Childhood Revisited - Transformers (G1)

I feel harsh appraising this one after all this time. I can't really compare a cartoon designed to advertise toy ranges to a film but as a kid this was essential viewing so it warrants a rewatch. Though incidentally with the exception of the Optimus Prime Toy below I didn't actually have any of the toys of the key characters, I recall a micro machines version of the "Aerialbots" and I think one of the "Combaticons" but generally it was about enjoying the stories for what they were. Incidentally due to a kerfuffle with Play.com (why do they hate me) I'm going to stop just before the movie and stick with the more Earth focussed series'.

Okay so Season one started off with a three episode special detailing the basics of the plot which were a civil war between Autobots and Decepticons on a dying planet, the Autobots fleeing to another world and crashing eons ago on Earth, finding Earth based vehicles to disguise themselves as and the Decepticons trying to steal resources to fly home. In this case it introduces us to the core 6/7 on each side and builds up the story. One of the key elements of the first series is with the exception of the episodes with multiple parts it's typically cartoon. Bad guys scheme, good guys foil scheme, bad guys go back to plot revenge and repeat ad-nauseum. As the series seems to be touching the waters I don't think there's that much there which doesn't overtly reek of salesmenship such as the random decision to build robot dinosaurs. As the hapless Michael Bay says "what use is disguising yourself as a robot dinosaur". That said everyone loves Grimlock. Probable highlight is War of the dinobots which shows Grimlock as slightly more than just a dumb brute, far more like he is in the comic books. Sadly in later years he reverts to little more than a comic figure.

Season two starts off in much the same way as the first with using that same core (primarily) and a couple of the later additions like the Constructicons (without wrecking ball testicles thank you Mr Bay...) but after the first dozen or so it begins to branch. What it does is start to expand the universe, alongside the typical salesman spiel we're now introduced to concepts like the super computer Vector Sigma which gave the transformers life and personalities and going back to when the war began and basically creating a more "real" universe. A lot of the new characters were introduced because of toys but some (Alpha Trion being the most important possibly) were also there to develop a real world. I do think a large part of it was down to the fact the movie was going to be worked so it makes more sense to try and develop a better plot. Especially when they made some of the decisions regarding key elements of the movie, got to admit, little Lanky was traumatised... Of course it wasn't all relevant plot building. Vector Sigma knows what they were thinking with the episode "Kremzeek".

As a product though how does it really hold up? In some cases it does look incredibly 80's and the number of animation and sound errors is shockingly high which shows how rushed some of it would be put together. Overall though it's not that bad to watch, 'er indoors actually watched this all for the first time as I was putting this all together for the sake of the blog and she was giggling sometimes at it and enjoyed watching through generally although I doubt she got why I dragged her to the cinema for the first Bay film like a giggling fanboy.

If you didn't enjoy it as a kid I don't think going back now is really going to change anything. I'm sure Hannah enjoyed the odd episode but I don't think she'd have sat through the lot if it hadn't been for the fact we were spending our evenings with nothing on television. For a nostalgic look it can be worth it but I think it is entirely down to getting it for a cheap price that you're happy with. It doesn't hold up great but I still think it looks and sounds a lot better then cartoons I'd caught since, not sure what that says about kids telly these days...

Childhood Revisited - Labyrinth

The first episode of a semi-regular feature now where I go back and re-watch things from my childhood and growing up and see how as an adult things have aged. Today comes from my little girl Sara who kindly lent us her DVD for a couple of days Jim Hensons' Labyrinth. For those who've never seen it the story is about a teenage girl called Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) who in quoting a line from her favourite play causes her baby brother Toby to be abducted on behalf of the Goblin King Jareth (David Bowie) and to win him back she must find her way through a large mazey type thing to his castle and confront Jareth to win him back. On the way plenty of peril and wacky Jim Henson characters.

I can't remember the first time I'd seen it, I'll assume it was on TV in around '87/'88 the first time and again when I was 13 for the Saturday matinee (miss the days when going to the cinema would cost just £1) with an ex-girlfriend though I'm sure I saw it between those two dates I'm sure I've not seen it since but I remember it as an old fashioned fairy story with some creepy moments and wierd and wonderful characters, but what do I see now?

Well for a start the soundtrack is still as good as I remembered it with some great songs (Magic Dance for Rock Band please?) though the score elements are very 80's with lots of big synth chords which could be very in your face but it's the songs which you'll remember from this sort of film anyway. Visually there was only one scene that especially looked dated and wrong. At some stage Sarah encounters "The Fireys" flame coloured creatures who had the ability to remove body parts willy-nilly and essentially were there to sing the song "Chilly Down" but due to the difficult nature of getting the effect of removing limbs to work it was filmed on a black screen and then refilmed with a backdrop but no puppets and merged via computermabob. An ambitious scene which looked off now, obviously understandable but only time I thought it looked "wrong".

Performances were fine, Jennifer Connelly (shocked to find only 14 at the time) was fine in the main role and carried the film well. Essentially she had to work on her own most of the time (thankfully it's the 80's and Henson. Now next to none of it would be practically done) and she did a good job for what it's worth. Opposite her Bowie didn't do too much bar the songs and I think Jareth is played in a campy villainous manner but it all works reasonably well. Something I noticed more now was the sexual tension between the two (part of this because of Bowies' tights and rather noticeable trouser snake (hypnotic)) which would've had another twist had they gone with the proposed Michael Jackson in the role! That said Jennifer was the wrong gender and too old for him (too soon?). The real stars though were the puppets, "Hoggle" was essentially the second lead and was superbly done and of course there's the typically individual looks of each other character.

In the end I still enjoyed it. The sense of menace wasn't the same and on DVD it felt brighter than I remember it being but it still did the job. Some of the childish perils ("The bog of eternal stench") were typically Henson, Python (screenplay written by Terry Jones) and certainly would still appeal to children. The songs were enjoyable, the characters memorable (Sir Didymus, the fox-terrier knight riding his english sheepdog steed Ambrosius still makes me laugh) and I'm glad it was made when it was and by the right people. Now, Labyrinth would be a highly CGI charged affair which would take away most of it's charm, nothing would've felt the same as all the practical stunts used in this and the interaction with the puppets would feel, almost flat. To me, watched with a family I can see this still has it and I hope that families will continue to enjoy it. Future Jr Lankys will certainly grow up learning to fear the "eternal stench" and look in terror at Barn Owls for generations!