Moonbeam released a few dozen titles throughout the 1990s and then around 2000 just stopped apparently, which I find confusing because that was right around the time that sloppy-looking Kids' Fantasy films started to overpower the mainstream marketplace. Similarly they introduced a lot of kid-friendly heroes and franchises that would've matched the climate: Josh Kirby, Johnny Mysto, Dragonworld, and our previously reviewed Alien Arsenal were all either legitimate series built from the ground up or deserved to be and would've flourished in the time of Sharkboy and Narnia. Instead they all remain confined to this 90s bubble of bad fashion and creepy creature FX and remain true pioneers in the genre of The Boy Who Lived.
Immediately upon its formation in '93, Moonbeam released two movies. Their first one, Prehysteria!, you may have even seen or at least most likely heard of as a consequence of its popularity as a video rental; Paramount recognized its appeal and distributed it themselves so it was marketed in a way that was a little more visible and appealing to regular folk. Why did Paramount Pictures want a straight-to-video B Movie? Why did Charles Band agree to produce (and direct!) a movie for kids while simultaneously dedicating an entire branch of his company to continually doing exactly that? Could it have been the appeal of releasing a Dinosaur Movie in the middle of 1993?
Supposedly a storyboard artist brought the concept drawings of the dinosaurs to Charlie and he recognized the potential salability and longevity; Full Moon are very proud of their stable of monsters - the Puppet Master dolls, the Demonic Toys, the Gingerdead Man, the Evil Bong, and nearly every Moonbeam feature showcased some crew of identifiable creatures all with different looks and personalities - and so it's entirely believable that Charles Band was immediately turned on by the prospect of having five distinct dinos that could easily carry a movie or even a franchise (there were two more Prehysterias). Even still, according to my intensive sleuthing, dinosaurs were at the height of their popularity around this time, especially with kids.
"But Mr. Band, we make movies about possessed dolls and erotic werewolves. We don't do kids' stuff."
"Well maybe we should start..."
That could be my revisionist history, or my educated, accurate assessment of what went down. Behind-the-scenes speculation aside, the movie is pretty goddamn good(!) - I don't even mean "good (pause) for a Full Moon production" but like a fun and funny and fast paced Family Film that could've come from anywhere. The dinosaurs are pretty silly and stiff, and apart from the whimsical Richard Band music score, they're the only true indicator that we're in the Full Moon universe. Here's the plot in a sentence: a family stumbles upon some eggs that hatch out cute dinosaurs voiced by Frank Welker and they have to hide and protect them from a bumbling archaeologist (the wonderful Stephen Lee) who wants them for financial gain.
It's cookie-cutter but they're damn fine cookies and thousands of miles away (literally) from the convoluted gothic dreck and magic spells and laser guns that its parent company was best known for. The irony is that this initial engagement into juvenile entertainment was by far their most mature effort up till that point; Full Moon never quite reached the heights of Hammer Films or the Robocop/Terminator vibes they craved, but Prehysteria! managed to successfully integrate some of the themes and plot points of E.T., Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park into the budget that Spielberg probably spent on Reese's Pieces and Triceratops shit. The fact that the dino FX are the biggest weakness of the whole show is indicative of how strong the actual movie itself is.
Prehystera! earned over $100 million in rentals - not to undermine its quality but I'm sure that had some to do with the Paramount partnership. This obviously led to Prehysteria! 2 the following year (and 3 in '95) but even before these numbers starting rolling in, Moonbeam predictably wasted no time on producing and releasing their next feature, Remote.
I'm not sure if Remote was as well known or well received as Prehysteria! but it's the one I actually saw when it was new - on some pay channel like HBO, most likely due to the ongoing deal with Paramount. The premise is simple and familiar: Randy (Chris Carrara) is hiding in the attic of an uninhabited suburban house accompanied by his arsenal of custom-made remote control vehicles. When a trio of goofy thieves on the lam choose the empty house as their hideout, Randy wreaks havoc on their sanity with his RC toys.
It didn't stand out to me as good or bad at the time - the premise just got jumbled into the white noise of clever kids in peril. In hindsight it was just the plodding parade of Home Alone dishwater that made it indiscernible (at least it didn't have ninjas too), but it's a lot easier to approach it now unfettered by a saturated culture of similar stuff. Upon revisiting it, it actually seemed kinda fresh - fresh as in new, but also fresh as in dope, rad, tight, phat -- like all kids' stuff it's gloriously dated and completely immersed in the year of its production (1993).
Randy is decidedly less obnoxious than Kevin McCallister and all 3 Ninjas combined, but the three character actor fugitives (John Diehl, Tony Longo, Stuart Fratkin) end up almost taking the lead. and for as ham & cheesy as they are they give the movie the saltiness it needs.
It's amazing: even in a story that features literal remote control cars and planes, the movie still treats them as the creatures in this non-Creature Feature; Randy gives them all names like Huey and Zero as the film insists (unsuccessfully) that these toys have a personality. But that's the whole weird Full Moon model: the little gang of creepy things that are often meant to upstage the humans in the movie, but like Prehysteria! the film stands string enough that the little candy colored costars really don't add a whole lot.
As Moonbeam pressed on, the movies became more and more drenched in Science Fiction and Fantasy, resulting in more stylized and FX-heavy films. But these first two domestic fables from this new company are the most coherent, straightforward tales to come out of anything under the Full Moon umbrella. (They had another movie, Pet Shop, that came out in '95 that sorta matched this low-key vibe.) But when they got too big for their britches they took that hard left onto the bridge to Terabithia long before that was ever put on film, and that mild edge faltered into Disney Afternoon feels.
Full Moon and its new subsidiaries were at the perfect speed for me in '93; most of the features leading up to this time had been too dull for my liking and most of the stuff following fell into pot humor and self awareness. Between the two Moonbeam movies and Arcade and Mandriod and Dollman vs. Demonic Toys and Beach Babes From Beyond, 1993 was the most enviable, well-rounded groove in this company's history - they've always taken huge bites and it was never more than they could chew, but this was the best-tasting junk food of their filmography.
- Paul
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