audience than show them something amazing and… unbelievable. But it’s not until the last ten or so years that fantasy was fully realized, rich and realistic, with classic stories finally matching the imaginations of decades of readers. There are of course exceptions. Big ones even. Like The Wizard of Oz. Only The Lord of the Rings trilogy gives The Wizard of Oz a run for its money, but does any single LOTR film compare to the one, classic Oz? I think that film still holds up today against any other film made since.
This is the first of four articles where each of the borg.com writers discusses their “ten favorite fantasy films” as we did with our favorite Halloween films last fall. Note this is a favorites vs. a “best of” list. We may have to do a “best of” list later, but “best of” lists are everywhere and often look exactly alike. When you’re discussing “favorite fantasy films” as opposed to “the best” you are bound to see some of the best films straddle both lists. But “favorites” lists allows you to fold in guilty pleasures, and maybe those films that, as quality is concerned, don’t hold their own to today’s audiences, considered from a more objective standard. Hopefully you can pick up a fantasy film or two you either haven’t heard of or haven’t seen yet.
What is fantasy? Our criteria was that there should be some element of magic in the film, and that the film wouldn’t better fit in another genre list like sci-fi or horror, etc.
Exclusions
My list excludes several genre films that could arguably fall into a fantasy list. I’ll save holiday fantasies like Elf and Miracle on 34th Street for another day. I also did not include superhero movies or action/adventure films, which I see as their own separate genres, or historical fiction, like Braveheart, despite that film often topping fantasy genre lists. Finally, I have not included movies that are also predominantly science fiction, otherwise the “greatest space fantasy of all time”–Star Wars, would be on the list. So my goal is including only “plain old classic fantasy movies.”
Honorable Mentions that made nobody’s Top 10
Because you can’t just list your top ten (why leave it at that?) I want to mention a few films that would have made the list before the advent of modern big fantasy films. Jim Henson’s Dark Crystal stood by itself for a time as real, incredible fantasy, with strange creatures and places. This film, and the strange Labyrinth, were the kind of romping fantasy that seemed to skip by an entire generation of baby boomers. Goonies is sure to make a favorites list for me but I am not sure there is any magic there to technically merit placing on a fantasy list. Great acting by Dennis Quaid and a great dragon voiced by Sean Connery made Dragonhearta solid fantasy film that was easy to watch over and over, and City of Ember and the better than average Disney film The Sorceror’s Apprentice with Nicholas Cage are newer fantasy films that I liked a lot but haven’t re-watched enough to have it make my list–yet. I’d watch any of those films again today. It’s the “over and over again watching” that I looked toward to finally nail down the order of my top ten. So here it is, from 10 to my current favorite at the number one spot:
10. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. What defines fantasy as a genre is the presence of the magical or supernatural. Captain Jack Sparrow is a dead pirate captain, like the ghost pirate we loved in Scooby Doo, and what Lord of the Rings: Return of the King revealed to be that production’s coolest creation, the brilliantly executed army of the dead. From a completely over-the-top but cool performance by Johnny Depp to a fun voyage, a great ship, and a whole stew of solid actors, Pirates is fun fantasy in a historical setting, with a rousing soundtrack by Klaus Badelt that will stick in your head long after the credits have rolled.
9. Alice in Wonderland. I’ve never been much of a fan of Tim Burton’s unique style, until I was blown away by his take on this classic story. Burton was born to create Wonderland for movie audiences. Johnny Depp is completely mad as the Hatter, Anne Hathaway perfectly cast as the White Queen, and Helena Bonham Carter vile and insane as the Red Queen. They also went all out with voice work for the digital characters with Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Imelda Staunton, Christopher Lee, and Michael Gough all supplying great characterization. Beyond stunning visuals and sets, the story masterfully blends Alice in Wonderland with other works of Lewis Carroll as if they always belonged together. Burton’s audacity pays off and Alice can be watched again and again, each time finding incredible nuances. Burton joined Peter Jackson and Victor Fleming in an exclusive club of masters of the most classic of fantasy books to make it to screen.
8. Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. This movie was written and created to get it into theaters as quickly as possible, in only a matter of literally weeks. So how can such a thrown-together film stand the test of time? I give a lot of credit to Kevin Costner as a believably viable, yet oafish and sincere Robin. His merry men are all well cast. And we got to see Alan Rickman as the most classic of villains, playing the role of the Sheriff of Nottingham. One of the best surprise endings gives us Sean Connery as we’d like to see him in an entire feature-length role (The achingly, poorly cast First Knight didn’t cut it, unfortunately). Who cares if the cast isn’t British and their costumes don’t make much sense? OK, this wouldn’t make any “best of” list, but I love watching it whenever it is on TV so it belongs right here. And it also has a great soundtrack by Michael Kamen.
7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In one sense, taking away the last three Harry Potter films, which to me are lesser works, the first five all sort of merge together–except for the story of Azkaban. Professor Lupin is probably the best of Harry’s professors, and his greatest role model is Sirius Black. Of all the Harry Potter films this is the only one I will stop and watch again. It’s a standout film in the biggest mega-fantasy franchise ever. Here you have cool tools of fantasy like the Marauder’s Map and Hermione’s time-turner. And the Dementors are rivaled in their quiet dark creepiness only by the Nazgul from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. And although there are some minor story problems involving the time-turner and the killing of an innocent with little commentary, the digital realization of a Hippogriff named Buckbeak becomes one of the best executed fantasy animals ever. John Williams was able to make a throughly creepy mood with his darkest (and final) Harry Potter soundtrack here.
6. Field of Dreams. “If you build it, he will come.” “It’s not heaven, it’s Iowa.” Not only did Field of Dreams give us some of the best catch phrases ever, it got people who don’t like baseball to like baseball (me included). Of all the ten movies on my list, Field of Dreams may be the most transformatively magical, and possibly the most unique because it is so off-the-wall. How did anyone sell this as a movie? Ghostly baseball players coming out of a cornfield to get in another game of baseball? The one-two punch of Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones (and Burt Lancaster!) put this film up with Jaws as a film that you can’t walk away from once you start watching it, even for the 100th time.
5. The Jungle Book. Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 book of stories called The Jungle Book included the story of Mowgli, and that story comes alive in a very wonderful way in 1967’s Disney animated movie. Mowgli’s life is the ultimate in escapes from reality for young viewers. Who wouldn’t want to be raised by wolves? Who wouldn’t want a giant friend who was a bear, and a wise advisor who is a black panther? The music made the simply detailed animation more frolicking and fun. And even the sinister villain, the tiger Shere Khan, need not meet his end in this film in order to round out a well told story of friendship, manipulation, and trust. And the hypnotic Kaa remains unmatched as the clever manipulator until we meet Wormtongue in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. What’s the best of the three movies of Middle Earth? My hope is one of the two movies being made right now into The Hobbit series. I have issues with both Fellowship of the Ring and even more issues with The Return of the King, but it all amounts to nitpicking. As a series, it is the best fantasy series ever. As stand alone film, The Two Towers makes my list for the same reason The Empire Strikes Back would trump the other Star Wars films. Introductions of incredible places, like Rohan. And where my eyebrows wrinkled at killing off Gandalf the White in Fellowship of the Ring to only bring him back with a different name, Gandalf the Grey knows how to lead an army into battle at Helm’s Deep. My favorite character of the series gets a full story arc here–the classically regal and noble yet flawed Theoden King, leader of Rohan. The brother of the frustrating Boromir is introduced as David Wenham’s Faramir, who both kidnaps and then frees the traveling Hobbits. Merry and Pippin recruit the help of the awesome Ents–talking, walking trees that march into battle to protect what is theirs (also seen in The Wizard of Oz). Although the main journey of Frodo and Sam and Gollum finds them moving from point B to point C in this installment, the real adventure is what happens to the other six remaining members of the Fellowship. Whereas at the end of Return of the King the several denouements had me cheering for Gollum, in The Two Towers the excitement and pacing was just right, leaving audiences hungry for more at the end.
3. The Muppet Movie. A perfectly magical film. Jim Henson can’t be overstated as sitting among the kings of creating the fantastical. The Muppets had already been known to us through The Muppet Show, yet this movie brought laugh out loud humor to a fully realized classic hero’s journey–a drive from the East Coast to Hollywood. With a frog and a pig and a bear and a dog and what the heck are all those other guys like Beaker and Animal and …? Not since It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World had Hollywood comic actors united behind a single important film with too many cameos to count, and all brilliantly funny. I like all the Muppet movies but this remains my favorite. We don’t analyze it but Henson did the unimaginable by making fabric characters as real as any human in any film and without the realism required by all other fantasy films of make-believe characters. Instead it just has a lot of honesty and heart, to make this movie beloved by audiences for generations to come.
