Our True Geek Confessions

Last year, it was the glorious What’s Your Scott and Jean event – in which several geeky bloggers got together to talk about their geek sacred cow. Now, the good folks at Alert Nerd are back with another Mega-Blog Crossover Event. And this year, the theme is…..True Geek Confessions:

The Background: Unpopular opinions: we all have them. Sometimes you stand alone in loving a super niche-y run of a popular comic book series (like Sarah and her Tefe Holland thing). Sometimes you’re the only person on the entire planet to ’ship a certain ’ship. Sometimes you simply Do Not Get a movie the rest of your geeky brethren is falling all over themselves about. And because a lot of fandom is about sharing loves and hates and communing with your fellow geeks, this can feel awfully lonely. But perhaps if we confess our most unpopular opinions for all the internet to see…well, we’ll feel just a little bit better.

Here’s what you do: On February 17, write up a blog post with your own True Geek Confession. Send your link to sarah AT alertnerd DOT com. We will add you to our master list blog post and you can link back to said post. It will be exciting and wonderful and will hopefully not provoke too many “die in a fire” type arguments.

Of course, we Smugglers could not let the opportunity pass for another geek-out session in which we are to share our deepest, darkest, geekiest secrets ever. It is not going to be pretty, but with the Powers of Greyskull guiding us, we shall bare our souls to you! **NOTE: We are posting our entry a day early because of a scheduling conflict! So all you folks have an extra day to come up with your own Geek Confessions, should the mood strike!**

Ana

I will just go ahead and say it:

Ewoks.

I luuurves them.

There. I said it. And I will not be ashamed of it.

I loved the Ewoks for years before I came to love Star Wars and, I didn’t even know this was an unpopular opinion until a few years ago when I finally watched the movies. Come to think of it, maybe my True Geek Confession should have been: I didn’t watch the original Start Wars trilogy until 1999 when I decided to get ready for the Phantom Menace ( I have no reason, no excuse for that I am afraid. I was lame, that is all. I hang my head in shame, please do not revoke my geek card?).

But anyways. Ewoks. I grew up watching the dudes. One of my favorite movies when I was a child was Caravan of Courage – that movie with the family stranded in Endor with the cute little sister befriending the Ewoks and the Ewoks helping them retuning with their parents?

It seemed to be on TV all the time and I watched it every single time. It is one of my fondest childhood memories and I can’t think of it without having a severe case of the sniffles.

I haven’t watched the movie in ages and I am not sure it will stand the test of times. But I am not sure I even want to know.

But then there was also the cartoon which was one of my favorites.

It was on in the mornings in the same children’s program that aired Dungeons and Dragons and Thundercats. Whenever I was able to stay home from school or when on holidays, I always tried to watch these!

So to me the Ewoks evoke childhood, the memories of watching television in the afternoon after doing homework, drinking milk with cookies. I associate it with good things, always. So when I finally watched The Return of the Jedi in a special session at the movies (pre Phantom Menace) with a bunch of friends who were Star Wars fanatics and I saw the Ewoks and I was like, “OMG the Ewoks, I love them” and my friends looked at me positively horrified and tried to explain to the newbie how the Ewoks destroyed the Return of the Jedi with their cuteness or some such bullshit I was just like “Yeah, yeah, whatever, talk to the hand.”

I love the Ewoks. That is my True Geek Confession. Who else is with me?

Thea:

First off, Ana, I am with you. I first saw Star Wars when I was a young girl of six, and I immediately loved Jawas, all the different droids, and, yeah, Ewoks. I still have my DVD of Caravan of Courage. *pumps fist in the air with Ana*

But that’s not my True Geek Confession.

My Official Confession is…

I freaking LOVE Sky High.

Seriously, I adore this movie. Why, you ask? It’s a Geek’s Wet Dream. Let me count the ways.

1. Sky High is essentially a young superhero story, in a sort of New Mutants/Teen Titans sensibility. You’ve got a universe where superheroes are commonly known and accepted, and kids with superpowers attend Sky High – a high school in the sky (that constantly moves location for the kids’ safety from super villains and the like). The movie follows Will Stronghold, son of superstar superheroes The Commander (gifted with super strength and invulnerability, played by Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (gifted with the power of flight, played by Kelley Preston), on his first day as a freshman at Sky High. All the freshman have to go through “Power Placement” – that is, they show Coach Boomer (a hilarious Bruce Campbell – who, incidentally, is the perfect I-take-myself-waaaaaaay-too-seriously Gym Coach) their superpower, and he determines whether they go on the Hero track, or the Sidekick track. That is, depending on how badass the kid’s superpower, he or she is relegated to a life of High School popularity and career prosperity….or nerdy mediocrity. Will has a LOT to live up to, as the son of two very famous superheroes, and he’s got a big problem: his superpower hasn’t manifested yet. It might not manifest at all. And he, along with his friends, are relegated to sidekick duty.

Of course, there’s a diabolical plan from an unlikely super villain (recruiting other young villains, world domination, etc). AND even better, romance, high school drama, best friends, the whole gamut. What is NOT to love about this awesome geekiness?

2. CASTING. Where else are you going to see Lynda Carter (aka Wonder Woman), Bruce Campbell (aka Ash), Kurt Russell (aka Snake, aka R.J. MacReady, aka Captain freakin’ Ron), Dave Foley (hey, Kids in the the Hall!), Kevin McDonald (hey, Kids in the Hall again!), Cloris Leachman (aka Phillys Lindstrom), and Kevin Hefferman (aka Farva) together in cheesy abandon?

And these are just the adults! The kids are fantastic too – I love the guy that plays hero Will, Michael Angarano (whom you may recently have seen in Gentlemen Broncos or The Forbidden Kingdom). Layla, played by Danielle Panabaker (of the crappy Friday the 13th remake) is awesome, as is Steven Strait (10,000 B.C., The Covenant, Stop-Loss). Made of WIN.

3. The kitschy names: Will Stronghold. Warren Peace. Gwen Greyson (for Gwen Stacy of Spidey fame and Dick Grayson of Batman fame). Principal Powers. Mr. Boy. Mr. Medulla. Royal Pain. You get the idea.

4. Little touches like the costumes/wardrobe and music. Each character has a specific color scheme: Will (and his mom and dad) only wears red, white, and blue. Layla, the hippie-ish girl with Poison Ivy caliber super powers over plants, only wears green. Magenta, surly girl that shapeshifts into a guinea pig, purple. Gwen Grayson, smart, popular, class president, wears pink. Etc, etc, etc.

All the boys in the film wear converse all stars for the entire film, in the color of their wardrobe (an homage to The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, a Disney film from the 1960s starring Kurt Russell).

All the music is from the ’80s but recorded by new artists. It’s the little things that really stick out and make Sky High so much fun.

5. The high school movie awesomeness. There’s an unrequited love story, the pressure of living up to your parents’ legacy, the ever-present dichotomy between “cool kids” and “geeks,” high school nemeses, bullies, crazy teachers…you name it.

So there you have it. My love affair with Sky High is one that I am no longer ashamed to share! Yeah, it’s cheesy, yeah it’s Disney – but damn, it’s good. I watched it in the theater with my baby sister when it first came out and was hooked.

So there you have it! Our very own True Geek Confessions. Anyone that wants to make something of it, or share your own confession, we invite you to comment away. Remember, you can join in the posting fun – just write up your own True Geek Confession post and then shoot the link over to Alert Nerd.

As for us, we’ll be around. Now, excuse us while we watch our Caravan of Courage and Sky High dvds…