Land of the Lost Is Not for Little Kids
Posted 06.03.09 by BrentJS
The original Land of the Lost TV series was a tame, Saturday-morning adventure program. The new movie starring Will Ferrell and Danny McBride is a slightly different story, though, mixing sexual innuendo and raunchy slapstick in with the dinosaurs for a movie clearly meant for older audiences.
When asked about the more adult aspects of the film, McBride said:
There is definitely a subversive nature to it. On face value, you'd think it would be something just for kids, but it's pretty racy. There's stuff in there where you're like, "Oh, okay, I don't know if I'd really want my kid watching that." But, what I liked about this film was that it was unexpected. It takes some turns that you don't expect, with the tone and even with some of the comedy. When you see that the special effects are done for real and it's not like the old TV show, I think it's definitely unexpected where it goes, tone wise. I think it's cool.
Apparently, some of the scenes were so "racy" that they ended up on the cutting room floor:
There was a great rape joke that didn't make it. Anna was translating Chaka and, when she was translating what he was saying, she was like, "I think he's raped an apple," and raping apples is not cool. That would turn people off. So, Chaka doesn't rape an apple in the movie, anymore.
In a separate interview, director Brad Silberling (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events) said that the adult humor would "fly over" the heads of most kids:
I think more about kids' not getting traumatized because one of the things we were excited about was really committing to the photo-realism of these dinosaurs and the action.
McBride stars as Will Stanton, a redneck survivalist who stumbles through a space-time vortex with a bumbling scientist (Ferrell) and his assistant (Anna Friel). Fans of the television series should also be happy to see Jorma Taccone, of The Lonely Island fame, starring as Chaka.