Child Of The 1980’s

For a film aimed at kids, An American Tail is surprisingly full of historical references, human prejudices and the pain and suffering of those less fortunate. Released in 1986 it was produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Don Bluth, the well known animator who outside of the efforts of the Walt Disney company is probably the most successful name in traditional animation alive today.

The film tells the story of young Jewish mouse Fievel Mousekewitz, whose family have fled their home town after it was invaded by Cossack soliders during the Serbo-Bulgarian war in 1885, which leaves them easy prey for the cats in the area. They board a ship headed for America, which at that time was seen as a place of great hope to the poor people of Eastern Europe and Russia. The mice wrongly believe that America is free of cats, and that the streets are paved with cheese, which isn’t far from what humans in a similar predicament thought at the time - just substitute cheese for gold and your probably a bit closer.

All seems good until the ship is approaching America, when a storm causes Fievel to be separated from the rest of his family. Fievel finally arrives in New York City lost and confused, and is taken in by a rat named Warren, who says he will help him out. Warren’s help is anything but, and Fievel ends up working in a sweatshop. Eventually, accompanied by his new friends Tony and Bridget he manages to escape, but things aren’t much better with his new found freedom.

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Released in 1988, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was an immediate box office success due to it’s appeal to all ages. Kids loved it for featuring all their favourite cartoon characters whilst grown ups enjoyed it for the smattering of more adult humour it contained. It went on to win 4 Oscars, including ones for it’s sound effects and visual effects, that latter of which still look believable today (well, as believable as cartoon characters mingling with humans can).

The film is based on the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit, the story revolving around the titular Roger Rabbit and is set in 1947 Los Angeles. The premise is that cartoon characters (collectively known as Toons) are actually alive, and cartoons are filmed on sets in exactly the same way a film starring humans would be. Roger Rabbit is a slapstick comedy Toon star who ends up being framed for the murder of Marvin Acme, owner of the Acme company (presumably the place where Wile E. Coyote always got his gadgets from). The planted evidence against Roger shows his wife Jessica Rabbit (a beautiful human Toon) playing pattycake with Marvin, which to a Toon is considered as having an affair.

Roger ends up recruiting Eddie Valiant, a human detective played by Bob Hoskins, to help clear his name. Eddie is a bit of a drunk and doesn’t much care for Toons after his brother was killed by an unknown Toon who dropped a piano on his head, but he ends up helping Roger out after he hides away in Eddie’s home.

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I have to confess that I never ever saw D.A.R.Y.L when it was released in 1985. In fact, I only watched it last week when I happened to notice it was on Sky Movies. When I was at university several friends had mentioned that they had enjoyed this film as a kid, so I finally took the chance to see what I had been missing.

The film opens with a car being chased by a helicopter through some mountain roads. The car stops whilst out of sight of the helicopter and a young boy gets out and runs into the trees. The car starts off again at high speed, forcing an elderly couple of the road in it’s haste. The elderly couple then come across the boy, who doesn’t know what he is doing there, only that his name is Daryl.

The elderly couple take the boy into town, but since they are unable to look after him, he is sent to a child welfare hostel. From here he is fostered by construction manager Andy and his wife Joyce, a piano instructor. It soon becomes apparent that whilst Daryl may be suffering from memory loss, he is also an extremely fast learner and more than capable of looking after himself. Daryl makes friends with Turtle, the boy from across the road, and also becomes Andy’s secret weapon in the little league baseball team he coaches.

Eventually though, Daryl’s real parents track him down, and they come to collect him. We soon find out however that they are not really his parents, but two scientists from a military research base. They fly Daryl to the base, but after returning from a quick lesson in how to fly a plane from the pilot, he overhears the two scientists, Dr. Stewart and Dr. Lamb, and realises they are not his parents after all.

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The period between Christmas and New Year has always been a strange one for TV schedules. The TV stations have not yet bothered to go back to the normal TV schedules, which makes sense since we’re only talking about a couple of days here. However, since many people have returned to work or have other things to do, it’s also not worth putting on any blockbuster films or Christmas specials during this time, so instead the TV schedules get filled with things you’ve probably seen many times before.

