RiffTrax Shorts

Tommy's Day! Another fine short from the fine folks at the very fine Young America Films. If you're not familiar, Young America Films are like Coronet Films, just a little more judgmental. But if you're looking to learn how to be a small child in the 1950s, they're the best game in town!

During a subway-induced coma, teenager Victoria flashes back to her mother's childhood and realizes, despite all their arguments, her mother had actually been a kid once herself. One with questionable judgment but nonetheless -- drop your backpack by the door, get some Fruit Wrinkles and Capri-Sun, and join Bridget and Mary Jo for this very special After School Special.

It's the 80s and loads of British kids are dying in substations! We're not sure why they're going into substations. But someone poorly animated some cartoon birds and got them to lecture kids about the dangers of electricity. It's a very powerful, sobering experience. In fact, during the moving scene where a kid's pants literally catch on fire, our chortling was noticeably subdued.

The teacher is really putting the squeeze on the kindergartners to bring something to show-and-tell, and the pressure is getting to one little girl. Out of nowhere, plucky Mary Jo kills it with a show-and-tell that forever changes the lives of her fellow first-graders.

James is on his way to school when he gets a small cut on his finger. Bleeding makes James feel Just Awful. So James gets to pay a visit to the school nurse, who is just relieved to for once have a student who is not going to barf up his Snack Pack on her. Slice off the top of a non-essential digit, preferably your own, and join Mike, Kevin, and Bill for Just Awful!

Student Mel just loves to stir the pot at his high school, casting aspersions on one classmate's virtue, and the football ability of others. At the dance following a game the team loses, Mel's classmates have had it up to here and confront him. Fortunately, the narrator steps in and asks the typical "Discussion Problems in Group Living" questions. So there actually will be a test!

The explanation of what in the actual heck a map is starts small, with the layout of a girl's bedroom. Lamps, chairs, that sort of thing. But after that, the scope of the short gets much, MUCH bigger. We get a map of her house and the surrounding neighborhood -- well at least like four buildings. Get your compass and chart a course for cartographical adventure with Mike, Kevin and Bill!