#invisible dad

[oicuperp]

today i discovered that an invisible dad can in fact be cunty !!!!

[metalichotchoco]

Party mom and the invisible dad 🩷💙

They’re awful but they are perfect for eachother. Someone get these kids out of that house.

[yesterdanereviews]

Invisible Dad (1998)

Film review #623

Director: Fred Olen Ray

SYNOPSIS: Andrew Bailey often moves around the country thanks to his job, with his son Doug. Arriving in their new home, Doug finds a strange device in the garage left by the former occupant. Hooking it up to his computer, he finds it can grant his wishes whenever he wears the headset to communicate with it. When he inadvertently turns his dad invisible, chaos ensues as Doug has to find a way to turn him back.

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Invisible Dad is a 1998 sci-fi children's film. It is somewhat a sequel to the 1996 film Invisible Mom by the same director, but features none of the original cast or settings. Invisible Mom II was released in 1999 (reviewed previously) is perhaps the true sequel, as it features the original cast and continues their story, so this film just exists in a strange void with no real continuity to the "franchise" (if we can call it that). Anyway, the plot this time concerns Andrew Bailey and his son Josh, who have to move around often due to Andrew's work as an architect. In their new house, Josh finds some strange inventions in the garage left by the former occupant, one of which he hooks up to his computer. It turns out that this computer can grant any wish by simply speaking into the headset. By anything, I mean anything: Josh manages to make food appear out of thin air, teleport a model directly to his bedroom, and even travel back in time. When Josh's Dad finds out about it, he tells him to destroy it because it causes too much trouble. Unfortunately, Josh wishes his dad would "just disappear" just before he destroys the device, and he turns invisible. With no way to turn back visible, they must find a way to fix the device.

There's inherently some issues with the story here: The most glaring one is that Josh finds a device that can do anything: time travel, make anything appear, the works. The fact that the film is just about one man turning invisible is a bit underwhelming when you've already established everything else. Josh tries to plead with his Dad that they could print infinite money or anything, but he simply says it is too much trouble, which is a very weak cop-out. The film goes through all the expected tribulations of being invisible, with no real surprises in that regard. There's a scene where Josh and his Dad are at a restaurant, with Andrew covered in clothes to hide the fact that he is invisible, and they are constantly interrupted by a man who cracks mean-spirited "jokes" after every line of dialogue; I mean, really nasty remarks about how ugly he probably he underneath all those clothes. It's really odd for a kid's film. Anyway, on top of the whole invisible thing, there's also the sub-plot concerning Andrew's job as an architect, and him needing to turn visible before his colleague steals his idea, and also before said colleague contracts a dodgy builder to build the project using sub-standard materials that will probably collapse and kill whoever is inside. Add in the romance sub-plot, and also the inventing partner of the guy who made the device, who now resides somewhere in the jungles of Africa, and you've got a film that is trying to do way too much. Lots of the plot elements get lost in the mix, and the whole invisible thing doesn't really get enough time or attention to be interesting.

The characters don't really have anything interesting about them: Josh is a typical lead whose Mom has passed away and he carries around a photo of her and such. It's not too traumatic for kid's. His Dad is a workaholic, and doesn't take kindly to being invisible. There's also Sandy's teacher, who he tries to set up with his Dad, who doesn't really have much of a role to play. However, Josh keeps constantly telling us how hot she is in his narration, which is a bit weird for a kid. Combine this with the pretty dire acting, and you've got nothing redeemable on this front.

Aside from the previously mentioned scene of the men-spirited harassment in the restaurant scene, there's other parts of the film which are morally dubious too. there's the dodgy contractor who is planning to kill Andrew to get his cheap material on the project he is working on, which never gets beyond meagre threats, but is still an odd addition. There's also a part of the film where Josh literally goes shoplifting for computer parts, and his caught and thrown in jail. His teacher then breaks him out, and Josh's Dad just overlooks his shoplifting, because he was doing it to "help him out," which is a pretty weird message to be giving out in a kid's film, and also since his character has already been established as not wanting to get into trouble.

Overall, Invisible Dad is a mess. It throws too much into the mix and ends up creating a directionless mess. Even for a kid's film, there's just nothing interesting or imaginative for them to latch on to, and I doubt that it would keep their attention long enough. Probably the worse of the invisible trilogy if I'm honest, as while the original had barely anything going on in it, it was at least easy to follow and mostly harmless, whereas Invisible Dad is all over the place, mean-spirited in parts, and sorely lacking in humour or charm.

[gongyussy]

he's like if a baby cow wandered into a zoom interview

[puppetmaster13u]

Another Ghost Dragon Prompt? Indeed.

The Ward had made a mistake. Had stolen something that had caused the very Skies to lash out, entire worlds at risk from their actions.

Time Itself shrieked in rage at the loss of Its child, or at least that's how every magic user- and the speedsters, pale and shaken and looking sick- had described it.

Someone had taken the young prince of the Infinite, and it was not the Tyrant King, long since sealed away, that lead the charge, but the Queen Regent that many had long since forgotten.

Many forgot that it was not the Dark who courted Time, but Time who courted the Dark. That It was just, if not more so, merciless as Its partner, and would Devour worlds should Its child- still with newdeath soft scales- was not returned.

Which meant that for the heroes, there was now a Clock ticking down ever so quietly. They had to take care of what was a government branch, had to deal with consequences of going over the law, or their World would End in dragon fire.

[cozylittleartblog]

hey. hey anon? youa re. so right,

[squidos-goodies]

“I think of where my family has gone, and I let all of it die for now, because there has to be focus for what comes next.”

