In a multi-part series, Comic Book Film Editor William Gatevackes will be tracing the history of comic book movies from the earliest days of the film serials to today’s big blockbusters and beyond. Along with the history lesson, Bill will be covering some of the most prominent comic book films over the years and why they were so special. Today, we examine how superheroes are employed in kid-friendly fare, to good and bad effect.

Comic books, especially superhero comics, were at one time thought of as being exclusively entertainment for kids. Any adult who read comic books would be considered borderline illiterate and not someone you’d want to associate with. I’m fairly certain that there are many people out there that still hold that opinion.

But comics haven’t been exclusively for kids for almost three decades. While there are some comics that are aimed at the younger set, they are becoming rarer as the years pass. This is a shame not only because there is room in comics for both kids and adults, but also because the world of film has shown that superheroes can be quality entertainment for kids and adults at the same time.

A sterling example of this was 2004’s The Incredibles. This was the sixth film released by Pixar, who were well in the run of quality films by this point. The film was a pastiche on the Fantastic Four with that team’s surrogate family dynamic morphing into a biological family dynamic. Mr. Incredible was the Thing like strong guy, who was immodestly named like the FF’s Mr. Fantastic, whose power set was matched by Elastigirl. Violet had invisibility powers akin to the Invisible Girl and Dash had the youthful impetuousness of Human Torch and Jack-Jack seemed be able to turn into flame (amongst other powers as well).

While there was an antecedent for The Incredibles in the Fantastic Four, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t original. It was, as most Pixar films are, a film that works for both adults and children, although The Incredibles gave the adults a little more to enjoy. The kids got the slapstick humor and flashy superpowers, while their parents got themes such as the Dad  balancing family life with his “secret”  identity. It was a film about the things you must give up in order to provide for the ones you love and the difficult pursuit of a satisfying balance between what you want to do and what you have to do.

The next film on our list is not quite as complex as The Incredibles, but is one of the few kid’s films to have a “Story by” credit given to an actual seven-year-old kid. That kid was Racer Max Rodriguez, whose father, Robert Rodriguez, decided to adapt the characters they both created around their house to the big screen in the form of The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D.

The film centers on a lonely outcast named Max who creates a world where young superheroes Sharkboy and Lavagirl live and have adventures. However, the line between fantasy and reality becomes blurred when the heroes ask Max to come with them to save their world.

The film takes on a Wizard of Oz like dimension as many of the people Max knows appear in the dream world he created in different forms, yet tied to the way Max views them (for example, Max’s real life bully Linus becomes the villain Minus in Max’s fantasy world and his mean teacher Mr. Electridad becomes another villain named Mr. Electricity).

The film was a critical and box office disappointment, but is known for being one of the first films to usher in the 3-D resurgence and for being the first major film role of Taylor Lautner. All those Twimoms who get weak in the knees whenever he takes off his shirt in the Twilight films should take a look at that trailer up there.   He’s practically a baby in this film. They should be overcome with shame.

If you are looking to create a superhero movie for kids, you could do worse for a plot than a superhero high school or a teenager dealing with famous superhero parents. Sky High combines both plot elements to good effect.

The film had a lot going for it. It marked Kurt Russell’s return to Disney family fare (although now as the parent instead of the kid), featured geek culture icons Lynda Carter and Bruce Campbell, had a role for Broken Lizard’s Kevin Heffernan and reunited Kids in the Hall members Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald. It was like they were doing a movie with a collection of actors with large cult followings.

The story was solid if conventional. The cast definitely made the most of the material and I really liked the end product. So much so, I am not ashamed to admit that I saw the film in a theater. However, it is with great shame that I admit that the very next year I saw a similarly themed film in the theaters, a film with a whopping 3% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

That’s not bad. For a long time, Zoom: Academy for Superheroes had a 0% fresh rating, meaning it received absolutely no positive reviews at all. I didn’t really consider the film to be that bad, I have definitely seen worse, but the film wasn’t very good either.

If you were able to get past the fact that the federal government considers a six-year-old girl with super-strength to be a good line of defense against an incredibly powerful, homicidal super villain speeding his way towards Earth, you’d find other things about the film to make you wince. Like what, you may ask? Well, the reliance on gross-out gags for the sake of gross-out gags. There is an extended sequence where the four young trainees lock the more awkward scientist/trainer/mentor (played by a Chevy Chase who either just had bad plastic surgery done or is coming off a bad allergic reaction to a bee sting) in a room used to train the potential heroes how to react to adverse weather conditions. After Chase’s character is pelted by rain, sleet, snow and struck by lightning, a robotic skunk (yes, a robotic skunk) comes out and sprays (yes, the robot skunk has functioning anal scent glands) him in the face. It’s a pretty good spraying. If I recall correctly, Chase allows some of the spray to go into his mouth, which, you know, is one way to make it funnier. Well, if the scene was funny to begin with, maybe.

