The Curse of Mr. Bean (thoughts)

[By Jove its holmes]

Well, The Curse of Mr. Bean:

Do you think Bean ever goes after those boys who caused him to fall from the diving board?

Likewise, I wish i could be a fly on the wall when the parents of the little girl in the yellow swimsuit realise that she’s got a pair of men’s swim trunks with her as well as her snorkel.

I wonder if the women’s swimming class that Bean flashes are traumatised for long?

I have a family photo from that era taken at my local swimming centre of the beginners swimmers class and EVERY ONE of the small girls is wearing some variation of the swimsuit the little girl in The Curse of Mr Bean wore.

And of course even if eighties culture and fashion hadn’t “hung over” into the early nineties, since there was no year zero, 1990 is part of the previous decade.

Mr. Bean thwarted by a kindergartner:

I occasionally think about what fictional characters do after the story is over, and how their lives might continue. However, one can overthink such things, particularly in the area of slapstick where IRL such antics would often result in arrest, injury or death.

I mean, in one Mr Bean outing he literally headbutts the Queen. Tell me that wouldn’t have serious consequences.

Topic

[Pete Part Three]

Um…Stasis Leak’s paradox is that they don’t *discover* the leak on Floor 16. They go down and look for it, because they’ve been told it’s there by Future Rimmer and Holly doesn’t know what one is, or that’s it actually happened.

[Warbodog]

Completely forgot about the head through table scene. Bad fan. I’ll stick to Mr. Bean, more my intellectual level.

[By Jove its holmes]

Forrest Gump – I always wondered why Forrest didn’t just use one of his empty Dr Pepper bottles if he was bursting to pee as there’s no way he would have made it to the White House toilet in time.

[Pete Part Three]

Forrest Gump is not a smart man, Jenny.

[Warbodog]

I got Mr Bean’s ‘Club Phut’ joke after 28 years. Don’t get why ‘Phut’ seems to be a running Easter egg though, written in chalk on a wall in an earlier episode.

The driving/grooming insanity/genius in Trouble has to be the best A-side (so far). Assuming they probably reused it in the films, since you would be pretty proud of that.

[(deleted)]

It’s a Pink Panther reference.

[(deleted)]

They remounted very little of the series for the films, just the sickbag from Rides Again and the turkey on head from Merry Christmas for the first film (and the turkey on head scene is completely different for both the UK and US versions – the US version remounts it straighter as if happening for the first time, and the UK version is presented as if Bean is aware of the previous occasion), and the restaurant scene from Return Of for the second film. There were also two rare short films remaking the royal premiere and another I’ve forgotten. Everything else is unique.

All the celluloid footage in the TV series was directed by Paul Weiland, and I think it’s among the most beautifully directed television ever created. Steve Bendelack’s work on the second film feels of a piece with it. Shame if that never gets restored in HD, but the moment’s passed I think.

[bloodteller]

>They remounted very little of the series for the films, just the sickbag from Rides Again and the turkey on head from Merry Christmas for the first film (and the turkey on head scene is completely different for both the UK and US versions – the US version remounts it straighter as if happening for the first time, and the UK version is presented as if Bean is aware of the previous occasion

I watched the first movie again today, and the turkey on head scene was omitted entirely, weirdly enough. He simply puts it in the microwave and it explodes offscreen. I definitely remember seeing a version before where it WAS included, so what’s going on there? How many versions of this movie are there?

[International Debris]

He does the ‘falling off a chair asleep’ routine in Bean, beat-for-beat copied from the church scene in the first episode.

[(deleted)]

Forgot about the falling asleep!

Yes, there are two versions of Bean, UK and US, identical but for the turkey scene.

[Pete Part Three]

I used to own this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mr-Beans-Scrapbook-About-America/dp/B000H2MWQQ

It was a poor man’s Mr Bean’s Diary, but had a few good bits when it deviated from simply selling the movie. I was a bit confused at the time that the page covering Bean cooking a turkey dinner had photos from the US version of the movie.

[(deleted)]

That’s a really good book. Made, like Diary, by Robin Driscoll (that’s his handwriting that always deputises for Bean’s, even down to him being Bean’s hand double if he ever writes anything). Recall all the pages are photographed rather than scanned against a platen, which makes it all a bit murky and soft, almost punky looking. Must have taken months to put together.

There was a third book to go with Holiday but it was rotten and digitally designed (they’d even made Bean’s handwriting into a font, spoiling all the fun). I don’t think many people are aware of it.

There is also a brilliant scriptbook for the film with essays by Richard Curtis and Mel Smith, a filming diary by Robin Driscoll, lots of production photographs, unused script extracts, and the script for ‘The Restorer’, an unmade pre-Bean Atkinson TV script from the 80s which the film was adapted from.

