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Name That Movie?

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Comment Diversions | Comments (104)

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Close friend of the site and former critic for Pajiba, Ranylt Richildis, ran one of our most popular comment diversions of all time three years ago, called “Name That Movie.” The idea is this — if there’s a movie you have vague memory of from years past, but can’t quite figure out what it is, then post details about that mystery movie below, and see if another reader can help you out by naming that movie.

I think it’s time to resurrect that diversion (in fact, we should probably trot it out at least once a year, or set up a permanent place for it). I want to offer a first example from a reader of ours, but first, before we get started, on a related note, does anyone remember the Afterschool Special The Amazing Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon? I will provide a link to someone’s blog, site, or favorite charity on Pajiba Love (with Stacey’s blessing) as well as a permanent one on our blogroll to anyone that can provide me a copy of that movie in either digital format, DVD, or VHS.

Now, to get the ball rolling on this diversion, Viking has a movie he can’t place. Can you name this movie?

… a favorite filmstrip I saw as a child in the ’70s in the public school system in Virginia. I have tried every search string I can to find out the title, view it on Hulu, find an entry on Wikipedia or find any scrap of information about it. I’m really very surprised that I can’t find anything online. I was between the ages of five and eight when I saw it, so it was circulating in the school system around 1975 - 1978. It was something we were shown often in school. I remember being very fond of it, but I realize that doesn’t necessarily mean it was as good as I remember. I was hoping you could help me find it.

From what I do remember it was a Japan-imation, with a little asian boy protagonist, who finds a caterpillar. The caterpillar dances or does tricks or something and becomes famous, and some company makes it sell toothpaste, and the toothpaste resembles the caterpillar when it comes out of the tube. The caterpillar spins its cocoon and I think loses its toothpaste deal, but emerges as a butterfly so that is the happy ending. Change is good / not to be feared is the moral, if I remember any of this correctly. I don’t remember any dialog, I don’t think there was any. Sound, but not dialog.

In the comments below, help Viking out or offer up your own mystery movie for others to figure out.

(Tater Barley Banks will return to his normal time slot next weekend)









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Comments

does anyone remember the Afterschool Special The Amazing Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon?

Well go ahead and pull the fucking rug! I was gonna name it!!!

*puffs cheeks in stern concentration*

Now that....is a damn good question. I'd almost say "that sounds way too weird to be American", but if you go back and look....educational American stuff is KRAZY. Toothpaste caterpillar? Why not?

Anyway, does that other guy have to come back?

Posted by: Jay at April 17, 2010 3:31 PM

Weird animated movie from the 70/80's. All I remember is that there is time travel involved and the main character is captured and put in a big egg.

Oh and the villan is a giant brain that sends the hero into the future to kill the future version of the brain with a big black syringe.
Name that weird friggin' movie?

Posted by: Paeris at April 17, 2010 3:46 PM

Movie I saw on VHS in the early 1990s. A flying saucer crashes into a small town. The alien looks like a little boy but he has a bald head. Only an old man and a little girl know of his existence for the rest of the movie, until the end. At the end the movie the frightened townsfolk form a posse and the alien gets shot. He drags himself back into his space ship and presumably dies. Any ideas?

Posted by: Liiz at April 17, 2010 4:09 PM

Low budget independent British slasher film from the mid/late 1970s. The killer used one glove with knives/razors on it. I know for a fact it predated the first Nightmare on Elm Street, though the design is very similar to Freddy's signature glove. There is a scene at the seashore where a man in a suit is shot and the final chase sequence involves a topless woman trying to squeeze through a round window in the attic to escape. It is a slasher, though there is very little slashing and, I believe, only two onscreen deaths (including the gunshot). Anyone have any clue? It's one of my favorites, but the title is so uninspiring for a horror film I never remember it and, hence, cannot find it in my stacks of budget public domain (allegedly) horror film compendium DVDs.

Liiz, I recognize that film. I will do my best to find the title. Hopefully it will just come to me later tonight.

Posted by: Robert at April 17, 2010 4:18 PM

The movie where the teens are fighter pilots in either the future or in outer space, and the cool/hip/alternative/punk kid has some sort of fixation with cookies (I think). Some sort of weird future where there aren't that many grown-ups around maybe?

Then said kid cool dies toward the end when an alien shoots him in the stomach through a wall or something from his ship.

God damn that is vague as a ghost in the fog.

Posted by: D-Day at April 17, 2010 4:22 PM

I'm pretty sure this was a TV miniseries rather than a movie, but when I was a kid (this would have been early to mid 90s), I watched this old Australian show and I've never been able to find anything on it online.

The main character was a boy of about 8, very fair with really blonde hair, and he was called "Fatty" even though he was skinny. Everybody always thought he was naughty and he got punished a lot at school, but in reality he was actually a good kid. It might have been in black and white. And...that's all I got. Anybody else remember this? Maybe Pajibans Down Under?

Posted by: electricdaisy at April 17, 2010 5:09 PM

A girl doesn't want her grandmother to move into a nursing home. She travels to a magical land where the grass is so thick and lush that she doesn't need to wear shoes. She tries to bring back some magical berries or cherries in a crystal goblet for her grandmother to make her healthy, but as soon as she is back in the real world, she trips and spills them and they turn into rocks(?).

