Created for a one-shot novelty tune, Alvin and the Chipmunks morphed into a show business sensation that spanned top-selling records, a classic TV show and a string of movies. On this episode of “The Online Movie Show,” we trace the rise of these unlikely pop culture icons with Mark Arnold, author of “Aaaaalllviiinnn!: The Story of Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., Liberty Records, Format Films and The Alvin Show,” published by BearManor Media.
BOOTLEG FILES 679: “Main Street to Broadway” (1953 all-star film).
LAST SEEN: We cannot confirm the last public exhibition of this film.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: Only as a bootleg.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Never made available for U.S. commercial home entertainment release.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not for a long time.
One of the most curious flops of the 1950s was an all-star feature called “Main Street to Broadway.” Originally intended as a fundraising vehicle for a nonprofit devoted to the promotion of live theater, the film went through an excessively ambitious pre-production cycle but emerged as a predictable and strangely unsatisfactory effort that fell considerably short of its lofty mission.
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For this week’s edition of “Shorts Round Up of the Week” we view the apocalypse through two lenses, dissect nature through the killer whale, and look at the cycle of life through animation.
If you’d like to submit your short film for review consideration, submissions are always opened to filmmakers and producers.
John Wayne as Genghis Khan? Lucille Ball as Mame? On this episode, we celebrate some of the most wonderfully misguided examples of movie miscasting, including some still-controversial casting decisions (Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Dolittle, Barbra Streisand as Dolly Levi) and some noble endeavors that went awry (Marlon Brando’s Fletcher Christian, Jane Fonda as Ibsen’s Nora). Actor/writer Joe Mannetti returns to “The Online Movie Show” to give praise to the actors in the wrong roles.
Season nine was a big turning point for “The Walking Dead,” it’s the season where we lost a ton of big players in the series including Lauren Cohan and one main character Andrew Lincoln. With the exit of both dramatic forces, “The Walking Dead” has had a ton of foot work to cover, and season nine was a pretty good rebound that’s managed to keep the pace going now that the main driving force of the show has left. With a very good season, “The Walking Dead” presented some stand out moments. These are ten of the most shocking.
I think one of the two reasons why Bruce Timm’s iteration of Batman continues to be such a celebrated staple of animation is that Timm didn’t just take Batman seriously, he took his audience seriously. Before then, if you wanted to see an animated version of Batman, you had to watch “The Super Friends,” “Scooby Doo Movies,” or the Filmation series. “Batman: The Animated Series” stands on its own in the annals of 90’s animation and is still considered the gold standard by fans, right down to the voice actors.
With the end of Batman: the Animated Series, the DC Comics/Warner Bros. animation golden boy of the 90s, Bruce Timm, was called upon once again to create another hit Saturday morning series. This time it would a series geared to a much younger audience, full of futuristic technology and action packed, and it would be called Batman Beyond. The show wasn’t a pandering, youth-oriented take with no substance (I’m looking at you Spider-Man Unlimited) either; it was a dark, complex, and very unique spin on the Batman lore.