Movie: (1961) When Danish scientists discover a piece of an ancient dinosaur, they dig it up and inadvertantly bring it back to life.
Opening: Jonah Heston, a space trucker/rebellious Renaissance man, returning to Gizmonic Institute with a load of meteors, receives a phony distress call from Moon Base 13 on the dark side of the moon. Jettisoning his load, he lands and is immediately captured and brought to the underground lair of Kinga Forrester, daughter of Clayton Forrester, granddaughter of Pearl Forrester. With her is her chief henchman, who calls himself TV’s Son of TV’s Frank, but whom everyone just calls Max. Kinga announces that she is restarting her family’s greatest experiment, Mystery Science Theater 3000
Intro: Jonah introduces Tom and Crow and demonstrates Gypsy’s new voice and flying rig. Also Tom can FLYYYY … but only in theater. Crow wants an improvement. Kinga introduces herself, Max does as well, and then explains the premise. Jonah shows off his invention: a bubble fan. Kinga introduces the movie
Segment 1: Jonah & the bots sing “Every Country Has a Monster”
Segment 2: Tom Servo clones himself
Segment 3: Jonah reads letters
Closing: Jonah creates a tiny Copenhagen for Gypsy to destroy; Kinga is not impressed
Stinger: Petersen gets nutzoid
(53 votes, average: 3.79 out of 5)
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• The new door sequence, as near as I can tell is:
6—Laundry room
5—Bathroom
4—Kitchen
3— Bedroom
2—Office?
1—Workshop (aka “the fab lab”)
• For the record, MSTies had to wait 6,424 days since the debut of episode 1003- MERLIN’S SHOP OF MYSTICAL WONDERS for the arrival of season 11.
• The new lyrics to the theme song (please correct if I have something wrong:
Har Mar Superstar: In the not-too-distant future, Next Sunday A.D.
There was a guy named Jonah, Not too different from you or me
He worked at Gizmonic Institute, Just another mug in a yellow jump suit
A distress call came in for him at half past noon
That’s when an evil woman trapped him on the dark side of the moon.
[Kinga] I’ll send him cheesy movies, the worst I can find
He’ll have to sit and watch them all and I’ll monitor his mind
Now keep in mind that Jonah can’t control when the movies begin or end
So he’ll have to keep his sanity with the help of his robot friends
Cambot, Gypsy, Tom Servo Crowwww
[Har Mar Superstar] If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts
Just repeat to yourself: “It’s just a show, I should really just relax”
for Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Other thoughts and observations
“Turn down your lights (where applicable) returns. The previous episode to have was episode 402- THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, from June of 1992.
• That’s Erin Gray and Will Wheaton as the Gizmocrats. A lot of people saw that opening and wondered if it was going to be a regular thing. It wasn’t. Just a one-off. Thanks to Erin and Will for doing it.
• The little device that taps into Jonah’s ship plays a little mechanical version of the theme song, and Jonah says it “sounds familiar.”
• The little Gizmonic Institute flyover is very much in the style of the old miniature set pieces.
• The giant clown hammer, too, looks very familiar.
• When the doors slide open on Moon Base 13, it is the complete antithesis of the old Deep 13. Deep 13 was a lonely, quiet place with few inhabitants. Jonah walks in one what could be a rave: a full band in mid-song and plenty of henchman to send him on his way.
• It appears that the old Umbilicus has been re-attached to the SOL — interesting that something from post season 5 would appear. Somewhere Mike is smiling.
• Robot roll call is also quite different: No little sayings. Cambot is always shown on Jonah, Gypsy enters from the right, Tom enters from the left and Crow leaps up onto Jonah’s back.
• Joel plays “Ardy,” the “movie in the hole” guy. The whole liquid video thing he controls is a bit baffling to me.
• The riffing begins slowly but eventually picks up steam.
• This movie was cut quite a bit—in fact there were TWO songs, both of which were cut. This one and this one.
• The Carvel ice cream jokes seem overdone to me. There, I said it. I’d say it again if I had to.
• Callbacks: “I’m squishy” (Young Man’s Fancy), Killer Shrews were mentioned.
• At one point there’s a bit of a drum beat in theater when Jonah does a riff on “Monster Mash.” A bit of a departure…
• The only Trump reference I caught: “Yooge! Yooge!”
• I guess all the coverage of the relaunch led to the arrival of letters, even before the show had arrived on Netflix.
• Isn’t it nice to have Rebecca (the new voice of Gypsy) there for harmonizing purposes?
