March 13

Darby O’Gill and the Little People, 1959

Welcome back to another exciting edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers ! J. Blake and Dion Baia are throwing up an episode a week early to coincide with the Saint Patrick Day holiday, and to surprise and celebrate a film that’s been on the boy’s short-list since the inception of the SNMS podcast– the 1959 Walt Disney classic, Darby O’Gill and the Little People!

After some present giving, Dion and Blake jump right in, unpacking this epic masterpiece. They discuss the 1959 Magical World of Disney Television episode, I Captured the King of the Leprechauns, where Walt Disney and Irish actor Pat O’Brien venture to Ireland as a setup to convince King Brian Connor of the Leprechauns to star in Mr. Disney‘s big budget Hollywood film. This incredible marketing ploy, along with the astounding Special Effects which used a combination of matte painting and forced perceptive, came together to create one of the best fantasy movies of all time with effects that still hold up some 60+ years later. So settle in and listen to the lads take a journey to County Kerry, Ireland and visit their old mate, Darby O’Gill, on this much requested Saint Patrick’s Day installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

EXTRAS!

Recently found, check out an article about what was thought to be a lost performance of the 1957 BBC television version of Requiem of a Heavyweight, starring Sean Connery.

Here is the trailer for the 1959 Magical World of Disney television episode of I Captured the King of the Leprechauns, starring Walt Disney, which was a behind the scenes journey of going to Ireland and meeting Darby O’Gill, and King Brian, to get his leprechaun film made.

May 18

Total Recall ,1990

Welcome back to another installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers ! Dion Baia and J. Blake are taking on a popular fan request, a real favorite from their childhoods that was a blockbuster when it was released. The boys are getting their asses to Mars this week as they cover the Arnold Schwarzenegger epic, Total Recall, from 1990!

Total Recall Poster

Blake and Dion jump right into it, revisiting this classic and discuss how happy they are that this movie still holds up. They compare the finished version to the original Philip K. Dick short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale as well as the differences within the novelization, and explain the long process of getting this from the page to the screen. They unpack the massive Practical Effects in all their splendor, something that probably will never be seen in a Hollywood film like this again- along with a whole lot more. So come on down and check out another really late night meditation in an all new episode of  Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers !

*During the podcast, actor Michael Champion was mentioned as perhaps the villain in the 1991 film The Hard Way, when it was in fact the great Stephen Lang.

Extras!

Check out the original theatrical teaser trailer to Total Recall!

Watch the making of titled, Imagining Total Recall!

Take look at these rare, behind the scenes!

Here’s a great little featurette about the miniature work from Total Recall!

Last but not least, have a look at this Special Effects Featurette that explains the Skeleton Scene, among others!

March 17

Beauty and the Beast , 1991

It’s that time again… time for another exciting, thrilling and enthralling episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! Dion Baia and J. Blake have a whammy of an installment this week: a lighthearted, musical affair from a company that at the time of this film’s release, was going through a proper-resurgence themselves. And this movie marked its crowning achievement to-date for that company’s Animation Department, which broke new ground in its pioneering uses of CGI in this project… Yes, “it is a tale as old as time” as the boys explore the enchanted world of Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, from 1991.

Beauty and the Beast

The fellas jump right in and go back to the beginning, discussing everything Disney in this epic podcast: They ‘set the table’ by giving a concise timeline on Walt‘s meteoric rise to fame, from his beginnings with the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit animated shorts and the work with his good friend and genius Ub Iwerks (among others), to bringing in Carl Stalling for help creating animated musical shorts, pioneering color cartoons and his finally creating a feature-length animated film in 1937 with the ground-breaking Snow White and the Seven DwarfsBlake and Dion follow Disney‘s journey through the war years and his upswing in the 1950s, and Walt then getting side-tracked with live-action films, a new medium called television, and theme park construction. These side ventures unconsciously begin to take its toll on the animation department and with Walt‘s death in 1966 it almost becomes rudderless, culminating with the near closing of the entire animation branch in the mid 1980s. The boys then go through the renaissance in the late 80’s that brought the famed animation unit back and to the biggest cartoon film to-date, Beauty and the Beast. They go through the history of the popular fairytale with the 1946 live-action Jean Cocteau movie, even hitting on the late 80’s TV series. Dion and Blake then discuss the work it took to get Beauty and the Beast on screen, with the brand new CAPS technology that changed the face of animation, and the work by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman that gave us all those classic songs we know today. So what 1949 Disney animated film do the lads draw similarities between? What are the controversial subtexts that some academics have read into the work and what are their perceptions of the themes within Beauty? How did Walt Disney‘s brilliance in knowing his own limitations actually help in making the company such a huge success? What important character from the 1946 Cocteau film did this Disney story borrow? What character was the song Be Our Guest originally supposed to be sung to? And what famous book-turned-to-film thriller (that is a staple in every serial killer library) do the boys find similarities with this animated classic? Well grab some popcorn and your favorite sipping drink, because the boys are taking you on a musical adventure this week with this mega, Disney-filled new installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

*Dion misspoke during the cast, the 2012 film Snow White and the Huntsman was in fact a Universal, not Disney film.

