Dennis the Menace - It's Not THAT Bad - The Story Behind the '93 Adaptation

he said Mason stop kidding around let's do this scene if you don't I'm going to punch you in the mouth and I'm going to knock all your teeth down your throat and he said no you're not I said what makes you think I'm not he said then you'll have to wait for them to grow back in when Home Alone smashed box office records upon its release in November 1991 it sent every studio in Hollywood scrambling to develop their own copycat project Disney gave us blank check par Mount gave us remote and Warner Brothers gave us Dennis the Menace I uh I'm not going to mince words Mitchell your kid is driving me nuts of those movies I have to give Warner Brothers credit because they at least hired the man responsible for Home Alone to oversee the project John Hughes do you think Dennis Menace would have been made if Home Alone hadn't been such a big hit I don't know you know I don't know if uh anybody would have called me on that I wouldn't have it would not have occurred to me to do to Dennis the Menace because i' never I just kind of come up with my own stuff and Warner Brothers called and asked me to do it I know I'm talking about yet another John Hughes production on this channel shocker uhoh but while Dennis De Menace appears to be a Home Alone knockoff on paper and does contain its fair share of similarities I actually find it to be a really layered different story perfectly grounding comic strip characters in the real world he's only a boy huh like hughes's other written work the movie also excels in capturing the perspective of its varied leads when I watch this movie as a kid I felt for denness a kid just trying to survive the boorom that comes from summer vacation but now as an adult I find myself rooting for Mr Wilson who just wants to sleep in and not be bothered on his days off I'm a reasonable man who expects reasonable treatment from his neighbors and their children uhhuh there's a surprising amount of emotional depth packed into the story as well when it could have just been another rushed home alone clone I can't tell you how deeply moved I am unlike home alone it also features a villainous Thief that feels even more terrifying than Michael Myers probably something to do with the fact that the movie was directed by Michael Myers himself Nick Castle What attracted me to the project was the script itself and taking the screenplay and making that come alive which also might account for the dozen other terrifying visuals in this movie [Music] you hurt but beyond that Dennis the Menace is a rare adaptation of beloved characters that manages to feel like its own thing which makes it all the more baffling that this movie wasn't more beloved upon its release a tragedy of this magnitude has to be somebody's fault Martha now I know this one isn't nearly as hated as some of the other adaptations I've covered in the series but I'm still surprised at the amount of hate that it gets there are things that it gets wrong for sure but there's a lot that it gets right too so let's take a look back at this movie's long journey to the big screen to highlight why it will always hold a special place in the hearts of us '90s kidss I think I better go outside and play to start let's jump back to March 1951 when Dennis Dominus made his first appearance in comic strips throughout the United States the character created by Hank Ketchum was ly based on his own son Dennis Ketchum oddly enough Britain would get their own unrelated Dennis Dem menis comic strip which was even released on the very same week in 1951 I can't stand that kid need a menace this is why this movie had an alternate title overseas ketchum's dance the Mana series dealt with a mischievous young boy in a picturesque suburb of Witchita Kansas well welcome to witchar the early comic strips mainly focused on Dennis and his parents it wasn't until a few years later that a new victim for his meddling was introduced his family's retired neighbor George Wilson George [Applause] Wilson which gave a whole new dimension to the story while Dennis put Mr Wilson through Helen Back he also always seemed to have an admiration and respect for him the comic strip rapidly expanded to more newspapers leading to a series of comic books beginning in 1955 and later a CBS sitcom that began its run in 1959 whoops you got your foot in the pain Mr Wilson the show ended in 1963 doing part to Dennis's actor Jay north approaching age 13 as well as the show failing to replace the Mr Wilson character after actor Joseph Karns died suddenly in 1962 and this must be Denis how are you young man hi Mr Wilson I sure am glad to meet you because me and your brother are best friends the comic strip never faltered in popularity though and the character even became an unofficial mascot for A&W and later Dairy Queen like most popular comic strip characters Dennis Dom Menace was eventually adapted into a Saturday morning TV series from deak entertainment which featured Phil Hartman as the voice of Mr Wilson Denis don't you have place to go nope Mr Wilson you're in luck you and me can spend the whole day together wonderful now if you'll just keep quiet I'd like to watch the news deck produced a liveaction adaptation of their Series in 1987 later renamed Dennis the Menace dinosaur Hunter the movie intended to be the first in a series failed to capture the spirit of both the comic strip and the animated show Extinct and that's what you're going to be if you ever call me G in in the middle of the night cut to early 1991 Home Alone was sted dominating the box office and breaking records even a couple months after its