Friday, December 27, 2019

Movie review - "Ginger Meggs" (1982) **

No one says many nice things about this movie but I liked it when I saw it at the movies and it has charms which have survived the years. They took the decision to keep it in the style of the comic books and I really liked Larry Eastwood's production design - lots of bold, primary colours.

The setting is a problem - it seems to be post war 1940s but feels like the 1930s (Dad it out of work) and they slather on this rock soundtrack which just feels silly. It doesn't have the cohesiveness of Fatty Finn.

The plot is episodic - there are some longer strands, like Ginger's pursuit of a particularly dim girl, his missing monkey and some diamond thieves. It felt odd at the time and does now all this prominence was given to this guy Alex who Ginger meets towards the end of the film who works for the circus.

But those circus scenes are charming, the kids have been well cast (the one who plays Ginger is ideal), and the adults ham it up in a fun way - Gary McDonald and Drew Forsythe in particular were born to play cartoon villains.

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