• Fave riff: “How about Reportacus Shutupacus?” Honorable mention: “It’s just a sign that says ‘Made you look’!” and “…not even attempting to get a job.”
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When the credits rolled I was SO excited — as you said, long time between episodes.
For a first episode I thought everyone did a good job — not great, but certainly they were filling some big shoes. During the song when Jonah knocks over some of the buildings (an obvious error) there is a beat where you can see he is thinking about stopping but they continue and that slight error gave me a thrill because it reminded me so much of the much rougher takes of the old MST3K. Unfortunately, I’ve seen no evidence of this elsewhere (certainly not in this episode) where every beat of every riff and host segment seems MUCH more polished and “rehearsed”.
They read a letter. Really? How is a letter even there? Who was writing a letter to these guys? I don’t think they will continue to do this and it seems very artificial.
Push the button, Max (that could be considered a call-back to Joel’s era, since after Frank left we had many years of no button pushing. I’m guessing a lot of folks who were Mike-only era missed it completely).
I’d give it a 5 out of 10.
My main complaint with this episode is that the comic relief guy survived.
I don’t think Tom clones himself so much as Crow clones Tom after taking his arm.
I paused to get a good look at all the rooms in the new door sequence. I like that there is a spare Crow head in the workshop.
The movie itself was goofy, with Reptilicus puking superimposed green bile everywhere. The scene of Reptilicus eating the cartoon cutout of the farmer always made me chuckle. Kudos to the people at the bridge scene, who really risked injury by falling into the river.
From what I hear, writer Ivan Askwith says the Viewer Mail is real. They do this again later, but if there’s a Season 12, we can get viewer mail from Twitter and Facebook fans.
I look at “Reptilicus” the same as Mike’s first movie, with the real test being the next episode, which they pass according to the response.
“What do you think, Pee Wee Kissinger?”
“The secret word is carpet bombing! AAAAAAA!!!”
Sure we’re a lot of BLONDES in Reptilicus. Not a problem, but it was a bit like watching Village of the Damned only with grown ups. I enjoyed 1101 very much. I put it up there with boot blacking!
@Sampo, The second song is “To Earth”, from Diabolik! It’s very fast and hard to pick out at first.
Happily, I was not disappointed… the newness will take some getting used to, though. I love the new door sequence, and the boldly-colored SOL and Moon 13 sets. I’m still confused by the liquid technology thing. Jonah’s song was fun, and I like the “commercial sign” musical interludes with jazzy versions of the classic songs.
As far as the riffing, it was pretty good, but not great. A lot of it seemed kind of rushed, without much “breathing room” between jokes. It’s hard for me to tell the voices apart, and it seems like the jokes could be used interchangeably by any of the riffers. In the originals, many riffs were extra-hilarious because they seemed perfect for the established character of each riffer. I’m optimistic that this will return in future episodes as the voices and personalities of Jonah and the bots become more established.
Also, I’ve only seen the first 2 eps so far, but I’m not yet a fan of Gypsy’s theater appearances. What’s this payload thing, and why are her quick one-liners so wooden and unfunny?
Overall, it was just great to see a new version of my favorite show and absorb all the new details. The 2nd ep is hilarious, amd I’m excited to see the show improve as everyone settles into a new rhythm.
Also, there are a TON of callbacks, including “He tampered in God’s domain” (Bride of the Monster), a mention of Superdragon, a reference to Reptilicus dying before he “could befriend a little kid” (Gamera), and MST3K riffing staples “diarrhea is like a storm raging inside you”, “Someone left a cake out in the rain!”, and the Giligan’s Island theme sung during the storm, among a few more.
eh, it’s okay but just not the same. Then again I wasn’t really dying for a relaunch. Glad everybody else likes it though
The Danish version of Jack Elam?
Also, in case anyone is wondering, yes, that first letter is totally legit. Joel asked for letters back in November of 2015, and that one was sent in AND read during one of the Turkey Day bumpers (the one where Joel is in the Kickstarter screening room). I’m assuming the second letter came in during that period during the campaign, too.
At least for Reptilicus I thought the riffs were coming a little TOO fast, but more importantly too SOON….quite a few of them came literally the instant the scene began. This makes it painfully obvious the riffs are scripted (Which, of course, they are but come on!). However by Episode 3 the pacing seems to have found its groove. In general I’m thoroughly enjoying the reboot. :)
Okay, here we go!
6,424 days? Felt like an eternity! I seriously never thought I’d live to see the day that there would be new MST3K. So glad I was wrong.
