First off, let me say that the only reason I picked this up was that it was on sale at Blockbuster in their previously viewed section for $9.99. It looked like it would be a fun romp into the world of fandom, much the way Trekkies was. Starring and directed by Mark Hamill, it features interviews with some of the fanboy world's greatest icons, including Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, Hugh Hefner, and Bruce Campbell. That seemed well worth $10 and an hour and a half of my time.
PREMISE: Basically, it's a documentary, only without any real facts. It plays out a bit like a reality TV series with well-placed cameras capturing "ad-lib" dialogue. Hamill plays Don Swann, a high school teacher and authority on fictional comic book hero called Commander Courage. Courage is a war-time Golden Age hero much in the style of the old Batman and Robin. Hollywood is developing a script for a film adaptation, only they're changing it to Codename: Courage, a ruthless mercenary type with big guns and a boobette sidekick. Swann is hired on as an expert on the subject, and is horrified to learn of his childhood hero's imminent remodelling. The Hollywoodites, along with a motley crew of fanboys and weirdos, heads to the real-life 2003 San Diego ComiCon (or nerd mecca, as I call it) to promote the film. Hilarity ensues.
JUDGEMENT: It's kind of weird for the ad libness of it all. I've never enjoyed watching reality TV either - the way people talk in front of a camera gets under my skin. The production values aren't great, either - I guarantee you it was barely Clerks' budget. But what made this really special was that - to put it in Hamill's words - it was the biggest love letter to fanboys and fangirls everywhere. It captured everything any nerd ever wanted to say about any comic book ever made into a movie. It didn't once make fun of the fans - in fact, it completely regarded them with respect and a certain amount of awe. After all, not everyone would walk around a show floor half naked with a blue wig, wings, and crazy makeup. If anything, it made more fun of the Hollywoodites, arrogant, rude, coffee-cigarettes-and-cocaine producer-types whose grip on reality was more flaccid than that of the Comicon attendees.
Once I actually got through the whole thing (I had to watch it in two sittings), I found I rather enjoyed it. It was smart, and after a certain point, was quite refreshing, even if it did look like a high school production. Or a Rogers Cable 10 show.
But that's hardly the best part. What was really, REALLY great about it was that all the actors are "the most famous people in Hollywood you don't know." They're all voice actors, people you know from cartoons, commercials, movies, and what have you. The second disk includes a panel of the stars and others in the voice talent industry - the "Justice League of voice acting" as one fan put it. It's an amazing gathering - Spongebob Squarepants, Pinky and the Brain, the Hollywood movie voice, Fry from Futurama, The Tick... and these actors have done just about everything under the sun in cartoons and animation.
That's where the movie's wicked sense of fun, irony and drama comes from. You're watching this motley crew of people you've never seen before, thinking to yourself, jeez, did they just pull this guy off the street and put him in the film? They're walking around the world's greatest gathering of nerds, geeks, fans, sci-fi, horror, anime and fantasy nuts, surrounded by Klingons and devilmen and Japanese kickass schoolgirls, and they're standing right next to iconic indentifiers. At one point, Hamill and the crew walks up to a table where three guys are sitting and asks to join them, but they tell him to go away. The three men at the table: Hamill's co-stars from the original Star Wars trilogy: 'Peter Mayhew' (Chewbacca), David Prowse (Darth Vader), and Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett). Billy West (aka Fry) is standing by a giant poster for Futurama. And you'd never know, looking at the guy, that he was this icon.
This movie completely rekindled my dream of becoming a voice actor. Cuz there's no way in hell my face would ever make it on any screen.
Look out Vancouver, here I come!
No comments:
Post a Comment