Also, anyone remember the movie they showed in D.A.R.E. classes in the early '00s? It was a cartoon, and the drug pusher was a shady dude in a bunny costume? I think there was another guy in a bee costume. I think it might have been called "The Land of Decisions and Choices," but I can't find it anywhere on the internet, and I really want to get high and watch it.

Posted by: Kate at April 17, 2010 5:10 PM

Ooh I have one! Probably an animated movie that came out in the late 80s. Featured a young princess who walked up the stairs in a cabin and pricked her finger on a needle I think and there were roses everywhere and her fairy godmother came to visit. All I remember after that is an advertisement for some supplementary materials and this movie had a prince who was turned into a dog.

Yea weird I know but nothing's turned up on Yahoo or Google yet. Thanks!

Posted by: grace b at April 17, 2010 5:20 PM

Robert...I believe that movie is called "The Demon" and I found it delightfully cheesy and entertaining. Especially when the chick is running to the attic wrapped in the shower curtain/topless and the detective is sniffing the victim's bed or something. I'm almost 99.9% sure this is your movie, I saw it a few years ago in college. I'm so happy someone else has seen it!

Posted by: Katie at April 17, 2010 5:29 PM

It is the James at 16 kid~~!!

Posted by: AL b at April 17, 2010 5:31 PM

OMG, Dustin, if you find that movie...

You can do it, Duffy Moon!

I have been trying to find that stupid movie forever...puffing the cheeks to lift the rock, the hot air balloon...that was good times...

I randomly quote that line to people, and they think I'm quoting fucking waterboy:P

Posted by: Melissa at April 17, 2010 5:33 PM

I think this movie is from Japan; it involved a bunch of teenagers that had to go on some sort of intergalactic quest. The thing that really stuck in my mind (as a kid) was that messages were sent through space via traveling walnuts, and once the teens played in a space dump with flies that had bodies made only of light.

Posted by: shake at April 17, 2010 6:01 PM

I randomly quote that line to people, and they think I'm quoting fucking waterboy:P

When Hank Venture said it my heart about stopped.

Posted by: Jay at April 17, 2010 6:08 PM

I have one; it's a book though. It drives me CRAZY.

All I remember is the president has been killed, or kidnapped, and everyone's trying to cover it up, and the main character is this dude who can't use the bathroom unless he has something to read and at one point he scrounges for a pamphlet so he can do his business. It's a dark comedy.

If somebody knows this I will KISS YOU.

Posted by: susan at April 17, 2010 6:21 PM

I think it is a movie from the 80's. Some girl uses a computer that is hooked up to a satellite as a dairy, and sends her diary entries out into space or something using the satellite. And then at the end she isn't allowed to do it anymore, she sends out one last entry, and it was sad. That's all I got.

Posted by: ERM at April 17, 2010 6:26 PM

shake, I can't recall the name of that movie, but I'm sure I saw it. There's one line in particular that cracked me up, some guy gets his intergalactic walnut when he bites into a tomato and he says (in a very broad American dub) "I found a nut inside my tomato" - pronouncing it to-may-to.

The bad guy at the end is also a dead set rip off of Darth Vader. That movie was whack!

Posted by: DarthBrooks at April 17, 2010 6:30 PM

Katie, it is The Demon. I knew the title was horribly generic. Maybe I'll actually write it down this time so I remember. Or maybe I'll once again walk away from the computer and try to think of the name of that slasher with the one-gloved killer that came about before ANoES.

Posted by: Robert at April 17, 2010 6:34 PM

Okay... shake, I think I found it. Typing in the search params "glowing walnut" I found this page:

http://www.badmovies.org/movies/messagespace/

I believe the movie is called, "Message From Space" and by the sounds of it, the Darth Vader at the end wasn't the only element lifted from Star Wars.

Posted by: Darth Bane at April 17, 2010 6:43 PM

Does anyone else remember the Three Musketeers commercials with the three dudes riding around in a red convertible? It was the late 80s, maybe, and I feel like a freak because nobody else knows what I'm talking about.

Posted by: Bequafina at April 17, 2010 7:14 PM

Sorry, used the wrong screen name, Darth Bane = DarthBrooks. It's early in the morning here.

Found a good trailer for the film too... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOSmIJCHqcQ

Posted by: DarthBrooks at April 17, 2010 7:15 PM

Holy cow, thanks Darth Brooks/Bane. I was young when I saw it, so I didn't get the "nut" humour ("I found a nut inside my tomato")at the time, but I sure remember my Dad laughing his ass off the in the theatre when we watched it..

Posted by: shake at April 17, 2010 7:25 PM

Kate: I know the first movie you asked about. I know I know it. I seem to remember it having some animated/animatronic characters as well. I can totally visualize the part where she trips and spills the magic beans...dammit, why can't I remember this? It will bug me all night, but I swear to you, as Clooney is my witness, I will find that movie for you.

Posted by: couch and pants at April 17, 2010 7:25 PM

grace b, I'm not sure if this will help, you find it, but Snow White's mother allegedly pricked her finger when she was sewing and saw the drops of blood on the black window sill. She wished for a daughter with white skin, red lips and black hair. Later she gave birth to Snow White, who fit the description. There are stories about Rose Red, sometimes she is Snow White's sister. Maybe your cartoon is a variation based on those characters.