release famously the movie had originally been set up at Warner Brothers when they tried to slash the budget John Hughes called their Bluff and took the movie to 20th Century Fox now eating their words Warner Brothers was eager to heal the relationship with Hughes they had acquired the feature film rights to Dennis De Menace a few years prior and the hopes that Tim Burton would direct an adaptation for them though he declined and now they were dangling the rights in front of Hughes in an effort to lure him back Hughes a huge fan of the comic strip since childhood was reluctant to adapt someone else's material as up to that point in time he had never written an adaptation but Warner convinced him to meet with Hank Ketchum and the two hit it off I went out and met Hank Ketchum and he what I realized in talking with him was that there's a big difference I'd forgotten the difference between a 5-year-old and year old it's you know it's just enormous they're two different kinds you know two different people Hughes agreed to write and produced Dennis De Menace under one stipulation he wanted the movie to draw inspiration from the original comic strip and not the CBS sitcom how much time do you spend reviewing the old TV show of D Menace none not once I didn't watch one episode that's not what I was basing I was basing it on on the original material John's script combines elements established in a lot of his earlier work a kid away from his parents for the first time an unconventional caretaker looking after said kid a parent trapped in another city on business and a burgler who meets his demise and over-the-top slaps thck ways JN originally hired space invader director Patrick Reed Johnson to direct the movie but the two of them didn't see eye to eye on the story Johnson would end up directing baby stay out for him a couple of years later instead save two lose one John then turned his attention to Nick Castle Nick a USC classmate of John Carpenters had played Michael Myers in the first two Halloween movies before pursuing a career as a writer and director himself Jon had admired a movie he directed in 1984 the last starf fighter and had been trying to collaborate with him ever since Castle Hughes and cinematographer Thomas arriman all agreed that though the movie should homage the comic the world needed to feel grounded and real a lot of the realness of the characters would depend on the casting though I said we're not going to make a movie about a cow like you know it's not we're not looking for a kid that's hair sticks up in the back we're we're not going to be slavish in to to the material in that extent we're going to find the we're going to find the the the the the character the the actors that best capture the characters Walter matl was the first choice for Mr Wilson why is it when everyone else feasts on the pleasures of life I get the indigestion because you're an old grump we thought right away Walter mathau and uh he read it I was real I was nervous you I probably haven't been that nervous in 10 years waiting to hear what what he was going to say and he called me and said you know I like the script I'm not busy I'll be there Walter's involvement enhances the material so much tastes like [Music] paint and wood [Music] it's a delight to watch him having a good time during the behindth scenes filming as well you always hear stories about actors trying not to break character around child performers especially if they're supposed to be antagonistic so it's so nice to see him having so much fun in the role I'm at home in comedy and I'm aware of the fact that comedy is much more difficult than non-comedic roles and uh I'm happy doing something that I think very few people can do and uh I simply have a knck for it likewise Joan plowright makes the perfect Mrs Wilson whose own acting choices compliment Walter's while also contrasting him George yeah take Dennis's suitcase up to the guest room please he's got arms don't start dear here's a script adds so much Dimension to their characters but also respecting The Source material I didn't decree that we wouldn't have children Mar that was out of both our hands it makes them feel like a real couple and not just a target for Dennis's Mischief Dennis has been fooling around with paint I know it and I'm going to prove it aren't you taking this a bit far George he's only a boy other Veterans of John Hughes Productions such as Leia Thompson and Devon retree were also cast as were the elderly airport couple from Home Alone played by Bill Arn and Billy Bird which I feel was a subtle reminder to Warner for passing on Home Alone she's got her own earrings a whole shoe box full of mut dangly ones come on come on no lots of great character actors populate the other roles such as Paul Winfield and Robert Stanton and even a young Natasha Leon as Dennis's babysitter well my girlfriend used babysit for Dennis she said bring a helmet and wear pants for the part of Dennis however Hughes felt that hiring an inexperienced child actor was the only way to go John Hughes invited all of America to send videotapes of their little boys if they were between 5 and seven and blonde hair and they thought they were Dennis the Menace as a result the studio received over 20,000 audition tapes in total amongst them was one featuring a 5-year-old kid named Mason Gamble and I also brought a worm is that Worm real yes it's moving isn't it it's real Mason ended up becoming one of the 10 finalists for the role beating out the others after a screen test with Walter matth it's a number that I use all the time so I won't forget it I use it all the time bet I know what it is I doubt