Wallaby Wednesday: ‘Popcorn Pandemonium’ previews in review

Nearly two decades before Screen Junkies made Honest Trailers a YouTube phenomenon, the cinema industry within the Rocko’s Modern Life universe make little effort to sugarcoat its output. Its best favor to itself is the bare-minimum quantity of films playing compared to the coming attractions.

In Season 1’s “Popcorn Pandemonium,” Rocko and Heffer catch five trailers while theater-hopping in search of a suitable seat. It does not matter where they settle, for all 19 rooms are screening Lethal Odor IX.

For those who never took Latin, that is the ninth installment of the fictitious franchise. Apart from established diehards and fans taking a belated interest, no one is likely to look past the lack of originality.

Despite this, and the false “hundreds of movies to choose from” promise, the Googa Plex Cinema draws substantial crowds. Some theaters are packed, and the line for concessions makes the post office and DMV look tolerable. O-Townies either have a low bar, little else to do or a desperate desire to be at the movies no matter what.

As the trailers tell the ticketholders for Lethal Odor IX, there is not much freshness to look forward to. Adaptations of popular characters and “real-life” events comprise the bulk of the coming attractions. But the candor within the narration confirms the studios’ collective confidence that this will suffice for mainstream audiences.

Based on what the episode shows, how convincing can each of these trailers be to Rocko’s fellow moviegoers? Who do the films promise to appeal to the most, why, how and to what extent?

This author shall answer for each of them, one by one.

Enter the Rodent: Part 7 (or Not Before I Had My Coffee)

Like Lethal Odor, this franchise is emulating Duracell. And apart from the alternate/subtitle to this installment, it does not exactly pursue personality for the names of each chapter. That is, at least, not according to the evidence this episode and trailer divulge.

But through its protagonist, the series gives the impression it is using its latest project to convey its own burnout. After pitting this master-of-martial-arts hamster against a Pittsburgh-area kung-fu group and a Cleveland football team, higher-ups are ready to sit down for something more mundane.

That should suit the Rocko world well enough. After all, many of Rocko’s adventures entail the most basic, everyday activities devolving into chaos.

As for the titular rodent, he is not the type you want to bother before he has had his morning brew. Anyone who makes that mistake can set off a dramatic plot, hence the “Hi-ya!” and presumably more that Rocko and Heffer miss as they go searching for a theater with a better view.

 

The Doo

I have never seen Scarlett Johansson’s Under the Skin, but is this supposed to be along the same lines? Is this another example of the Rocko universe being ahead of ours?

It is hard to tell, especially since this is the shortest trailer depicted in “Popcorn Pandemonium.” That brevity could be because it has the longest waiting period before its premiere date. The narrator says it is “coming this holiday season,” and Mr. Bighead’s football game may be a playoff tilt amidst an unseasonably warm January, a college spring intrasquad exhibition or a taped delay he has finally gotten around to.

Regardless, The Doo is the only film with no readily apparent inspiration or basis. Those who enjoy strange horror of Sharknado proportions will take to it with maximum zeal.

The Cuddly Little Poots

Any discussion thread about this kiddie cartoon flick is sure to include observations of a Smurfs parody. This being the Rocko world, though, movies of this genre are not immune to tragedy.

The joint trailer for this project and the related Das Poot are nothing if not up front about that. In the main film, crossover character Really Really Big Man carelessly squishes at least one Poot. (That would basically be the equivalent of Superman erroneously killing a Smurf.) The other story, set on a World War II submarine, features exploding torpedoes.

Maybe these particular adaptations are not meant for the Poots’ preschool demographics. Perhaps slightly older children, embarrassed by their former fanaticism, can come and take satisfaction in the now-despised characters’ demise. This could be the Rocko-verse’s answer to anti-Barney humor.

Adding to that theory, part of the narrator’s appeal to prospective viewers is the Poots’ “line of expensive licensed products.” Obviously, shelling out for tickets to watch this commercialized crap destroyed will not restore the money parents previously spent on merchandise to please their tots. But perhaps the symbolism will deliver a little intangible satisfaction.

 

Garbage Strike: The Musical

The Chameleon Brothers sure know how to capitalize. While it is unclear whether the titular labor dispute is ongoing or one that has stopped and started repeatedly in recent years, there is already a book about it.

And now, as the closing number to “Popcorn Pandemonium” further suggests, two of the garbage union leaders are portraying themselves in their own story’s screen adaptation. Other than Jackie Robinson playing himself in his first biopic, that tactic has not been tried much.

Entertainment value aside, this implied arrangement does not bode well for those who want long-term order in the trash pick-up department. If these garbage personnel are scoring major movie deals and displaying musical-acting talent, they really can do anything that they like while on strike.

Dracula: Done to Death

The start of this trailer’s narration says it all. “It’s not new. It’s not original. It isn’t even very interesting.”

That last disclaimer comes out in comparatively muffled haste. It is as if the studio harbors collective or individual conflict on how to tout this movie.

For its part, the title carries a frank twofold meaning. Besides corresponding to the film’s implied lack of events, it agrees with anyone who believes there have been too many Dracula adaptations in too little time.

When “Popcorn Pandemonium” premiered, there had been at least seven Universal and nine Hammer screenplays of pop culture’s most famous vampire. In to several looser, further imagination-stretching stories, seven more retellings came out between 1982 and 1992.

Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula was a successful capper on that slew. But barely a year later, in the Rocko world, someone in Hollowood must have sarcastically suggested, “Why not just show a dead Dracula and have Van Helsing and his sidekick go get some bagels?"

Those bagels bring nice symmetry to the coffee the Rodent is settling down for. And if the film’s producers and promoters are beating the consumers to the enough-already sentiment, the hook just might work.