The way the people turned to skeletons after being shot by the ray gun somewhat resembles what Time Burton does in Mars Attacks! Does anyone else think it is a bit of a ripoff.
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Ripoff.....or homage?
shareJonathan Gems told me that he only wrote from the cards, so it was really the Mars Attacks! cards that were paid homage, not the films, serials, or magazines that inspired the cars. It's a shame really, I'd love to hear Burton talk about TfOS :)
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I'm not sure I have to tell you this, but TFOS was done WAY LONG before the Mars Attacks movie, (though the Mars Attacks trading cards came out only a few years after TFOS)
shareNo "rip-off" but it is a good observation by the original Poster of this thread. Hampered by a limited budget ("Teenagers...") they did the best with what they had and it is pretty effective.
shareRay guns disintegrating flesh are a staple of pulp sci-fi. Do you really think this movie is the first time it was done?
shareGeorge Pal's 1953 "War of the Worlds" had that one scene where the Army officer was struck by the heat ray and his bones could be seen briefly before disintigrating completely.
I don't guess I can think of a movie that did that before, though, as gnome-5 points out, the idea was rampant in the printed sci-fi stories, and though I cannot think of an example I've ever seen, it may have turned up on the fancy cover art. I suspect that the EC Comics had such a thing and, of course, the late, great Wally Wood worked on both EC and the "Mars Attacks!" cards.
Personally, I liked the zapped dog -- where did they get a dog skeleton anyway? Probably the most expensive thing in this movie, paying off some guy named Igor to dig up a pet cemetary or something.
BTW, MARS ATTACKS was awful -- it couldn't make up its mind if it's spoof or serious, totally stupid character development, wildly uneven, and with so many blown opportunities. Give me TFOS any day. MARS ATTACKS was, to quote a Teen-alien, pure "taw-cha!"
Speaking of "Mars Attacks!", I was also disappointed that it was not a dark thriller. I've watched it again after a few years and can live with it as it has some fine moments, such as the giant robot chasing Lucas Haas in his pick up. Beautifully done. The flaming cattle sequence was also spiffy.
The zapped dog in "Teenagers..." was an inspired move (of course, there was also one in "Mars Attacks!") making everyone in the audience hiss the alien.
Until the original Poster mentioned it, I had not connected the skeletons from "Teenagers.." with the ones in "Mars Attacks!"
Of course, one of the Teens also zapped a beautiful girl in a bathing suit, so that also didn't make him an audience fave -- dogs! Sexy girls! Will these teenagers stop at nothing? All that's missing is where Harvey B. Dunn yells at them to get off his lawn.
We have a difference of opinion re MARS ATTACKS, however -- I actually thought that opening scene of the flaming cattle was horrific and extremely off-putting, not least because so much of the rest of the movie was supposed to be a spoof -- unfunny as most of it was. That cattle scene was just plain nasty (in the true sense of the word) -- vicious, sadistic and totally out of character with the rest of the film. I really, really hated that scene. (Sorry, but there it is.)
At least the dog and the swimming pool girl went quickly!
Respecting the rampaging barbeque -- yes, I agree. And that was the main problem with the picture. It was a bit schizo.
When I was a boy and first saw those bubble gum cards, they were really disturbing -- but --holy cow! (take the pun) -- they were great!
Tim Burton recreated as many of the images on the Topps cards as he could for the movie (I think the giant insects were left out). "Dog in Flames" was as nasty as it got and Fido's demise in the movie version was quick at least.
I think the swimming pool girl in "Teenagers..." getting de-boned was as gruesome as the shower scene in "Psycho". Both women were without any protection and the erotic aspect was certainly intentional.
By the way, for those who have not noticed, see the IMDb listing "The Boy from Out of This World" a 2008 release on the Making of Teenagers from Outer Space.
shareYou know, I don't recall ever seeing the Topps cards series, though I was very vaguely aware of it. Never had much affinity for comics and bubble gum cards, for some reason...watching too many movies, I guess.
They could have at least had the swimming pool girl in a '59 two-piece, which wasn't unheard of in movies then. Although how she thought she'd get away by swimming back over to the other side is beyond me. I always thought that maybe if she hadn't panicked the intergalactic J.D. wouldn't have flensed her. But you're right, it's the one bit of eroticism tossed into the film. It's even depicted in the poster art, though it looks far sexier there than in the actual movie!
Julia Adams depicted in the artwork for "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" was quite fetching. Anne Francis in the arms of a menacing looking Rooby the Robot on the poster for "Forbidden Planet". So many others.
A little leg goes a long way.
Those are two fetching babes, think I liked Francis better and she learned kissing quite easily. Jeez, Mars Attacks was definitely uneven and while some of it was pretty good I began loathing those Martian voices after awhile- annoying! Not a huge Burton fan he's too fascinated with the morbid side of life. Kind of a Scorcese who animates.
shareI think that Tim Burton is good for cinema as he takes risks. While he might repeat himself, he is worth watching.
He takes pleasure in paying homage to his influences. The Toho productions loom large as seen in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" and "Batman". His tribute to outcasts and friendship, "Ed Wood".
And, for the sake of this thread, to "Teenagers..." with the Christmas colored skeletons in "Mars Attacks". Ack! Ack!
And they were much prettier -- I mean in real life, not just the posters!
By the way, I read some bad news about Anne Francis a few weeks ago. Apparently she underwent surgery for lung cancer in February, and had a lung removed (or largely removed). I guess she was a smoker, in common with so many men and women of her era. Hope her prognosis is promising.