“The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie” February 2025
- as announced in Animation Scoop by Jerry Beck, Editor
Ketchup Entertainment announced today the wide North American release date for its latest theatrical acquisition, The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, which is slated for Friday, February 28th, 2025.
The critically-acclaimed film produced by Warner Bros. Animation made its world premiere to a sold-out enthusiastic, international audience at the prestigious Annoy International Animation Film Festival in June earlier this year. Ketchup Entertainment's presentation of The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie will make its North American premiere this Friday, October 18 at the Animation Is Film festival considered an Oscar launchpad for films in the race for Best Animated Feature, with plans for a Academy Awards qualifying run in 2024.
One of the greatest comedic duos in history, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck make their hilarious return to the big screen in The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, as unlikely heroes and Earth’s only hope when faced with the threat of alien invasion. The animated sci-fi comedy adventure is a richly-crafted story told on a scope and scale that’s out of this world, with all the laugh-out-loud gags, vibrant visuals, and beloved characters who make theLooney Tunesso iconic.
Gareth West, CEO of Ketchup Entertainment said, “For generations, the Looney Tunes have held a soft spot in the hearts of fans the world over, including my own. It’s a true pleasure to bring into theaters Peter Browngardt’s hilariously smart, emotional, and gorgeously rendered story for fans and movie-lovers of all ages to experience a wholly new and original cinematic adventure with our friends, Porky and Daffy.”
Presented by Ketchup Entertainment and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is directed by Pete Browngardt and written by Darrick Bachman, Pete Browngardt, Kevin Costello, Andrew Dickman, David Gemmill, Alex Kirwan, Ryan Kramer, Jason Reicher, Michael Ruocco, Johnny Ryan, and Eddie Trigueros. Sam Register and Pete Browngardt serve as Executive Producers, Alex Kirwan as Supervising Producer, Michal Baum as Line Producer, Nick Cross as Art Director, and Aaron Spurgeon as Production Designer.
If John Lennon were still alive today he would have turned 84 years old yesterday... Paul McCartney posted this pic from a recent concert of his and wrote "Happy Birthday John. Thanks for being there."
My sister in law sent me a picture of John Lennon with his son Sean, both of them celebrating their birthdays which were coincidentally on the same day - - and I couldn't help adding myself crashing the party!!
Spend the creepy season with Haunted Barnat the grand old Paramount Theater for our annual 2024 Horror-Thon! We'll be haunting the lobby with our collection of movie artifacts, monstrous memories and all those stories! (Make sure to ask about the one with the miniature ghost couple sitting at the end of the bed - that one is guaranteed to give you chills!)
Come SEE the best weekend of monster movies anywhere, eat a truck full of popcorn and meet up with all your favorite FIENDS! It's going to be a FANGtastic weekend!
Individual Movies are $7 or grab a weekend pass for $30
- - -
The Wolf Man – Friday, October 25th at 6:00 PM
1941 – 1 Hour 10 Minutes
Upon his return to his father’s estate,
aristocrat Larry Talbot meets a beautiful woman, attends a mystical
carnival and uncovers a horrifying curse.
Horror – Fantasy
Friday the 13th – Friday, October 25th at 8 PM
1980 – 1 Hour 35 Minutes – Rated R
A group of teenage camp counselors
attempt to re-open an abandoned summer camp with a tragic past, but they
are stalked by a mysterious, relentless killer.
Horror
Christine – Saturday, October 26th at 1:15 PM
1988 – 1 Hour 50 Minutes – Rated R
A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it.
Horror – Fantasy
The Wickerman – Saturday, October 26th at 3:45 PM
1973 – 1 Hour 28 Minutes – Rated R
A puritan police sergeant arrives in a
Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan
locals claim never existed.
Horror – Mystery
Dracula – Saturday, October 26th at 6:00 PM
1931 – 1 Hour and 15 Minutes
Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends
a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a
London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for
potential victims by night.
Horror – Drama
Eraserhead – Saturday, October 26th at 8:00 PM
1977 – 1 Hour and 29 Minutes
Henry Spencer tries to survive his
industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams
of his newborn mutant child.
Horror – Fantasy
The Witches of Eastwick – Sunday, October 29th at 2 PM
1987 – 1 Hour 58 Minutes – Rated R
Three single women in a picturesque
village have their wishes granted, at a cost, when a mysterious and
flamboyant man arrives in their lives.
