Puppy Power!

The Nostalgia Critic did a review of the Pound Puppies movie, 'The Legend of Big Paw' and was suitably scathing about it. I can understand, since it's not exactly quality cinema, but this film was one of the staples of my childhood, along with the Care Bears film. Both were adventurous and fun, not too girly (for a kids film, I mean - I wanted to be Nicholas in the Care Bears film, with his ultimate cosmic power and Faustian descent into evil, rather than the kids who had to 'learn to care') and had songs that, while they sound dumb today, were plenty impressive to kids of the right age. I'm not arguing for quality here, but there are some aspects that are OK when you're six. Nicholas' character arc is surprisingly dark and in the Pound Puppies movie, almost all of the sympathetic characters are transformed against their will into ravening monsters. OK, they are saved by the power of love, but it's still pretty sinister seeing the previously maternal dog Collette snarling at her puppies.
The main reason I still have a lot of respect for the Pound Puppies movie is that, contrary to the Critic's constant rants against the songs, they aren't all that bad. Not because of the lyrics, or the performances, no. Because they're based on rock 'n' roll songs of the 50's. As a child who was brought up in a house ruled by Classical music and the occasional dip into the 60's when my dad wasn't listening, this film was a revelation. The languid beats of these songs based on Elvis and Danny & the Juniors provided some of the most enjoyable musical experiences of my childhood, even if they are the deformed children of an incestuous meeting of 50's rock 'n' roll and knock-off Disney.
So while it wasn't the best introduction to the joys of Elvis, for a kid who was sung to sleep by Mahler's endless symphonies played far too loudly downstairs, it was a revelation.

True B-Movie genius

So what could possibly be better than vampires?

Vampires...in Space!

Out of D&D games come glorious things. One of my fellow roleplayers has decided to write a script for one of the trashiest movies I've ever heard of, but I will not tell you its name as it is not for me to wow the world with its brilliance until it comes out. The one thing that has ever motivated me to write a script? The idea we came up with afterwards...'Vampires in Space'. Hell, there could be a whole series of them: 'Werewolves in Space', 'Mummies in Space', 'Zombie Flesh Eaters in Space', etc. Hell yeah.

Oh, and 'Sci Fi Musketeers', since it's shocking that 'Lux Aeternum' never spawned any kind of offshoots in fiction or film. It has musketeers with freaking energy swords! What more do you want? Oh yeah, it also has psychic alien jellyfish, piratical dragon people, and cyber Catholicism. It's awesome.