I watched some detective show earlier today. That may be why the words 'allegedly' and 'fit the description' snuck into my post.

Posted by: Viking at April 17, 2010 7:40 PM

I swear that this is a real memory. I also am certain that no one can figure this out. I don't have a particular desire to rewatch it except to remember why the hell I remember bits of pieces of this particular movie, but nothing else about it.

This was a movie that I watched on TV (most likely a tv-movie) in the mid-late 1990s. All I remember is that it focused on a father, had something to do with cryogenics, involved a little boy who may or may not have been named billy (but looked like what an early 90s billy ought to look like). I also remember a treehouse and lab were used in the movies and I believe there was a dramatic scene (possibly the ending) involving a field with flowers. I think they were sunflowers.

Posted by: "luker" the barbarian at April 17, 2010 7:44 PM

@electricdaisy Fatty Finn??

Posted by: vdo86 at April 17, 2010 7:57 PM

Weirdo animated movie from the early 80s, I guess, where they're flying around in a sentient spaceship, using foul language, & at one point, the robot goes, "I'm naked, give my back my ship!"

Posted by: the new transported man at April 17, 2010 8:19 PM


Dude, who is your dealer?

I mean this question for all of you. There is some good shit going around.

This thread reads like "Movies I may have seen....or maybe they were just crazy acid flashbacks?"

Posted by: Lance at April 17, 2010 9:23 PM

I totally understand lance , sometimes I wonder if this memory is just COMPLETELY made up. That's why I want to see if someone can find it, then i'll know if I am mildly crazy for remembering bits and pieces of some terrible tv movie from the 90s or really crazy for thinking that I remembered a crazy TV movie from the 90s.

Posted by: "luker" the barbarian at April 17, 2010 9:30 PM

The movie with the spilled berries is The Hugga Bunch Movie. It is based on really creepy baby-looking dolls that came with their own mini-baby. I was the proud owner of the pink one

Posted by: rabbitene at April 17, 2010 9:30 PM

@rabbitene and couch and pants:
THANK YOU! I have to go find it and watch it now.

Posted by: kate at April 17, 2010 10:07 PM

I'm pretty sure this was a made-for-TV movie. It involved a couple that moved into a futuristic house. Somehow a human-type baby is "born" from being hatched from an egg-type thing in one of the rooms.

There is a real movie that my husband asked me about just the other day. I'm pretty sure this movie was in black and white and while I think at least som eof the actors were British, I don't know if it was a British film. It was about researchers that figured out that some part on a type of airplane would break due to vibrations and they had to prove it by setting up a vibration experiment in a lab.

Posted by: elsie at April 17, 2010 10:08 PM

@electricdaisy

My Australia Husband thinks the show you were after was called "Hey Dad"

Posted by: ThingOfThings at April 17, 2010 10:35 PM

elsie, could it be ‘Demon Seed’ 1977, which I saw as a little kid and it terrified me, or maybe ‘It’s Alive’ ?

I remember some kind of weird metallic looking egg hatching thing with a kid that says 'I'm alive'as the egg opens. I'm wondering if it is one of those. I've never seen Rosemary's Baby. Anyone know if she hatches a creepy baby in that movie?

Posted by: Viking at April 17, 2010 10:38 PM

So there was this musical I saw once that I remember loving, black and white, probably 1930s.

It was a stage comedy, and it had the song "I got my love to keep me warm." Lyrics are:

"I can't remember I worse december, just watch those icicles storm, what do I can't that icicles form. I got my love to keep me warm. Off with my overcoat, off with my gloves. I need no overcoat. I'm burning with love!"

You think with that clue I'd know what it was, but nope. No idea. I wish I could find it.

Posted by: ThingOfThings at April 17, 2010 10:38 PM

I've got another one. Anyone good with their exploitation films? I've watched so many nunsploitation/raped by the devil films (it's my own bizarre version of Catholic guilt) that only the most disgusting/strange/horrible titles stick out in my mind. I remember only one detail of one I want to revisit: a woman with a question mark scratched in her forehead in a basement, which might be a portal to a level of hell. Of all things, I'm pretty sure I saw this on Sci-Fi back in the day on heavy late-night/Sunday afternoon (nunsploitation=Sundays, obviously) rotation. I'm guessing it's a badly dubbed Italian, though it might be Spanish or even Mexican. Though the last time I dug through Mexican nunsploitation, I couldn't find this one.

Liiz, the closest I've found is Spaced Invaders, but I'm not positive. It fits a lot of the details--old man, younger girl, no one else realizes they're really are aliens--but doesn't match up in other ways. The aliens are mistaken for children because it's Halloween, but there are 5, not one. I cannot confirm if one dies in the end.

And Katie, I realize I neglected to thank you before. I really appreciate it. I even marked the DVD box with the film in it for future reference.

Posted by: Robert at April 17, 2010 10:38 PM

ThingofThings, it's called On the Avenue. A sweet little musical comedy.

Posted by: Robert at April 17, 2010 10:41 PM

@rabbitene-you are amazing!! I have been wracking my brain trying to remember which whacked out 80's toy that movie was based on, thanks so much! Also: glad to know that I wasn't just imagining things... have fun watching Kate!!

