AIRPLANE! vs ZERO HOUR!

One of my all time favorite movies is the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker disaster spoof Airplane!. If you by chance haven't seen the film, there's no real way to describe the film's offbeat, random, out-of-left field sense of humor. It's something you'll just have to experience for yourself.

I first saw the movie sometime in the early 1980s, at my friend's house on HBO. It was a comic revelation to us and for months afterwards we would set each other up with lines like "Surely you don't mean it," and getting the expected "Yes I do. And don't call me Shirley!" in response.

It wasn't until around the time I was in high school or college that I learned that the movie was actually patterened after a 1957 b-movie called Zero Hour!, scripted by none other than Alex Roots Hailey! Finding it on television proved impossible and it never got a release on VHS.

Last week though, Zero Hour! finally got a home video release as part of Warner Brothers "Cult Camp Classics" series. And the similarities between Zero Hour! and Airplane! are amazing! Where the original film reached for dramatic tension, Airplane! grabs laughs using the exact same lines. The Zucker-Abrams-Zucker team knew that the original was pure soapy melodrama, and they played it as straight as possible, knowing that's where the laughs were.

Don't take my word for it though. Check out these two scene-by-scene comparisons that recently showed up on YouTube.

SONG OF THE SOUTH- Finally?!

It's been a question that seems to have been on Disney fans' lips since the first DVD players rolled off the assembly lines and into retail outlets over 10 years ago- “When is Disney going to release Song Of The South on DVD?”

Well, it looks like they just might have an answer soon enough.

Over at the eponymous JimHillMedia.com, Jim Hill addresses just such a possibility in his weekly “Why For?” column. It seems that since John Lasseter has put a stop to all the direct-to-home video sequels that were being produced, the studio’s home video division is looking for product to replace their cancelled titles and Song Of The South is a guaranteed seller.

For those who don’t know, Jim Hill is perhaps the internet’s best resource for behind-the-scenes information on the House of Mouse. While Hill is definitely in the realm of speculation, his is probably the best educated guess available. It’s one I would certainly put some stock into.

You may recall this past April, we reported that during an appearance at the Philadelphia Film Festival, Walt Disney’s nephew Roy E. Disney had stated he was pushing for a release of the film on DVD.