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"The Amazing Screw-On Head"
DVD
History gets badly fractured
in "The Amazing Screw-On Head", from the same guy who
brought you "Hellboy", Mike Mignola.
Somehow, President Abraham
"Honest Abe" Lincoln has a special agent he can call on
when the Forces of Evil rear their collectively ugly head, Special
Agent Screw-On Head. Who is, not surprisingly, a robot. With a screw-on
head. And in this case, Screw-On Head has been dispatched to stop
the fiendish Emperor Zombie and his cohorts--werewolves, tommy-gun-toting
monkeys, the elderly, and the queen of the vampires. They're out
to conquer the world through the occultic powers of a melon-sized
jewel.
Now, if you're somewhat
like me, and God help you if you are, you might have caught this
exact same episode running back when the Sci-Fi Channel was running
its first disastrous season of "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?";
don't even get me started on "Feedback". But anyway, this
little gem showed up a couple times, and I was starting to wonder--start
of a new series? One shot deal? What?
Consulting the comic
book that comes with the video reveals that this is in fact the
pilot for a TV series, but if there will be future episodes of the
Amazing Screw-On Head, that's out of my bailiwick.
Though I really hope
there are...this single pilot is roaringly comic and highly unique.
Frankly, I've never seen anything like this, and I'm glad to have
seen it again. In a world where the Homestead Act is merely cover
so that a robot with a detachable head and threaded bolt-like neck
can investigate alien technologies without drawing the notice of
the Confederacy, it's pretty much anyone's guess as to what will
happen here long-term. And that would make for regular surprises
and a constant flow of innovation.
The special features
include storyboard comparisons, a featurette on converting the comic
book to a cartoon, and trailers for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
volume 6", "The Invincible Iron Man", and "Happily
N'Ever After".
All in all, "The
Amazing Screw-On Head" was a joy to behold, packing an alarming
amount of surprises into a tiny twenty-two minute package.
The
Amazing Screw-On Head
****
DVD
Directed by Chris Prynoski
Written by Mike Mignola
Starring Paul Giamatti, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, Patton
Oswalt
Produced by Susan Norkin
NR
22 mins
2007
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