Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme (1990)

[Nameless 2]

I want to be brief, but also have no clue where to begin. This is a children's TV movie from 1990 and so has numerous strikes against it already. What distinguishes it and makes it worthy of examination is the design lunacy permeating every element (set, costume, character) of this fever dream of a film. That combined with a cast so loaded with (contemporary) big names that, having seen the final product, one can't help but wonder at the how and why of it all.

 

Mother Goose (Jean Stapleton), beloved figure of Rhymeland (perhaps creator of all?(thingsgetfuzzy)), is presumably kidnapped leading her unusually ordinary son Gordon (Rene Russo's husband) and Little Bo Peep (Shelley Duvall) on and investigation through Rhymeland encountering memorable nursery rhyme characters along the way, each played by a recognizable actor/musician/Cheech.

 

I had a copy growing up that I guess my parent had taped off TV in the assumption that it was appropriate for children. It was not. It is too grotesque a thing for a kid to enjoy.

 

Have I mentioned this is a musical? It is.

Did I mention the sequences set in Little Richard's dungeon? No? Good, I don't wanna talk about it.

 

Same again for Howie Mandel's Humpty Dumpty

 

 

Both versions (the shorter being the Disney Channel cut) are on youtube and pretty much nowhere else.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia....k_%27n%27_Rhyme (Look at this cast)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqUL9M2lq-s (Trailer)

[TrevorReece 2]

Oh. My. God. YES!!! I legitimately wonder how the hell this got made! Not necessarily how it came about, but how they got everyone to do it in the first place. It is this generation's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Bee Gees.

 

And you failed to mention that ZZ Top portray the Three Men in a Tub

 

1.bp.blogspot.com/_kRuD6zV4Fqs/TD81mO2nV_I/AAAAAAAAENg/2JSM4ZlZbXk/s400/ishot-1077.jpg

[Nameless 2]

How did this get made or Why did they do this?! I failed to mention SO many people and you're right it's difficult to understand given that the result is so nanners. The ZZ Top cameo is strange; they show up three(?) times, say nothing, and exit almost immediately. Kids love ZZ Top, right? They also look like themselves for the most part unlike, say, Woody Harrelson as Mary's little lamb, Ben Vereen as Itsy Bitsy Spider, or the aforementioned Howie Mandel.

 

Since my original post I've come across this poorly titled buzzfeed post that gives a decent demonstration of this movie's bizzaro world and most of the major cameos, but spoilersalerts, if anyone could possibly give a shit.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/mother-goose-rock-n-rhyme-was-the-most-cracktastic-kids-movi

 

I know a lot of people have not seen or even heard of this movie before, but I encourage everyone to take a look. I think what I'm trying to say is, unearth this time capsule of insanity and let loose its horrific contents on an unsuspecting public. That's all I'm trying to say.

[TrevorReece 2]

YouTube straight up has the whole movie to watch. We need start a grass roots campaign to get this amazing film on the show

 

youtube.com/watch?v=eLroxgTIV0w

[Nameless 2]

I'm with you. Should I post more pictures of the Mandel Manegg?

 

It seems it's just too obscure and I get it. It's hard to devote any chunk of time to something you've barely heard of, if at all, and might be unbearable to sit through. We just got to trust that these lovely and talented (I'm assuming) HDTGM board members are also brave enough to try a complete unknown.

[rowboatcop 5]

Great suggestion! My parents recorded this from tv for me and my sister back in the day. I would love to see this on the show. I haven't watched this movie since I was a kid, but seeing these stills reminds me why I didn't like watching it. The imagery was so creepy and demented! How was this made for children?!

[Nameless 2]

Think about this though, if you saw the TV version as a kid, then you saw the cut for the Disney channel and so, theoretically, the one edited specifically for children. That was the one I knew too. I recently watched the full cut which is nearly 20 minutes longer and immediately it felt darker.

 

The TV edit added a "fun kids movie" score throughout whereas in the full edit some scenes have no score and watching them play out with just natural sounds and dead silences is unsettling. I was also disappointed that there was no "follow the bouncing ball" for the Ratt song in the dungeon. It also made explicit that Debbie Harry's numerous diversely ethnic children were all fathered by different men, some/all of whom still live with her. Everything I just wrote is crazy.

[VinsanityV22 500]

This movie and the "Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue" anti-Drug PSA sort of haunted my childhood. These were both really, really weird productions that always felt off to me. This movie is a fantastic HDTGM suggestion... and also a movie I immediately need to go watch on Youtube

 

Thanks for wasting away my Saturday.

[Misnaila 12]

Aka "Shelley Duvall's Mother Goose: Rock 'n' Rhyme"

 

This was a made for TV movie on the Disney channel from 1990 that was about Mother Goose going missing and her son Gordon Goose, along with Little Bo Peep, searching Rhymeland for her. I remembered watching this as a kid and probably would normally just kind of shrug it off as my own nostalgia coming through, but just look at the cast...

 

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0100192/fullcredits/cast?ref_=m_tt_cl_sc

 

It is such a random mix of actors, singers and comedians. It is ridiculous and conveniently on YouTube in its entirety.

 

 

[Shannon 2953]

Threads merged.

 

 

Also I watched this movie about 70,000 times as a child and I still watch it online like once a year. It's the best/weirdest thing.