Oedekerk, Steve

Barnyard - The Original Party Animals (Full Screen Edition)

Moo-ve over all you pretenders...here are the original party animals - the critters of Barnyard! This laugh-filled tuneful animated adventure stars Otis (voiced by Kevin James) a carefree party cow. To the consternation of his respected father Ben (voiced by Sam Elliott) Otis is happy to spend his days singing dancing and playing tricks on humans. But all good things must come to an end and when Otis is suddenly forced into his father's position of responsibility the animal antics multiply as he struggles to find the courage and talent to be a true leader. Wild wacky and "udderly" hilarious here s a herd of animated pranksters that'll keep you laughing out loud!System Requirements:Run Time: 89 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: PG UPC: 097361186146 Manufacturer No: 118614

When the farmer's back is turned, the animals party down in Barnyard. A young cow named Otis (voiced by Kevin James, The King of Queens) loves to have fun at the farm's wild late-night hoe-downs, despite the disapproval of his father, Ben (Sam Elliott, Thank You for Smoking). When Ben dies defending the barnyard from marauding coyotes, Otis is chosen as the new leader--but responsibility sits uneasily on Otis' head and he fears he may not be able to protect his friends from the coyotes. Barnyard's design of the cows seems inspired by Gary Larson's The Far Side comics; though the style is simple, the characters are surprisingly expressive. From moment to moment, the movie is reasonably entertaining. The actors--including Courteney Cox, Danny Glover, and David Koechner (Anchorman) as a very menacing coyote--do solid voice work and there are plenty of amusing gags. But as Barnyard gallops towards its end, the combination of cliches (the story is a clumsy reworking of The Lion King), odd choices (the male cows have udders), and lackluster dialogue makes the movie sag. --Bret Fetzer

Kung Pow - Enter The Fist (The Chosen Edition)

Kung Pow! Enter the Fist is best enjoyed with low expectations, if only because it might surprise you with genuine belly laughs. Writer-director Steve Oedekerk uses digital trickery to make himself a costar in the 1976 Hong Kong action flick Tiger & Crane Fist, just as Woody Allen turned a Japanese spy thriller into the comedy spoof What's Up, Tiger Lily? The results are both technically impressive and stupendously stupid. Oedekerk is blandly appealing as "the Chosen One," who sets out to avenge the evil Master "Betty" Pain for killing his family when he was still a kung fu-fighting infant. This stock setup is a cheap excuse for Oedekerk's 80-minute buffet of chop-socky spoofery, with gags lifted from The Matrix, Oedekerk's "Thumbation" comedies, and the rich legacy of Hong Kong action. Featuring "gopher-chucks," a kung fu cow, aliens from France, and enough bad dialogue to choke a crouching tiger, Kung Pow! is mildly spicy, but mostly it's full of nuts. --Jeff Shannon

Writer/director Steve Oedekerk (The Nutty Professor and Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls) creates an off-the-wall comedy and a new martial arts genre that substantially alters dubbed action footage from a 1970's martial arts picture with a brand new twist in the story line and altered dialogue. The story follows The Chosen One (Oedekerk) as he seeks to avenge the death of his parents at the hands of the evil and seemingly indestructible kung fu legend, Master Pain.

Barnyard - The Original Party Animals (Widescreen Edition)

Kevin James plays Otis the Cow in this animated comedy. Hmm let's check the dictionary here... HEY! Cows are supposed to be female! Does this mean he's a tranvestite bull? Or is Otis a drag king? Or just a gruff-voiced lesbian with an unfortunate name? Well Kevin James is the King of Queens. Someone call Marlin Perkins we demand answers!System Requirements:Run Time: 90 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: PG UPC: 097363431244 Manufacturer No: 343124

