Rifftrax Takes On Night of the Lepus, or Mike Nelson's First Film Trauma

Remember this from 20 years ago?



According to MST3K canon (thanks to Shout Factory for this), Night of the Lepus was one of the movies Mike Nelson had to endure before he became the new "test subject" to Dr. Forrester's plan to destroy the world through bad movies. To be fair, the doc never foresaw SyFy, Sharknado...or Rifftrax.

At long last, Rifftrax took on Night of the Lepus, a 1972 film that would have been in Bert I. Gordon's wheelhouse if it was made ten years earlier. It was part of MGM's efforts to be more contemporary after its golden age was over. The cast is interesting: western movie staples Stuart Whitman and Rory Calhoun, Janet Leigh (so there's a few Psycho jokes), and DeForest Kelley in his post-Star Trek period.

It starts with famous Los Angeles anchorman Jerry Dunphy talking about how having too many rabbits, and trying to get rid of them, can upset the balance of nature. That's just like Stan Chambers reporting on the Amazing Colossal Man. Anyway, Whitman and Leigh play married scientists who are asked by a rancher (Calhoun) to do something about a rabbit infestation but not use poison. It's so bad, it's killed one of his horses. Kelley is there as a professor with a really odd mustache.

The scientists come up with a serum that would cause birth defects and reduce the birth rate. They infect a rabbit, which their daughter actually likes. She not only mixes up the rabbit with an uninfected control group, but a pesky kid eventually lets it escape.

The two kids go to an abandoned mine to meet some old coot named Captain Billy. They find him, all right, as the now-mutated rabbits' dinner. It isn't long before the rabbits have the cutest stampedes, hijacking trucks, attacking horses and nibbling unsuspecting people to death.

Since Rifftrax closes its YouTube previews after a while, I included the direct link to the movie sample this time. Anyway, a sample of what to expect:

The movie is based on the book, The Year of the Angry Rabbit

Kevin Murphy:  It's about when the Trix Rabbit got fed up and decided to buy a gun.

The kids find the big rabbits in the mine

Mike Nelson:  Hippity, hoppity, death is on its way

Janet Leigh tries to express...something...but it's been 12 years since Psycho

Bill Corbett:  Her emotions span the gamut from fretful to kind of worried

The Lepus monsters' theme song

Kevin:  Nothing enhances the terror of giant rabbits like barely audible Brian Eno music

The National Guard await the rabbit stampede

Mike: Unleash the 200 foot Yosemite Sam!

There's also lots of Bugs Bunny jokes, along with riffs on Australia in general, The Brady Bunch, Pirate World, Robert Goulet, Full House, Blue Thunder for some reason, and past Rifftrax targets including Birdemic, Mutant and Treasure of the Amazon.

While we'll never know how the Mike Nelson of 1993 tried to learn movie sarcasm by watching this movie, he certainly turned it into cinematic hasenpfeffer today. Slow-motion stampedes, recycling scenes, lousy special effects, it's in there. Maybe Mr. Gordon would have riffed on this, too, commenting on how he would have done it.

For more first class movie riffing, visit rifftrax.com

We're Off To Riff The Wizard, The Riffable Wizard of Oz

How could you, Rifftrax?
Why have you become insane with power, and decided to target a movie that is practically a third of all the riffs you have ever delivered on MST3K? Do you think nothing is sacred?

Come to think of it, everyone has teed off on this movie in one way or another. SyFy made its own "variation" with Tin Man a few years back, South Park had its version which ended with Saddam Hussein captured, Saturday Night Live mocked this movie at least twice, and Mad Magazine had a version called "The Guru of Ours" about a fake Timothy Leary-type in 1969. Just recently, NBC unveiled plans for its own variation of Oz, but make it more like Game of Thrones.

So what can Rifftrax to this classic movie from the greatest year of movies ever, 1939?
For one thing, it inspired probably one of my best tweets: "They'll riff you, my pretty, and your little dog, too...and all of us, really"--Wicked Witch of the West after hearing about @Rifftrax". Let's just say Rifftrax liked it.

I also had to do my own Photoshop bit, as you see above. If you remember the MST3K movie, it had its own version of the scene where Dorothy thinks she sees Auntie Em in the crystal ball, and it was really the Wicked Witch mocking her. You might say this was the next level.

So, here's a sample:



The mp3 is now available, and it's safe to say they used both barrels on this movie. For one thing, they kept listing some urban legends about the Munchkins, and expressed deep bias against Kansas.

Update: hey, another clip, but it's more of a random mix of clips.




Here's some of the other riffs they threw at this movie:

Dorothy sings "Over the Rainbow":

Kevin:  It's really adorable until you realize she's freshly covered in pig excrement

The tornado arrives:

Bill:  Well, Toto, you knew this day would come. Time to sacrifice you to the storm gods.

"I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too"

Mike:  Toto immediately starts planning his revenge piddle

The Scarecrow complaining on how crows aren't scared by him

Kevin:  I've never been able to stop the Batman, either.

Dorothy finds the Tin Man

Mike:  David Blaine's final, lethal stunt

They reach the Emerald City

Bill:  Welcome to Cirque du Soliel World Headquarters

The Cowardly Lion is afraid to meet the Wizard

Kevin:  I don't even like Fred Savage (Google "Fred Savage" and "The Wizard" to get joke)

One of the flying monkeys grabs Toto

Kevin:  Hey, look at me with the dog, I'm Paris Hilton

There's also riffs based on Zero Dark 30, the Kansas City Royals, Nick Nolte (again), a certain spaced-out short, Hugh Hefner, a certain rock band that has a connection with this movie, a really obscure Marvel comics character, two Disney films, and someone from Kate Hudson's family (if you see the second sample, you know which one). There's also a riff connected with Wicked and Oz, the Great and Powerful, too.

It's a very funny riff on a classic film, and may make you starting thinking things about the movie you never had before...and that even after the Oz prequel from last year.

If the Wicked Witch of the West did know about this, she'd probably Netflix the film through her HD Crystal Ball, then hear the riffs  through her iPod, and wonder why Rifftrax didn't target the other Oz movie with James Franco. After all, fair's fair.

UPDATE:  Apparently they're branching out to sound versions of MST3K host segments. Mike Nelson has two Rifftrax home segments in a SoundCloud page. There's an interview of the Munchkin Who Hung Himself just after the Tin Man joined Dorothy and Scarecrow on the road to Oz, which never happened, and Elmira Gulch, the Wicked Witch of Kansas takes on another evil movie character.

Meanwhile, an iRiffer named Ronin Fox had his own version of The Wizard of Oz. Here's his take in two videos:





It's also for sale, and people are starting to compare them both.