Reviews

This is that sort of movie you have to be in a very particular frame of mind to enjoy fully. Forget high art and save your brain cells for something else, because this goes into the 'so bad it's good' category.

Wes Craven, the man that created the spectacular Freddy Krueger, seems to be completely off his game here. Or was he?.. At every turn, it feels like all his directorial choices were purposefully wrong, somehow. The 'scissor hands', the outrageous blue make-up, the robot's design, subplots that go nowhere... Everything is slightly off but hilarious and memorable.

Be that as it may, the film is a masterpiece in giving you tons of fun and entertainment!

No, this wasn't meant to be high art. Shakespeare would have never been considered to write an episode of THE LOVE BOAT.

What this series intended - and accomplished for 10 seasons! - was to be entertaining. It showed beautiful people in beautiful locations, with a bit of cheeky humor added to the mix.

And it did so over 250 episodes, usually with 3 stories per episode! The amount of creativity and talent involved in this show is still impressive now, in the age of 6 episode seasons.

Every starlet of the time played a part on this show, and it was a joy seeing them having fun with their craft.

Some people may find the series crude and forgettable, but I think it helped change the world one smile at a time.

What can we say about this show that hasn't been said a thousand times already? That Lynda Carter actually looks like she was carved out of some godly marble to play this role? That the scripts were fun and cool? That the main theme was a hoot?

Pretty much everything good has been said about this show because this show was actually popular and people still like it.

There were no hidden agendas, no need to force anything; Wonder Woman was simply written and portrayed as the powerful and feminine lead she had always been in the comics. Both boys and girls marveled at her feats and she was a role model to everyone.

Awesome show!

This was one of those shows that focused on a somewhat unlikable lead. Every week, Alf would not only test the patience of the Tanners but also my own. I remember there were episodes I kept wishing the family would deliver the alien rascal to the military for some testing.

But then, at the last minute, Alf would learn an important lesson or show some empathy, and everything was forgiven. After the end credits, all that was left was the memory of laughter and having spent a fun half hour.

Alf was a very original and entertaining character and a show that the kid within me still enjoys some 30 odd years later.

What do you get if you mix Mr. Magoo and Robocop? Well, an awesome and hilarious tv show named Inspector Gadget!

To the tradition of the fumbling hero that gets things right only by incredible luck, like Inspector Clouseau (Pink Panther), Maxwell Smart (Get Smart), and the aforementioned Mr. Magoo; Gadget adds inventiveness and loads of action. That, and an actual competent female lead: Penny. She and the dog are the real heroes of the story, while Gadget is there you make you laugh.

Together, they're a success.

Maybe this show was too derivative from Tron, and yes maybe the premise could have been better thought out... But this series was a riot, and FUN with capital every letter!

The cast gave it their all, the special effects were awesome for the time and the car... The design, the 90 degree turns! As a kid, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen for a second!

The movie starts as if stumbling on itself. Plot contrivances are hard to miss and feel awkward, especially in the very first scene. But, bit by bit, as the story gains momentum, character motivations get clearer, the rules for the premise are established, and the whole endeavor begins to feel like the awesome ride it is.

I've always been a sucker for characters with super-powers, and here that is dealt in a very original and cool way.

Fun, fun movie with very impressive special effects.

This is to me one of those movies that are so bad, they are awesome. The plot makes little to no sense; the performances are outlandishly terrible, and the direction and editing seem to have been done by people really busy doing something else.

Even the mandatory gratuitous nudity doesn't feel lurid or scandalous, it just feels nervous and timid.

The whole film is a riot, an unintentional laugh a minute!

In the late '70s, up to the mid '80s, there were a lot of awesome shows being made in Europe. This is just one of them, coming specifically from Spain, with some great help from the Japanese.

The classic Alexandre Dumas' novels get a respectful adaptation in a world of anthropomorphic dogs, and children everywhere went crazy over it.

The character design, the action scenes, and the song, were all perfect, but what made this series special was its message and its heart. Dogtanian was a kid that truly wanted to do good for others, and through hard work and some humbling lessons became a true hero.

Inspiring as well as good fun!

It's not often that I feel about a show that should have lasted longer. It had a great cast, awesome sets, and a really cool premise. The stories were as naive as the main character and it worked since it was a show for children. Can't understand why it was canceled so soon.

Mark Harris' way of swimming was so unique that, that summer at the beach, you could tell who was a fan of the show by the way we all tried it.

The song from the main titles was also really impressive, and beautifully haunting.

Gone way too soon.

To me, Candy Candy was always the epitome of kitsch. The over-the-top drama, coupled with the overload of pinks, laces, and ruffles wasn't even feminine; it was surreal.

I'm sure the creators were trying to hit some of those tragedy marks that made Marco (1976) so poignant, but this whole show only made me and my brother and sister laugh like crazy.

Candy Candy was way too much and that was awesome. Even her eyes had a hallucinating amount of sparkles that made her look alien.

In a nutshell: this show was a BLAST!

I've got to confess that I don't really like football, but I liked this mascot for the World Cup of 1982. I was a kid and the character was simple, colorful, and looked fun.

At the time I lived quite near Spain, so I recognize this character more from the merchandising that was around than from the cartoon. He was on loads of t-shirts, on school material... everywhere!

The TV show, however, was something else. It focused heavily on historical live footage of the teams and the sport, and very little on actual plot and animation. Still, a lot of fun!

Since Marvel can't make their female characters work with audiences, the next best thing it seems is to make their male heroes into stereotypical females from the 1950's.

After taking the protagonism off from under the feet of Doctor Strange and Shang-Chi in their respective movies, next in line was Thor.