When the farmer's back is turned, the animals party down in Barnyard. A young cow named Otis (voiced by Kevin James, The King of Queens) loves to have fun at the farm's wild late-night hoe-downs, despite the disapproval of his father, Ben (Sam Elliott, Thank You for Smoking). When Ben dies defending the barnyard from marauding coyotes, Otis is chosen as the new leader--but responsibility sits uneasily on Otis' head and he fears he may not be able to protect his friends from the coyotes. Barnyard's design of the cows seems inspired by Gary Larson's The Far Side comics; though the style is simple, the characters are surprisingly expressive. From moment to moment, the movie is reasonably entertaining. The actors--including Courteney Cox, Danny Glover, and David Koechner (Anchorman) as a very menacing coyote--do solid voice work and there are plenty of amusing gags. But as Barnyard gallops towards its end, the combination of cliches (the story is a clumsy reworking of The Lion King), odd choices (the male cows have udders), and lackluster dialogue makes the movie sag. --Bret Fetzer

Thumbtanic

"I'm the cuticle of the world!" Steve Oedekerk and his digitally enhanced digits board the fateful Thumbtanic (a.k.a. the ship of death) and square off against a really big ice cube. The old story of young, impulsive, and fairly stupid thumbs is spiced up with tortured visual puns (our hero wins his ticket in a pub wrestling match--thumb wrestling, of course), a giant spider invasion, and a happy ending. Oedekerk's doofus humor and askew sight gags run a bit dry here--it lacks the lunatic inspiration of Thumb Wars and the gonzo goofiness of The Blair Thumb Project--but this third "thumbation" farce is kept above water by moments of absurd invention, oddball twists, and the most eccentric and inspired mutant thumb puppets to wiggle through a movie spoof. The DVD also features commentary by writer-producer Steve Oedekerk, storyboards, and trailers to other all-thumb parodies.--Sean Axmaker

They thought nothing on earth could come between them. Then, they hit an iceberg... Utilizing the latest in Thumbmation technology, writer/director, Steve Oedekerk (Ace Ventura II, The Nutty Professor, Jimmy Neutron, Patch Adams), weaves an all-thumb tale of adventure, romance and a large, cold, white object. Join young lovers Jake and Geranium as they climb aboard the "ship of dreams" to relive the historic events that actually played out on the maiden voyage of the Thumbtanic.

Santa vs. the Snowman 3D

The kid-friendly Santa vs. the Snowman began as a 1997 animated television special, then made a leap to the biggest movie screens--IMAX--in the world (in 3-D, no less), and now has come full circle to DVD with its extra, simulated perspective and deep focus intact. (3-D glasses, which come with the disc, are required.) An animator's lark, Santa concerns a battle between Mr. Claus and a scheming snowman who tries to overtake Santa's toy-making and Christmas Eve delivery operation. A full-scale war erupts (there are some scary images here, particularly of a snowman writhing to his fiery death), though the violence is mitigated by clever quotes from movie and animation classics, including Toy Story and the stop-motion television perennial Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town. The original 2-D geometric planes are artfully reinvented to achieve an exciting depth. --Tom Keogh

Frankenthumb

A half-hour parody, Frankenthumb is one in a series of featurette pastiches of famous movies masterminded by Steve Oederkerk (Kung Pow: Enter the Fist) cast with human thumbs with CGI-inset mouths and eyes, a process that's more weird than funny. A précis of the 1931 Frankenstein, shot on impressive (and beautifully lit) miniature sets, the film tells the old, old story: megalomaniac Dr. Frankenthumb and his inept assistant Humpy create life in the laboratory, unleashing a monster named Pepper ("because he's brought spice into our lives") who goes on a rampage, menaces the daughter of a somewhat irritating Italian man, and is pursued by a mob into a burning windmill, whereupon a guest star from an earlier mini-epic (Bat Thumb) turns up to deliver some sort of an ending. One or two good jokes pop up, but not enough. --Kim Newman

It's alive! Gasp at nonstop comedy in this outrageous spoof of the horror classic, direct from the mind of Steve Oedekerk (Jimmy Neutron, The Nutty Professor). Incredible stylistic detail brings you into a world of gothic laboratories, hunchbacks, and even a deceased Thumb brought back to life! Hold on to your electrodes!

