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The IESB has your first look at the 24th Century, no not Star Trek but instead a look at the big screen live action adaptation of The Jetsons.
{sidebar id=1}Sealcrab has chimed in once again to give our readers an inside look at the script of The Jetsons written by Adam F. Goldberg and dated 3/30/07.
Sealcrab here, I have a question for all you movie fans, does anybody love the Jetsons? I mean really, really love it. Are there Jetsons fans out there with the die-hard passion of Trekkies who debate the continuity and work out organized timelines of the Jetsons universe (scratch that, shared Jetsons/Flintstones multi-verse)?
If there are, this is probably their movie. The script has got the feel of a Jetsons episode down -- borrowing directly from several of the show's single-episode storylines.
It opens with a shot-for-shot re-creation of the tv show's opening, introducing all the characters through the original theme song -- George Jetson, his boy Elroy, daughter Judy and Jane, his wife.
It's the year 2307 and the look is the same as the series -- a retro 60's style imagining of things to come complete with flying bubble-topped cars, robots and machines for even the simplest of tasks.
Each member of the Jetson family is having their own troubles.
George is failing to get ahead at Spacely Sprockets. Mr. Spacely (the script actually reads "hire Danny DeVito now" in his character description) has just put a new robot, Uniblab, in charge of his division.
Meanwhile, Elroy is being bullied (that is, space-bullied) by classmates, Judy is desperate to fit in with the popular clique (space-popular) and Jane is experiencing mid-life housewife ennui (space-ennui).
Through all this, we've got Rosie the Robot (reworked a bit to somewhat of an alcoholic, oddly enough) and Astro -- identical to the dog in the cartoon right down to the being able to speak but only in R's.
Now, it's George and Jane's anniversary and the fact that he's forgotten starts a fight between them. To make matters worse, Judy throws a secret party and develops a crush on Spacely's son "Uranus Spacely" -- which rapidly becomes a terrible ongoing joke:
GEORGE
Oh, I know Uranus. Uranus is bad
news. You're not allowed to touch
Uranus ever again!
Sigh. But most of the script isn't that awful and a lot of the truly awful jokes I have to admit are things the old show would have done. For example, there's a cameo by Lucy Liu as "Lucy Liunar". Stupid? Definitely. But at least keeping in tone with the tv series.
George manages to get caught making fun of Spacely and is promptly fired. Tensions with Jane reach the point that they make the sitcom-ey decision to switch roles -- he'll stay at home and do the housework while she finds a job.
She finds one right away working for Spacely's rival, Cogsworth while George has to deal with his daughter's crush and his son's sudden decision to become a male cheerleader.
Of course, both George and Jane decide that doing their significant other's job is harder than they thought and (strangely) both come up with new inventions to win the appreciation of Spacely and Cogswell, respectively.
George invents a virtual-reality helmet to make dog-walking easier while Jane comes up with a holographic face-mask for people to use on video-phones when they've just woken up. Accidentally, though, the designs get switched and hilarity ensues.
That's basically the tone of the Jetsons movie -- lots of single episode plots tied together. And it works in a way that a Jetsons movie maybe shouldn't be able to. There are missteps, sure. There are quite a few references to modern day things made silly through time.
Of course Myspace exists in the 24th century.
But in virtual reality!
And Ipods.
But they're really tiny!
And you wouldn't believe what current President of the United States is on the currency.
There's a lot of awful future jokes but most are harmless, including a number of nods to very specific episodes of the series. I think exactly one of them made me laugh:
URANUS
I'll cell you. What's your number?
JUDY
555-885-0925-88483407877892. 4.
All in all, this is a project that is going to need a solid director and cast (and, of course, some nifty special effects) to be able to keep an audience entertained. There's material here to work with but it's not inherently anything special.
Here's hoping they find someone with the right level of passion for The Jetsons. People like that exist, right? I know the rumor has been Robert Rodriguez, but I find it hard to picture.
This script is screaming for an 80's Joe Dante-type at the helm; Someone who can play up the stupid aspects for stupid's sake and make it into a real enjoyable comedy.
Adam F. Goldberg, 3/30/07, 116 Pages, Studio Warner Bros.
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