jimimadcap Reviews

De pilis (1973– )

Pilis are great fun!!

[10/10 · 30 December 2006]

Super kiddie animation from the early days of cable. I remember watching this show while my mother dressed me for kindergarten. Delightfully entertaining for little tykes. Someone should make it available on DVD. It originally ran in the US on the long gone Calliope cable channel around 1988. The show concerned tiny cute-drawn mice which sang opera and engaged in hi-jinx. I found some references to Video tapes in a French Video catalog, but the internet links were no longer valid, and in a wider search I could not locate any material. The Pilis were produced in Belgium by its director, Ray Goosens, and were originally known as 'Les Pilis'. Ray Goosens (1924-1998), who passed away in 1998, was an animator who left behind a good sized and well respected body of imaginative work, most of which was geared to children. Among some of his better known works was, 'Pinocchio in Outer Space' and 'Astérix le Gaulois' (Asterix the Gaul).His career spanned over 40 years (1940-1984).

The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)

Carlos Mancilla, an extra( and not the currently famous comedian), saves the day for John Landis

[10/10 · 12 August 2006]

A short time into the filming of the famous 'A Fistful of Yen' brawl sequence of the film, Landis and his crew realized that they were woefully short of extras for the shot. In a panic, he hopped into his limo, and with a few production personnel, drove around the Chinatown and Central City area of Los Angeles looking for extras to round out the shoot. The Chinese he approached on the sidewalks and storefronts of Chinatown all refused his offer of work, and the entourage proceeded westward aimlessly. After a short while, they came upon the Belmont High School football field, which at the time was filled with members of the track team warming down from their workouts. One of the captains of the team, Carlos Mancilla, by coincidence,a Black Belt in Martial Arts, was approached by Landis, who explained his predicament. Carlos, who had helped make and participate in student films at the time, and whose schoolmates at the time were future playwright Lemar Fooks, and the future Rosarita Food Company spokeswoman, Sergia Sanchez, and whose teacher at the time was Tom Waits father, Frank Waits, immediately picked up on the problem. He put the call out to the Chinese Friendship Club, the tennis team, and select members of the track team that had some knowledge of Martial Arts, and within 30 minutes, Landis had his Martial Arts army. Needless to say, the sequence was a success, all because of the fortuitous meeting between John Landis and one of his future extras, Carlos Mancilla. Mancilla later sought out a career in movie production, both as a set-builder and bit player, with which he is still involved in. Incidentally, Mancilla founded a service which helped provide Hollywood productions with Biker and Gang Type extras. Some of the films he provided Bikers and 'Cholos' for, were, "Back to the Future, Part 2", "American Me", and "Mi Vida Loca".

The War of the Worlds (1953)

One of the top three SCI-FI films of ALL TIME!

[10/10 · 3 July 2005]

Watching "Independence Day" and Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" make one appreciate this film all the more. George Pal was certainly one of the most gifted filmmakers of all time, he sure knew how to craft, how to tell a story through the film idiom. I still get a lump in my throat when the General yells out ,"FIRE!!", followed immediately by the captain's, "LET 'EM HAVE IT!!!!, or the scene where LA City Hall gets blown to smithereens, or the scene where Dr. Forrester explains MASONS( the atomic glue that holds matter together). After 52 years, this film, in the SCI-FI genre, is surpassed by perhaps only "Empire Strikes Back" or...or...or.... Similarfilms, such as Independence day and the new War of the Worlds pale in comparison, they are all special effects and no story. George Pal's version was ALL STORY and GREAT EFFECTS!!!