I think the new cast is fantastic! I love the look on Patton’s face…it’s like even HE can’t believe they’re making new MST3K! And, by the way, Kinga is smoking hot! OMG, I’m gonna stop there before I say something inappropriate.
The hardest part about watching this though, I’m still getting used to the new voices, so in the theater it’s hard to tell who’s making the riff–especially Jonah vs. Servo (I can see Crow’s mouth moving most of the time). I love that they’ve given Gypsy more to do, and bravo for finally casting a WOMAN to play the one “female” robot! Genius!
I agree with Tim, the riffs come a little too fast in some spots and too early. Hopefully this will improve as the season progresses.
I’m still not sold on the doorway sequence..do they live in there? Wouldn’t it be hard to get around when the doors are “closed”? Okay, it’s just a show, maybe I should just relax!
Cambot’s new look is freaky! Just a giant eye-ball? WTF?
Also, I miss Commercial Sign (although I know they at least mention it in the theater in one of the later episodes). Maybe it’s just me, but it feels almost pointless to leave the theater, go through the doorways, act out a 60 second sketch, and then go straight back into the theater. Commercial sign added a little bit of variety at least. But it’s Netflix, I know, no commercials. Whatever. I’ll get used to it.
Anyway, amazing job all around! Thank you Joel and all the backers for making this thing happen! Looking forward to watching the rest (only about a third of the way through the season..wanna make it last a while!)
Reptilicus fails the Bechdel Test (no link this week as I’m in the middle of transferring my Livejournal to WordPress and it’s proving to be a major pain in the hinder). The only conversation between two female characters is conducted sotto voce, so we can’t make out what is said.
The movie’s understanding of regeneration is appalling. Only the simplest organisms are capable of performing what is described. We’re talking single cell organism simple. It’s true that some reptiles can grow a new tail if the old one gets hacked off. However, that tail hunk is not going to grow into a new reptile. And if you blow Reptilicus into tiny chunks, none of those chunks will become a new Reptilicus. So General Grayson’s original plan was fine as is.
So what’s the deal with how Peterson dresses for work? He looks like they yanked him off the Hee Haw set.
@ #7: Well it does take place in Denmark.
General Thoughts on this episode (and NOT Season 11 as a whole):
– Good job on updating the premise, and I loved the opener that showed us how we got back to the SOL.
– That Kinga’s first lines invoke a Sunday School song shows that they are determined to make this MST3k circa Seasons 1-5. This is Joel’s baby.
– This is also Joel with a budget! I’m also slightly mixed on this, but no one seems interested in showing off too much.
– Seeing Gypsy in the theater threw me for a loop, but I like that she drops in. It’d be nice to have her spend a minute or so before throwing in with the others. The bots fooling around in the theater is also a nice touch.
– This is very much a transition episode, in the same vein of The Brain that Wouldn’t Die or 801. They seem a touch too eager and rehearsed. The novelty of having the gang back carries the episode quite a way. The callbacks are helping, too, even if they seem there to help people just relax.
– Day and Oswalt are doing great! I think Patton has a touch more comedic timing at this point, so we’ll see how they work together later on.
– Cameos noted. Other than Wil Wheaton coming close to mugging for the camera it was fine.
– That song was PERFECT. It’s everything you want in a silly MST song.
Overall a good transition episode although a little rough in some spots as they work the kinks out. Onward and upward, because next week’s Cry Wilderness is up there with the classics IMO.
You forgot the Stinger:
Petersen with the electric eel tank
I wasn’t holding out a lot of hope for the relaunch, as Joel made some writing, casting, and location choices that I couldn’t imagine would do justice to the show. There was still a lot of doubt up to the first host segment. And then the song hit, I knew everything was in good hands. Joel’s loving fingerprints are everywhere, and there’s still that little mid-western puppet show feel despite it being shot in California. I don’t think they could have chosen a better movie to re-introduce the show than Reptilicus, it was perfect fodder.
There are a few things that I’m not so sure about, though.
1. I agree with others that Jonah and Tom’s voices are similar. I’m about to start the sixth episode and still have trouble telling them apart.
2. Crow’s movements often seem out of sync with his speech, harkening back to the early Bill days. But Bill mastered it, the new crew probably will too.
3. New Gypsy is going to take some getting used to. The new voice just feels odd to me, even six shows in.
4. Tom and Crow don’t seem to have distinct personalities yet, and don’t interact much without Jonah in the middle. I’m sure that’s coming, though. Just takes a little time.