Posted by: couch and pants at April 17, 2010 10:47 PM

Posted by: couch and pants at April 17, 2010 10:51 PM

ThingofThings: Also, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong sing a wonderful version of "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm."

rabbitene: I found the Hugga Bunch movie on youtube and it is fucking TERRIFYING.

Posted by: kate at April 17, 2010 10:51 PM

So I have a few that have been plaguing me for years:

1. A small country is broke so they declare war on the US and accidentally win. I think the plan was to lose and get reparations, but when the army gets to NY everyone is hiding because of a nuclear bomb drill or something, so the army of 15 or so takes NY with bows and arrows. That is really all I remember of the movie. Anyone.

2. A Japanese anemia about a lamb that sees its mom killed my a wolf so it decides to join with the wolf but then has to turn on the wolf to protect another lamb from losing its mother. What I remember most is balling my eyes out can the lamb loses everything. And no, it is not Lambert the Sheepish Lion.

3. A kid wins a video game and so gets recruited by an alien army to help fight other bad aliens. I think there was something about a clone that stayed behind and caused problems on earth.

Also, where does the quote "Strong like bull!" come from?

What a great comment division. If anyone can help a thousand thanks.

Posted by: Morgan LaFai at April 17, 2010 10:58 PM

Anyone remember a movie from the 80's (I think or maybe I just watched it in the 80's but it was older) with nasty giant ants? They were like the size of cars and swarming the countryside killing and maybe eating people. It was one of those monster movies with both creepy music and creepy loud critter noises as the ants tromped around destroying stuff. *shudder* Creeps me out just to think about it.

Posted by: lainiefig at April 17, 2010 10:59 PM

morgan la fai The first movie you described is: The mouse that roared starring Peter Sellers.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053084/

I remember really enjoying that movie. Thank you for reminding me that it existed!

Posted by: "luker" the barbarian at April 17, 2010 11:04 PM

Posted by: "luker" the barbarian at April 17, 2010 11:05 PM

grace b, it might be the animated TV series Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics. It is also called Grimm Masterpiece Theater and New Grimm Masterpiece Theater. It was a bizarre series of Japanese animated adaptation of fairy tales that rarely stayed true to the plots. Many are so disturbing, they still lack a release in America. It might be the 5 part Snow White adaptation for the needle sequence. Could be the Rumpelstiltskin. I barely remember Briar Rose, but that was their Sleeping Beauty adaptation. I think The Water of Life is when the prince is transformed into a dog.

I remember they were severely messed up and bloody. I vividly remember how accurately the animators portrayed the lesser-discussed Snow White traps--the corsette and the poisoned comb. They were not playing around with killing Snow White. Bitch was dead many times. As in, someone needed to give Robert a big hug and a juicebox to get him to stop crying every time Snow White was brutally down for the count.

Posted by: Robert at April 17, 2010 11:07 PM

Morgan LaFai, I believe your third film is The Last Starfighter.

Posted by: Robert at April 17, 2010 11:12 PM

Morgan LaFai, the third one sounds like The Last Starfighter. It's one of those 80s "classics" in that it wasn't necessarily amazing and yet it managed to get under the skin (and into the memories) of a shit-ton of people who saw it as kids.

I'd love to ask movie questions and get the mysteries solved here, but um, embarrassingly enough I've actually devoted an unhealthy amount of time to tracking down every weird movie I've ever seen (that's a lot, I grew up on late-night 80s and 90s movies because I've had insomnia since I was a wee baby), so at this point all that's left is shit that never came out on video and shit that I actually can't even remember well enough to summarize in a remotely useful way. Alas.

Posted by: Nat Kittyface at April 17, 2010 11:18 PM

Lainiefig, the ant movie I remember watching on Saturday afternoons was Empire of the Ants (1977) with Joan Collins.

Anyone know of a movie from the late 80s (I think) about a brother and sister who move to a new secluded home in the in CA (maybe) and weird stuff starts happening. I think there might have been a scare involving a garbage disposal but that may be from another movie. It's not "Grandma's House".

I watched a lot of lame movies as a teen.

Posted by: Calliope at April 18, 2010 12:07 AM

D-Day, when did your movie come out because I think I know what you're talking about, but alas I can't remember any more about it than you can......

Posted by: feebthefurbieassasin at April 18, 2010 12:14 AM

Movie that got played on TV about once a year in the 80s on Saturdays; baby dinosaur is discovered by well-meaning white lady and husband; horrible denouement involving African troops gunning down Papa Dinosaur and white scientist chastising them for destroying a "one-of-a-kind" specimen. Anybody?

Posted by: Tammy at April 18, 2010 12:23 AM

This movie was on late at night on HBO. Three criminals, 2 guys and a girl, on the lam after their latest heist kidnap a couple in their own home. I saw it some time around 1994 and the most I can recall is that one of the criminals was going to kill the husband at the edge of some cliff, except the husband jumps to his apparent death. Thinking the husband dead, the wife has sexy time with at least the girl criminal and one of the others in separate attempts to gain the advantage and possibly win her freedom. Then the husband is shown alive and climbing up the rocky hill to rescue his wife. It impressed me as an adolescent because I had never seen so sexy a movie without any nudity in it. And it was prob the first movie that began my fascination with terrible movies.

It's an awful movie. I thought Joe Pantoliano and Catherine O'hara were in it but, though I seem to remember the criminals resembling them, I doubt either of them were in the movie. Life Before This isn't it.