On top of that,  we get a Smash Mouth-heavy soundtrack, an extended Wendy’s commercial in the middle of the film, a countdown to disaster that doesn’t countdown in linear fashion (it goes from one day to two days then one day again), and Courtney Cox trying to act nerdy and clumsy. If you take away all of that, you have a relatively harmless kids flick. But the problem is, you can’t take all that away.

It’s only fitting to end this installment with Megamind after starting it with The Incredibles, because the two films have a number of similarities beyond both being CGI animated superhero kid flicks. Both films opened on the same day (November 5^th), albeit six years apart. One is done by Pixar, the other by Pixar’s main competition in quality and profitability, Dreamworks. Both draw their inspiration from comic book mythos’ (the Fantastic Four mythos is to The Incredibles as the Superman mythos is to Megamind).  Both appeal to adults as well as kids. And both are humorous examinations on superhero tropes.

This film takes a look at the stereotypical super villain who wants nothing more than destroy the superhero of the city he lives in. What happens when he gets what he wishes for? Well, create a new enemy to destroy, become a hero himself, and/or both.

The film had a great cast that would have been perfect even if the film was live-action. I mean, wouldn’t you want to see Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill and Will Ferrell together in just about anything? While it wasn’t quite as good as The Incredibles, it was good in its own right.

Next time, we discuss why it is best to use original superheroes if you want to make a superhero comedy.

1. Evil Dead (TriStar, 3,025 Theaters, 91 Minutes, Rated R): There are certain films that many film buffs think should never ever be remade–Citizen Kane, Star Wars, Casablanca, among others. Many horror fans would have added Evil Dead to that list. But we are in an era where every classic horror film, from Nightmare on Elm Street  to Friday the 13th to Halloween to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is getting remade whether it needs to or not. So the only question about Evil Dead isn’t that it is being remade but why did it take so long.

The remake does still have Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell attached: both as producers and the latter in a rumored cameo. And director Fede Alvarez is going with conventional special effects in lieu of CGI for the scares. But that might not be enough who loved the original for its DIY ethic and find the remake to slick for their tastes.

FilmBuffOnline head honcho Rich Drees has a two-part interview with director Alvarez. Part one can be read here. Part two will appear on Sunday, and will contain spoilers so see the film before you read it!

2. Jurassic Park 3D (Universal, 2,771 Theaters, 127 Minutes, Rated PG-13): I fear that there will soon come a time where every weekend will look like this one, with every theater showing remakes or reworks of older films. Even sequels and adaptations will make way for teh more reliable re-brothers.

That being said, if there was a film that deserves the 3D treatment, it’s Jurassic Park. The dinosaurs seem to leap out from the screen without and digital fiddling, so they should be especially impressive when viewed through those awkward glasses.

Typically, 3D reissues are also released with a non-3D version. If that is the case here, and your only experience with this film is on TV, you should go see it in a theater. Those Oscar-winning effects are best viewed on the big screen.

When it was announced last week that Sam Raimi may or may not be working on a screenplay for a fourth installment of his Evil Dead horror films, I wondered how he was planning on differentiating this continuation of the franchise from the soon-to-be released remake of the series’ classic first installment. Evil Dead, both new and classic, producer Robert Tappert has supplied us with the answer (via Coming Soon) -

That would be Army of Darkness 2. Everybody calls it Evil Dead 4 but Army of Darkness wasn’t called Evil Dead anywhere except by the fans.

So I guess that answers that question.

Of course, there won’t be any movie, no matter what we call it, if original Evil Dead franchise star Bruce Campbell isn’t that enthused about coming back to his iconic role one more time. And considering that it has been 21 years since he last brandished his boomstick against the armies of the undead, Campbell does express some skepticism that a new film will ever come to pass.

Sam threatens this every six months. I’ve heard this a thousand times, because in the back of his mind, he never wants to let go, because he loved making these movies. We all loved making them together. They were a nightmare to make, very difficult, but they lasted the test of time, so he’s not going to let that go, and I’m never going to say ‘no.’ It’ll be me and a walker fighting some other old guy. But that’s what he does and who knows? It may happen.

But remember how awesome Campbell was in Don Coscarelli’s Bubba Ho-Tep as an aging Elvis fighting a mummy in a nursing home? I’m thinking that Ash would have nothing on him.

