Zero Context Theater presents...

December 4, 2017 10:41 AM

The lightsaber duel from Gumby: The Movie (1995).

(Via the Flop House Facebook group)

posted by Iridic (29 comments total)

I was assuming that the Gumby album I have a CD of was the soundtrack to the movie, but I guess it was done earlier (1989.) It has tracks by Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa, Brave Combo, Sly and Robbie, Flo and Eddie, Frank Sinatra Jr. and Jonathan Richman.
posted by larrybob at 10:45 AM on December 4, 2017

Gumby is quite resourceful, look!
posted by lain at 10:46 AM on December 4, 2017

What, are we supposed to believe that Gumby is [snicker] just as good with a sword with his left hand as he is with his right?
posted by rhizome at 10:52 AM on December 4, 2017

If you strike me down I shall become ... well, a lump of green clay.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:52 AM on December 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Whoops, I just realized Robot Gumby is probably ambidextrous.
posted by rhizome at 10:59 AM on December 4, 2017

Gumby's a Sith? Of course! It all makes sense now!
posted by ckape at 11:07 AM on December 4, 2017

Holy mackerel, the plot synopsis:

When the Blockheads' E-Z Loan company threatens to take away the farms belonging to the small farmers due to being unable to make their loan payments, Gumby and his band, the Clayboys, decide to have a benefit concert to save the farms. But when the evil Blockheads find out that Gumby's dog, Lowbelly, cries pearls when he sees the Clayboys perform, they decide to kidnap Lowbelly and force him to cry pearls (unaware Lowbelly was crying whenever Gumby changed his shape). When he doesn't respond, they kidnap Gumby and the Clayboys and create robotic clones of them.

With the help of Pokey, Prickle, Goo, fans Tara and Ginger, and talent agent Lucky Claybert, Gumby takes on his robot clone and is still in time for his video taping session in agreement with Claybert. At a picnic, Gumby announces that he's opening his own farm loan company that will give reasonable loans for its customers. The Blockheads are forced to weed Gumby's garden as punishment, and the eponymous duo Gumby and Pokey decide that things are looking up for them as they head back to outer space.

Some executive at Warner Vision with a whiteboard that says,
THINGS MODERN KIDS LOVE:
HOME LOANS
CRYING DOGS
CLAYMATION FROM SIX YEARS AGO
posted by codacorolla at 11:12 AM on December 4, 2017 [12 favorites]

...Gumby was from outer space?
posted by saturday_morning at 11:15 AM on December 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

Those were slower times.
posted by humboldt32 at 11:21 AM on December 4, 2017

That movie is awesome. I rented it for my kids about 10 years ago and we STILL quote lines from it.
posted by chococat at 11:29 AM on December 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Gumby went back to his home planet?
posted by box at 11:46 AM on December 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

I guess...

we're doing a simpsons bit, right?
posted by history_denier at 11:48 AM on December 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

I would challenge anyone to find two and a half minutes of any Gumby program that isn't an existential fever dream.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:56 AM on December 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

Here's a friendly tip that The Gumby Movie is available via Amazon Prime. It is just as weird as the weirdest Gumby shorts, not quite as weird as the Bob Burden comics.
posted by cottoncandybeard at 12:06 PM on December 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yes, it's an existential fever dream, but the little dance the Blockheads do after they dismember Gumby is just delightful.
posted by PlusDistance at 12:25 PM on December 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Gumby was from that part of my childhood where I watched things because they were on TV not because of any interest in the thing that was on TV. It was on and TV was something you consumed, like the air you breathe.
posted by Fizz at 12:27 PM on December 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

What is it with Gumby and robots?
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 12:43 PM on December 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Gumby always freaked me out as a child. It just made me ill-at-ease in such a vague way, like it was all going to go terribly, terribly wrong at any moment and I'd see something I couldn't unsee.

Gumby still makes me feel like that.
posted by darksong at 12:47 PM on December 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Perhaps the problems with this scene were rectified in the director's cut of the film, which, according to the Gumby wiki, runs 77 minutes and was shown at the Tribeca Family Film Festival in 2007 before being released to home video the following year.

In other news, there's a Gumby wiki.
posted by Naberius at 1:20 PM on December 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

Holy Toledo, I had no idea the voice talent for Gumby: The Movie included Jon Lovitz, Alan Tudyk and Les Claypool!
posted by cottoncandybeard at 1:48 PM on December 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

there's a Gumby wiki.

Oh just put some peanut butter on it and pop that in the freezer and it'll come right out.
posted by Fizz at 2:14 PM on December 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

CLAYMATION FROM SIX YEARS AGO

FORTY
posted by Sys Rq at 2:56 PM on December 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

The movie was released in '95 and the most recent Gumby cartoon (to that point) had started in '89. I do remember catching reruns on... Nick Jr.? I think when I came home from school and was waiting for the shows that didn't suck to come on?
posted by codacorolla at 3:04 PM on December 4, 2017

What is it with Gumby and robots?

Based on that short, I'd say Gumby gets what he deserves in that lightsabre duel.
posted by Ashwagandha at 3:48 PM on December 4, 2017

What is it with Gumby and robots?

“Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Pokey The Wise?”
posted by Fizz at 3:49 PM on December 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

That music score sounded like something out of an SNES Final Fantasy title.
posted by hot_monster at 4:43 PM on December 4, 2017

I think George Lucas gonna sue somebody!
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 4:43 PM on December 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

I had this on VHS for my oldest two kids and they watched it a good couple hundred times. It is such a bizarre movie, my husband and I marvelled that it came out the same year as Toy Story.
posted by saucysault at 7:34 PM on December 4, 2017

Gumby cartoons always remind me of a De Chirico's street paintings (Melancholy and the Mystery of the Street is the most famous, but he did others). There is an uncanny emptiness and stillness to the backgrounds and sets that is of a piece with the De Chirico, and the frequent appearance of giant sized props (books especially) gives the cartoons a sense of menace (where are the giants?) and warped perspective that also fits.
posted by surlyben at 1:27 PM on December 5, 2017