Posted by: Jackseppelin at April 18, 2010 1:22 AM

Tammy:

That movie was called "Baby." My sisters and I loved that when I was younger!!!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088760/

Posted by: ERM at April 18, 2010 1:28 AM

@kate -Holy. Hell. I'm pretty sure my sister and I wore that VHS out from our local rental place. Wasn't there some sort of mirror involved? Am now obsessed with finding it.

Posted by: beckells at April 18, 2010 1:59 AM

actually, Message from Space spawned a tv show that was a huge, huge cult hit in France (presumably in Japan too) anyway, it was called San Ku Kai. everyone in my generation knows the (french) opening theme.

Posted by: rg at April 18, 2010 2:05 AM

Anyway, I seek this movie (from the 80s I think) It's about a kitteh lost in the wild. I saw that a really long time ago, so that is all I can remember.

There is a scene on a river. And the cat has a light fur.

Posted by: rg at April 18, 2010 2:14 AM

Oh and by the way, the guy playing Shiro (but really is Ayato) is Hiroyuki Sanada, aka Dogen (the guardian of the Temple) on Lost.

Posted by: rg at April 18, 2010 2:21 AM

rg:

Sounds like Milo and Otis.

Posted by: ERM at April 18, 2010 3:20 AM

Chatran !!!

Merci ERM (Thanks a lot I checked the French title on imdb and yes this is it)

Posted by: rg at April 18, 2010 4:27 AM

Dustin, thanks for posting my question.

A friend of mine who has been teaching fifth grade for almost two years started laughing when I asked her about the caterpillar filmstrip. "Filmstrip!? When is the last time you heard the word 'filmstrip?!". She offered to find the oldest teacher at the school and ask him or her if they remembered my caterpillar toothpaste movie.

Posted by: Viking at April 18, 2010 8:44 AM

@feed

Had to be something early 90s or late 80s, because I definitely didn't see it in theatres. It had a weird vibe too unless I'm mistaken, like it took place in some kind of industrial, gray location and the pilots controlled their ships remotely (maybe).

I'm really hoping I didn't make this friggin movie up in my head, but I distinctly remember the one Spicolli-like kid who had a think for cookies getting blasted in the stomach, through the back, and probably saying something like "bummer dude".

Posted by: D-Day at April 18, 2010 8:57 AM

I'd love it if someone can figure this one out, though I doubt it will be known by anyone. I only saw the end of it when I was very young.

In what I saw there is a man who is having a series of dreams, each one rolling into the next. His lover is trying to kill him in one, or more or all of the dreams. The one I remember, he's in a building trying to escape and she's knocking the building down with a wrecking ball. At the end of the movie he wakes up and has apparently smothered his wife with a pillow. The last shot as credits roll is a house (farm house? country house?) in silhouette as the sun comes up with the man screaming.

I thought Joanna Lumley might have played the girlfriend, but I don't think it's any of the movies on her imdb page. Oh, it's an English movie I'm pretty sure.

Posted by: DarthBrooks at April 18, 2010 9:18 AM

Oh and Morgan La Fai, the second movie you wanted to know was "Chirin no Suzu" or "Ringing Bell".

Posted by: DarthBrooks at April 18, 2010 9:24 AM

@ elsie, I'm pretty sure that's No Highway in the Sky . Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043859/

Here's a bizarre one...I was spending the night at my great-aunt's and her brother and his wife were staying there, too. I got up late in the night and they were watching some awful late late show movie. All I remember is someone hacking someone else's head off in front of a fireplace with a big knife/cleaver/something. I remember it took several whacks to try to get thru the neck, and to a 10 year old me, it looked disgusting and fairly realistic. That is all I saw of it, and I can see still that scene as clear as anything.

Probably whats wrong with me today.

Posted by: dammitjanet at April 18, 2010 9:32 AM

wow. I thought I was the only one who watched the HuggaBunch movie. haha. What WAS that??

Posted by: bubblegumshoe at April 18, 2010 9:55 AM

This is a series of educational (PBS type) videos we used to watch in middle school (late 80's early nineties). Can't remember hardly anything except I think it had something to do with math and time travel? And there was maybe like a transporter thingie where these kids would go back in time and end up in forests or something and solve problems? Ugh I'm not describing this right but I can see it so clearly in my mind...seems like they dressed either in medieval type clothing or "futuristic" (or what we imagined was futuristic at the time) outfits...seems like they wore like fanny pack/pouch type things, and had some sort of sword thingies but they werent weapons...Yargh this is driving me crazy now! Haven't thought about it in years but now it won't get out of my head.

Posted by: tinmo at April 18, 2010 10:55 AM

@Robert It's definitly not space invaders, but thanks for trying.

Posted by: Liiz at April 18, 2010 11:02 AM

tinmo - Could your show have been The Tomorrow People?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xez4o1ujOPI

Posted by: Green Lantern at April 18, 2010 11:49 AM

No, Green Lantern, I was really hoping that was it but no go...this series was much more low budget and very "explanatory," if that makes any sense...the kids would be like, "Oh, so if we can get the rock back to the forest in time, we can prevent algae from developing and save the tree nymhs!" and stuff like that...like I think it was made specifically for educational purposes but it had an element of fantasy to it...

