Dennis the Menace (film)
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| Dennis the Menace | |
|---|---|
 One-sheet poster. |
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| Directed by | Nick Castle |
| Produced by | John Hughes |
| Written by | John Hughes |
| Starring | Walter Matthau Mason Gamble Joan Plowright Christopher Lloyd |
| Cinematography | Thomas E. Ackerman |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1993 |
| Running time | 94 min. |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | Dennis the Menace Strikes Again |
| IMDb profile | |
Dennis the Menace (also known in the United Kingdom as Dennis) is a 1993 live-action film based on the Hank Ketcham comic strip of the same name. This film was directed by Nick Castle, written by John Hughes, and produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and John Hughes Entertainment, It concerns the misadventures of a mischievous child with a cowlick and adorable grin who wreaked havoc on his next-door neighbour, Mr. Wilson and usually helping out with his friends, Joey and Margaret, and being followed every time by his dog, Ruff.
The plot centered around the misadventures of Dennis Mitchell, who after creating a perchant of disaster, is taken to being babysat by Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. But when Dennis did something wrong with Mr. Wilson, Dennis runs away and even comes face-to-face with the film's main villain, Switchblade Sam. The film was even notable as the first time the title character was accurately cast as a five-year-old.
The film premiered on 25 June, 1993, not because of mixed profits and reviews, but the film was an instant commercial success and saw a new generation of the comic strip canon. A direct-to-video sequel called [[Dennis the Menace Strikes Again]] had a star-studded cast but is less-known by fans, The film was followed up by Saturday morning cartoon series called [[The Incredible Dennis the Menace]].
[edit] Cast
- Walter Matthau as Mr. George Wilson
- Mason Gamble as Dennis Mitchell
- Joan Plowright as Mrs. Martha Wilson
- Christopher Lloyd as Switchblade Sam
- Lea Thompson as Mrs. Alice Mitchell
- Robert Stanton as Mr. Henry Mitchell
- Amy Sakasitz as Margaret Wade
- Kellen Hathaway as Joey
- Paul Winfield as Chief of Police
- Natasha Lyonne as Polly
- Devin Ratray as Mickey
- Hank Johnston as Gunther Beckman
- Melinda Mullins as Andrea
- Billie Bird as Edith Butterwell
- Bill Erwin as Edward Little
[edit] Trivia
- Veteran Hughes actors Billie Bird, Ben Stein, and Bill Erwin have cameo roles.
- The Mitchells' and the Wilsons' house was filmed and is located in Evanston, Illinois. The opening shot and parts of the film were filmed in Hinsdale, Illinois.
- Switchblade Sam (Christopher Lloyd) is the only character in the film never referred to by his name.
- This movie marks the fifth time that Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd have been in a film together, but they do not share any screentime together.
- 20,000 children auditioned for the part of Dennis. Ten of them were selected to test the role with Walter Matthau. In the end, Mason Gamble got it.
- Was known simply as "Dennis" in the UK to avoid confusion with a British comic strip character called "Dennis the Menace" created in the same year (1951).
- Mason Gamble lost two teeth during the filming of this movie and had to wear fake ones until after the movie was finished.
- The script was written to use the certain references from both [[Back to the Future]] and [[Home Alone]].
- This is not the first live-action Dennis the Menace movie, the first live-action film to feature Dennis was [[Dennis the Menace: Dinosaur Hunter]], which premiered on TV in 1987, the film involved Dennis and his friends annd dog continuing their perchants for mischief until they discover a dinosaur skeleton, which Dennis dubs it as the "Dennissaurus".
- This film was the result of Warner Bros.' plans to make a movie based on any kind comic strip character, but the company turned down John Hughes because they knew he had the film rights to Dennis the Menace, but he even wrote a script for it and had permission to use the character. Warner Bros was satasifed and got the film rushed into production and got it to theatres for a summer 1993 release.
- Jerry Goldsmith was John Hughes' first and only choice to write the music score for this film.
- The logo used as the film's main logo was the logo used for the first Dennis the Menace comic book series, the logo had the words "Dennis" and "the" in lower cases and the word "Menace" in upper cases.
- Considered the first film to feature music played over the closing logos, it succedded [[Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood]] by a few years.
- One of the only two films from John Hughes Entertainment to feature the "blue J-H w/white star" logo, the later film [[Baby's Day Out]] was the last to feature that logo.
- Consided the first film from Warner Bros. Family Entertainment, a label created in attempt to release more family-oriented Warner Bros. films, it procedded [[The Secret Garden]] and succedded [[Free Willy]] by a few months.
