And so dawns another Ninja Day. Take this time to reflect on the awesomeness of a bad ass ninja. Every year this blog celebrates Ninja Day and has done so since 2006. Click here to see all my Ninja Day articles.
While today is officially Ninja Day, next week will be Ninja Week on the Cavalcade. I’ll be reviewing ninja movies next week. All having to do with the ridiculously deadly ninja, and all are vintage, from the 80s and awesome. As a matter of fact, at least two of them star one Sho Kosugi. He was THE 80s icon for the ninja who recently (last year) starred as the bad ass villain in Ninja Assassin. I’ll be reviewing at least two of the movies in the Sho Kosugi 80s ninja “unofficial” trilogy I discussed in my Unofficial Movie Trilogies article a few months ago. Want to see what they are? Tune back in next week; same ninja time, same ninja blog.
Today, though, for Ninja Day, I want to discuss the 1985 movie, American Ninja starring Michael Dudikoff.
Specifically, I want to talk about the trouble The Cannon Group had getting it to the big screen. The movie has an interesting history that I think will make a good tale for Ninja Day.
The production company, The Cannon Group, made many of the ninja movies back in the day during the big 80s ninja boom. Their main ninja star was Sho Kosugi. During post production on Ninja III: The Domination Cannon started pre-production on a movie called American Ninja. Of course, it was going to star their main ninja, Sho Kosugi, as the villain. At the time, I don’t think they had cast the title character. Here’s some early promotional art for the Sho Kosugi American Ninja.
That’s right. Ninja Day 2010 is three days away on Sunday, Dec 5, 2010. Are you ready? If you keep turning around thinking you’re hearing something behind you, don’t be scared. It’s just Ninja Day creeping up ninja-style ready to gut you like a rainbow trout. Just go with it.
What do I have planned? Well, on Ninja Day I’ll discuss a popular 80s ninja movie and some of the behind the scenes drama that almost led to it not being released. Next week, I’ll continue Ninja Day with a bunch of reviews of ninja movies. Most are vintage 80s, but one was released last year.
So come back on Sunday and next week, sit back, relax and let the explosive awesomeness of badass ninjas fighting fill your heart with warmth and love…and death.
They will make cartoons based on anything at this point. Movies, TV shows, video games, dolls, stickers, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. If the suits think they can make money off it, they’ll do it.
There have been countless cartoons based on movies. Usually it’s a dumbed down kid friendly version of the movie with an added talking animal sidekick or something ridiculous like that. But it’s something special when an adult oriented, R rated movie is translated into a kid friendly cartoon. It’s literally amazing that this happens. Now, there have been several R rated movies turned into cartoons that are not actually meant for kids. I’m talking about Kevin Smith’s Clerks the Animated Series and Ice Cube’s Friday the Animated Series (seriously, check You Tube if you don’t believe me) when I say that. They were both created for adult fans of the movie an not meant for children, which is why I’m not including them on this list. Here, you’ll only see Saturday morning, kid-friendly cartoons in this list. And what a list it is.
Let’s get started…
Rambo: The Force of Freedom (1986) – Released the year after First Blood Part II. I can see where you’d want a psychologically damaged one-man killing machine as a role model for children on Saturday mornings. It just fits. It’s what the corporate suits call “synergy”. The cartoon had a nice cast of voice talent though. Neil Ross (Transformers, GI Joe, Galaxy High) was Rambo. James Avery (Capt Sisko from ST: Deep Space Nine) was Turbo. Colonel Trautman was voiced by Allen Oppenheimer from He-Man, Transformers and GI Joe fame and one of the villains, Sgt Havok, was voiced by the great Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime).
Toxic Crusaders (1991) – Based on Troma’s surprise B horror sensation, The Toxic Avenger. The movie featured wall-to-wall language, nudity and extremely graphic scenes of violence and sex. The movie actually showed a dude, while robbing a fast food joint, try to rape a blind girl. Also Toxie kills someone by crushing their head in a weight machine at the gym. And if I remember correctly, he either punches completely through someone’s face or takes their head off with a punch. I totally get why one would watch that movie and think, “Kids’ll love this!”
Robocop (1988) – Based on the Paul Verhoeven classic. I actually see this as a cool cartoon, but damn this movie was violent. Copious amounts of nudity and drug use also earned every ounce of the R it was rated. The cartoon had several nods to the movie including an appearance by Kurtwood Smith’s Clarence Boddicker, despite the fact that character died in the movie.
The other thing I want to talk about? In the madness of AWESOME-tober-fest, there is one thing I didn’t get to mention while I was going on and on and on about werewolves and monsters. The movie Krush Groove turned 25 years old on Oct 25 (it was released in 1985).
I don’t know about you guys, but I LOVED this movie. I saw it in the theater, I recorded it off HBO, I now have watched it twice since it popped up on Netflix Instant Streaming. It is still a good movie. It helps that I was introduced into rap music by both Run-DMC and The Fat Boys, who appear prominently in this movie. It’s the fictionalized retelling of the rise of Def Jam records, its owner Russell Simmons, its most popular acts Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC and the appearance of newcomers The Fat Boys. The movie is funny, the music is great and I had a lot of fun watching it again recently.
Just as awesome as the movie is the kickass soundtrack. Featuring songs by Rap/R&B heavyweights Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, Full Force and The Fat Boys. You also get songs from Sheila E and the then unknown Beastie Boys and LL Cool J (who both cameo in the movie). I listened the s**t out of this tape back in the 80s. You can download the entire soundtrack and see for yourself how badass it is here. Check out the awesome video for the title single on the album here.