Posted by: tinmo at April 18, 2010 12:31 PM

Gah, this might be impossible, but if anyone can find this thing, it's Pajibans. It's not even a whole movie or show, it's just a five-minute sequence, tops.

Saw this on TV, ballpark 1979, in Bangkok. Could've been a movie or a TV show, I was wee, I have no idea. All I remember is a series of cuts among three viewpoints: a blonde lady at her makeup table, a guy disembarking from a boat or a plane and taking a taxi somewhere, and a black-gloved psycho killer laying out a series of shiny knives. We switch between tracking the woman slapping on her eyeliner to the guy heading home to his apartment to the psycho sneaking up right behind the woman, at which point we settle in with the guy. He is arriving, of course, at the apartment of the blonde woman. Calls her name, no answer, walks up behind her, she doesn't turn, lays his hand on her shoulder, her head rolls off. Little Salieri2 runs screaming from the room and has nightmares for a week.

If anyone recognizes what in hindsight is probably a super-cheesy slasher flick from this fragment, I'd appreciate hearing about it so I can track it down, watch it, snicker, and never ever have to think about it again. It scared the pants off me when I was tiny and that bugs me.

Posted by: Salieri2 at April 18, 2010 2:32 PM

OK, I'm coming out of lurk mode because I've got one.

British film, 80s. There's a woman who seems to keep getting attacked/raped by men and then killing them in a variety of ways. I remember she goes to an emergency dentist who sexually assaults her and I think she hits him with a car. For a while I thought it was directed by Michael Winner, but it doesn't seem to match up with anything on his imdb page.

Posted by: lozziefozzie at April 18, 2010 2:41 PM

Thanks, Calliope. I will have to look up Empire of the Ants now.

The Last Starfighter was my favorite movie when I was at whatever age I was that it came out. We watched it on VHS at (I think) my 10th birthday party. Then we played on the slip-n-slide. Bitchin' party.

Posted by: lainiefig at April 18, 2010 3:10 PM

Empire of the Ants is on Hulu. Sweet!

Posted by: lainiefig at April 18, 2010 3:17 PM

delurking to take advantage of this amazing thread:

This was an animated show or movie that involved anthropomorphic planes a la Thomas the Tank Engine (but planes and not trains). I'm pretty sure they had faces and could talk, not sure if there were pilots. The plot I remember involves a bunch of them racing to a destination, but there may have been an ulterior goal (delivering urgently needed medicine?) rather than just a race. One plot point involved a bunch of them becoming lost in fog. Another plot point involved one's wing breaking and another one saving it by flying up and supporting it.

I saw this in the very late eighties, but I think it was on VHS so it could have been from earlier. This has bothered me for YEARS, when I am reminded of it for whatever reason...

Posted by: hhhiryuu at April 18, 2010 4:41 PM

Okay, this one is for all you Catholic school/CCD alum out there. I watched this movie at a Confirmation retreat in my church basement sometime back in '97-'98. You know, one of those overnight things, where they would get a creepy youngish deacon to come in and try to be "hip" and "relate" to us while basically serving as a 4th rate motivational speaker who gave overly long hugs.

ANYWAY. The movie was supposedly made by priests. It was set up like a gameshow where teams of family members compete against each other for a BIG PRIZE. The competitions start out bland enough but quickly escalate into crazymaking territory. The only competition that I have a clear memory of though is the last one, where to get the BIG PRIZE the last thing you have to do is play a game of Russian Roulette with your teammate/family member. One team is like "eff this" and quits, while the other is unsure. It's a husband/wife team and the wife is like "this is crazy, no!" but the husband is like "but honey, BIG PRIZE!!" Anyway, the husband ends up pulling the trigger on the wife, she doesn't die, they get the BIG PRIZE but the husband looks kind of miserable now, and as the camera slowly fades out you see the wife crying in the background, she's picked up the gun, put it to her head and just keeps pulling the trigger. END SCENE.

God, what I wouldn't give for proof of this movies existence. Honestly for awhile I thought it might have been the product of some horrible fever dream, or that maybe that deacon had spiked our bottled water with hallucinogenics because NO ONE seemed to remember this thing but me. Thankfully though I finally did meet someone from another diocese who's school had used it as well which made me feel slightly less crazy. That whole retreat (of which the movie was only a small part) is easily one of my favorite "Catholicism irrevocably scarred me in my youth" stories, I just wish I knew what the damn thing was called.

Posted by: RedRightAnkle at April 18, 2010 4:57 PM

Dates from the 80s; probably t.v. A shy and awkward high school girl takes a job as personal assistant to the school's resident golden god, who has been paralyzed in an accident. They become good friends, and she falls in love with him, but finds out that he already has a girlfriend (whom he has never mentioned, even though they're supposedly such great friends, but whatever). She gets over herself and the friendship endures. The end. I've been trying to figure out what this one is FOREVER; I know I didn't make it up. Probably not an Afterschool Special, although it could have been.

Posted by: Another Kate at April 18, 2010 5:19 PM

A blonde woman doing a horrific American accent (think she was British)is visited by her demon son, who apparently she drowned because he was evil. They engage in some high-stakes and demented hide & seek, which basically ends with him stabbing her to death as he screams something like "Bobby doesn't love you anymore, MOMMY." It was awesome.