Just some random model sheets to brighten your day of my favorite cartoon character of all time - - and a naked Elmer Fudd, because - well - - WHY NOT?...
Hats off to Jim Soper - the character designer for the latest incarnation of our Looney Tunes favorites. I like the obvious harkening back to the Warner Bros Bob Clampett hey-day, and little touches which are just (chef's kiss) moo-whah!! The yellow gloves on Bugs - - Elmer's red nose...
and of course the truly daffy, Daffy!!
and of course this would be a perfect time to mention Daffy and Porky Pig in their very first ever full motion picture, The Day The Earth Blew Up - - yep, you heard right, mister!! - - keep an eye out for THAT!!
I was minding my own business on the world wide web and someone slapped me on the back yelling "TAG!! YOU'RE IT!!" I got hit with The Album Challenge - - Damn!! - - and since this blog is in need for some new content, might as well put it HERE TOO, albeit out of context - but that doesn't really matter, does it? Enjoy... and just be thankful I can't slap YOU on the back!!...
- - -
DAY ONE...
Okay, Julian, [the back slapper who tagged me]
I'm not going to be able to rack up a list but I will (quite randomly)
pick a few albums I remember being - what's the assignment -
influential? Inspiring? Part of my childhood? Okay - here's an odd one.
My first pick...
The Muppet Movie (1979)
... includes of course "Rainbow
Connection". I can recall listening to that album quite a bit - in fact,
I'll tell you something you probably might find amusing - but there's a
cassette tape somewhere of Lloyd and I doing the
whole damn movie (I kid you not!) - including all the songs. Imagine
Lloyd, practically bursting blood vessels in his head - doing Miss
Piggy's "Never Before". We also did a pretty convincing "I Hope That
Something Better Comes Along" I was Kermit and Lloyd did a pretty
impressive Rowlf The Dog.
We would often slip into everyday
conversations lines like "millions of people happy!" just for a laugh.
If you've seen the movie (which I bet you have) that's what intrigues
Kermit to set out on his adventure, when Dom Deluise (as a Hollywood
agent) coaxes Kermit to spread his talents outside of his familiar
swamp.
"Moving Right along" - another good song, a very buddy-movie
moment between Kermit and Fozzie Bear- and then there was a song you can
almost imagine Aerosmith covering, Dr Teeth and The Electric Mayhem
doing "Can You Picture That?" (Has sort of a "Walk This Way" feel to it,
I think).
Now I'm no Mike Sargent,
but this being a "soundtrack" album - you think he'd approve? Who needs
Jerry Goldsmith when you've got Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher! Oh,
lest I forget, the album also includes the beautiful and yet oddly out
of place "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday" sung by Gonzo.
What's he
singing about? Where's this fit in with the rest of the movie? No one
knows - and it's never explained. Perhaps that's all part of the plan.
"We were still in the thick of telling our Turtles' stories when we were told to put our crayons down, so it's a huge treat to get to work with the Green Team Supreme again, and to get to tell a new story with Khary Randolph and Emilio Lopez, my brothers from the show... it just couldn't be better!"
If there's one thing that ALL of my Out Of Bodies brothers LOVED to do for each other - it was THIS... we LOVED to present each other with mixed tapes. Not just ordinary mixed tapes, but very often mixed tapes in which we spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME creating ridiculous cover art for. It didn't really matter what was actually ON the tape - the COVERS were the thing that would always get us chuckling.
We loved cutting out pictures... applying rub-on lettering (remember Letraset? Now THERE'S a blast from the past!)
Here's one (or two, or three) that Joe recently re-discovered while going through some things he had in storage, that I made for him years ago... and he sent me these pics.
I love the fact that he intentionally presented this one in SUCH a delightful setting...
Every now and then, just for shits and giggles, I do a search to see if any of the animated things I've done YEARS ago while I worked at Ovation Films pop up on YouTube. You'd be surprised at what I've found... long forgotten things like McGruff The Crime Dog, The Berstain Bears Play Ball, Deck The Halls With Wacky Walls... and lo and behold, someone posted a drug PSA I worked on... "WASTED: a true story" - a 30 min live action Public Service Announcement with interspersed animated segments throughout.