But there is one problem Raimi and his brother Ivan will have to overcome when they sit down to start writing. Which Army Of Darkness ending do they use? As fans of the series can tell you, and I am about to, the US and international releases of the film had two different endings – one in which the time-tossed Ash makes it back to home in the twentieth century in time for his shift at the S-Mart and one in which he doesn’t. It should be interesting to see which path the brothers take.

It just doesn’t quite feel like a Sam Raimi-directed film without some sort of cameo from his good friend and Evil Dead series collaborator Bruce Campbell, and when Campbell tweeted last month that he wasn’t going to make an appearance in Raimi’s upcoming Oz: The Great And Powerful, fans were a bit disappointed.

Well, it’s time to turn that frown upside down as the actor has told The Shiznet that he will be in the film after all!

The scene that I shot was a page [of the script] and it took all day. It was great to see the scope of Oz and to see the detail, and the craftsmanship and the professionalism and the incredible stuff that they’re doing visually in every other way.

As always, Campbell plays coy about the nature of his cameo, saying only -

I play a pivotal role. It involves me and Oz – that’s James Franco – and let’s just say that we have a confrontation. It was a very fun role to do actually.

Keep in my that Campbell has jokingly inflated the importance of his roles in Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy in the past, going so far as to say that he has been the only actor to ever defeat Spider-Man.

My guess would be that Campbell is probably playing a fellow carnival worker of Franco’s future Wizard of Oz, back in the days before he journeyed from Kansas to that magical land over the rainbow.

We’ll find out when Oz: The Great And Powerful opens on March 8, 2013.

Well, I hate to end this week on a down note, but looks like Bruce Campbell will not be making a cameo appearance in friend Sam Raimi’s upcoming Oz: The Great And Powerful after all. The actor let the news out on Twitter earlier today -

Currently in production, Oz: The Great And Powerful stars James Franco as the titular Kansas con-man who arrives in a magical land and finds himself embroiled in the machinations of three sister witches.

Since the two friends broke into the film business together with 1981‘s The Evil Dead, Campbell has made cameo appearances in a number of Raimi’s films that he didn’t happen to be starring in. In Darkman, Campbell appeared as the masked, final appearance of the film’s tragic, titular hero before disappearing into a group of pedestrians. Most famously, he has had small roles in Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, always as someone who thwarts Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker. As he jokingly boasts at convention appearances, “I’m the only man who has defeated Spider-Man!” He had previously stated that he would probably have a cameo in Oz.

A Campbell cameo is just one of two trademarks that fans look for in Raimi’s films. The other is the appearance of an old 1973 yellow Oldsmobile Delta 88, the same model that the director once owned. While any car may seem out of place in Oz, remember that Raimi did manage to sneak a disquised Olds into his western The Quick And The Dead, so anything is possible.

Perhaps this will take the sting of the remake out for some fans.

Bruce Campbell answered a few questions about the upcoming remake of the horror classic The Evil Dead on Twitter yesterday, revealing that this new version will not contain his iconic character Ash.

Although there could be an element of hype in Campbell’s responses, it does sound as if this remake will be a straight-up horror film, much in the vein of the original as opposed to the comedic tone that the second film and third films in the franchise. Campbell also confirms that the film will be shooting next year.

The film is set to be directed by Fede Alvarez. Cody Diablo has recently done some revisions to Rodo Sayagues’s script.

Sam Raimi has cast his long time friend, frequent star and sometimes whipping boy Bruce Campbell in his currently in production Wizard Of Oz prequel Oz, The Great And Powerful.

Fan favorite Campbell announced the news on twitter a short while ago -

Of course, if you’ve ever seen Campbell at a convention discuss cameos in Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy and point out how he is the only person to have defeated the superhero in those movies, you probably know to take his claim that the role will be “PIVITOL” with a grain of salt.

Since the pair broke into the film industry together with the cult favorite Evil Dead, Campbell has often appeared in Raimi’s films, either as a lead actor, supporting player or sometimes in just a small cameo role.

Just because the planned remake of the horror classic The Evil Dead will feature a cast of unknown actors, don’t think that we won’t be seeing the actor whose career was launched by the original franchise, Bruce Campbell, in the film.

In an interview with remake director Federico Alvarez El Pais reports that Alvarez is planning on having Campbell making an appearance in the film, quoting him as saying (as translated by the folks over at Bleeding Cool), “The only recognizable face is part of Bruce Campbell, but will be in a cameo towards the end of the film.”

Allow me to dabble in some random, and perhaps irresponsible, speculation. Alvarez states that this new version of the film “will change the characters and some story details, while keeping the basic outline of friends who are beleaguered by demons in a cabin alone.” So the hero of this new version won’t necessarily be named Ash, Campbell’s character in the original. Perhaps Alvarez is planning on showing Campbell in with a large group of attacking Deadites, hinting that perhaps Ash was never ultimately to free himself of the his association with the evil book The Necronomicon and the hosts of Deadities it can summon.

