Anime Hell 80s Night Returns to Eyesore

ANIME HELL 80s NIGHT is RETURNING to EYESORE CINEMA on AUGUST 3 at 8PM with a TRIPLE THREAT of vintage 1980s ANIME VIDEO MADNESS involving bad cops, extradimensional monsters, and a ridiculous high school student with a genius mouse friend. BE THERE, TORONTO

Monday morning horror

Nothing went according to plan.

The cartoons of 1982!

Travel back to a time when music, arcades and movies were at their hottest and animation was still treated like a second class citizen!










Technically this one's from '83 but showed up halfway during the last season, I'm sure it didn't help matters that they couldn't get "Bo" and "Luke" for this until the second season worth of episodes.


And there you have it, a waste of your time watching products of a wasted childhood!

SATURDAY SUPERCADE!!!

Put down your joysticks everybody, case Saturday morning is now in session!

MAX HEADROOM

The Original!

The Day After (1983)

Oh, wow. The whole thing.

OK, let me tell you a story about when this first aired.

In 1983 I was in 2nd~3rd grade. Yes, that makes me old. Shut up.

But anyway, this is the shadow that me and my generation grew up under. Sure, we had "tornado" drills all the time (growing up in Texas), but lining up the hallway and facing a wall, with your hands over the back of your neck, is just a way of making the bodies easier to count. Protecting your face was just a way of giving your folks something intact to kiss good-bye.

When this aired, I remember that all us kids had a PARTY. We all went over to someone's house and there was cake and ice-cream and games and we had a grand old time, even though it wasn't anyone's birthday. We thought this was just fine, but we didn't know any better. We were just kids.

What was really going on was all our parents (except the ones hosting the party) were at someone else's house, watching this made-for-TV movie. They were taping it and talking about it and deciding if us kids were going to get to see it and how they were going to talk about it.

And I remember that I didn't get to see it until some time much later.

One of my coworkers is from Ukraine and he told me this was the first American movie they got to see after the wall fell. I guess it's a kind of propaganda, a message of "If we had done this, they would have lost." I don't know how I feel about it now.

Anyway, set a little time aside for yourself to watch this. It's not good, per se, but it did help shape a generation. It might help you to understand why some of your older coworkers are a little antsy. You might want to talk about it with your parents or your kids. The message here seems more clear now than it was when I was a kid.

No one wins a war like this. Make sure it never comes to this.

Throwback Thursday

What's the bear doing in the woods? I'd rather the bear be in the woods than my backyard.

Kids' Writes (Nickelodeon, 1982)

Been a while since I posted here, well I found an oldie of my childhood I'm sure is completely forgotten by all. A rare series where submitted stories from children are interpreted by grown adults on a multi-purpose stage! From the heydays of the first cable network for kids!

Jumping (1984)

Enjoy a little short by Osamu Tezuka.

Grendel Grendel Grendel (1981)

Yes, I know I'm starting with part two. You can go back and watch the introduction if you like, but it doens't add anything to the flick.

Watching this, I think about all those guys who do impersonations and how no one does a Peter Ustinov. Pity that. Maybe Peter Serafinowicz has one hidden in his repertoire, but I've not heard it.

Alexander Stitt of Abra Cadabra fame is our animator here. The film is based on the book by John Gardner, which you probably had assigned to you if you were in AP English. There's ten parts total, several songs, and a strangely sad ending.

At the very least, it's in modern English and there's no Crispin Glover.

The Price of Life (1987)

Can you spare 40 minutes? It will be well spent.

The A-Team in Nederland (1984)

Can't Stop the Music (1980)

I have the sound track for this on vinyl. I used to listen to it all the time as a kid.



This is the most important song in the movie.



But this is on there too. It's a terrible movie. Someday, I'll do a blow-by-blow.

Brad Bird's "The Spirit"

The what-if's of animated brilliance that had yet to be noticed in 1980's Hollywood.

Another Stan Freberg product

Starring Stan Freberg's son, Donavan.



ELEPHANTS ARE STILL ENDANGERED. NOTHING AS CHANGED.



We all miss the Cold War, kiddo. That's where neo-reactionaries come from. And The X-Files.

There's also one from 1992, but the posted disabled embedding. Go check it out.

THE CHOCOLATE PANIC PICTURE SHOW (1985)

WARNING: EXTREME 80'S EXPERIMENTAL CHEESE!

Thunder of Gigantic Serpent (1988)

Enjoy the 80s direct to VHS giant monster classic complete with Greek subtitles!

Friendship is Beginning...

Just noticed 30 years ago, this came on the cathode ray tubes all across the country. Life was never the same since.

Brothers Quay

Yes, I admit it. I post some crazy-long videos here on the blog. I do that because we can't show these things when we do the show live.

On that note, here's some Brothers Quay I found while looking for cigar-box-guitar Christmas songs. Enjoy!

More...

Oooooooh Ahhhhhhh. I'm an absolute sucker for this kind of thing.



I actually had this on VHS for a while until some guy who slept on my couch for a month took it. In revenge, I got it on DVD when it came out.

I have no idea whose couch he's sleeping on now.



And here is the famous "The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer". You may ask who Jan Svankmajer is, but that's another post.

Amicus Productions

You know how much blood is in this movie? It will surprise you.

Amicus productions put out several horror anthology flicks, and we've got the last weekend of Horvent (my name for the Advent for Halloween) coming up. Maybe you'll have a party. Here are some movies I can suggest.

More...

I have no idea why the trailer is in black-and-white; the movie isn't.



Anything with David Warner in it is good. Except Time After Time.



See that little dance Christopher Lee does when the hand grabs him? I did that once. A gecko had run up my pant-leg.



BURGESS FREAKIN' MEREDITH. Nothing more need be said.



I like ending on Vincent Price. Sadly, this movie also features musical numbers and they're very 80s. BUT! Go about 3:00 in on this clip:



Seamless....