It's always fun to find these - keep in mind I was only 19, this was my FIRST job - and here I was working in a relatively small animation studio at 33 West 45th street that looked pretty much like what you'd expect it to look like in the early 80s - an old building a few doors over from a greasy spoon diner where a guy was flippin' burgers on a grill - just around the block from the diamond district. I'd take the subway and a bus before that, all the way from College Point in Queens - this lanky, long haired kid who didn't look all that much different from the kid I was drawing (minus the bloodshot eyes, of course!)
Ovation Films was run by Art Petricone and Howard Basis - who I met a year earlier in '79 during my senior year at The High School of Art & Design as part of an Internship Program. When High School finished they offered me a job - and although I just applied to SVA I thought... Hmm... go to SVA with the HOPES of someday working in the animation biz - or ACTUALLY working in the animation biz RIGHT NOW! (seemed like a no-brainer, eh?) I actually ended up STILL going to SVA (at nights) where I'd frequently bump into my other friends - who all seemed to be working on one thing or the other - one guy (Hi James!) was working on decapitating zombie heads at Industrial Light & Magic... another (Hi Pierre!) worked with Neal Adams... my OOB brothers (Hi Dan, Joe, Mark, Lloyd) to name just a few, were all buzzing around - these were indeed magical times!
Eventually I was approached by the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Guild, like a scene out of Goodfellas - welcome to The Animation business, kid! You're a made man now... now pay your dues! This is also when I met some unforgettable people - animators like Bill Davis, Helen Komar, Yvette Kaplan, Vinny Cafarelli and Candy Kugel - all who've taught me immeasurably valuable lessons! I remember groups of us would go to the Art Students League together to do life drawing - we'd go to the Thalia Theater to watch a Max Fleisher retrospective on Betty Boop - Oh, and did I mention on one occasion with them I had a face to face with Jim Henson (and Kermit The Frog)?
Okay, okay - but you came here for Wasted: a true story... sorry, I got carried away... Back in the early 80s PSA's were all the rage - McGruff The Crime Dog was Taking A Bite Out Of Crime and First Lady Nancy Reagan was kicking off her "Just Say NO!" anti-drug campaign. Ovation won out on the bid to the "Wasted" project and Howard presented me with the task of drawing out the scenes, depicting Tim (the real-life character of this story) in various scenarios of drug-addled decline. Tim going after his sister with a knife, Tim confronted by his mother when she notices her family heirloom candle-stick holders have gone missing, Tim smoking weed, Tim popping pills, Tim drinking booze, Tim hitting rock bottom, Tim not fitting in anymore with his friends - you get the idea.
Howard did the animation and as usual, I assisted him with the in-betweens. The ladies in the ink and paint department, which was within ear-shot of where I sat, were having a ball adding bloodshot eyes to the cell drawings when the client sent the note that Tim needs to look "more stoned".
I actually don't think I ever got to see the completed film until now - over 40 years later! Seeing it now I was reminded how the tail-end of the film was done by another studio - I had forgotten about that - who for some reason seemed to ignore how Tim looks in the beginning of the film, as if they had never seen the preliminary drawings, and they drew him unrecognizably different - but perhaps that was the whole idea? It was, after all, meant to show how getting high changed Tim into an "old man version of himself".
I believe the last sequence animated by Howard was when Tim is in such bad shape he sees the Devil itself - just before the animation style seems to slip into this weird, dream sequence with photographic backgrounds and a stumbling figure that appears to have been a live action segment that's been rotoscoped - very reminiscent of what Ralph Bakshi was doing in those days. Suddenly it turned into a very different film altogether.
Me, as drawn by Bill Davis
I also remember that nobody liked the pacing of the live-action segments. Tim and his sister seem to tell their stories in slow motion - the viewer begins to feel stoned just LISTENING to them - and that was when it first came out! It did not age well... recent reviews of the project have called it "cringe-inducing"... and it's prompted many reaction videos on YouTube and even a re-dub.
And yet, back during its premiere, when its prime audience was older elementary, junior and senior high school students, as well as teachers, parents, counselors and law enforcement authorities - "Wasted: a true story" had won awards. It was part of a cooperative effort of the public school system, the American Council for Drug Education, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments - and back when they were still counting these things the project involved 7,400 teachers and 184,000 students and their families in 592 Washington-area schools. But that was then... today a staff writer at The Merry Jane warns "This Anti-Weed PSA will make you LOSE YOUR MIND."
