TIME BOO-BOOS

TIME BANDITS (1981)
dir: Terry Gilliam

TIME BOO-BOOS
Crazy #86, May 1982
w: Paul Kupperberg
a: Bob Camp

Although all six (now four) of the Monty Python troupe haven't done any new material together since the eighties, at least one of them has usually contributed to the others' solo projects. Michael Palin co-wrote the screenplay and appears occasionally with Shelley Duvall as a constantly cockblocked couple throughout different eras of time.

The story is about a boy, Kevin (Craig Warnock), who is awakened by a group of little people who have stolen a map from the Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson) and use it to travel through history and steal objects, escaping through time holes. As we'll see, it's similar in structure to Wizard of Oz.

Randall (David Rappoport), along with Fidgit (Kenny Baker), Strutter (Malcolm Dixon), Og (Mike Edmonds), Wally (Jack Purvis), and Vermin (Tiny Ross), allow Kevin to join them with his superior intelligence and knowledge of history. They find themselves in the time of Napoleon (Ian Holm).

They distract Napoleon by performing a talent show for him while others loot his quarters, jump through time again and are discovered by Robin Hood's merry men.

Kevin and the Time Bandits are being watched by Evil (David Warner) and who wants their map and vows with the help of his minions to lure them into his lair.

Robin Hood (John Cleese) takes their loot to give to the poor. As they travel through time to acquire more loot they continue to be chased by the Supreme Being they took the map from.

Crazy omits a few major scenes. One where Kevin splits with them and ends up in the time of King Agamemnon (Sean Connery) and becomes heir to the throne in Greece, but the thieves find him and bring him back with them. They end up on the Titanic, drown, and are saved by a pirate ship run by a cannibalistic ogre and his wife, whom they throw overboard, and the ship turns out to be the hat of a giant in a scene used on the cover. Jumping to the end, the whole movie was a dream that Kevin wakes up to as his has burns down, and is saved by a fireman who's also Sean Connery. (Another Wizard of Oz parallel.)

Evil captures them in a cage and they escape, going through time and coming back with armies from different eras and attempt to defeat him, and are saved at the last minute by the Supreme Being, who takes human form and tells him he knew they stole the map and let theme take it as a test.