2. The Wizard of Oz. I have likely seen only Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, the Star Trek films, and Jaws more times than The Wizard of Oz over the years. Before video tape and DVDs I remember watching once a year on a Sunday night when The Wizard of Oz was re-broadcast, waiting to watch closely again to see how they changed from a black and white Kansas farm to the technicolor land of Oz. Along with The Jungle Book, I watched this film as a young kid (unlike 8 other films on this list that came much later) and saw first-hand what magic in fantasy was all about. So many elements make this movie work, many from the source story by L. Frank Baum, like the long journey leading back home. A giant village of extras with the Munchkins. Crazy scary flying monkeys and arguably the best villain ever filmed in both the Wicked Witch of the West and the equally evil Miss Gulch. Good costumes from 1939 meant we didn’t need CGI or animation–the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion are all believable and real. And of course the soundtrack and songs are unmatched and memorable, led by a perfect performance by the young Judy Garland. The Wizard of Oz is the Citizen Kane of the fantasy genre.
1. The Golden Compass. A perfect, elaborate fantasy story in an incredible, new parallel universe of Earth. A perfect cast. Beautiful, unreal sets. Historically inspired costumes that span different worlds. Special effects that merge reality and fantasy seamlessly. An often overlooked brilliant fantasy masterwork. When I first saw this I instantly thought this was the finest, most enjoyable fantasy film I’d ever seen. If all steampunk was this good I would be a true believer. Look at the cast: A stately Daniel Craig’s Lord Asriel, a beautifully striking but sinister Nicole Kidman’s Ms. Coulter, the perfect helpers along the voyage in Sam Elliot’s Lee Scoresby and Eva Green’s Serafina, smaller roles with gravitas by Derek Jacobi and Christopher Lee, and stellar voiceovers by Kathy Bates, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Ian McKellen. The design work is lavish with a textbook fantasy component talisman in the magical alethiometer, animals that share your journey and wear armor into battle with you. Gyptians! Flying witches with bows and arrows. A cool airship. A big, exciting ride. What more could anyone want?
One big element I see across my list? Talking animals (and other things that don’t normally talk like trees and cornfields and dead people) are in 9 of my picks. Also, I must like Christopher Lee and Alan Rickman who show up in three films, and Johnny Depp, Ian McKellen, and Kevin Costner show up in two films. Tomorrow… come back for day two of our favorite fantasy films and click on the Comments to let us know your favorites.
Back in June, Super 8 was in theaters and Jason McClain discussed it here and noted the split in the film between the focus on the kids’ story vs. the focus on the adults. I didn’t see this one in the theater and after viewing on video I wish I had, but only for the spectacular train crash. Other than that, the film makes a great rental. For me, this film was a cross between Goonies,Cloverfield,E.T., the Extraterrestrial, and Close Encounter of the Third Kind. I found myself viewing this and questioning whether this was more of a J.J. Abrams movie or more of a Steven Spielberg movie. And I found it to be a lot of fun.
I agree with Jason’s review, that this could have been a film focusing totally on the kids’ story—kids trying to make a zombie film. Joel Courtney in the lead role, in his first film appearance, was cast perfectly as Joe Lamb—as every little kid who doesn’t get into trouble, tries to do the right thing, tries to be friends to everyone. The film inside the film didn’t need to be a zombie film, but zombies was as good a subject as any, and something the director could use because of the humor zombie make-up adds to the picture. And maybe because the film also wants to be a monster movie of the alien variety.
I also agree with Jason that you could cut all the adult themes and probably end up with a better picture. I find it puzzling that every film about differing genres that includes kids must have a one-parent family at the core. It used to be that all movies had two parents and two kids, and I understand over time why the change to more diverse families makes sense. But I can’t remember the last time a two adult, couple of kids family was pictured on film. They exist in real life so I’m not sure what the draw is for the barrage of broken families. You’d think Hollywood would mix it up a little. I expect filmmakers think it gives the film some weight. I usually find dwelling on family in this kind of film unnecessary and irrelevant to the plot–the father-son and father-daughter reunion pieces of the film here included.