Well - if YOU'D like to lose YOUR mind as well I've included it here below for YOUR viewing pleasure - - or displeasure - - whatever... Don't like it, you can blame Nancy Reagan.
Courtesy of 4Kids Flashback Tara Sands and Steve Yurko here's an exclusive interview with my buddy Lloyd!
Anyone here would know him as a member of our band The Out Of Bodies - but did you know Lloyd was a Director and Writer at 4Kids Entertainment who worked on Yu-Gi-Oh!, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Incredible Crash Dummies, Viva Piñata and Rocket Monkeys? Hold onto your hat, 'cause its true! And for a short while here's a link to an interview that was recorded just a few weeks ago! ENJOY!!
The link below will take you to the 4Kids Flashback Podcast page - once there just click on the episode:
While cleaning up in my den I came across this... my signed copy of Harry Nilsson's The Point. Nothing much to add tonight - 'cept that it took me back to this... "Meeting Harry"...
Here we are in 2023 and the Beatles are chart toppers once AGAIN??!
The abandoned third Anthology track "Now and Then", which was meant to accompany The Beatles "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" in 1995 - but shelved due to excessive tape hiss and glitches galore - has been resuscitated - CLEANED UP (using AI technology - more on this later) and COMPLETED by the last two surviving Beatles - Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
...It's also (as of this time of writing) a Top 10 Hit on Billboard's charts (at #7) and #1 on the UK's Official Singles Chart!
BUT BEFORE I GO ON
Let me just squeeze this in here - - right upfront...
The bottomless quagmire that anyone writing about the Beatles finds themselves in is that just about ANYTHING said about the Beatles has ALREADY been said - and NOW AND THEN is no exception. Since it's release the media has been inundated with opinions, reviews, praise and scorn (although not too much scorn, actually) and - dear God - those teary-eyed REACTION videos on YouTube! So let me say right off the bat - forgive me - I may be preaching to the choir (or schooling the academy?) when I state the obvious, reveal the well-known, and refry those Beatle beans... but since you're already here...
EVERYONE KNOWS (DON'T THEY?)
1994 was the beginning of something beautiful. At the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony where John Lennon was posthumously inducted by his widow, Yoko Ono - she hand-delivered a cassette to Paul McCartney which contained several John Lennon home recordings that he did in 1977. On the tape were the unfinished/unreleased recordings of "Free As A Bird", "Grow Old With Me", "Real Love" and "Now And Then".
"Grow Old With Me" had already been released on "Milk And Honey" in 1984 - (and again in 1998 on the John Lennon Anthology box set with full George Martin orchestration) so the three surviving Beatles (dubbed The Threetles) focused their attentions on the other three songs for the Beatles Anthology sessions, which commenced in March 1995.
It was big BIG news back then just to learn that the remaining Beatles all agreed on reuniting - and they were going to utilize home recordings of John Lennon to release "NEW" Beatles recordings! I remember watching the countdown on TV for the "Free As A Bird" video. WHAT WOULD THIS SOUND LIKE? The anticipation was met with something unforgettable - a familiar sound that resonates in our DNA. Ringo's drums, George's haunting slide guitar, Paul's suigeneris bass, John's voice which sounded both familiar and ethereal - and those Beatles harmonies... even moreso on their second song "Real Love" - we were actually HEARING the Beatles again.
COMMENCE THE NITPICKING
Now SOME would say - adding three former Beatles to a John Lennon demo - does that REALLY make it a Beatles track? Okay - what are we going to do here - call in LAWYERS? Define a Beatles track. One might say - it's not the Beatles unless they're all alive, in the same room, recording at once... and perhaps you'd be right. But others would say (aside from saying go f-yourselves) that we'll TAKE WHAT WE'VE BEEN GIVEN... for "Free As A Bird/Real Love" was the "reunion" we thought we'd NEVER live to see. Although, technically, it was three Beatles and John Lennon on cassette tape - nonetheless it was beautiful... heartfelt... and we're awfully GLAD they did it (I know I am!)
Now, let's get to NOW AND THEN...
NOW...
