TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Terry Gilliam's 1981 cult film "Time Bandits," about a gang of thieves traveling through time to steal treasures at different points in history, is being remade as a 10-part family series for Apple TV+. The central premise of time-hopping misfits remains the same, but almost everything else is different about the new series, which comes from the makers of "What We Do In The Shadows" and stars Lisa Kudrow from the NBC sitcom "Friends." Our TV critic David Bianculli has this review.
DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
The original "Time Bandits" movie came out in 1981, written by Monty Python members Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin and directed by Gilliam. It was about a small group of time-traveling bandits who roamed the world and the ages, looking for treasures to plunder. In the original movie, all of the so-called time bandits were played by little people, actors with dwarfism. And on their travels, they ended up being accompanied by a wide-eyed history-loving young boy.
More than 40 years later, Apple TV+ is launching a 10-part TV series remake. It comes from three collaborators on the delightful FX vampire comedy series "What We Do In The Shadows" - Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, and Iain Morris. That series too was adapted from a cult movie, and this team really knows what it's doing. Each of them contributes as writers on the TV version. Clement and Morris are showrunners, and Clement and Waititi not only direct a few episodes, but appear in them too, playing the respective embodiments of good and evil. The major change this time is in the casting of the team of misfit marauders known as the time bandits themselves. In the new TV version, they are no longer played by dwarfs. This already has proven a bit controversial. Some have accused the producers of taking away roles for little people or erasing a key ingredient of the original narrative. Later in the series, though, new roles emerge as little people are featured as a sort of celestial detective squad, and the new "Time Bandits" makes its change very easy to accept.
The leader of the new time bandits is played by Lisa Kudrow from "Friends" in a clever comic performance. The story's core, however, remains intact. The tale begins when these time travelers, chased by Vikings from an earlier era, crash through the wardrobe into the bedroom of an 11-year-old boy named Kevin. He's a nerdy, hardcore history buff, which doesn't impress his parents so much as it concerns them, even after he comes to them with tales of being chased by Vikings in his bedroom. Kal-El Tuck plays Kevin, and James Dryden and Felicity Ward play his unimpressed, unsympathetic parents.
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FELICITY WARD: (As character) You're stuck in the past, Kevin. You got to get in the 21st century.
JAMES DRYDEN: (As Mr. Haddock) If it were cooler to be a Viking than an accountant for a consultancy firm or a consultant for an accountancy firm, we'd be wearing horned helmets, wouldn't we?
KAL-EL TUCK: (As Kevin) Vikings didn't wear horned helmets. That's a misconception.
WARD: (As character) No, Kevin. No, lalalalala. You got to stop it with all these Vikings and the ancient geeks.
TUCK: (As Kevin) Greeks.
WARD: (As character) As well.
TUCK: (As Kevin) I give up.
DRYDEN: (As Mr. Haddock) Then this talk was worth it, as you've learned an important lesson. Sometimes give up.
TUCK: Wait. That's the lesson? Sometimes give up?
JAMES DRYDEN AND FELICITY WARD: (As Mr. Haddock and Mrs. Haddock) Yeah.
BIANCULLI: When the time bandits return with other factions in hot pursuit, young Kevin ends up going with them on their time travels, starting with a visit to ancient China, where the time bandits find themselves surrounded by a deadly ruler and her sword-carrying underlings. Penelope, the time bandit played by Lisa Kudrow, confronts the Chinese leader, but gingerly.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "TIME BANDITS")
LISA KUDROW: (As Penelope) OK, we really need to get out of here.
KATLYN WONG: (As Madame Chung) You have 30 seconds to tell me who you are and what you are doing in my cabin or I will...
(SOUNDBITE OF SWORD SLICING)
WONG: (As Madame Chung) Kill you.
KUDROW: (As Penelope) I am Penelope, and although we don't ascribe to a traditional structure of leadership, I am in effect the leader.
(SOUNDBITE OF SWORD SLICING)
KUDROW: (As Penelope) Well, fundamentally, though, we are all equal.
(SOUNDBITE OF SWORD SLICING)
WONG: (As Madame Chung) Fundamentally, I will kill you all equally.
BIANCULLI: Eventually, the bandits and Kevin travel to Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China, and from the ice age to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. They use a special map as a navigation tool, a map that's actually a blueprint, a literal plan for the universe. They stole it from the Supreme Being, played by Taika Waitit, who wants it back in the worst way. Well, not the worst way, because the blueprint also is sought by the embodiment of pure evil, played by Jemaine Clement, who, talking to his demonic underlings, does some hilarious scene-stealing.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "TIME BANDITS")
JEMAINE CLEMENT: (As Wrongness) With those plans, I could create a universe of pure evil. Rats would eat cats. Parrots would shout out insults at you throughout the night, never letting you sleep. Everywhere you go would be up. You start from Point A, go to Point B, it's up. And then when you go from Point B back to point A, also up.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, growling).
CLEMENT: (As Wrongness) I've thought it out, it would work. Instead of water, acid. Instead of flowers, thorns. Some people will have eyes in their buttocks, so you have to make a choice. Walk around naked and see or wear pants and be blind, and everything.
BIANCULLI: I can't tell you how much sheer fun this new "Time Bandits" is, but I'll try. Its time travel is the most delightfully playful since Mr. Peabody set his Wayback Machine on "Rocky And Bullwinkle." It's as enjoyable as any of Bill and Ted's adventures or any trips taken in "Dr. Who's" TARDIS or in the DeLorean with Marty McFly. The gang of thieves in "Time Bandits" also ends up being as charming and amusing individually and collectively as the ones in "The Princess Bride."
Obviously, ideas for this new series are borrowed freely and frequently. Even the translation caps used by the time bandits owe a clear debt to the instantly translating babel fish from "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy." But everything works, including the moments of sadness and tension. The TV series "Time Bandits" is much better, actually, than the movie that inspired it, with production design, direction and acting that are equally impressive throughout. When you travel with these time bandits, the time really does fly enjoyably.
MOSLEY: David Bianculli is a professor of television studies at Rowan University. He reviewed the series "Time Bandits." Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, Jon M. Chu, the director behind "Crazy Rich Asians" and a forthcoming adaptation of the Broadway musical "Wicked." He'll talk about being raised by immigrant parents in Silicon Valley and making movies. I hope you'll join us. To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair.
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MOSLEY: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Ann Marie Baldonado, Therese Madden, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Joel Wolfram. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRAD MEHLDAU TRIO'S "GREAT DAY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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