I have never seen any of these films. I KNOW! I bought a 3-pack on DVD recently, I aim to correct this grievous oversight sooner rather than later.
Is the humor at all similar to "Beavis & Butthead"? You have to be pretty smart to write a dumb character in a truly hilarious way. Also, I found the many of the most memorable moments from that show involved Beavis stumbling upon some legitimately insightful viewpoint.
I've never seen this one, but I did see the four Disney movies - in general, I'd have a hard time saying it's similar to B&B. To me it's a far gentler kind of goofball comedy style: a human cartoon in a slightly surreal world. B&B doesn't strike me as "gentle." If Ernest were a real person, you could see yourself letting him hold your baby (ever so cautiously since chaos seems to follow him) because deep down, he seems to have a lot of heart. Beavis would set the baby on fire.
In all seriousness, Ernest doesn't seem to gain insight along the way - everyone else eventually warms to his viewpoint and abilities by the end of each story.
Nice insight, that all sounds about right. He's chaotic but not at all cruel. He's got a lot of poorly-considered plans, but when they backfire, the only real "victim" is likely to be himself. And maybe the person foolish enough to hire him, maybe that mysterious Vern fellow.
Part of the character, as I understand it, involves him rambling on about some topic in surprising and hilarious detail, with a verbal facility that we wouldn't have expected him to pull off if he were a simple dumb-ass. And he's not! And then adding in this twist, "a machine makes him really smart, for brief stretches", that seems like fun idea.
I find myself surprised to realize that I've never seen any of these films, because I am so familiar with the character Ernest P. Worrell. Just from his commercials, and from seeing brief clips. He's such a part of the pop culture landscape.
Like I mentioned I never saw the latter films, but Ernest Saves Christmas is one of those films I'll trot out every year. I saw it on a date back in high school and have probably seen it 20 times since then. This one does sound worth checking out though.
By the way, I found this movie is streaming free on multiple channels - I'm about 20 minutes in on PlutoTV, but I saw it available on Tubi, Roku Channel, and others.
Funny enough, there are a couple of very young future stars in it - Will (credited as William) Sasso and Sarah Chalke (credited as Chalk). The only reason I'm pointing it out is because I saw the names in the opening credits and wondered if they were the same people I was familiar with. It's definitely them! It's like finding out Mila Kunis was in the third "Honey I Shrunk..." movie that was DTV.
I have never seen any of these films. I KNOW! I bought a 3-pack on DVD recently, I aim to correct this grievous oversight sooner rather than later.
Is the humor at all similar to "Beavis & Butthead"? You have to be pretty smart to write a dumb character in a truly hilarious way. Also, I found the many of the most memorable moments from that show involved Beavis stumbling upon some legitimately insightful viewpoint.
I've never seen this one, but I did see the four Disney movies - in general, I'd have a hard time saying it's similar to B&B. To me it's a far gentler kind of goofball comedy style: a human cartoon in a slightly surreal world. B&B doesn't strike me as "gentle." If Ernest were a real person, you could see yourself letting him hold your baby (ever so cautiously since chaos seems to follow him) because deep down, he seems to have a lot of heart. Beavis would set the baby on fire.
In all seriousness, Ernest doesn't seem to gain insight along the way - everyone else eventually warms to his viewpoint and abilities by the end of each story.
Nice insight, that all sounds about right. He's chaotic but not at all cruel. He's got a lot of poorly-considered plans, but when they backfire, the only real "victim" is likely to be himself. And maybe the person foolish enough to hire him, maybe that mysterious Vern fellow.
Part of the character, as I understand it, involves him rambling on about some topic in surprising and hilarious detail, with a verbal facility that we wouldn't have expected him to pull off if he were a simple dumb-ass. And he's not! And then adding in this twist, "a machine makes him really smart, for brief stretches", that seems like fun idea.
I find myself surprised to realize that I've never seen any of these films, because I am so familiar with the character Ernest P. Worrell. Just from his commercials, and from seeing brief clips. He's such a part of the pop culture landscape.
Like I mentioned I never saw the latter films, but Ernest Saves Christmas is one of those films I'll trot out every year. I saw it on a date back in high school and have probably seen it 20 times since then. This one does sound worth checking out though.
I'm pleasantly surprised to read that at least some of his "post Disney" output is worth watching.
Those last two though: ooof. I'm already flinching in anticipation of very grim reviews.
By the way, I found this movie is streaming free on multiple channels - I'm about 20 minutes in on PlutoTV, but I saw it available on Tubi, Roku Channel, and others.
Funny enough, there are a couple of very young future stars in it - Will (credited as William) Sasso and Sarah Chalke (credited as Chalk). The only reason I'm pointing it out is because I saw the names in the opening credits and wondered if they were the same people I was familiar with. It's definitely them! It's like finding out Mila Kunis was in the third "Honey I Shrunk..." movie that was DTV.