This box office flop was written by RZA (of WuTang Clan fame) and Eli Roth. Set in 19th-century China, a stranger (RZA) settles in a jungle village and becomes its blacksmith. Radical tribal factions force him to fashion elaborate tools of destruction, and the clans' conflict soon erupts into a full war. Knowing he must take action, the blacksmith channels an ancient energy to transform himself into a human weapon. Fighting beside iconic heroes, the blacksmith harnesses this incredible power to defend his adopted people from an army of soulless villains. The gratuitous blood and old kung fu movie style cinematography make it ripe for the riff picking. Also starring Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, Dave Bautista, and Pam Grier.

Back when Pokemon first took the world by storm, some Nintendo execs got it into their heads that people would love a live-action musical based on the cartoon. I don't know what he was smoking either, but he can keep right on smoking it, I won't tell the fuzz. You see, this musical is like those Taco Bell "Fire" chips they sell in supermarkets: they burn, but it's a good kind of burn.

-The characters are just like in the cartoon, but even more over-the-top and one-note. Ash won't shut up about being a Pokemon master, Misty is a killjoy who won't stop fuming about Ash forgetting her birthday, and Brock's a G-rated version of Quagmire. Team Rocket chews the scenery like a Gulpin and employ booby traps that even Wile E. Coyote would scoff at.

-The story revolves around Team Rocket leader Giovanni planning to conquer the world with a robotic Mewtwo that can learn any Pokemon moves used against it. He wants it to learn some Electric-type moves, so he sends Jessie and James out to kidnap Ash's Pikachu. But why do they need Ash's Pikachu? It doesn't have to be Ash's, or ANY Pikachu! What's wrong with learning the moves from a Voltorb or a Magnemite?! I'd be more concerned about this if Giovanni wasn't so wonderfully hammy.

-While we're on the subject of story, the musical actually tries to have some depth with the character of Ash's mother, Delia. She's struggling with Ash growing up faster than she would like (perhaps that's why he's been 10 years old for nearly two decades), and it kind of works...too bad it gets ruined with the "Everything Changes" ballad that kills the mood. Still, I'll gibe it a "You Tried" sticker.

-But the biggest reason to riff this, by far, is the fact that James is played by none other than Andrew Rannells, two-time Tony nominee and veteran of The Book of Mormon, Hamilton and Falsettos. Needless to say, this musical is a very old shame for him and he would much prefer if we just forgot about it. So let's put it front-and-center on Rifftrax!

Chris Mitchell, the show's producer, has uploaded the entire musical to his YouTube Channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDLj7hT1bk4

Okay so my partner and I lovingly refer to this one as "Fat Carrie" (we're both festively plump so we can do that). It was a made for tv movie that features a very young Helen Hunt and a girl who uses telekinesis to get revenge on those who bully her. But her mother becomes concerned about her new interest in the spooky arts and tries to find a way to stop her.
It tries really hard to be scary but bless it's heart it just can't manage it.I'd love to see Mary Jo and Bridget take it on but honestly just seeing it riffed at all would be amazing.

In 1966, Grantray-Lawrence Animation produced a TV series made up of shorts revolving around various Marvel heroes--Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Namor The Sub-Mariner, and The Hulk. These stories were taken from the Silver Age comics.

And when I say "taken from," I mean literally. The "animation", and I use the term generously, was basically the original comic art with some animation--moving lips, the occasional (slightly) moving figure or a fully animated silhouette, on-screen sound effects.

These shorts reflected the slight cheesiness of Silver Age comics--characters describing their actions even as they played out onscreen, somewhat over-inflated dialogue, etc. In one shot, an old building had a sign on it helpfully labeling it "OLD BUILDING."

The other memorable thing about this series was the theme songs. Each character had their own theme song, which played at the beginning of each of their shorts.

"When Captain America throws his mighty shiiiieeeeld/All those who chose to oppose his shield must yiiiiieeeeld!"

"Tony Stark makes you feel/He's a cool exec with a heart of steel..."

"Doc Bruce Banner, belted by gamma rays/Turned into the Hulk/Ain't he unglamor-ays?" (Yes, they managed to squeeze a rhyme out of that.)

"Stronger than a whale, he can swim anywhere/He can breathe underwater and go flying through the air/The noble Sub-Mariner/Prince of the Deep/So beware, you deadly demons! (basso profundo voice) Lord Namor of Atlantis is the Prince of the Deeeep!"

"Across the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard/Where the booming heavens roar/You'll behold in breathless wonder/The god of thunder, Mighty Thor!"

These catchy theme songs stuck in people's heads...in fact, the first Iron Man movie featured the cartoon theme song, played when Tony's award is announced, and again when we see him in the casino.

Despite their cheesiness, these cartoons do have a lot to recommend them--the classic comic art, the fresh-from-Stan-Lee writing even if it is a little overblown, their place in Marvel comics history. Cheesy enough to laugh at, but charming enough to like--in short, a perfect subject for riffing.

(Grantray-Lawrence Animation would go on to make the 1967 Spider-Man series. The animation here was hardly Disney--it was still rather limited, but at least it wasn't just the comic panels with a few moving parts. Plus, G-L topped themselves by giving us the most memorable Marvel cartoon theme song of all.)