Favourite Fictional Film/TV Universe

[Tranplanner]

Saw this blog article Fictional Film Words and thought it would make a good thread here.

One the major elements that makes or breaks a movie or TV show for me is how convincingly they create the reality of the universe the action is taking place in.
I can suspend my disbelief for major plot devices (faster than light travel? teleporters? No problem!) but if you skimp on the little details, I’ll nitpick your film to death. For instance, I like the look and feel of Batman: Batman Begins (extreme dystopian city with a monorail!) much more than Batman: The Dark Knight (plain boring old Chicago), even though the latter is the better movie (IMHO). The fact that the City has changed so significantly between the two movies also bugs the crap out of me. I guess Wayne Towers got demolished at some point?

Speaking of the Batman series, I think being a planner in Gotham might be pretty...interesting.

So, what would be your preferred film universe to spend a day/week/lifetime in? Besides the world of “Horny Pizza Delivery Girls” or “Naughty Nurses 3”, that is.

[Maister]

It's a pretty straightforward call but the obvious choice is usually just that. I'd go with the original Star Trek Universe. No dystopian futures where humans are hunted down or hiding from machines/superior species, you'd have transporter and replicator technology available, get to boff green alien chicks, and with just enough danger/conflict to keep life interesting (not to mention you'd always know if trouble was coming based on the ominous soundtrack music that sometimes plays inexplicably in the background).

[beach_bum]

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood

As for more adult options, I always thought that Star Trek had interesting 'worlds'

[ofos]

I think both the future and the past were pretty covered in cartoon form in the The Jetsons and The Flintstones.

[Maister]

I think both the future and the past were pretty covered in cartoon form in the The Jetsons and The Flintstones.

Um, there are no green alien chicks in either of those universes (although there was a little green alien guy with a big head called 'Gazoo' in Fintstones, but we won't go there).

[Tom R]

Castle Anthrax.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjio-F47IfM

[ofos]

Any of these shows on the telly

Black Adder
Monty Python
The Avengers
The Prisoner

[MacheteJames]

Star Trek, hands down. In fact, when I was a kid, I was convinced that my destiny was to attend Starfleet Academy upon graduating high school, because in my dorky 1980s kid mind, I believed that the Academy would exist by the time I was ready for college and would be accepting its first class of students.

[btrage]

I've always enjoyed Fantasia from The NeverEnding Story.

[ursus]

I've always enjoyed Fantasia from The NeverEnding Story.

must....resist.....urge......to....

It's no use, you may as well know. That was totally my favorite movie when I was young! It was actually based on a book by Michael Ende, originally written in German I think. I had it when I was young. I vote you should find it and read it to your daughters.

[btrage]

I've always enjoyed Fantasia from The NeverEnding Story.

must....resist.....urge......to....

It's no use, you may as well know. That was totally my favorite movie when I was young! It was actually based on a book by Michael Ende, originally written in German I think. I had it when I was young. I vote you should find it and read it to your daughters.

Dude...I watched this movie religiously as a kid and have been meaning to get the DVD...or Blue-Ray....or whatever the hell is the latest technology.

I didn't realize it was a book until I Googled it this morning. I'll definitely have to pick it up!

[Hink]

In movies... Planet of the Apes? A world covered in damn, dirty, apes...



In TV I liked Ed and Stuckeyville. Something about it was just pleasant.

[Planit]

Springfield from The Simpsons

[ofos]

Springfield from The Simpsons

It's nothing like Shelbyville.

[TexanOkie]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...


Star Wars universe wins for me. Or at least it did before all the prequel-related influences entered it.

[ursus]

It's nothing like Shelbyville.

Or Ogdenville, or Capital City. I'll live in Shelbyville with you, ofos. Pull up a chair and lets have a nice cool glass of turnip-juice.

[ofos]

And with that, a mighty cheer went up from the heroes of Shelbyville. They had banished the awful lemon tree forever, because it was haunted. Now let's all celebrate with a cool glass of turnip juice.

[Bear Up North]

FWIW, this Bear submits the movie Sirens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2bK5pmX4A8

Bear

[Rygor]

I've always enjoyed Fantasia from The NeverEnding Story.

I loved that movie, too. Watched it probably 20 times. I forgot what Atreyu decides to name the Empress at the end of the movie.


My favorite world would probably be any one with Muppets. Muppets would make any world more fun.

[TerraSapient]

Almost anywhere in Isaac Assimov's Foundation and Empire series, particularly Gaia.

Also, most of the world's from Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series, except perhaps on the planet with the piggies because I wouldn't want to be dying from that strange virus, or whatever it was.

It has been awhile since I have read either series. Maybe I'll pick them up again soon.

[Whose Yur Planner]

<Warning: obscure Sci-Fi trilogy reference> Rebecca Ore did a series called Becoming Alien where smart kid living in rough circumstances in rural Virginia is chosen for what amounts to multi-species UN. He is advanced and goes into training. It's not a perfect universe, but it held a certain appeal to a geeky, smart kid who got transplanted to a town in BFE Indiana.

[btrage]

Dude...I watched this movie religiously as a kid and have been meaning to get the DVD...or Blue-Ray....or whatever the hell is the latest technology.

I didn't realize it was a book until I Googled it this morning. I'll definitely have to pick it up!

I bought this movie for my girls for Christmas.

I also bought them The Princess Bride, another of my favorite film universes.

[otterpop]

The West of "Maverick." I could so see being Bret, Bart and Brent Maverick's little brother Buck. Conning the grifters at their own game. Traveling the West looking for a card game and a pretty lady. Getting duped by Samantha Crawford, just like my brothers. And getting to quote many maxims of Pappy.

I would also like the unverse of Star Trek, but I would probably get tossed off the ship for insubordination. Because when the ship encountered an alien spacecraft or entity, I would just have to say, "Uh, Captain, don't you think you should raise the shields right now and charge the torpedoes. Because the last hundred times you didn't, and the ship got the sh*t kicked out of it and we barely survived. I know the Federation thinks the Universe is Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, but it really isn't. The Klingons are assholes and you really can't trust them, or, really, anybody. Play it safe. Raise the shields. Charge the weapons. And, no offense, but send Scotty back to engineering school, because this ship is as reliable as a Yugo."

[Big Owl]

Oddly enough, I am in Jericho, the stand, or revolution camp at this point; but if I needed to pick a pre-apoplectic universe I would chose little house on the prairie.

[michaelskis]

i-robot...

It takes place in Chicago. They did a great job blending historic into modern architecture for the movie, just like they do in real life.

The other would be Sherlock Holmes.

Something about that time period has always fascinated me. Maybe that is why I have a house from that era.