Latest news with #WhoFramed
Telegraph
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Doctor Who, episode 2 review: the show turns ‘Scooby Who' with an imaginative animated romp
Doctor Who (BBC One) improved on last Saturday's series opener in fine style. Titled 'Lux', a giddy mash-up of animation and live-action lit up the long weekend. Considering the time of year, this wasn't so much Who Framed Roger Rabbit? as Who Framed The Easter Bunny? Happily, the mythical lagomorph delivered a golden egg of an episode. A thrillingly wild ride saw the Tardis land in Miami, circa 1952. The period scene was set with newsreel reports of Operation Hurricane's atomic bomb testing and Queen Elizabeth II's 16-week mourning period for George VI, before the adventure began in earnest: an abandoned movie theatre hiding a deadly secret. So far, so Scooby Doo – a comparison which writer Russell T Davies was smart enough to acknowledge. The 15th Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) styled himself as Velma, with new companion Belinda (Varada Sethu, continuing to give as good as she got) as Fred. Thankfully there was no sign of Scrappy Doo. He'd have ruined everything. The antagonist, the show's best for a while, turned out to be a villainous cartoon character called Mr Ring-a-Ding, voiced with hammy relish by Alan Cumming. It was a genuinely spine-shivering moment when he broke the fourth wall and started speaking directly to cinema-goers – before climbing out of the silver screen to consume them. Textbook everyday Who horror. The sort of quotidian fear, fuelled by children's imaginations, of monsters under the bed or statues coming to life. Showrunner Davies had a riot with his own premise, pushing it to extremes and packing the script with self-reflexive playfulness. The Doctor and Belinda were turned into animated characters ('I'm all flat and this waistline is impossible!'), before acquiring depth by discussing their back stories. This made them sufficiently well-rounded to regain three-dimensional status. Such postmodern madness recalled classic Sixties story ' The Mind Robber '. The franchise's partnership with Disney added resonance to the vintage cartoon conceit. After clever gags about continuity and being framed, the duo emerged from a TV screen, only to find themselves in a sitting room with three gobsmacked Whovians. 'This is so Galaxy Quest,' said one, name-checking the cult sci-fi spoof. From their logo T-shirts, tribute fezes and stripy scarves to their eager talk of online plot leaks, this was an affectionate poke at the show's obsessive fanbase. The trio even debated their favourite adventure. Steven Moffat's Blink took the crown – the second week running that Davies has nodded to his fellow Whopremo. A poignant undertow was lent by the projectionist (Linus Roache) longing for his late wife, as well as a mother's search for her teenage son. He'd disappeared when Mr Ring-a-Ding came to life. It turned out that 15 audience members were trapped on celluloid, waiting to be freed in the feelgood ending. The denouement was a bit daft, as they so often are. Mr Ring-a-Ding was a manifestation of Lux Imperator, the god of light – part of the recent lineage of chaos-causing deities which includes the Toymaker, Maestro and Sutekh. Their magical powers enable them to sidestep logic in ways which feel like cheating. The now-obligatory social consciousness came from the era's racial segregation and mention of Rock Hudson's AIDS diagnosis. A bonus coda during the closing credits saw the fans marking the episode as seven out of 10, but we'd go one louder. Directed by Amanda Brotchie with real verve, this was heaps of high-energy family entertainment, full to bursting with impish invention. With the show's future precarious and rumours swirling of production being paused again, this was precisely the sort of romp that might help secure its future. Sweet as chocolate and gently spiced like a hot cross bun, it was perfectly pitched for Easter weekend. Cartoon capers for children, retro thrills for their parents, classic Americana for international audiences and packed with Easter eggs for the nerds. Doctor Who in danger of the axe? As Mr Ring-a-Ding's catchphrase went: don't make me laugh.
Buzz Feed
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
People Are Sharing The Most Horrifying Moments In Non-Horror Movies
Recently, I asked the wonderful people of the BuzzFeed Community to share the scariest non-horror movie moments. Some of these make you wonder if the directors were totally cool scarring us for life: 1. "Oh dear gawd when the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang first appeared. Terrifying!" United Artists / — sos_poseidon "Utterly terrifying as a child. That actor's performance was amazing. The creepy voice, long nose, expressive facial features, the way his eyes scanned around, and the way he moved. Everything about him was perfect to almost bring me to tears and fill me with dread. I'm 55 now and that character still elicits the same feeling in me just thinking about him! What a performance." —Anonymous, 55 2. "The part in The Mummy (1999) where a beetle crawls under a guy's skin. Because of that part, I never finished the whole movie until I was well into my teens." 3. " Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Watched it when I was beginning part where the grandpa jump scares you with his eyes gone and when the old bird lady gets eaten after they barricade the house. So creepy. I still hate eye monsters." 4. " Who Framed Roger Rabbit! When the big villain is revealed with the creepy voice and the horrific murder of the squeaky shoe. Total nightmare fuel." Touchstone Pictures / — playoutside "When Christopher Lloyd, aka Judge Doom, put that poor cartoon shoe into the 'dip.' It still randomly pops into my head from time to time to make me sad." —Anonymous, 42 5. "The scene with all the insects in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I am so scared of bugs, so that's like my worst nightmare." Paramount Pictures 6. "In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, when E.T. is in the cornfield screaming back at Elliot. That's haunted me for most of my life." Universal Pictures — t448dac9d3 7. "It's absolutely gotta be the boat tunnel scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; it changed the whole tone of the film for literally just that sequence." — lmlynch1993 8. "The hanging scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End." Walt Disney Pictures — magicalgiant575 9. "The flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / — lordvaderiii 11. "The part in the Goonies when they find Chester Copperpot's skeleton under a rock. Freaked my brother out for years." 12. "Large Marge in Pee-wee's Big Adventure still creeps me out." 13. "When the queen turns herself into the Witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And pretty much every scene afterward has her in it. I cannot emphasize enough how she haunted my nightmares for YEARS." 14. "The furnace scene in Toy Story 3." 15. "Zordon dying in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. Nightmares for years." 20th Century Fox — fierceelephant267 16. "The scene in Any Given Sunday where the player's eye comes out on the field disturbed me for weeks." 17. "The paparazzi guy climbing out of the toilet in Spice World. The way his body climbs out. Ugh. No thanks." PolyGram Filmed Entertainment — imbatmom2 18. "The skeleton battle scene in Jason and the Argonauts. Creeped me out as a child. Still does now as an adult." 19. "That jump scare in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring when Bilbo wants his ring back." New Line Cinema — whale_tail 20. "The clown in the The Brave Little Toaster." 21. "The wolf from The NeverEnding Story. Enough said." 22. "As a kid, it was the ending of Gremlins when Spike is simultaneously absorbing water from a fountain and exposed to direct the worst gremlin of all swelling and bubbling and sizzling in the bright light was TOO MUCH for little kid me. I had so many nightmares that it was over a decade before I watched the movie again (and realized it was a comedy)! I love Gremlins now, but my Stripe-inspired nightmares are seared into my memory." Warner Bros. —Anonymous, 38 23. "The Fireys from Labyrinth (where the reddish creatures take off their heads and start throwing them around; and then try to take off Sarah's head). To this day, that scene still gives me an uneasy feeling." Tri-Star Pictures —Anonymous, 40 24. "For librarians of a certain age, watching the catalog cards go flying in the original Ghostbusters. All I could think was, 'Somebody's going to have to pick those all up and refile them.' A nightmare if you've ever experienced it!"
