Batman
dir. Tim Burton (Warner Bros., 1989)
By far the pick of the franchise pre-Nolan — albeit not as funky as Prince’s soundtrack would intimate — the original Batman soared, giving us Jack Nicholson as a whimsically understated over-the-top Joker and Michael Keaton as the most beguiling Bruce Wayne of all.
Howard the Duck
dir. Willard Huyck (Lucasfilm, 1986)
Though not the outright flop of lore, this hand-me-down from George Lucas’ Star Wars clique prevaricates disastrously between child-orientated performances and inexplicably adult humour. It remains a must-see film, however, if only for Jeffrey Jones as a demonically possessed Ed Rooney cross-pollination.
Monkey Goes West
dir. Ho Meng-Hua (Shaw Brothers, 1966)
[released with three sequels under the umbrella title: Monkey – Journey to the West, Siren DVD, 2008]
Based on Wu Cheng’en’s Buddhist quest novel Journey to the West, this meandering film-cum-musical seems almost entirely without point or consequence… except to establish prototypes of nearly all those iconic visual elements featured subsequently in the 1978-1980 TV series Saiyūki (aka Monkey).
The Great Piratical Rumbustification (& The Librarian and the Robbers)
by Margaret Mahy (J. M. Dent, 1978)
Two stories by New Zealand’s doyen of children’s books: the second, a quietly subversive extolment of libraries; the first, a droll yet puckishly young-at-heart parable on quality of life, with bonhomous pictures by Quentin Blake and an endearingly rumtiddlyumptious neologism to boot!
Lester and the Unusual Pet
by Quentin Blake (Picture Lions, 1975)
Known for illustrating other people’s books (most notably Roald Dahl’s), Quentin Blake also writes many himself. Lester and the Unusual Pet showcases his understated absurdism — Salvador Dalí for children, almost — in a joyous, freewheeling, lazy afternoon paean to young imaginations running rife.