Considering that the original demo of Now And Then was almost undecipherable, incomplete and somewhat depressing (due to sound quality - not sentiment) it's nothing short of amazing what Paul McCartney did with it. Okay, let's address the elephant in the room... artificial intelligence software had SOMETHING to do with it - and it was somewhat controversial.
Now let's be clear - we're not talking robot John Lennon here - what you hear is 100% John Lennon. The original recording was John Lennon singing and playing piano on cassette tape - with a TV playing in the background (yes, you read that right - a TV was playing in the background!) So what this AI software does is it learns the sound of John Lennon's voice - and then pulls every OTHER sound that's NOT John Lennon's voice (piano, TV, tape hum, clicks and ticks) OUT. That's it - plain and simple. Oh you should have HEARD the panic I heard when Paul announced that the tape was being salvaged by AI - - everyone thought the worst of it - - John's going to be artificially created! Paul's ruining the Beatles! ...Not so. Relax.
AND THEN...
This technology wasn't available in 1995 when Jeff Lynne had the production task of working with "Free As A Bird/Real Love" - which is testament to what a genius producer Lynne is, as he did a terrific job. the Now And Then demo tape - as anyone who's heard it will tell you - was a REAL MESS. George Harrison, at the time, called it "f-ing RUBBISH". They gave it a few tries. McCartney said "George didn't like it. The Beatles, being a democracy, we didn't do it."
Listening to the Now And Then demo?
...AND NOW...
Present day - upon learning that they were now able to get AROUND that problem Harrison's widow issued a press release stating "George felt the technical issues with the demo were insurmountable and concluded that it was not possible to finish the track to a high enough standard. If he were here today, Dhani and I know he would have wholeheartedly joined Paul and Ringo in completing the recording of Now And Then."
A COMPLICATED ASSESSMENT
So... Was it good? Was it worth it? What do you THINK? First, a handful of comments sent to me by friends...
"It's a bit of a dirge. I just watched the video for the first time. It's fantastic. Much better than the song. I don't think there is any George on this. It's a shame this is the last "Beatles" song."
Another said they felt chills, "first by the song, then the video gobsmacked me again! This is the closest we'll ever get to having a religious experience. One thing's for sure - we picked a great band to love!"
The Out Of Bodies pretending to be The Beatles
HIT PLAY
I too, like much of the world, heard the song first - without visuals - and, like much of the world, absorbing this as the "LAST Beatles recording" went into this ALREADY clutching a box of Kleenex. The first thing you hear is Paul's straightforward piano - playing very true to what John had done while he lived at the Dakota 47 years ago. Then John's voice comes in - as Paul had said it would be - crystal clear. .....CHILLS.....!!
I found myself straining though to hear George's presence - I wondered if that slide guitar was his (I learned later, it wasn't - it was Paul) - and then you hear the beautiful addition of orchestration added by George Martin's son - Giles (very nice, very nice!) - and what's THIS? Beatles harmony in the background? Where did THAT come from? (Turned out, as I read later, they used background singing from "Because", "Eleanor Rigby" and "Here, There and Everywhere") - - and then, before you knew it, the song shifts down in tempo, and ends. Knowing that there was no real ending on the demo I was wondering how they were going to handle this part. At 4 minutes and 8 seconds, the song ends. I was left wishing there was more.
WANTING MORE
Up against "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" which have George's slide guitar ALL OVER them - you DO notice that, even with the orchestral embellishments of Giles Martin and Paul filling in with an admirable George-like slide guitar, Now And Then DOES still seem to be... MISSING... SOMETHING...
...that integral, unmistakable George slide guitar. He might be playing acoustic guitar on this, I'm not certain - I know there was something of George's carried over from the Anthology sessions, but you wouldn't know it. It must have been daunting enough to complete "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" without John... it must've been even harder to do "Now And Then" without George.
THE VIDEO
The video does a very good job at filling in some of these gaps - although to some, it also seemed highly manipulative. Intermixed with present day grey-haired Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr we see Beatle-day George Harrison in a Sgt. Pepper suit and a smiling, dancing Beatle-day John Lennon - pointing at the others - as if even HE can't believe this AMAZING REUNION.
I became instantly fascinated with this video - but I remember saying to my buddy Lloyd "Just don't do what I did... started to look at animated young John and George, frame by frame... you look too closely they start to look like marionettes." Where he answered "Yeah, no point." "I know!! I have a tendency to look behind the curtain. It spoils things. But overall, VERY NICE!!" and he answered "No... you have a tendency to enjoy hearing YOURSELF COMPLAIN!"
