VIDEO – Simba’s Day Off

This will be a little of an odd post. It doesn’t relate to the book, and is more just a talk about a hobby of mine.

I was a film major in college. I only graduated in December of 2013, and my commencement was May of 2014. It hasn’t even been a year since I left the midwest to chase my dreams in Los Angeles, and the film industry is the end goal. Time will tell whether it works out or not, but a few promising leads have come up. I am only 26 with a lot of time to go.

One of the most influential films in my life was a little movie in the 90s that took the word by storm. That movie was Disney’s The Lion King. It was by far their most unique film since Bambi. It discarded their usual princess narrative and created a high adventure with some of the most emotionally powerful material in their library. While subject to some debate, it is a top contender for the best film the company has ever produced.

Then, in the late 90s, one of my teachers introduced me to another little movie. A comedy from the 80s that still resonated with kids in high school and college. That movie was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The crown jewel of 80s teen comedies, its humor is unique unto itself. Its characters are timeless, from its charismatic lead, to the boring economics teacher. There is no wasted moment, no missed joke, and no smile that doesn’t land.

Now, aside from both of these movies being f###ing awesome, they do share one key trait. They both share actor Matthew Broderick, who plays both the adult Simba and Ferris Bueller.

Now, The Lion King does share some interesting connections with other films. Mufasa for example is voiced by James Earl Jones, the actor who voiced Darth Vader. Scar is voiced by Jeremy Irons, who portrayed the villainous Simon Gruber in Die Hard with a Vengeance. And Zazu, Zazu is Mr. Bean.

Obviously the internet would be swarming with jokes about every one of these little bits of trivia. The internet is swarming with Lion King/Star Wars jokes. But do you know how many Ferris Bueller jokes there are?

There was only one little picture.

One.

Internet…Disappointed!

And this brings us back to college. One of our video editing assignments was to take the film Psycho and edit together a two minute clip that changed the meaning of the movie. I took it and gave it a happy ending. That project landed this guy an A. And you know what? It was also very fun to take one of my favorite films and switch it around a bit. Couldn’t a joke like that work here?

It seemed a good enough way to pass the time, so I jotted down a few quick ideas and got to work.

The first was this little number, where the nefarious Ed Rooney makes a powerful enemy when trying to prove Ferris Bueller is skipping school.

Not the best, but a decent joke. You ever wonder how the lionesses felt when Scar confessed to killing king Mufasa? Probably something like Jean Bueller’s reaction here.

Neither one of these were terribly good, but afterwards the jokes seemed to be working much better. Here, Jean Bueller and Scar go at it again in a one on one battle. As it turns out, Scar should have thought better about going toe to toe with someone as skilled as Jean. Afterwards, the self defense master gets some unexpected visitors while waiting for help to arrive.

These next two are my favorites. Mufasa’s death was one of the big shocks of our childhoods. It is still the most graphic depiction of the death of a parent in a Disney film. How did a lot of us feel when it happened? Cameron Frye’s reaction here sums it up pretty well.

And so all of us were thirsty for some blood after the death of one of the most beloved characters in Disney’s library. But didn’t a lot of you feel like that revenge was missing something? If you are going to avenge your father’s death, why not do it in style? Enter Cameron Frye again, who gives his feline friend a bitchin’ set of wheels. This one took the longest to make for the matte shots alone, and was actually a pretty ambitions video.

The last one…you all knew they had to do the parade scene, so here it is.

With that, it seemed a good time to end this series. And if anyone is wondering about the famous “Bueller…Bueller…Bueller” scene, well I couldn’t think of anything that good. For now anyway. Perhaps one of you fine people can fix that.

Perhaps this project was just a waste of time, but it was something that made me laugh a little, and in the end, isn’t that all that matters? For me, the entire point of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was enjoying the little things in life, and that is what every movie is really. Just another one of those little things. Cherish every moment, because it doesn’t last forever.

In a few years I may look back on these videos and cringe, but it was a good time while it lasted.

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Oh, and by the way, at least with the Ferris Bueller joke, there was one little meme before I came along. There are none for Die Hard with a Vengeance. Internet, you know what this means.

I want to see Simba and John McClane team up to kick some ass.