EXTRAS!

As the boys described in the podcast, here our exclusive photos taken by them at the Disney Burbank Lot of the Ub Iwerk-designed 14′ high Multi-plane camera, HERE and HERE for the game challenger, Snow White, and check out Walt and the boys HERE and HERE, using it back in the day.

Check out the boys getting a tour from Walt and Mickey themselves, HERE and HERE!

Have a look at some of the original character design sculptures that animators used as references, that were on display at the Reagan Library Disney Exhibit.

Take a look at photos HEREHERE and HERE  the boys took of the original Animation Building that’s located on the Burbank lot (personally designed by Walt), that animators drew the films from Dumbo up to The Black Cauldron within. Check out the plaque inside the building.

And HERE and HERE are the pictures the fellas took of the corner window of the Animation Building that was Walt’s office.

Here’s the original trailer to the 1946 Jean Cocteau Beauty and the Beast film, narrated by Cocteau himself.

Have a gander at this chart of the different elements of animals used to make the Beast.

As talked about in the podcast, here is the Billy Joel rendition of When You Wish Upon a Star, from the 1991 Disney album Simply Mad About the Mouse.

Check out Tom Waits‘ version of Heigh Ho (The Dwarfs Marching Song) from the 1988 Disney album Stay Awake:Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films.

November 13

Harry and the Hendersons, 1987

The boys are back for an all new, exhilarating and enthralling episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! J. Blake and Dion Baia are both digging back into their childhoods and taking on the legend of the Sasquatch. Instead of looking at him as a terrible monster, they pick a film that makes everyone wish they could have a big, cuddly bigfoot of their very own… 1987’s Harry and the Hendersons.

Harry and the Hendersons

Dion and Blake discuss the mythology of the creature, particularly as it relates to cinema and the small screen of the 1970’s-80’s. They get into the mixed reviews that this feel-good film received upon its initial release, and frankly don’t hold back their opinions regarding the matter. They chat about the overall themes, and how it related then (and now) to the social and ecological movements of the era. They also segue to the other elephant in the room, the genius that is SFX pioneer Rick Baker and his body of work, and their mutual disgust that he announced earlier this year that he is retiring because…wait for it… there is not enough work out there because of the use of CGI today in moviemaking. And again, the lads don’t hold back on their thoughts on the subject. So get your tent, outdoor gear, and a pair of binoculars because we’re off looking for Sasquatch and Yeti’s in this weeks all new episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

Extras:

Listen to the complete novelization here, courtesy of Audiobooks for the Damned!

Take a look at the Harry and the Hendersons 25th Anniversary Panel, featuring SFX Artist Rick Baker and director William Dear!

Here’s Rick Baker in 1987 sculpting Harry!

Check out the Up Close look at Harry and the Hendersons Prop Animatronics Head With Rick Baker, from 1987!

September 11

The Last Starfighter, 1984

To close out the long and hot summer, J. Blake and Dion Baia have embarked on a journey that will take them out of the trailer park canyons of California and up into the galaxy to help defend the cosmos against horrifying alien evildoers who are hell-bent on, well… doing whatever they plan to do- and the key to this adventure is provided to us by one cleverly disguised, humble arcade game console. Yes, we are talking about the highly-underated 1984 film The Last Starfighter, directed by Nick Castle.

The Last Starfighter

Yes Joystick Jockeys, this cult classic is hailed as the first film to showcase CGI Imagery to replace the tradition Stop-Motion and Practically Special Effects, and is sometimes forgotten for that milestone. But how does a space film in a post-Star Wars world stand out without ultimately being compared to the property that set the bar? The boys reminisce about the era of the late 1970’s and 80’s when one actually had to go out of their house and travel to a local arcade or restaurant if they wanted to socialize while gaming, and/or see the latest and greatest in video game technology vis-à-vis the big console units. Has time and the public been fair to this ground-breaking film? Can this movie actually be considered as influential as Star Wars in certain circles? And what’s this film’s 3-way connection to John Carpenter? And does Blake‘s Lance Guest story really involve a late-night encounter in the adult section of a 24-hour New York City store? Well we’re not pulling any punches on this all new edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! Inter-stellar!!

(Check out the site for the Kenner Star Wars toys documentary discussed in this podcast entitled, Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys.)

(Here’s the link to Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America, the great book that discusses the history of game consoles; the success of Mario starting from the failed arcade console Radar Scope which was then converted into the legendary Donkey Kongleading to the rise of Nintendo and the legacy we are all familiar with today.)

(Have a look at composer Craig Safan conduct a performance of The Last Starfighter Suite, live!)

(The name of the Cleveland Restaurant that had VHS tapes to watch behind the bar was The Greenhouse Tavern)

(And on a COMPLETELY unrelated note, here is Dion meeting to man, the myth, the legend- Mr. Ron Jeremy)

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