Digby The Biggest Dog In The World is a great example of the kind of filler material that the TV stations would show during this TV lapse period during the 1980’s. The film was made in 1973 so it was both old enough and of the right kind of quality to slot perfectly into the schedules. That’s not to say it’s a bad film, just that it’s not exactly a blockbuster. It stars both the late Spike Milligan and Jim Dale, who was in many of the later Carry On films.

The plot centres around the titular Digby, an Old English Sheepdog, who starts off the regular size for a dog, and his young owner Billy. Billy’s Mum Janine and her colleague Jeff both work as scientists at the nearby top secret military base. Funny isn’t it how these military bases are always top secret? Anyway, Janine and Jeff are working on the originally named Project X, which turns out to be a growth serum. No prizes for guessing what happens next…

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One of the best films to come from The Muppets creator Jim Henson, and sadly the last film he directed before he died, was the 1986 film Labyrinth. It’s a film with many big names behind it, as it was also produced by George Lucas and Monty Python Terry Jones was involved in the screenplay. It also starred David Bowie as Jareth, the Goblin King, the films baddie.

The film follows the adventures of Sarah Williams (a young Jennifer Connelly) who must brave the titular Labyrinth to rescue her baby brother Toby, a problem of her own doing! Sarah is a daydreamer who loves fantasy stories, which gets her into trouble one evening as she is supposed to be babysitting Toby for her parents. She returns late and is told off, so is in a bit of a bad mood already when Toby starts crying and won’t shut up. She tries reciting some lines from the play (called Labyrinth) that she is learning, which is a story about a girl who is given special powers by the Goblin King. When this fails to calm Toby, she shouts out loud that she wishes The Goblin King would take Toby away.

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During a test of a group of new prototype military robots, a storm breaks out. Lightning strikes some powerlines, which causes a surge that grounds itself in one of the robots. Surprisingly, the robot doesn’t appear to have been damaged, and with the test aborted the group of robots are ordered back inside. However, it soon becomes apparent that the affected robot - Number 5 - may not have been completely unaffected after all. Number 5 starts to get distracted by things, and eventually ends up being accidentally knocked into the back of a garbage vehicle.

Meanwhile, the absence of Number 5 has been noted, and the military base is locked down. This is done too late however, and the garbage truck leaves with Number 5 still aboard. Number 5 doesn’t stay on the truck for long though, and falls off whilst investigating a butterfly. The security forces from the base track Number 5 down eventually, but in attempting to catch him knock him off a bridge. Luckily Number 5 has a parachute as part of its gadgetry, and it sails down to land on the roof of a catering van owned by a young woman called Stephanie Speck.

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Originally released in 1982, E.T. is still a much loved and respected film from the prolific Steven Spielberg. Since the story is about a young boy and the alien he encounters it is generally classified as a kids film, but really it is a film that appeals to people of all ages.

A spaceship full of alien creatures lands one night in a forest somewhere in California, it’s purpose to collect samples of plant life for analysis. Unfortunately the aliens work is interrupted by the arrival of a group of humans, investigating the lights seen in the sky. The spaceship beats a hasty retreat, leaving one of the aliens behind in the rush. Startled by the noise of cars and the flashing of torch beams the alien creature runs away, finding refuge in the garage of a house in the suburbs of a nearby town.

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Released in 1986 by Disney, Flight of the Navigator is a great kids Sci-Fi film which had the lot. A cool metallic transforming spaceship, a child star you didn’t want to strangle (even when he started singing Beach Boys songs), time travel and lots of strange alien animals.

The storyline is that 12 year old David Freeman is sent by his parents on July 4th 1978 to go and fetch his little brother Jeff. On the way he trips and loses consciousness. When he awakes he returns home to find that an old couple now live in his house. Confused, he is taken to the police, who find a missing persons report for David. It appears he has actually been missing for 8 years, yet he hasn’t aged a single day. David’s parents are located, and since there is a lot of confusion around David not having aged, he is sent to hospital to be checked out.

Meanwhile, a strange metallic space craft has been found, having crashed into some electricity lines. It is taken away by NASA to their base for analysis, but apart from the fact it appears to be able to defy gravity, they aren’t able to gain access to the ship to learn anything else.

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