5. I really do miss having the host carry Tom. It seemed like such a strong visual dynamic of the old show is lost here.
Having said all that, I’m hugely relieved that the new show is a lot of fun and hasn’t changed radically. Bravo to Joel and crew! We like it very much!
Not a bad first effort. Although not as good as the next few. I love how quickly they re-establish the plot and get back in the theater. Efficient as they’ve always been.
The Monster rap is pure genius and is a new spin on a classic Mst staple.
I must say I love the new cast. Great chemistry between Jonah, Crow, and Servo. Kinga is both cute and funny and Patton is very reminiscent of Frank.
My big disappointment of the movie was that the newspaper headline segment didn’t include “Building Code Under Fire” or “New Petitions Against Tax”
Fave Riff: “Brigadier General Military Industrial Complex, this is Miss Doctor Woman.”
The movie was definitely a good choice, though I think my family and I were laughing at the goofiness of the movie itself more than the riffs.
I loved “Every Country Has a Monster”. It had a nice old school MST3K feel. For the other host segments, though, it felt like they had an idea, but didn’t know what to do with it. Then again, this also harkens back to some of the earliest days of the series, when some of the host segments just kind of ended without a punch line.
All in all, I was still pleased with the episode as a whole.
Don’t forget Sampo one major change for this new era of MST3K: Crow and Tom have WORKABLE ARMS!
Okay, yeah Crow’s arms did work in the old series, but it was a once-in-awhile sort of thing. Here’s it’s more regular.
One of my fav bits was where the film goes out of focus, and Jonah thinks it’s a “3D” scene, so he hands Crow and Servo 3D glasses. However, Servo, notes the glasses don’t work for him because he doesn’t have eyes. Huh? He’s worn glasses many times before!
The one incorrect lyric above: “He’ll have to sit and watch them all and *We’ll* monster his mind”, not “I’ll”. She does say “I’ll” in the previous verse though (“I’ll send him…”, “The worst I can find…”). Sort of a cross between the seasons 1-6 plural and the seasons 7-10 singular, as it were! :)
Photobomb!!!
https://goo.gl/images/Za2FW5
:)
Wouldn’t “we’ll MONITOR his mind” make more sense?
Autocorrect strikes again! Never works when it’s needed, only works when it’s not.
• At one point there’s a bit of a drum beat in theater when Jonah does a riff on “Monster Mash.” A bit of a departure…
Not really. That’s someone – Tom or Crow – beat-boxing. You can hear it in “Every Country” too.
IIRC in those cases, he wore them to look more intellectual.
Still one of my favorite riffs in the whole season.
Jonah noted on a podcast that they filmed the season essentially in order of episode number, and I think it shows in the riffing – there is so much of it, and so fast, that it can feel overwhelming. Thankfully, this is much less a problem going forward.
There’s still plenty of funny moments, though, and I had my “they won me over” moment with the temperature/time riff (as I would guess it was for many). It’s not a classic episode of MST3K, but it is most definitely an episode of MST3K.
Dear Lord, autocorrect will be the death of me.
Another observation worthy of discussion: Midwestern references. A lot of Prince jokes and, of course, “He’s attacking a Minnesotan family!”.
I, too, like it VERY MUCH, so I want to point out that anything below that sounds like a gripe is just a nit/personal preference – on balance I’m over the moon with the new shows that I’ve watched so far (only through ep 1105, pacing myself).
Random stuff:
Kinga says: “I’m going to blow up this brand and sell it to Disney for a billion dollars!”
– Let’s pray this isn’t prophetic!
Interesting that Joel’s “fab lab” is now a “thing” on the SOL. Makes sense if they are doing inventions, though.
Kind of jarring that we go from Jonah’s capture to his being all at home/ok being on the SOL and watch terrible movies. Yes, I am relaxed, but I would have liked to get a little of the intermediate backstory.
As an old-timer who remembers when people actually wrote letters — and still does so from time to time — I loved that they did the letters. If nothing else, a nostalgic throwback to our cowtown puppet show.
Erin Gray — sigh — how I loved her as Wilma Deering…. :) (I need those heart emojis back!) I hope we see more of her later in the season.
General observation on riffs – I’m really surprised at the number of ‘my generation’ riffs (I’m 52) in this ep and all the one’s I’ve viewed so far. I love it, of course (fun to explain a lot of them to my boys as we watch together), and I know there are some very current ones (yes, my boys have had to explain some to me), but I wonder if they are two skewed in my direction to appeal to the young’uns…? Who, of course, are the future of the show. On the other hand, there a plenty of just observational movie riffs that don’t need a cultural context to be funny (one of my fav sequences was the “the door is ajar…. the time is…. the temperature is….”).