[By Jove its holmes]

I don’t like it when helpless members of society get caught up in Bean’s antics such as babies. I was a victim of abuse as a child and the emotional scars have faded but never healed. Whenever a child causes trouble for Bean like the two boys or the little blonde girl that takes his trunks, I remain frightened that Bean is capable of violence against those children for the sake of revenge. Just like my father who liked to throw me around when he was in a rage.

[Warbodog]

Bean sees himself as being on their level, so isn’t above bullying kids if he wants to steal their comic or something. He repeatedly stabs Nick Hancock with a pencil, so he could be capable of violence against ‘fellow kids’ if he thinks he’s been slighted, but they obviously wouldn’t go there (…unless they do).

[(deleted)]

It’s not set in the ‘real world’ though. It’s silent comedy world, where there isn’t really any malevolence or evil.

I was abused and neglected quite badly as a child and if anything Mr Bean was one of the things that most got me through it. Never saw him as an ‘adult’, always an equal.

[By Jove its holmes]

That’s why i fear for Little Imp in Yellow Swimsuit if Bean ever comes after her for walking off with his trunks. He’s spiteful and capable of violence, and unless that swimsuit can turn her into Super Ted, she wouldn’t stand a chance.

Come to think of it, Little Imp in Yellow Swimsuit getting Super Ted powers would make a good spin-off. She’d be sort of like a British live action Powerpuff Girl…

[JamesTC]

My two earliest memories are of in and around my fifth birthday. First it was receiving Series III Byte 1 on VHS and then a few days later coming downstairs in the morning to find a VHS player of my own along with a copy of The Best Bits of Mr Bean.

Back when I was a kid it was Red Dwarf and Mr Bean as my two loves. Watched them on VHS on an endless loop. Now I’ve not seen Mr Bean since it came out on DVD which probably would have been around 8 or 9 years ago. Not sure why.

I now have a deep regret that I got rid of my Mr Bean VHS collection. Sure I would never watch them again but I will never watch my Red Dwarf VHS collection again yet that has pride of place on the shelves. I feel like I’ve nonchalantly gotten rid of a big piece of my childhood just because now the DVD of the series and two films take up less space than two videos.

I really need to re-watch them all and see if I can relive that big bit of my childhood. I think I can. I’m sure Mr Bean played into why I loved Twin Peaks Season 3 so much.

Also fuck the Reliant Robin.

[Warbodog]

As a child with undeveloped artistic judgement, I didn’t see much difference between Mr. Bean and the Mr. Blobby home videos that were like Mr. Bean written by a five-year-old. Both brought me joy at the time, but one has stood the test of time slightly better.

Mr. Blobby Goes to Town.

[bloodteller]

>In the wider context it’s Rik & Ade doing another version of their stock “Richie” and “Eddie” characters that had already gone through various iterations (Filthy, Rich and Catflap, Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, Bottom being the best known), and they made a point of stating that it wasn’t actually a Bottom film in an interview I’ve seen since on YouTube.

Yeah I saw that interview too, and fair enough if the characters actually behaved like Richie and Eddie. But they don’t- Eddie is just a generic idiot, and Richie is a much less energetic, much more sinister and unpleasant character than he ever was in the show. You could argue that being the owner of a hotel causes him to behave like this, but we get a much better iteration of Richie being in a position of power in ‘S Up when he’s left to run the corner shop. If he’d behaved like that in Guest House Paradiso, then maybe it would have been a better movie? It’s hard to say really, there’s definitely something distinctly “off” about the whole movie though.

Besides that, the movie feels like it’s generally lacking in the energy and wit that Bottom had, which even if it’s not really meant to be a Bottom movie, still comes as a disappointment.

[tombow]

I thought I’d bump this as I wanted to make a thread about Bill n’ Ted 3 and this had a lot of Wyld Stallyns discussion on it. Of course…the Red Dwarf novel omnibus had a subtle dig at Bn’T where it’s listed as one of Rob and Doug’s early Dwarf ideas before being rejected as “too dr who”.

As for the debate between the two films, everyone I know seems to prefer the second, but I don’t get it at all. Excellent Adventure was one of my favourite films as a kid – I was already fascinated with epic rock bands like Queen and Iron Maiden when I saw it, so the idea that a band like that could be usher of a new age just completely grabbed my imagination as a kid. I loved all the characters too, I found the dudes and the historical figures really lovable.

Wheras Bogus Journey…every 5 years or so I rewatch it a couple of times to try and love it, but it’s just not my thing. It just feels like a bunch of madcap cartoony ideas crammed together…robots, aliens…the 2 actors seem way over the top, like really shouty with exaggerated mannerisms, (even the good versions) whereas in the first film they’re more relaxed and natural. Like stoned versions of their real selves. I love the Reaper and the parts they’re playing games with him,..I like most of it, the end is nice, I just don’t think I’ll ever love it.