The video also appears to have an aim at convincing us all that George, does in fact, contribute to (and approve of) Now And Then - as it includes 1995 Anthology Session George - strumming along while Paul mouths the words. Ringo is also there, of course, playing the drums - although he decided later to re-record them.
Likewise, with the overall meaning of the song - 1977 John was probably not singing about his other half of the Lennon/McCartney partnership - but film-maker Peter Jackson, who created the Now And Then video, would help cement it forever more - that it's NOW a love song between old friends - living and departed. John Lennon, looking out across the ocean, sees four young Beatles clad in striped bathing suits circa 1963.
I know it's true, it's all because of you, And if I make it through, it's all because of you
None of these visual connectors are coincidental. It all appears to be carefully crafted - handpicked - to create the perfect BEATLE-FAN DREAM. And for most of us it's just what we wanted - it's just what we need - especially now.
Now and then, I miss you. Oh, now and then, I want you to be there for me. Always to return to me.
AND IN CONCLUSION
The world is a cynical place, where nothing is off limits to armchair critics and cynical types everywhere... (sometimes I find myself doing the same thing!) and I've grown tired of those who've said that Now And Then shouldn't have been done - and questioned McCartney's motives - as if he needed the money. Please - the guy is a multi Billionaire - he doesn't need the money. Maybe Ringo does but NOT McCartney (that's a JOKE folks, relax!!) I see it as a loose-end that was lovingly tied up nicely and shared with us all. It could have easily been left as a "what if" - and I'm glad that McCartney decided to give it another go.
Perhaps he wouldn't have if technology didn't make it a possibility - surely he had seen how it helped turn 55 hours of Beatles documentary footage into the critically acclaimed "Get Back" series - it made it look and sound as if it was recorded yesterday - even though it was 54 years ago. So for all of the bogey-man status AI has gotten recently, at least in this case, it's done more good than harm.
The Threetles 1995 as imagined by Mark DeGross.
AND IN THE END
With every passing day and a quick browse of YouTube - Now And Then CONTINUES to inspire discussions, demo to finished track comparisons, more reaction videos, note by note analysis and even cover bands doing versions of the song as if it was recorded circa 1964. For all the fuss and controversies surrounding Now And Then - to me it's simply a moving remembrance of four brothers who had each others backs and in spite of their problems never lost track of the fact that they truly loved each other.
I had a brief encounter with George Romero, or as he's known to his fans "the Godfather of Zombies" - the creator behind the iconic "Night Of The Living Dead (1968)" and an ongoing onslaught of these shambling flesh eaters for the next four decades... "Dawn Of The Dead (1978)", "Day Of The Dead (1985)", "Land Of The Dead (2005)", "Diary Of The Dead (2007)" and "Survival Of The Dead (2009)"...
It was at one of those comic conventions, Big Apple Con 2006? I think... not sure - where I also met Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark (Cassandra Peterson) and Major Healy from "I Dream Of Jeannie" (Bill Daily) - I would much rather had met Barbara Eden - but anyway... no doubt he's heard this a MILLION times - but as he was signing his autograph to the Night Of The Living Dead cast and crew photo you see above I said something like "You know, you scared the SHIT outta me with this movie!" and without missing a beat (as if he was taking what I just said LITERALLY) he looked at me through those big Sally Jessy Raphael glasses and apologetically quipped "Oh.... SORRY about that!!"
But yeah... okay, In reality I DID manage to retain bowel control - but he really DID scare me - - over and over and OVER again. And I can say with absolute certainty, and without hyperbole - he really DID create the modern day ZOMBIE. No one can argue that. Without George Romero there would be no Walking Dead comic or TV series of the same name - which in itself went on longer (and continues to go on in spin-offs) much longer than ANYONE had anticipated.
What IS IT with these zombies that captures the hearts and minds (not to mention, the brains and spleens) of so many? Back in 1967 when Romero set out with his film crew to that little farmhouse south of Pittsburgh he had absolutely no idea that HIS concept of zombies was going to be such a huge cult phenomenon - often copied, elaborated on, and cemented firmly into the eternal canon of unforgettable monster troves loved by millions.