Bat Thumb

Anyone who's a fan of Mad Magazine movie parodies will enjoy Bat Thumb, which mocks the Batman movies and original TV series by replacing the actors with thumbs. Computer effects have given these thumbs eyes and mouths but no noses; perhaps creator Steve Oedekerk doesn't think noses are funny. The masked crime-fighting thumb struggles to save Gaaathumb City from the threat of the evil No Face, while taking time out to hop in the sack with hot chicks. Elaborate models and costumes were created for Bat Thumb and the special effects are accomplished; it seems like a lot of effort to create something so silly, but that's part of the joke. If you like Bat Thumb, Oedekerk has also created similar parodies of Star Wars, Titanic, The Blair Witch Project, and other blockbusters. --Bret Fetzer

Super hero Wuce Bane (a.k.a. Bat Thumb) and his trusty sidekick, Blue Jay, are called upon to save Gaaathumb City from the evil, despicable, and poorly dressed "No Face." Will the city survive? Will Bat Thumb's true identity be revealed? Will Vicky Nail learn to control her unruly waves? Find out the answers to all these questions in this latest comic adventure from master storyteller Steve Oedekerk (Ace Ventura, Jimmy Neutron, The Nutty Professor).

The Godthumb

Steve Oedekerk (who wrote and directed Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) masterminds a series of movie parodies in which the actors are replaced by thumbs--more specifically, thumbs with eyes and mouths digitally superimposed. The Godthumb has a script that would be funny even if performed by normal actors (something that can't be said for all the Thumbation movies), but the bizarrely high-quality thumb effects push it to the point of surrealism. The Godthumb parodies all the high points of The Godfather (the horse head in the bed, the death of Sonny, the orange peel), but it's at its best when it spirals off into its own peculiar universe. Fans of the Thumbation flicks will not be disappointed. --Bret Fetzer

A notorious New York mafia family rules a vast criminal empire of extortion, gambling, and murder, all led by The Godthumb. His struggle to control the underworld of crime and corruption is only offset by the "favors" he is asked from his many personal and professional "family" members. From the comic mind of Steve Oedekerk (Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, Jimmy Neutron, Ace Ventura) comes a gripping tale of true crime mixed with sensationalistic falsehoods and wrapped in vicious mobster stereotypes. Whatever you do, don't fuhgeddaboudit!

The Blair Thumb

Lost, stupid, and really, really scared, Stressy turns the camera on herself and whimpers, "I don't know where this snot is coming from because I don't have a nose." Well no, she doesn't, because she's the star of Steve Oedekerk's surreal all-thumbs parody of The Blair Witch Project. Three camera-wielding digits get lost in the forest, fight off a shark attack in their tent ("It could have been an owl," Stressy hopefully offers), and relentlessly film every moment of their blind panic. This bizarre spoof has it all over the recent rash of parodies: it's shorter (under half an hour) and sillier, and it stars Jaws, Frankenstein's monster, and a handful of talking thumbs with squished-together eyes, run-amok eyebrows, and overactive mouths spewing nonstop nonsense. And it's pretty darn funny to boot.

The spoofing continues through the special supplements, with a mock "making of" featurette (where the thumbs blab on about coffee, motivation, and irritating butt rashes), outtakes and deleted scenes, and a thoroughly nonsensical, incomprehensible Insane commentary track to accompany the Sane (but only slightly more informative) commentary track. --Sean Axmaker

Created by the writer of "The Nutty Professor," "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls" and "Patch Adams," this second installment in the Thumbation series is a clever tale about three thumbs who travel into the woods to make a documentary about a local urban legend. One year later, the thumbs' video equipment is found, the footage compiled and made into a chilling movie about the terror the students encountered during their search for the truth behind The Blair Thumb.

Thumb Wars/Thumbtanic

Thumb Wars (1999, 29 min.) - Created by the writer of "The Nutty Professor," "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls" and "Patch Adams," this hilarious Thumb spoof features reluctant hero Loke Groundrunner and his tasty companion, Princess Bunhead, as they try to stop Black Helmet Man and the Evil Thumbpire from doing really bad things! So hold onto your cuticles, eat your peas and get ready for the first and only all-thumbs space epic. "Thumbtanic" (1999, 27 min.) - Utilizing the latest in Thumbation technology, this is an all-thumb tale of adventure, romance and a large, cold, white object. Join young lovers Jake and Geranium as they fall in love, even though she's kind of bigger than him. It all happens in historically-inaccurate glory on the Thumbtanic. This Thumb Double Feature includes exclusive special appearances by The Thumbersons!