At The Movies with Bryan, the Wannabe Filmmaker

  As a kid one of the biggest joys of the Christmas season, other than the presents, was the holiday specials that aired on television through out December.   The vast majority of these specials have fallen through the cracks, but there are a few that have become classics.   A Garfield Christmas first aired on December 21, 1987 and it is one of those specials that my family still watches. The reason Garfield works to well is that humor appeals to both kids and adults; it also doesn’t have the patronizing tone that can be found in many children’s shows.    Garfield, much like Charles M Schulz’s Peanuts, was a fairly popular comic strip that successfully transitioned to television.   Garfield is a cynical cat who lives with his, slightly neurotic, owner Jon and Odie, Jon’s idiotic dog. The premise to A Garfield is fairly simple: Jon, with Garfield and Odie in tow, visits his family on the farm.   While Jon and Odie are enthusiastic about spending Christmas on the farm, Garfield is

    The Summer Camp movie was a popular comedy subgenre throughout the 80s and 90s. The movie that helped kicked it off was the 1979 comedy Meatballs, starring Bill Murray, co-written by Harold Ramis, and directed by Ivan Reitman (the team that would go onto create Stripes and, of course Ghostbusters). Meatballs proved to be such a hit that it spawned three terrible sequels and many rip offs.   One of those “rip offs” was the 1985 made for television comedy, Poison Ivy, starring Michael J. Fox and Nancy McKeon.   While Poison Ivy is greatly indebted to Meatballs there is a significant difference between the two movies;   Meatballs is mainly focused on the exploits of the camp counselors, while the kids (with the exception of Rudi) are mostly background noise.   Poison Ivy, on the other hand, is more evenly balanced between the counselors and the boys (it takes place at Camp Pinewood, an all boys’ summer camp).  In the context of 1985, the biggest draw for audiences would have been Mi