“The Censored Eleven” are the unofficial eleven animated shorts that have been banned, censored, or edited from public consumption and haven’t been seen by most in America. While some of the shorts have been released with a commentary about its social and political context, most are strictly taboo. In this limited series, we’ll review the censored eleven and figure out why these titles are still very volatile.
Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land (1931)
Rudolf Ising
Merrie Melodies
No longer just a channel that plays cartoons non-stop, the Cartoon Network here in America now only really airs series that make returns on their investments. When not buying cheap animated shows from Canada, the Cartoon Network looks for shows that will garner profits from merchandise only. After their entertaining “Green Lantern” series and the critically acclaimed “Young Justice” failed to show a profit, the Network cancelled both series and replaced them with two substitutes guaranteed to make money. The first was a watered down version of their aught hit “Teen Titans,” and the next is yet another animated series starring Batman.
From Blue Arc Entertainment, Based on true events and physics, “Reminiscence” tells the story of a couple that trying to experiment time and blackhole theories. But what they will face is much more then what they expected.
Warning: NSFW. Some violent content is featured.
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Charles Band’s “Laserblast” is one of the many, many, many productions from Band that garners an interesting nugget of an idea, but has little resources of budget to pull it off. I guess Band is one of the many filmmakers who’d rather make it themselves than sell it to another studio, it’s just a shame that “Laserblast” is so god awful. Even its remake and sequel “Deadly Weapon” is bad. Tonally uneven, terribly written, and poorly trying to pass of Eddie Deezen as a bully, “Laserblast” is a nigh unwatchable science fiction film that has endure the wrath of many movie geeks. Including the group from the Satellite of Love.
I’m often surprised at how great “Night of the Comet” holds up. Watching it years after I saw it back in the mid-nineties, I was pleasantly entertained by it, and how it unfolded as that perfect post-apocalyptic tale. It garnered comedy, horror, suspense, and valid villains, all the while reveling in its eighties kitsch. “Night of the Comet” remains an influential apocalyptic horror film, and for good reason. It manages to touch upon the doldrums of the apocalypse while also setting down on some truly entertaining characters.
Not many movie critics earn the privilege to put out a book about one hundred of some of the best worst movies ever made. But author Phil Hall’s film knowledge dwarfs so many other alleged film critics that it’s only obvious Hall should release a book about anti-classics after years of his celebrated “The Bootleg Files” online.
“The Greatest Bad Movies Of All Time” from author Phil Hall brings together a hundred of arguably the worst and most bafflingly awful films ever brought to the mainstream, and it’s quite the excellent read. Author Phil Hall is gladly very unique in his choices, and I found two particular entries to be stand outs.
Author Phil Hall writes about the utter mess that was “Beyond the Sea,” the Kevin Spacey vanity project about Bobby Darin’s life. I fondly remember anxiously awaiting to see it, and being so embarrassed for the man.
Considering “Turbo” is an animated movie about a speeding snail racing cars, the soundtrack for the movie is obviously going to be a hefty mix of hip hop, hard rock, and standard upbeat pop. The soundtrack for “Turbo” surely isn’t the worst compilation you can own, as it garners some pretty nifty tracks, even for folks not interested in the exploits of a super fast snail.
Snoop Dogg who offers voice work for the movie provides a track called “Let the Bass Go” which is a techno hip hop ditty that’s fairly catchy. There’s the classic hip hop song from Run DMC “It’s Tricky,” which is an easily accessible rap song for the intended consumer for the compilation. It’s still one of their most mainstream tracks and it’s a classic.