The detail about the Tesla just reminds me of the Simpsons episode "Maximum Homerdrive".

The Russo Brothers promoting Avengers: Doomsday

Sheesh, really? It just seems like a weird angle to pursue in promotions, especially when Universal cleverly had a lot of the Wicked: Part One merch ready to go in the runup to Halloween '24. Like, Disney has whole annual seasonal promotions they're not taking advantage of to push this.

we used to mock rip-offs of popular movies, but now, even rip-offs are too risky. everything has to come pre-established, everything needs to remind you of something you used to like.

This is what happens when Disney's marketing team missed having a final trailer ready to send out with Forgotten Island (even if that film flopped) but releases so few movies now that it was either this or putting it in front of Whalefall. Football fans LOVE mother-daughter bonding fantasies!

Yeah, because the audience that watches football is going to be interested in a fantasy animation about mother-daughter bonding where the most significant male character is a 3-eyed cat...

Ebenezer and Focker-in-Law are getting more promotion too. There's no tie-in books ready until the week of release (the art book isn't until December), whereas they're usually on shelves this month, no merchandise available, and no tie-in deals announced. This is Strange World levels of neglect.

I think one reason I have taken Tim Curry's death a lot harder than any other artist I've admired the work of is because, well, there's the end of an age of charismatic heavies/anti-heroes right there. (sniffle) (As it happens, he toplined Cherry's other non-Ernest film, Pirates of the Plain.)

(That's why we haven't had a great Disney villain in so so long. 'Course the franchise age has discouraged the kinds of character actors that used to fill such roles getting that kind of work...)

Kids' movies weren't afraid to get legit spooky into the mid-'90s, after that, they just seemed to lose the magic. (Or rather it became more the province of overseas filmmakers.)

Interesting that one of the only non-Ernest films he did, the ill-fated "New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy" film, had them tangling with a mummy...

Me and my younger sibs actually saw this in a theater and my little sis (then 8) admitted she was getting a little teary at the end before it was revealed the dog was okay too. 💞

It works a lot better in that regard than Hocus Pocus, so naturally that's the one Disney keeps pushing this time of year. 🙄 Also has some real laughs: "He never knew when to quit...", "Sure, they swim better but what am I going to call him, Splinter?", "How'd you get so old?"

Hewwooo Wadies

Ghostbusters II we saw like 3 times in a theater when I was 11! I think it gets a bad rap; yeah, it is pretty much a Mad Libs reskinning of 1, but like Home Alone 2 it adds some fun stuff too (Peter MacNichol!).

I have become aware via this site that there are Michael Jackson fans making an organized effort to get “Thriller” to No. 1 on the charts over Halloween (Oct. 30-Nov. 5), aka the “Thriller Challenge”. I am ready to lead a charge in preventing that from happening, who’s with me?!?

No boss, I can't see there's anything problematic with promoting a Michael Jackson tribute for a family clubbing Halloween event. Oh, I'll stick these up outside some primary schools.