I think the movie is more famous as a joke than anything else. Kevin Smith even wrote a quick joke line about it in his movie Dogma. It’s between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck while they are on the bus talking about being able to tell right from wrong. During the discussion Affleck mentions a bet they have about which would be the bigger movie; ET or Krush Groove. Matt Damon says time will tell on that one.
I’ll agree, the movie is cheesy, and you really have to be interested in the music and subject matter to really enjoy it. It works on the same level as Breakin’ or Beat Street (but Krush Groove is a much better written movie). One of my favorite scenes in the movie, and I mentioned this in my unofficial movie trilogies article back in July, is the quick cameo by LL Cool J. At the time, LL was not world famous. This was his big break. The scene involves auditions for Def Jam artists and they say the interviews are over, but LL Cool J ain’t havin’ none of that. He busts in, yells, “BOX!” at his friend who turns on the “box”, and Cool J begins spouting some sick ass lyrics to a booming beat. As an introduction to movie audiences, this can’t be beat and it’s hard to really describe the shock of seeing this scene when LL Cool J was still a n00b. Here’s the scene:
I love that scene and that song. Now, to be fair, there is one thing in the movie I hate. It brings the movie to a screeching halt. It’s Sheila E. Don’t get me wrong, I like Sheila E’s music and her contribution to the soundtrack album is actually pretty good (Holly Rock). However, her movie scenes are terrible. She’s inserted as somewhat of a love interest in a love triangle with brothers Run and Russell (played by a young Blair Underwood). I. HATE. HER. IN. THIS. MOVIE. Whenever she’s not on-screen, though, I love it.
If you’ve never seen this movie, I say check it out. It’s a fun movie with good music. Not bad considering it’s a quarter of a century old now.
This is it. The final day of AWESOME-tober-fest 2010. It surely has been a blast. Don’t mind me as I get all weepy and shed a tear for the end of this year’s festivities. Hope everyone has had as much fun as I’ve had. And for me, it all begins again in a few months when I plan for AWESOME-tober-fest 2011.
Anyway, last Friday for werewolf TV week, I reviewed The Cartoon Adventures of Teen Wolf which was based on one of my favorite 80s movies, Teen Wolf. So, to cap off this year’s AWESOME-tober-fest, I’m going to review Teen Wolf as well as the sequel, Teen Wolf Too, which I think has a clever title (suck it, haters). Here we go.
Teen Wolf (1985) – Michael J Fox actually filmed this movie before he filmed Back to the Future, but Teen Wolf was released a month and a half later in August 1985 (Back to the Future was released on July 3). I sat down with my wife to watch this movie for the first time in probably 10-15 years (she had never watched it all the way through). And yes, I still enjoy it. It’s a bit cheesy. A bit goofy. Michael J Fox is wonderful as usual. Jerry Levine is great as the scheming Stiles. And it’s just a fun and funny 80s comedy about a teen werewolf. I will admit though, some of the music is an odd fit for this movie. In one basketball montage they have what sounds like a Randy Newman song that was rejected from Toy Story. And the final basketball game has a more typical 80s song over it, but it’s also weird. However I love the “Big Bad Wolf” song during the school dance scene (along with the horribly cheesy “Teen Wolf Dance”). The chick that plays Pamela is pretty hot (and reminds me of the hot blond chick from Sixteen Candles) and her neanderthal boyfriend is appropriately douchey. It’s a good movie. Not great, but good. I think, though, people may remember it as being better than it actually was. But I still enjoyed it, as did my wife. I don’t think this movie was intended to be anything other than a solid B-comedy. FYI…the next night after watching this we went to see the Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Re-release. Great double header.
Teen Wolf Too (1987) – Yes, I saw this in the theater. I loved Teen Wolf so much that I just had to. I remember enjoying it, but thinking that it was nowhere near as good as the original. So, my wife and I sat down to watch this sequel the other night and…it’s exactly as I remember. Not great. The story is extremely similar to the original movie. Replace basketball with boxing and high school with college. It’s not Bateman’s fault this movie is bad, it’s the script and special effects. The movie looks extremely cheap, the werewolf makeup is terrible and there’s like three musical interludes, two of which are montages (TWO MONTAGES!). The third musical interlude is Bateman, as the wolf, singing ‘Do You Love Me’ Ferris Bueller-style at a college party. And I remember thinking back in 1987 that was a horrible choice of songs. I guess they were trying to go classic like Bueller did for ‘Twist and Shout’, but damn, they couldn’ t find (or, more truthfully, afford) a better song? Actually, Dirty Dancing came out a few months earlier, so I believe they may have been trying to capitalize on the success of that movie. Regardless, it was a terrible scene that brings the movie to a screeching halt. There are several lame attempts to connect this movie to the original. Jason Bateman’s Todd Howard is the cousin of Fox’s character from the original. They even bring back Scott’s dad, James Hampton, for two scenes. The character of Stiles awesomely played by Jerry Levine in the first movie is recast and played by someone that looks completely different and doesn’t have half the charisma of the original. They even bring back the character of Coach Finstock but, again, recast him with a goofier actor. They also bring back Chubby from the first movie. All of these feel more like the studio saying, “Hey, remember the original movie? It was good right? So you’ll remember these guys and like this movie even though it sucks”. I was really hoping to have been colored by my love of the original when I saw this in the theater, but it wasn’t that. The movie just blew. I was surprised to find out Todd’s faculty advisor is played by Kim Darby. I didn’t even remember it was her. She was the little girl in True Grit with John Wayne, as well as the mom in Better Off Dead. She’s not great either. So, yes, overall this is probably as bad as you remember. However, I still have a soft spot for it because it’s a Teen Wolf movie. And I’m looking forward to MTV’s take on it. I’ll probably hate it, because by all indications they are totally gaying it up like Twilight, but I’m going to watch it.
Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.
Cavalcade of Awesome 