Also, I agree that the “preemptive” riffs are a bit off-putting, given the illusory nature of the original show: you could almost–but not quite–believe that they were reacting to the movie, seeing it the first time. The approach here seems more polished/scripted, and, yes, at times a little frenetic.
Yeah, the “Every Monster” song was an instant classic in my book. Loved it, especially the Luxembourg bit:
Kropermann is a monster from Luxembourg
Who’s actually the size of Luxembourg
He crushed the whole country of Luxembourg
Because he is the size of Luxembourg!
A few random memorable riffs:
* Bones! (Jim!)
Fossil bones! (Fossil Jim!)
* What about the spleen? Why won’t you tell us about the spleen?
* Why do they always gotta mention my bulge?
* You don’t want to be a duck, on the new season of Duck Dynasty.
All in all – a superb initial outing. Did I mention I like it very much?!!!! Good show, sirs & madams!
I really like the return of my favorite TV show ever. The premise and characters are fine by me. In “Reptilicus”, as others have noted, the “kaiju hip-hop” song is excellent, and as Snowdog noted, that is when I had that “They’re back!” feeling hit for sure. I like that the riffs have references to pop culture of my childhood (e.g. “The Munsters” and “Gilligan’s Island”), along with use of things much more recent in development, e.g. technology and social media.
“Keep circulating the tapes!…er, URL!”
I think there were a lot more callbacks – I’ll have to rewatch to catch them again.
There sure are! I noted a few above, but “Dreezle Drazle Drazle Drome, time for this one to come home” slipped my mind.
I really enjoyed it. I watched without reading any comments beforehand so I could form my own opinion. I see quite a few people had the same thoughts I did with not being able to tell the voices apart yet and noticing how fast the riffs come in. I’ll adjust in a few episodes and mainly I’m just glad they’re back.
Loved this too: Bones! (Jim!)
Fossil bones! (Fossil Jim!)
These three riffs sold me on the new season. :)
Same here, and with Korea’s Yongary coming up, thought “every country”‘s monster would be about every country’s monster movie.
(I’m taking a slower pace now, to keep the discussions fresh for the WDT. If you had to empty all the Oreos out of the cookie-jar, errr, can’t help ya.)
One thing I noticed from (doesn’t mention certain other incarnations of the show, to keep the discussions friendly) is that the fact that the movie is, gasp, DANISH is kidded, but isn’t treated as the movie’s main central crime unto itself for a “theme” complaint, as it might be for Canada, England, Russia/Finland or Ital…Europe.
Plenty of mentions of “Modern furniture”, and a Hans Christian Andersen ref that didn’t have to do with putting hands on hips, but not having much to go on never stopped other riffers before.
Oh, and:
(Ellie Mae assistant in blue-white dress)
“Uh, excuse me, Sailor Moon?”
(Denmark, please do not choose gun-toting schoolgirls as your national heroines or lab support.)
Everything I wanted to say has already been said except this. Has anyone else noticed that they put breaks in the show, possibly for commercials? Does this mean they are looking to syndicate and sell the show to cable tv in the future? If that’s the case, they need to make a lot more shows, which is good.
Joel has said that these breaks are a little nod to the many fans who watched the episodes on cable and on tape for many years. They certainly could act as points for commercials should the show ever hit TV again (it wouldn’t be the first Netflix original to do so), and while I’m sure that was a consideration at one stage of development or another, they are mostly there as a tribute to several decades of loyal MSTies! Plus, they are great pallet cleansers, as well as a way to flesh out the world of the new season!
While I’m here, another Skeleton Crew song not mentioned in Sampo’s post: during the end bit, while the liquid film is being inserted into that huge doohickey behind the mads, they are playing “Clown in the Sky”! This is repeated for most of the following episodes during the closing bit, with a couple of exceptions (Yongary, The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t).