Plus the first one just feels like a serious film in places, like the Wild West, Ancient Greece, it feels real. Everything in BG looks cartoony. EA just left me with a really powerful feeling as a kid, like I’d seen this important spiritual film.

I am really excited about Face the Music ..I’m expecting to love it…I don’t really know what the status of UK cinemas is now. I just really need to see the trilogy finished.

As for Bean, I remember my Dad having strong feelings that Bean was going downhill and he was becoming too cruel. I can’t remember the cut off point for him though.

[Dave]

I’m also really looking forward to the new Bill & Ted, and I also prefer the original over the sequel, although they’re very different movies.

The first film has more heart and feels like a more sincere adventure film, whereas the second is a more eclectic and less coherent collection of sketches and crazy concepts and characters, although it’s still very fun and I do love it, particularly that ending.

[tombow]

I bought the Graphic novels/tpbs of Bn’T’s Triumphant Return and Bn’T Save the Universe a few weeks ago. Return is only ho-hum (it’s about Bill n Ted trying to help Denomolos as a kid, only to have him go back to their San Dimas and steal their success, to make a dark future where he rules and Rufus is a rebel leader)…it’s pretty short and padded with some other one off funny stories, like the good robots getting a virus and Bn’T having to track down an IT expert woman in the future to help them.

Save The Universe was really good/epic and could have been a movie IMO. It’s mostly set in space and quite Dwarf-ish in places, I won’t give too many spoilers except their moms are in it. Missy and Deacon have big heroic roles in it too. Although to be honest neither storyline really feels like something canon that you could imagine happening in the films. They’re way more wacky.

also..the end of Bogus Journey was actually a late addition to the script. In the first draft they win the battle by defeating the bad guys but still play their crude out of tune chords as the credits roll. Promising Rufus they will get good later. http://www.billandted.org/moviesbjearlydraft07.htm

[Pete Part Three]

I saw Bogus Journey in the cinema, and knew next to nothing about the first film. It didn’t matter a jot – I loved it and the movie poster adorned my wall for months afterwards. I bought Excellent Adventure on VHS shortly afterwards (hoping to catch the re-release in the cinema sometime) but I always find Bogus Journey to have the edge.

It seems to have a bit more polish, and I actually think it hangs together a bit better. Curiously, none of the scenes in Excellent Adventure where they actually kidnap the historical figures get many laughs from me. The stuff in Sam Dimas Mall, the police station and the Presentation itself are all gold, of course.

I appreciate Bogus Journey is batshit crazy and the afterlife stuff could be seen as a bit bizarre in comparison to Excellent Adventure but I think the oddness is part of its charm. I’ll always think of my favourite line (“Kudos to you, good human us-es!”) simply because those 6 words are utterly unable to be recycled by any other piece of fiction. Maybe if I came to Bogus Journey with fresh eyes, I’d feel differently – but quite difficult after 20+ viewings and when that’s your intro to B&T. And George Carlin pumping his fists when the first few bars of “God Gave Rock and Roll To You” gets a little cheer from me, each and every time.

Excellent Adventure has the better soundtrack though.

[tombow]

when I rewatched them the other day one thing that did occur to me was that maybe the 2 writers didn’t really know enough about current music to know what kids like Bill n’ Ted would be into. Like with how they’re dressed they look like they would have been into like Jane’s Addiction and Chilli Peppers, not just older stuff like Van Halen and Iron Maiden. That is one way the 2nd film is superior in that it has Faith No More and Primus in it, so more research was taken to imagine up to date stuff they would have been into.

[Dave]

also..the end of Bogus Journey was actually a late addition to the script. In the first draft they win the battle by defeating the bad guys but still play their crude out of tune chords as the credits roll. Promising Rufus they will get good later.

That would have made things slightly easier for the third film.

(Honestly, my major concern about it is that it’s going to have to effectively undo that triumphant ending of Bogus Journey.)

[tombow]

I guess Rufus did say “eventually” their music would contact other planets and stuff. It actually fits better for me to imagine they got big for a while, faded away, then had a triumphant comeback in 2020 which created their future.

[Dave]

Like with how they’re dressed they look like they would have been into like Jane’s Addiction and Chilli Peppers, not just older stuff like Van Halen and Iron Maiden.

No, they’re both too late for Bill and Ted I think. The film was made in 1987 and Jane’s Addiction didn’t have an album out until ’88. RHCP were around, but Blood Sugar Sex Magik didn’t come out until 1991 so again I think it’s too late for them.

Having grown up in that era with older siblings the same age as Bill and Ted, I can say that Van Halen and Iron Maiden would have been exactly what they were into.