that I bet it's your address Mason received a lot of criticism for his performance and was even nominated for a Razzi that year for worst new star but when you consider this was his first time acting in a film he does a commendable job especially considering he's only five you know what Mr Wilson what you're the nicest old G on the Block the other child actors portraying his friends Margaret and Joey also do a great job don't call me stupid baby rump kisser although I swear Joey's actor is secretly Lou Costello [Music] reincarnated and last I have to talk about Christopher Lloyd don't believe I've seen you around here before maybe that's cuz I ain't ever been around here I'm not sure exactly how he came to be involved in the movie but he takes what could have been a generic Bad Guy character and elevates him to be one of the most genuinely unnerving screen villains of the 1990s do I get to use a gun you get to stand in front of me and case the cops use a gun watching this as a kid I didn't even realize it was Christopher Lloyd despite all the the nightmares his other performances had given me whenever they warned us about stranger danger in school this is the guy that I pictured I have a scene where there's a boy sitting on the other side of the fence on his private property who's he got an apple and I come up I you know and I take big knife and I stab the apple and I take it that boy for the rest of the Run could not look at me I I'd be out of out of makeup out of costume walk through and he'd be walking up with his mom and he would completely shrink never got over it he never got over it and I don't care well he better get used to it disappointment is going to be a big part of his life he's a foot short for his age and he's crosy unlike Harry and Marv who are Charming in their own to few ways switchblade Sam is a truly menacing character and I hate seeing so many critics of the time singling out his performance as being too dark it's too bad about switchblade Sam and because of him I can only give Dennis the Menace two and a half Stars I'm Roger E a cork in it you're giving me a headache much like Home Alone Dennis the Menace also employed an amazing array of stunt performers their great work combined with Nick Castle's Direction and tight editing by alen Heim leads to some really creative sequences Martha where are the GD Garden lanterns I love seeing how much hard work went into achieving a single shot such as Dennis firing a slingshot into Mr Wilson's [Music] mouth another major Talent John Hughes was committed to securing for the movie was legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith his score for the movie is so layered and dynamic IC delightful at times yet dark at others all these pieces come together to really set this movie apart from other kids movies of the time again the world of this movie ends up feeling so real because it was shot on location it's it's where you know everyone and you know your neighbors you trust your neighbors and you rely on your neighbors and they rely on you and I think that's kind of fading away and and and it it's strange that this does seem like a a far away you know a far off place but in fact it it was once common anticipating Home Alone levels of success winner even licensed the video game based on the movie and other merchandise such as activity books despite this the movie did not come close to hitting the same numbers as Home Alone upon its release on June 25th 1993 though it ended up being a moderate hit for the studio you have to expect [Music] unexpected following its release John Hughes became highly sought after for other adaptations he was even hired to write and produce a liveaction peanuts film that would ultimately fell apart I'm kind of a goofy dad making movies for everybody's kids I guess Hank Ketchum was pleased with the movie and he retired from the dentist am men's comic strip in 1994 four handing the Reigns over to his assistants and son who continued to publish it to this day a direct to video sequel followed in 1998 which I've actually covered before with none of the same cast and crew returning it highlights just how bad the first movie could have been had everything not come together in the way that it did Over My Dead Body while the critical consensus at the time was pretty negative I guarantee that any kid who grew up with this movie has developed a real soft spot for it [Music] I think a lot of that has to do with its perspective it really captures the feeling of being a kid during summer vacation those endless nights outside playing with every kid in the neighborhood those boring rainy days with nothing to do but watch the raindrops fall and the general curiosity that comes with being a kid adding the terrific performances from the adult leads and denst the Menace remains a great adapt that's still worth watching even 31 years later I brought my own pillow so I don't get my spit all over yours thank you D Martha where are the GD Garden lanterns

Channel: Hats Off Entertainment

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Keywords: hats off entertainment, joe ramoni, almost cult classics, forgotten failures, it's not that bad, walter matthau, john hughes, mason gamble, christopher lloyd, lea thompson, dennis the menace, dinosaur hunter, full movie, dic entertainment, hank ketcham, home alone, joan plowright, best scenes, funniest scenes, switchblade sam, flintstones, popeye, warner brothers, 1993, retrospective, deleted scenes, interview, comic strip, dic, tv show, nick castle, 90's movies

Id: q0LIUAHnLn8

Length: 18min 17sec (1097 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2024