Mazes and Monsters: The LiveTweeting
A couple of weeks ago, I asked people to share an announcement about Invisible 3, saying that if we got at least 100 retweets, I’d do a livetweeting of the 1982 made-for-TV film Mazes and Monsters.
The film is based on the novel of the same name, by Rona Jaffe, and warns of the dangers of fantasy role-playing games. It’s based at least in part on rumors and legends of students sneaking into the Michigan State University steam tunnels to play Dungeons and Dragons and disappearing.
Most of this background is, as you might imagine, complete bugbear twaddle.
On the other hand, this was a chance to see Tom Hanks in his first starring role for film.
You’ve got Robbie (Hanks), a troubled kid whose brother vanished years ago. He comes to a new school after failing out of the last one for playing too much Mazes & Monsters. He tries to avoid M&M’s siren song, but because he’s “Level Nine,” Kate, Daniel, and JJ really need him to join their game.
When Robbie and Kate hook up, JJ gets depressed and talks about suicide, but instead decides to run a live-action version of M&M in the local caverns. Robbie promptly has some sort of mental break and “becomes” his character, on a quest that takes him to New York City to find the Two Towers.
All four kids seem to come from rich families (I’m not 100% sure about Kate), because the film is so much more powerful if it shows that even rich white kids can be broken and destroyed by the evils of role-playing game.
There’s also a bird, a lot of hats, a mother who likes to redecorate her son’s room, and a skeleton having inappropriate relations with a flashlight.
I’m embedding the Storify of my tweets below. If any of this makes you laugh, or if you just want to show your support or sympathy, please consider checking out Invisible 3 and/or leaving a review. Thanks!
And now I’m off to try to recover some of my SAN points…
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DawnD
July 16, 2017 @ 11:38 am
Wow. That was. Wow. :golf clap: Well done, sir. Well done.
KatG
July 16, 2017 @ 10:29 pm
You know, the scene I really remember the most from that movie is J.J. (who is late high school age but a young genius and so in college — but never was going to have a chance with Kate,) bringing the gang back to his room and finding that his mom had redone it in a way he finally loves, including director’s chairs. I don’t know why that’s the scene that sticks out for me.
Very funny recap, though I think you could have done a little bit more with Tom Hanks’ epic mumbling about his mission through New York. Love the Halloween costume also.