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 The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986) 

What grade would you give this film?
A 50%  50%  [ 1 ]
B 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
C 50%  50%  [ 1 ]
D 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
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Total votes : 2

 The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986) 
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College Boy Z

Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2004 8:40 pm
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Post The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)
The Adventures of Mark Twain

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The Adventures of Mark Twain, released in the UK as Comet Quest, is a 1986 American stop-motion animation film directed by Will Vinton (best known for "The California Raisins" animation). It received a wider theatrical release, still limited to seven major cities, in January 1986. It was released on DVD in January 2006. The film features a series of vignettes extracted from several of Mark Twain's works, built around a plot that features Twain's attempts to keep his "appointment" with Halley's Comet. Twain and three children, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher, travel on an airship between various adventures. The concept was inspired by a famous quote by the author:

"I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'" (Twain died one day after Halley's Comet reached perihelion in 1910.)

Included are sketches taken from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Mysterious Stranger, "The Diaries of Adam and Eve (Letters from the Earth)", "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" and a rendering of Twain's first story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". References are made to his other works, including "The Damned Human Race".

The sequence based on The Mysterious Stranger received over ten million views upon being posted on YouTube. The title of the video claimed it was "banned from TV" and makes no direct reference to the film.


Wed Jun 07, 2006 8:53 pm
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Cream of the Crop
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Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 3:43 pm
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Location: Wellsville, MO
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Woot! Here we go!

I love this movie. I grew up with it. It was released the year I was born (1985), and my mom taped it off Disney Channel in '88. I just learned the other day that it was finally released on DVD this past January; I plan on buying it, especially since I hear that Disney Channel cut out an apparently awesome scene involving Satan.

This is true claymation. It's rough, and yet that roughness is what gives it its charm.

And the story? Absolutely wonderful! It follows Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher as they stow away on a Zeppelin-type balloon being manned by none other than Mark Twain himself. Haley's Comet is a-comin', and Twain is set and determined to meet it--he came into the world with it, he plans on going out with it.

Along the way, we hear tellings of some of Twain's greatest stories, including The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and, my personal favorite of Twain's, The Diary of Adam and Eve. I'm especially fond of the way the Diary story is played out.

I always find myself in tears at some scenes in this movie, such as the last scene between Adam and Eve, and Twain's final goodbye.

This movie is BEAUTIFUL, both visually and story-wise. And the song by Billy Scream, "Heroes", is an especially catchy tune that I absolutely adore.

The portrayal of Mark Twain is superb, and his dialogue is made up quite a bit of direct quotations.

Mark Twain was a TRUE American classic, and I think this movie made a great introduction to a three-year-old precocious redhead who always wanted to grow up to be like the girl who shared her name: Becky.*

I give this movie:

A+

Joy

*Joy's actually my middle name; Rebekah's my first...


Wed Jun 07, 2006 10:04 pm
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Extraordinary
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Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 9:30 pm
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Location: Stroudsburg, PA
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I saw it when it was first released (in the theatre, no less!) and wrote an article about it for my animation magazine back then. It was top o' the line for clay animation at the time, but the film was still lacking in some parts: A bit too episodic for me. Of course, it's been 20 years since I have seen it...

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Wed Jun 07, 2006 10:35 pm
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