Posted by: Lemon Spaghetti at April 18, 2010 6:09 PM

Viking, I'm pretty sure that it's Demon Seed I'm thinking of.

dammitjanet, that's it! Unfortunately, it's not on Netflix but at least now I know what to look for elsewhere. Hubby will be very happy to know the name of this movie.

Thanks a bunch to both of you!

Posted by: elsie at April 18, 2010 6:40 PM

Late 80's/Early 90's movie: A woman is being chased by an albino guy. There's a chase scene through a library. I also remember him chasing her through an apartment building, climbing the fire escape and going through windows.

Posted by: diana at April 18, 2010 8:59 PM

Okay, this is gonna be about as vague as possible but...there was this cartoon movie I remember. It involved some sort of anthropomorphic animals (I don't even remember what they were) looking for some sort of...something (might have been a glass bottle?)...with an image of a mouse (or rabbit?) that just repeats itself infinitely. That doesn't even make sense when I write it out. I'm not sure how to describe it better, though. It was like, a picture of the mouse inside a picture of the mouse inside a picture of the mouse etc. So uh...yeah...anybody remember that?

Posted by: dr. pisaster at April 18, 2010 9:17 PM

There's a great short film based on an excerpt from Carl Sagan's book "Pale Blue Dot," found here: http://wimp.com/betterworld/

It has clips from a whole mess of movies, and I'm trying to figure out one of them. It's from 4:34 to 4:39, and features some astronauts with a projection of space around them. I know it's from some relatively modern sci-fi movie and they're looking at the record of what happened to the ship, or something like that.
I know I'll be hitting myself over the head with the obviousness of what it is once I know, but for the moment....anyone have any ideas?

Posted by: T.C. at April 18, 2010 9:26 PM

This was a kung-fu movie I saw on tv in the late 70's or early 80's. Two men (teacher and student) are training in a courtyard with a metal statue. The student sits atop the statue while little metal balls roll down the body of the statue on different tracks. The student attempts to catch all the metal balls before they roll to the ground (himself remaining on the statue the entire time).

Hopefully I wasn't hallucinating this movie.

Posted by: vaskark at April 18, 2010 9:55 PM

@ diana: Could it be Tag: The Assassination Game?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084756/

From memory it had a very creepy pale faced dude chasing a bunch of college students.

Posted by: Sarz at April 18, 2010 10:05 PM

@Sarz - It doesn't look like it. I might have seen it in '91 while in Colombia. It was a long summer, and the only channels in English were ones like HBO and Starz. I think I remember the creepy albino wearing a gray suit.

Posted by: diana at April 18, 2010 10:22 PM

Oh my god, never mind, after wasting way too much time searching online for a movie I hadn't even thought about in years until an hour ago I found it - it's The Mouse and his Child and it was a can of dog food with a picture of an "infinite" dog.

Posted by: dr. pisaster at April 18, 2010 10:31 PM

T.C. That clip is from "Mission to Mars".

Posted by: DarthBrooks at April 18, 2010 10:41 PM

diana - I think you the movie you remember is Foul Play. The woman is Goldie Hawn and she is a librarian being chased by an albino.

Posted by: GloriBee at April 18, 2010 11:24 PM

@hhhiryuu

The show you are thinking of is 'Jay Jay The Jet Plane'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Jay_the_Jet_Plane

It used to be on every afternoon after school here in Australia for a while.

Posted by: Jacs at April 18, 2010 11:30 PM

@GloriBee - Thank you! I don't remember the comedy of this comedy/action/thriller, but then I was only 8 when I saw it. And thank you for a gift idea. My brother and I both remember the library scene and have tried to find the movie.

Posted by: diana at April 19, 2010 12:26 AM

Posted by: angela at April 19, 2010 10:50 AM

@Kate-Thank you for asking about the Huggabunch Movie! For years my sisters and I have been trying to put a name to that.

I'm sorry I can't help anyone. You people watch some obscure shit.

My obscure shit is something I saw on tv in the late 80's or early 90's. A group of kids are amateur spys or they have broken into some place. When they get caught, they use like Morse code blinking to communicate. One of the guys who captured them catches on and says something stupid like "They're blinking! Make them stop!" This is the only scene I can remember. I think the kids had some sort of nickname for their group.

Posted by: ang at April 19, 2010 10:51 AM

Okay, mid-to-late 70s educational movie shown to six-year-olds. The upshot is that there's a woman living in a cardboard box under a damn bridge. HELLO?! Who shows that to little children? I was essentially catatonic when I got home until my mother asked me what was wrong and I broke down.

That's the only detail I remember. Have at it.

Posted by: samantha t at April 19, 2010 2:32 PM

I actually figured out about a year ago that memories I had of some weird animated shit involving a cobra was actually Rikki Tikki Tavi - narrated by Orson Welles! SO CREEPY.

Posted by: samantha t at April 19, 2010 2:35 PM

This thing still on?

Anyway, the movie was Rosemary's Baby, but the part I'm unsure about is the very end. I could swear that the first time I saw the film, in the final scene the coven greets Mia Farrow by chanting "Hail Rosemary, Hail Rosemary." But the next time I saw it, that scene had been cut (too offensive to Catholics, maybe?).

Nobody else seems to remember the "Hail Rosemary" scene. Was I the only one who saw it?