Of course, something like that would undoubtedly alienate many of the fans of the original franchise. But Alvarez indicates in the interview that existing fans are going to wind up being offended by the remake in some way anyways.

It may seem like a case of telling us something we already know, but late yesterday Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Nathan Kahane’s Ghost House Pictures officially announced that they were producing a remake of Raimi’s feature film debut The Evil Dead. Fans of the franchise know that Raimi and Tapert, along with the film’s star Bruce Campbell, served as the original film’s producers when it was made as an independent project back in 1980.

What is news is that the announcement mentioned that Cody Diablo is currently working on some revisions to Rodo Sayagues’s script.

I can’t say I’m too enthused by this prospect. Whenever I go back and rewatch her Academy Award-winning Juno, I get the feeling that the movie succeeds more on the strength of its performances than on her script. I’ve never been much of a fan of her screenplay for the horror film Jennifer’s Body and her screenplay Young Adult, currently being filmed by Juno director Ivan Reitman, is so filled with unlikeable characters that I have never been able to finish reading it despite multiple attempts. For me, the bloom is definitely off of the Diablo Cody rose.

Here’s the press release -

Sam Raimi and original producing partners Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell (who also starred in the original franchise) are gearing up to remake their cult sensation THE EVIL DEAD through their long standing Ghost House Pictures partnership. Raimi and Tapert were such instant fans of Fede Alvarez’s short film “Panic Attack” that they set up a blind deal with the filmmaker and through that process have attached Fede Alvarez to write and direct the film. Alvarez wrote the script with Rodo Sayagues. Academy Award® winning screenwriter Diablo Cody is currently doing revisions on the draft. Ghost House is committed to renewing the franchise and has the film on the fast track.

Raimi, Tapert and Campbell will serve as producers. Ghost House Pictures partners Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane will executive produce. Nicole Brown and J.R. Young will oversee the project for Ghost House. Lionsgate will handle international sales on the film.

The three producing partners commented, “We are committed to making this movie and are inspired by the enduring popularity and enthusiasm for the ‘Evil Dead’ series. We can’t wait to scare a new generation of moviegoers using filmmaking techniques that were not available to us thirty years ago as well as Fede bringing a fresh eye to the film’s original elements.”

Raimi wrote, directed and, along with Tapert and Campbell, produced the original horror classic THE EVIL DEAD that tells the story of five twenty-something friends who become holed up in a remote cabin where they discover a Book Of The Dead. An archaeologist’s tape recording reveals that the ancient text was discovered among the Khandarian ruins of a Sumerian civilization. Playing the taped incantations, the youths unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby woods, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival. THE EVIL DEAD spawned a franchise with the equally successful installments EVIL DEAD II and ARMY OF DARKNESS.

It’s something that has been discussed for the past several years – a remake of Sam Raimi’s classic horror film The Evil Dead. But the past 36 hours have seen a flurry of news culminating with the remake actually happening.

On Monday, Dread Central reported from an unnamed source that Raimi’s long-time editor Bob Murawski (Army Of Darkness, Spider-Man, Drag Me To Hell) was heading to Detroit to begin work on an Evil Dead film which was being described as “a small indie thing like the first two.”

This of course lead to loads of speculation. Was it the possible remake or was it a new installment in the series? But rather than just speculate, one fan on twitter took the question to the star of the original film, Bruce Campbell. The fan favorite cult actor had joined twitter last week and late Monday had this exchange  -

Campbell should know. Not only was he the star of the original Evil Dead films, he served as a producer on them, so he would be in the loop on any potential remake.

The folks over at Bloody Disgusting added to the story yesterday by quoting their own source as saying that Federico Alvarez will be making his feature film debut by directing an Evil Dead remake. The film is being produced by Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures and Mandate and casting may be underway. It is being theorized that Raimi may want to get the film through production before moving off to direct Oz: The Great And Powerful for Disney later this year.

While going with an unknown director may seem like an odd choice to some, but Raimi himself was a first time feature director when he made the first Evil Dead so it doesn’t strike me as an out-of-left field decision. If you’re still unsure about Alvarez, check out this short film, Panic Attack, that the director made in 2009. Some may deride it as nothing more than a promo reel to show how he can handle special effects, but I think he does a good job at setting mood with it as well. Plus, he references a famous shot from Sergei Eisenstein’ Battleship Potemkin, so it appears that he has a bit more knowledge on the history of cinema than I would credit most other directors.