PRE-ROMERO ZOMBIES
Prior to Romero's concept zombies were more "magic" than science. They were more or less, to put it plainly, arguably NOT dead at all - but helpless individuals... stripped of their free will... controlled by and repurposed to do the bidding of their captor. They were basically robots, put in their predicament by sometimes nothing more than mind control - other times via supernatural means? Ask anyone in monster circles worth their salt what the first pre-Romero zombie movie was, and they'll tell you "White Zombie" (1932)... and that's pretty much how they remained until about 35 years later.
A pre-Romero Zombie, 1932
ROMERO'S VISION
It's difficult to surmise if Romero set out to intentionally create a new genre of zombie - or if his "Night of the Flesh Eaters" (as it was originally titled) was just interpreted that way - and it stuck. Either way it certainly didn't hurt his career and he gladly accepted the notoriety. No matter whatever else he did he would always be known for his zombie pics.
ENTER ZOMBIE #1
When we're introduced to zombie #1 (as it was listed in Romero's script) it took EVERYONE by surprise. When Barbara and her brother Johnny go to the Evans City Cemetery to pay their respects to their recently departed mother, Johnny (being somewhat of a jerk to his sister) insists on scaring her by pretending the dead all around them are after her, by saying the iconic line of the movie "They're coming to GET YOU, Barbara!" In the distant background we see a figure of a man walking through the cemetery - who is, at this point, seemingly just another "visitor". "Look! There's one of them NOW!" Johnny says. She tells Johnny to "stop it!" and warns, "he'll HEAR you!" They have NO IDEA what's about to happen...
When zombie #1 comes closer Barbara is too ashamed to look directly at him - and when it lunges at her Johnny intercedes and wrestles with it - falls backwards - and hits his head at the base of a tombstone. Zombie #1 seems more interested in Barbara and pursues her - leaving Johnny behind. At this point, we (the audience) are just scared witless - who IS this man? WHY is he acting like that? Barbara flees, loses her car and shoes - and ends up running into a nearby farmhouse - crazy man in relentless pursuit. Something is DEFINITELY wrong with that guy - but no one knows .....WHAT!??
Barbara finds a half-eaten corpse on the second landing and goes to run from the house - where she meets Ben, who is also running from the dead, who are now appearing in greater numbers. They discover more people hiding in the basement. No one knows WHAT'S GOING ON or WHY... Romero plays with the audience by leaving much of the horror off-screen. We only get to HEAR about the individual encounters with the dead that these people have gone through. Then there's the radio... that radio that plays an integral part in the movie.
As my buddy Joey pointed out years ago, the eerie news reports coming in over the radio add much to the movie's sense of anxiety. To hear the confirmation that the recently un-buried dead are coming back to life and attacking (and in EVERY instance, EATING) the living was a horrifying nightmare in which to come to terms with.
Joey pointed out that when he first saw NotLD when he was just 13 years old, during the radio broadcast scenes, the network showing the movie superimposed the disclaimer "A DRAMATIZATION" that scrolled across the bottom of the screen - as if ANY ONE tuning in might actually think the news reports were REAL... and that the dead were actually COMING BACK TO LIFE! Imagine that... as if the movie wasn't terrifying ENOUGH... NOW it had us imagining what could very well be just beyond our own window blinds!
TEAM SLOW or TEAM FAST?
Some years after the first NotLD, with the popularity of video games and their need to keep gamers engaged, a newer rendition of zombies have cropped up - or more accurately, a different variant... zombies moving at hyper speeds - running, chasing, darting at and tearing apart their victims like wild animals. This led to debates among zombie fans everywhere, splitting into two different camps. The zombie purists (like myself) preferring Romero's original SLOW moving zombies VS the FAST moving zombies as depicted in movies like "28 Days Later" and the 2004 remake of "Dawn Of The Dead" by Director Zack Snyder. You had to pick a side. I opted for SLOW moving zombies with a multitude of reasons to back me up (and yes... I know how sad that sounded just as it came out of my mouth...)
The OOBs pretending to be zombies.
DEAD or ALIVE?
Firstly, I argued that fast zombies could hardly be categorized as zombies at all. To me, they weren't so much reanimated dead as they were "infected". What other explanation could be given that would make someone move QUICKER "dead" than they could EVER have moved when they were "alive"? Throughout all of Romero's zombie movies (and in most ways even throughout The Walking Dead, which for the most part follows Romero's template) there is SOMEWHAT of a logic that remains intact.