[tombow]

In my defense…Alex Winter was in the Chilli Pepper’s video for “Knock Me Down” in ’89…

Also there is one other un-discovered Californian funk-hard-rock album I’ve been getting into lately…LAPD’s self titled album..featuring 3 members who would go on to join a lesser band called Korn…

I dunno I still feel like they would have been more on the cutting edge based on how cool they look and that they live near Los Angeles and stuff…

[tombow]

wow, this is the Joan of Arc/Kochanski crossover I never thought I’d see – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPrmOvr3jhI

[si]

How did you even find that?

[tombow]

I was watching Go-Gos music videos …

[Plastic Percy]

I don’t know if it’s because I’m in a rather bleak place at this time due to looming redundancy, but Mr. Bean has become a sort of odd comfort food to me. He lives such a charming, innocent life (when he’s not being deliberately mean) – enjoying hobbies, going on days out, holidays down the coast etc. – and I have a sort of odd nostalgia for eighties and nineties life, fashion and leisure – maybe because I’m a bit tired of social media and, like people in the UK back then, I’m being fucked over by Tory incompetence and greed. I find Bean charming to watch in the same way as the Tim Nice-but-Dim sketches.

[clem]

I know where you’re coming from. This might be a funny thing to admit to but I think I’ve always found Mr Bean quite relatable. I’m a bit of a puer aeternus while also being old for my age in some ways. Sure he’s a prick at times but I think Bean is a pretty admirable character for the most part.

[Dave]

He seems to alternate between being quite sympathetic and naive and being quite nasty and petty. Like a child, which I think is the general idea.

[Plastic Percy]

That’s all pretty true. It’s a bit like Last of the Summer Wine – that innocence and carelessness of a second childhood.

On another website, where people were discussing what the beam of light he arrives in means – is he an alien? is it symbolic of an ordinary man being cast into the spotlight? – I remember as a kid taking it quite literally and thinking he’d had some misadventure and fallen off a lamp post.

[Dave]

I always interpreted it as a metaphor for him being so un-used to the world and so unfamiliar with basic aspects of life that he’s like an alien among us.

[clem]

Pretty sure Atkinson has said the basic idea was always a child in a grownup’s body. There is stuff that implies he could be a literal alien though, like the bit in the school episode where the van der graff generator has no effect on him. In an episode of the animated series there’s a spaceship full of other members of his race who all look exactly like him. I prefer to think of him as just a simple oddball who comes up with unusual, often ingenious solutions to problems.

I remember as a kid taking it quite literally and thinking he’d had some misadventure and fallen off a lamp post.

Absolutely brilliant.

[Ben Saunders]

Did you know Rowan Atkinson did hours upon hours of performances as Mr. Bean for the animated series? Basically everything Mr. Bean does in that show was actually done by Rowan so they could make an “authentic” animation from the footage.

[clem]

Yep, he even did this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Sh_s2XIEI !

I’ve just remembered he gets “beamed” back up at the end (of some episodes anyway), which seems less equivocal.

[Pete Part Three]

I don’t think he’s coming down from space, I think he’s being plonked down on Earth by God or someone. I assume that’s how Goodall read it considering ‘Ecce homo qui est faba’ and the theme.

[clem]

I’ve always preferred the black and white version where he’s dropped into an empty black void, before they replaced it with the cobbled London street. The black and white one has a more angelic, not so alien feeling.

[ARossiEsquire]

Always loved the Turkey on Head skit from the Christmas special. Through reading this thread,I only just found out about them reusing it in the movie’s American release – I also remember where he wins the turkey by subtracting its weight from his own – which was also removed from future releases.

What was it about this turkey that demands removal?

(I also watched one episode of Friends – the only episode I’ve watched – where they rip it off. 7 year old me was unnecessarily pissed off at that)

[Dave]

I think the turkey-weighing was just a cut for time wasn’t it? I don’t remember it being there in the original broadcast, but was on the video and then has been variously present/absent in subsequent releases.

As for the movie, I thought the nod to the turkey bit in the UK version was funnier than recreating it wholesale for the US version, but both work for their respective audiences I suppose.

[International Debris]

I don’t know if it’s because I’m in a rather bleak place at this time due to looming redundancy, but Mr. Bean has become a sort of odd comfort food to me. He lives such a charming, innocent life (when he’s not being deliberately mean) – enjoying hobbies, going on days out, holidays down the coast etc. – and I have a sort of odd nostalgia for eighties and nineties life, fashion and leisure – maybe because I’m a bit tired of social media and, like people in the UK back then, I’m being fucked over by Tory incompetence and greed. I find Bean charming to watch in the same way as the Tim Nice-but-Dim sketches.

Oh yes, it’s definite comfort food telly. I’m not sure I’ve known a (largely) likeable comedy character who’s so comfortable and confident in themselves and their life other than Bean. Even his saddest moment – the crushing of his car – sees him finding a positive ending.

[Ridley]

He probably steals the other car.

Watched the boxset recently cause of this thread and I’d say he’s more often a sociopath than childlike.

[Author]

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