Posted by: flickfan at April 19, 2010 9:26 PM

Lozziefozzie, that one sounds like Ms 45, except not British. At the end, she dresses like a nun at a costume party and shoots a bunch of people.

Posted by: Santa Who at April 19, 2010 9:37 PM

I LOVED Riki Tiki Tavi!!! I wanted to BE a mongoose when I was a kid. What? I was five. Shut up.

I remember yet another film shown to me when I was in Kindergarten. It was a black and white film made in the style of a silent film, like a Charlie Chaplin type movie. We watched it more than once and I hated it. Or maybe it was a series of films, but it scared the shit out of me. It was about tooth decay, and plaque and germs trying to give you cavities. It showed an villain in black with a top hat and a pointy mustache and his chain gang flunkies dressed in black and white striped prison pajamas. They live inside our mouths with axes and picks trying to dig holes in our teeth. I was four, so I was way too young to understand metaphors, so I went home and asked my mom and big sister if plaque is real or a fairy tale. They said it was real, not understanding how it was represented in the film. I burst into tears the next day as school so the teacher had me sit out of site of the TV and gave me a book to read instead. Eventually someone explained plaque and bacteria are real but not evil and intent on causing you horrible pain in your teeth at any given moment o my god go brush your teeth right now and don't ever stop.

Looking back on this list of things we saw as kids that upset us, it is a wonder we aren't all in the booby hatch.

Posted by: Viking at April 19, 2010 10:22 PM

Thanks to Kate for asking, and rabbitene for answering, the question about The Hugga Bunch Movie. I saw that when I was a kid and I have been wracking my brain for years trying to remember what the name of it was. I remembered the exact same part of the movie that Kate did; it made me pretty sad as a kid.

Posted by: Corntree at April 20, 2010 2:22 AM

Ok, this one was a children's series (not long running, either 80s or early 90s), and it could well have been a BBC (English)thing. it was shown once a week (i think) in the evenings. All i can remember was it was set in a garden, and there were 'moon children' - when the moon came up, you could see in the moonlight that one half of their face was normal, the other half looked like the moon - it was horrifying. There's a chance it could have been Tom's Midnight Garden - but I can't see any reference to these disfigured, ethereal children. I also thought the main character was a young girl..but I could be wrong. This ring any bells with anyone?

Posted by: Cadence at April 20, 2010 4:06 AM

Flickfan - I totally remember that scene because it is so damn funny. They're all yelling "hail Satan!".

Posted by: samantha t at April 20, 2010 11:24 AM

I've got one. It was an old anime, looked like 60-70's style, though I wouldn't bet a sheep station on it. I remember a little boy who may have grown up to become the hero, raised by a blonde woman who turned out to be an android, a scientist that looked like an animated Einstein, it was something about an intergalactic war, and the villains were... birds??? I THINK I'm not making this up. The thing that bothers me is that I'm not sure if those birds bred in an Alien-like fashion or not, but I'd wager there was some facehugging action in there somewhere, which, effing disturbing if you ask me (which you didn't, but since I'm nice like that, I thought I'd tell you anyway) especially when you're 9 and haven't seen Alien yet. Also begs the question - which came first? The alien or the egg?

Posted by: TweeBubblyKlutz at April 21, 2010 8:35 AM

Kate and Beckells, I am pretty sure the movie you are talking about with the kids and the weird stuff happening is a Disney movie called The watcher in the woods, theres a girl trapped in a mirror on the mantel..pretty sure thats it,was on ABC sunday afternoon once when I was very young and scared the crap outta me, found it 6 yrs ago in a pawn shop on VHS.

Ok, so now I have one. Cant remember much about it, watched when I was about 3, so its an early 80's movie. The only part I remember is a man trapped in a giant glass tube and a woman talking to him on the other side, then the tube fills with either green slime or green smoke and his skin starts melting off. very gross and scary when your 3. Any ideas please??

Posted by: laurieluvsaj at April 27, 2010 1:49 AM

I'm trying to find this movie about a cult, where the kid gets kidnapped and the dad tries to save him from a sacrifice they wanted to make with him. There is also a woman that gets cursed and she has bugs coming out of her cheek. Does anybody know the name of that movie? Thanks.

Posted by: Yasmin Sequeda at July 1, 2010 9:14 PM

There was an animated kids movie either from the 80's or early 90's I remember seeing about two bear cubs who decided to play on the other side of the mountain and their mother says to be home before the pass closes or they will stuck there for ever. And something happens where they dont make it back in time and they grow up on the other side never able to return home. It was a sad one.

Posted by: Sarah at August 10, 2010 11:33 AM

hi
there - need to find the name of a film that has the us territorial army in been chased by mountain men or hillbillies - cant remember the wording of it -- they are low on bullets-- can find it online

thanks
your help is really appreciated

Posted by: lisa at September 4, 2010 4:51 PM

Im looking for a movie of a little girl.. on the cover was of the girl and of a clock possibly a coo coo clock.. and it was about time travel and I do believe her grandmother... I have Hugga Bunch... It is truely a good movie.. Help please

Posted by: Tera at January 11, 2011 8:49 PM

to Paeris at April 17, 2010 3:46 PM comment

The movie was called "light years" aka" Gandahar"

Posted by: pbgiggles at February 7, 2011 1:57 PM