With Romero's slow-moving zombies, once you're re-animated you come back NO physically different (aside from black rings under your eyes and perhaps a pale complexion) than you were BEFORE - most notably NO additional strength, NO added vigor - and you DON'T suddenly become Usain Bolt! Your body moves as if some force is pulling you along - you move spastically.
With the fast-moving types - one might argue that they're not dead at all... they just caught some really bad "rage virus" that turns them all into Tasmanian Devils. Face one of those, let alone a whole bunch of those, and you'll quickly be outrun and torn to pieces. Sure, that might SOUND like a scary thing - but in my humble opinion something shambling towards you with racoon-eyes is much scarier. When I first heard about AMC's Walking Dead and learned that they were following George Romero's zombie guidelines, I knew it was going to be something I could get behind. Unfortunately, Romero himself - when asked to participate in the writing of a few episodes for The Walking Dead series, respectively declined.
ANOTHER LOOK
Watching NOTLD again just before writing this brings up a few things I should mention. I've already gone through the fact that Zombie #1 played by Bill Hinzman is one of the CREEPIEST zombies I've EVER seen. It's his depiction that beautifully sets the whole creepy tone for the rest of the movie - and creates somewhat of a zombie precedent for the whole franchise. Watching it again today I realized that he's really not all that slow. He actually pursues poor Barbara with a fair amount of speed and unwavering persistence. While Barbara manages to outrun him, it's not the speed that worries you - it's that these things don't tire. They don't need to sleep and quite frankly - besides chasing you they don't really have anything else to do! He stumbles, jerks, spins about stiffly - doesn't know where the hell he is - eeshh, even thinking about him now gives me the willies. Let's move on from zombie #1, shall we?
Another thing I realized while watching this again - these zombies in the FIRST NOTLD movie - there's not a single scene where they attack anyone and BITE. You only hear on the radio about them eating their victims. There is a scene where two victims blow up in a truck as they're trying to pump gas to make their escape - and after the fire subsides the zombies can be seen reaching into the smoldering truck and pulling out pieces of them and eating - but at this point it's more or less a barbecue, isn't it? Even the little girl who dies in the basement (I'm going to assume anyone reading this has already seen the movie) doesn't bite her mother, she actually picks up a trowel and plunges it into her chest. Okay, she does eat her dad's arm off - but that's mostly off-screen.
FROM NIGHT TO DAWN
By the time Romero gets to "Dawn Of The Dead" ten years later you DEFINITELY see things in that film that you simply can NOT unsee. The only time I've EVER found myself feeling queasy - and I'll never forget it - is that scene in the beginning of the movie where a woman runs up to her husband (not realizing he's dead) and he takes a BITE out of her throat! I saw this in the movie theater and I remember hearing the entire audience SCREAM!
I mean the whole audience actually SCREAMED!!!
Again.... full circle back to George Romero signing my picture. I should of added he almost made me toss my cookies! But that was Dawn Of The Dead - a much gorier picture - back to Night Of...
It's creepy - and the creepiness doesn't happen due to any excessive in-your-face gore - because yes, there is SOME, but to today's standards it's really subdued. The zombies, aside from their behavior, and a little dark make-up around their eyes - look just like your Aunt Matilda, and George your neighbor who lives down the road. Maybe that's what makes it creepy. They're people you know...
...but they're NOT.
There's also lots of social commentary that people can easily read into the movie, which was in part by design but mostly happenstance - as Romero explained - the real-life assassination of Martin Luther King Jr happened just prior to the film's release. Although the script never mentioned race, the lead character, Ben, played by actor Duane Jones, is black - and there is palatable discourse between him and Harry Cooper, played by Karl Hardman, the white father of the family featured in the film - who Ben ends up shooting.
NOT WHAT YOU WERE EXPECTING
The film's ending took many audiences at the time by surprise - Ben survives the night, only to be mistaken as a zombie in the morning and shot in the head by a gun toting posse sweeping the area. The movie ends with disturbing, grainy stills of zombies (including Ben) being impaled on meat hooks and thrown on a bonfire - while a canned, echoey soundtrack plays, intermixed with the sound of walkie talkies makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up on end. The End.