But back to the good parts. The themes of young teens mimic the superb, classic kid film Goonies so much you could draw parallels through the whole movie. Young boys’ crushes on the older girl. Rescuing a friend. The desire for adventure and the decision to go off and “just do it.” The same themes were also addressed more seriously in Stephen King’s Stand By Me and less so in E.T., the Extraterrestrial. If Goonies was better at being a kids’ film it was probably because the adults only played the enemies and barely served another purpose in the plot. After all, in the context of a fictional adventure film, why not play into that natural tension between parents and kids? In E.T., the adults were primarily the enemies, too. In Stand By Me, again, no parents, just kids being kids. The change-up is Close Encounters—where the little boy in the film is kidnapped by the aliens. But even there the little kid parallels the real little kid story in the film–the little boy trying to get out, trapped inside the lead character played by Richard Dreyfuss. Close Encounters is the ultimate kids film about grown-ups. Dreyfuss wants to believe in aliens every bit as much as Elliott and Gerty in E.T. The kids in Super 8 aren’t longing for this kind of connection, they just want to be the kids they are.
As a “horror-light” film, viewers will see similarities to the alien/monster pursuit in Cloverfield, and the alien/monster images from Cowboys & Aliens. I thought this was a fun genre-bending exercise and it worked better here than Cowboys & Aliens but not as well as in Cloverfield. I include Cloverfield in the discussion here because of the similar vibe throughout the last half of the movie, undoubtedly based on Abrams participation in both productions.
Super 8 should be looked back on later as a big film for Abrams. Where Star Trek 2009 was J.J. Abrams’ big-budget sci-fi feature, Cloverfield was his Blair Witch-type horror film, and Mission Impossible III was his post-Alias spy movie, Super 8 is Abrams’ take on Spielberg–it’s his Spielberg homage of sorts. I expect to see a boxed DVD set coming—Close Encounters (directed by Spielberg), then E.T. (directed by Spielberg), Goonies (written by Spielberg), War of the Worlds (directed by Spielberg) and then Super 8 (produced by Spielberg). Not so much a set of coming-of-age films as a set of solid kids-being-kids films. Although written and directed by Abrams, anyone would believe it was a Spielberg creation, were it written and directed by Spielberg. Looking back on Abrams’ short list of films, it’s as if Abrams is a director mimicking the style of others. As style goes, he certainly doesn’t have an established niche yet. The only exception is those lousy lens flares he can’t seem to avoid. You have to wonder if he sees something in those glares we don’t see, as we are blinded multiple times mid-film. But it seems to be his signature. A lens flare is even in his poster for the film shown above. Bizarre.
If you pulled Goonies out of our fictitious boxed set, you have a nice series of alien films—Close Encounters, about meeting aliens, E.T. about befriending aliens, Super 8, about fearing aliens, although you have to empathize with the alien in Super 8, as with past Spielberg aliens, and then War of the Worlds at the other end of the spectrum opposite E.T., where the aliens are entirely and unquestionably our enemy.
Team Fanning also follows through again with a gaggle of teen actresses who only seem to get better with each new sibling to take the stage. Here, Elle Fanning plays the tough teen with a chip on her shoulder, a role done before several times in films, but usually by male characters played by the likes of like Heath Ledger or Matt Dillon. In one scene she switches from playing a kid character to playing an actress practicing for a scene to be filmed on the Super 8 camera, and the switch is as well done as you could hope for with any performer. Ryan Lee in a small role as Joe’s friend Cary was a notable stand-out, playing the future pyromaniac who looks like a mini-Tom Petty. The rest of the characters are a motley mix of typical honest, good, nerdy kids.
Reflecting back on the films about kids mentioned above, I have a note for the current onslaught of child actors, especially those playing lanky, skinny, fat, odd, etc. kids: Just check out what happened to the child actors in the above films. Drew Barrymore who was Gerty in E.T. is now a Cover Girl model and was a Charlie’s Angel. The chubby kid, Jerry O’ Connell, in Stand By Me ended up as the leading man-looking guy who starred in Sliders and several later series. Jeff Cohen who played Chunk in Goonies became an L.A. lawyer. Sean Astin who played the lead in Goonies ended up as the beloved Samwise Gamgee in Lord of the Rings. And the oldest teen in Goonies played by Josh Brolin, was nominated for an Academy Award. My point? Awkward teens take note: Life gets better. The old child actor’s curse doesn’t exist anymore.
As science fiction goes, Super 8 stands up as a good film, as a horror film it’s a little light, as an adventure film it’s better than good, but as a film about kids, Super 8 is a solid, entertaining picture that will keep the attention of viewers of any age.