They try Jane Foster's 'Mighty Thor' for size as the genuine hero, but it's Odinson that ends up being a new and revised 'male' protagonist. Here, he has been transformed into a subjugated and dumb bimbo that would make anyone, not just feminists, cringe if it were played by an actress instead of Chris Hemsworth.

Thor Odinson spends the movie indecisive, dumb, pining for the love of the one that got away, being constantly saved by a more powerful character of the opposite sex, is overcome by really strong maternal instincts... and even likes dressing up! He has more costume changes than Lady Gaga at a half-time sports event.

Marvel, I'm out!

This is a really weird one! A cartoon series is developed around the mascot for the 1980 Moscow Olympic games, only it has absolutely nothing to do with games, sports, or even Russian culture. On IMDb, the show somehow even predates the actual games the character was created for?... Also, for a children's show, this one goes on some rather political and social tangents, to devolving into utter craziness the next minute. It even features a bed-wetting ghost!

The character design is cool, the stories are a riot, and I'm having a blast re-watching this now in my fifties.

To me, this show had everything: a great score, beautiful character, and set design, and engaging plots! Every episode was packed with action, and also a lot of heart.

Ever since it was published on DVD some years ago, I've often rewatched the whole series and it holds up. I still feel for the characters, I still want them to finally reach their destination, but I wouldn't have minded a couple more episodes either.

Mixing science-fiction and Greek mythology was a stroke of brilliance and it made for an awesome cartoon show.

More than the actual TV show's characters or plots, I remember feeling anxious about the opening credits' theme and images. I don't recall at what age I saw this cartoon originally, but I guess I must have been rather young and impressionable.

The image of the bad guy appearing at the door of the boat, the thunder, and the roaring sea, has stayed with me my whole life.

That and, thankfully, the extremely cute Lilliputians. The mumbling one was an absolute riot.

All and all, a great show, with awesome characters and curious plots.

The original sitcom! It might not have been the first, but it definitely created most of the tropes associated with the genre nowadays. The Simpsons, American Dad, Family Guy, the Goldbergs, and Family Ties, among many many others, owe a lot to the Flintstones.

The science of History, not so much, however. One of the most original concepts of the show was exactly the defiance of historic facts: mankind and dinosaurs coexisting; modern scientific inventions in the remote past; etc.

A blast of a show that, hopefully, no one mistook for anything more than sheer fun!

This is an odd one... I remember the main characters, and I remember the merchandising around this show, but I didn't remember a single thing about this series.

I had the chance to re-watch this show recently and it felt like I was watching something for the very first time. No scene jogged my memory, no theme, nothing.

This series is filled with good sentiments, has a very good plot, and the characters are pretty solid.

All and all, it is a great show!

Even though the show played a bit fast and loose with actual historical facts and events, it did it, I believe, only in as much as to make it interesting for a child to start caring about the history of mankind and what makes our species so terribly magnificent.

In the series, we're generously shown man's greatest achievements, and also, a tad more discretely, our greatest horrors too. Still, it doesn't shy away from the less glamorous parts of our past or gloss over problematic issues. ONCE UPON A TIME... MAN is entertainment, first and foremost, but it is also a remarkable tool and a historic document in itself now, forty odd years later.

Most would argue that Mighty Mouse is just a derivative of better creations, namely Mickey Mouse and Superman, but I believe he's a case of 'more than the sum of its parts'.

Mighty Mouse has a personality all his own, adventures that are very singular, and an evolving history. This character has been around for a while, and with each iteration, he grows more and more unique.

I loved it as a kid, and even still as an adult.

This was another one of those crazy shows that we had at the time. The whole thing made very little sense, but it nevertheless entertained everyone! The authors of both this 'Doctor' and 'Professor' Balthazar's show seemed to understand very little, if anything, of science. In both shows, where even logic is challenged continuously, all sciences are treated as something very close to magic and most of the time not really essential to the resolution of the episode's central conundrum.

What was really at the center of the show was its heart: the idea that everyone contributing their individual talents to the group would always result in a solution to any problem.

For everyone that likes animation, one name usually stands out: Hayao Miyazaki. Most know him from his incomparable film career, but he earned his dues on television first. He worked on the HEIDI cartoon, a number of others, and this FUTURE BOY CONAN.

It maybe telling that the two shows I most remember growing up are exactly HEIDI and CONAN. I've loved Miyazaki's work even before I could understand they came from him.

Conan is an absolute adventure, with loads of sentiment and joy. It's Miyazaki stretching his storytelling muscles.

Since growing up is based on curiosity, experimenting, and also learning to live with the consequences, this TV show, as well as the books it's based on, are awesome references for kids in that aspect. Even if the show is rather light on the 'consequence' part, the young group has actual scares and gets punished when they misbehave.

For a child, everything is really a mystery, something to be discovered and understood. In my opinion, the mindset that this show tries to develop is essential if you want to grow up.

Also, this show was extremely entertaining!

This was the ultimate 'family show'! From the oldest grandparent to the littlest child, everyone would inevitably find something amusing, hilarious, endearing, and/or moving in every episode. Entertainment in its purest and most intelligent form, simultaneously.

Jim Henson was a genius. As the creator of both THE MUPPET SHOW and SESAME STREET, he managed to develop concepts that transcended time and cultures to bring everyone non-condescending JOY.

If Alaska was somewhat the driving force steering LA BOLA DE CRISTAL, Javier Gurruchaga was definitely LA CUARTA PARTE's motor. His voice could be piercing when he portrayed the female characters of his show's family, soothing as he was narrating the news, but it always had a powerful and impressive quality that captivated me. If ever there was a SHOWMAN, it was Gurruchaga!

His particularly irreverent sort of humor was awesome for the kid I was then, but the cultural awakening he promoted has stayed with me my whole life.

Thank you to everyone who made LA BOLA DE CRISTAL and LA CUARTA PARTE.