Netflix finally sent this one to me. My one observation? My dad had the EXACT same portable chess set. Why they sent an antique up there with these guys, I'll never know.

As a smart 4th Grader in 1979, I avoided both this and the Star Trek movie in theaters. The reviews (and I did read the local movie reviews) had said ST:TMP wasn't real trek, which was enough for me. Black Hole probably looked boring, and I was old enough for the Disney name to turn me off. At the time I was into the cartoon Star Blazers (the anime Space Battleship Yamato), with tons of space combat. The sad thing is, I later avoided Dragonslayer because of the Disney name as well, and that's great. Ah, what Disney could have been if their attempts at more serious genre movies and animation (Black Cauldron) had done well...

While this was Disney's first PG film, that's only because of when it was released. When Disney released Treasure Island on video, they had to edit out some of the violence to keep its G rating. Planet of the Apes also had a G rating.

Naturally, to watch it correctly, you have to see the episodes out of order. The producers deliberately screwed up the running order when it first aired on TV, so the viewer who hadn't read the books would be confused about continuity. As with the time loop, fucking with the audience was their goal. The books are available in English, I believe.

I grew up on TV edits of movies. Blues Brothers, Excalibur, Animal House. It's kind of sad that my niece will have to wait a half decade longer to see The Blues Brothers than I did.

Oh, somewhat related to what Eddy said, when my niece was four I had her yelling "Yippe Kai Yay!" while I pushed her on the swings. I let any adults nearby fill in the rest

Well, given the original treatment was even MORE like Hidden Fortress, I will politely disagree Lucas was really into Japanese films at the time, so those were a major influence. Broadswords would never come to my mind looking at what he happily admits to borrowing from. Hell, apart from Excalibur, I can't think of where I've seen them used in a movie.

"Tomorrow! Tomorrow! The Edge of Tomorrow! The episode's always a day away..."