I forgot about the arms too! Kind of a cool touch, although I miss the way Tom’s inoperable arms were free to swing around in response to his body moving. It seems like the new Tom is a little stiff in comparison…
The episode was sort of like the first episodes of “The Odd Couple” or “MASH” tv series. There were many callbacks to the original source material. I’m certain they’ll gradually drop them, once this version develops it’s own rhythm. (I’ve only seen the 1st Ep. So far). It’s possible this version will build a fan base of people who never really watched the original show, much as “Angel” did (from BtVS). My only criticism of Jonah is that he seems too eager to please. That’s preferable to Dane Cook -smugness, but he’s got the job, he should really just relax…
It took me a while to get into it but what kept me going was pure shock that the whole thing was actually happening. I agree with others that the riffs are too fast, frenetic and anticipating. I also have trouble distinguishing between the voices, I think that Tom needs to lower his voice just a bit to “help” us out. I think of it as a formula: Trace/Bill = high voice, Joel/Mike = middle(kinda-sorta) and Josh/Kevin = low.
But all in all, I like it and hope they get many more seasons, I’m greedy that way.
I only watched it once so I couldn’t memorize all the jokes I liked except the one about a “Minnesotan family”. I now wonder which films they’ll choose if they get another season, I want at least two B&W films!
I appreciate those a lot! I need those breaks and confess that I have been pausing during the breaks to catch my breath from laughing so damn hard!! I miss the bumpers that we’d see in Dr. F’s lab (circa 94-95), but these are pretty cool too. Fits in with the whole “Moon 13” theme.
Re-watched this last night and I swear some of the riffs were electronically sped up to fit in a certain place. I’m only up to episode 7 but I’m pretty sure this stopped at some point, thank goodness.
I liked this more the second time, the only episode I didn’t really enjoy was 1103. Also I wish the bumpers were just music like in the original series (I would happily buy a soundtrack album, BTW).
#25: EXCELLENT still from the movie! :)
I’m enjoying reading everyone’s comments, and I have to say it feels REALLY GOOD to see a new still from a new movie under review!
Joel has confirmed that one is currently in the works at Shout! Factory! I believe backers will get the download free (at least at a certain level), but for everyone else, a soundtrack will definitely be available for purchase soon!
I was cautiously optimistic about the new season, but three episodes in, I am really enjoying it. But then, they had me at “Reptilicus,” a staple of Saturday afternoon TV in the 70s and one I had wanted them to riff in the original show. I forgot about the cartoon farmer being eaten; wow, was that bad.
Like others, I thought the riffs were a bit rapid-fire (like the guy from the old FedEx commercials was doing the riffing), but I got into the rhythm, as did they. In the three I’ve watched thus far, I caught more callbacks to Mike-era shows than Joel-era ones, which was interesting (more than one interocitor reference).
I was pleasantly surprised at the number of Gen X-esque references; I was expecting to need that Annotated MST site (and still may). I did like the Walter White reference when they were talking about drugging the monster.
The “commercial breaks,” while weird, do contribute to the sense of comfort and familiarity (also good places to pause for bathroom breaks).
I loved the “Every Country Has a Monster” song; instant classic and it did strike me as kind of “Hamiltonian”; I’m a huge “Hamilton” fan and admittedly is really my only point of reference vis-a-vis hip-hop (on Twitter, Lin-Manuel Miranda himself–creator of “Hamilton”–tweeted that he loved it, too).
I’m looking forward to the rest of the season–and beyond.
I’ve only watched the first two episodes so far and I thought they did a great job reacquainting everybody to the new version. I loved that they did the letters but wished they did a picture for Still Store, which is really my biggest complaint. I teared up a little when Kinga told TSoTF to push the button. A great first outing!
The “Photobomb!” scene getting so much play, I think it answers the question a lot of people were asking in the debut thread, “Why this one for 1101, it’s just sort of an okay movie?”
If you look at 101, 801 and 1101 (201 doesn’t count, since the show was already gaining momentum), they’re ALL about classic goofy-kitsch monsters we’ve seen in other stock-footage clips about goofy-looking monsters from 50’s movies: The Crawling Eye, the Creature, and the String-Puppet Cecil coming up out of the lake or behind the city.
That’s to establish the series concepts for New Folks Tuning In–“We’re about bad movies, folks, hyuck-ewww!”–and use the most instantly recognizable icons to emphasize that. At least since they couldn’t use Ro-Man or Godzilla-sliding-on-his-tail until later.
Sort of the same reason the Movie had to pick This Island Earth (and the Metaluna Mutant!) to explain the concept to mainstream infidels…Here’s a kitschy character you know, it’s bad movies, get it, get it?
They could have started with Avalanche as a first warmup, but for the new kids just starting on S11, it just wouldn’t be the same, and if they’d started with Cry Wilderness or Carnival Magic, the results probably wouldn’t have been pretty.
Yongary and the kid, maybe, but Rep was more instantly recognizable from old TV clips.