[thatmultifandomchick]

An actual conversation between me and my father.

[aroaceleovaldez]

non-exhaustive list of canon powers Nico di Angelo either has shown or is heavily implied to have:

Shadow-travel

Manipulation of shadows/darkness (also possibly use of shadows as a pocket-dimension a la Magicians using the Duat in The Kane Chronicles)

Becoming intangible/shadows

Complete control over skeletons/bones (dead or alive, including summoning, reanimation, and/or changing shape of them) and being able to sense their presence

Summoning, reanimating, commanding, and dispelling the dead/undead (Skeletons, zombies, ghosts, etc & varieties) and being able to sense their presence

Ability to understand/communicate with the dead/undead and potentially other beings of the Underworld

Inherent complete comprehension of Latin

Ability to perceive the usually unperceivable/possibly look upon a deity’s true form without repercussion (at least moreso than the average demigod, though possibly is restricted to chthonic beings) (ex: Tartarus, potentially also interacting with his parents, etc)

Interacting tangibly with ghosts (implied to be a Ghost King thing rather than a Hades/Pluto thing)

Partial or complete immunity to different effects of the Underworld/things within (can consume food/drink of or in the Underworld without repercussions, effects from the Lethe wear off over time instead of being permanent like usual for mortals, etc)

Astral projection/”Walking in dreams”

Dream manipulation and projection (Sending dreams to others, etc.) (presumably includes sharing/projecting dreams with others) alongside inflicting sleep upon others even from a distance.

Illusions

Manipulation of emotions/aura that inflicts specific emotions on others (ex.: radiating fear/death onto enemies)

Projection of emotions and memories onto others (can be so forceful it causes physical damage like a shockwave)

Geokinesis (all forms but also specifically generating black marble) (presumably also specialized control over precious gemstones & non-paper currency)

Temperature manipulation (seemingly only lowering temperature)/creating frost)

Control/manipulation of souls, including living beings (ex: ripping out Bryce Lawrence’s soul)

Perceiving/reading/judging of souls (most likely also a Ghost King thing over Hades/Pluto thing, but possibly both)

Converting living into dead/undead, aka instakill (ex: disintegrating monsters to bone with one touch)

Lowering or manipulation of own vitals (breathing, heart rate, etc)

Death Trance/pseudo-hibernation (possibly also general control over states of consciousness at least for self, in combo with control over vitals & dreams)

Sensing death (impending or when it occurs, sometimes receiving dreams/visions of it occurring)

Able to sense other children of Hades/Pluto (potentially also other chthonic beings in general/able to identify based on sense alone) and also just living beings in general, such as mortals (possibly via souls).

Improved navigation underground/in the Underworld and ability to traverse restricted or normally unnavigable parts of the Underworld

Enhanced strength/abilities when in the Underworld

Inherently unnaturally quiet (possibly able to silence sound on a designated target)

Hiding/shielding self from being perceived (seemingly related to shadows/silence)

[gray-doestheart]

It’s shou sunday

[specific-dreamer]

stay gold is for darry too (except this is what i meant to say the first time b4 i got distracted)

“when you’re young and the world is new / it’s easy to forget when you’re trying just to make it through”

darry is 20 years old and for the first time he’s having to learn about bills and when to pay them and how to pay them, he’s having to learn about debt works and how long he can take to pay them back. he’s having to learn how to budget because suddenly he can’t take whatever change he has left at the end of the day to take his brothers to the rodeo or the bookstore, instead that change has to go to something more sustainable.

and darry has a one track mind. to him, since he has to play guardian, since he has to play parent, he’s not allowed to have fun anymore. he has to work day in and day out to keep his brother yes, but he’s also working so his brothers don’t have to work this hard. he’s working this hard in hopes that one day, hopefully in a year or so, they’ll have enough saved up so he can stop playing parent. he’s hoping they’ll have enough saved up so this child can stop walking in his dad’s enormous shoes and can finally be a kid again.

he’s opening at the end of this he can finally just be a friend and a brother again. the thing is though darry forgets. he forgets about the now. he forgets how sensitive his brothers are; soda makes a point for darry to know he can lean on him if he needs to, but sometimes darry gets a little to comfortable and forgets to remind soda the same. darry and pony used to be a whole lot closer before their parents died. but after darry forgets how sensitive he is; pony likes playing big and bold (like every 14 year old) so he’s forgets that pony really is just a baby. he forgets that pony lost his parents too at a really young age and needs a bit more comfort; darry forgets to offer that comfort.

darry never neglects his brothers, god no he doesn’t. in his mind, he eats dinner… most nights with them, he’s usually not back til late, eating dinner with the dim light above the stove. he sees them to bed though! he makes sure they’re all ready for bed and can find him if they need him, though pony has taken to finding soda instead which… is new.

[queenangst]

LOVED this chapter but apothecary left on a cliffhanger AGAIN ahfbajfbsjbfg

[sesamenom]

Ringlord High King of Everything Elrond, inspired here

(@the-writing-goblin)

I imagine in this situation elrond would have been partially tempted by boromir's declaration, but instead of trying to fight sauron with it (because even in the weirdest crack au i can think of elrond is still too genre-aware to try that) he tried to use it to supercharge his use of vilya and protect everyone.

basically Ringlord!Elrond turned the entirety of Eriador into a mega-gondolin situation: massive walls (courtesy of numenorean/eregion tech) around the regions bordering the north or Mordor, fortresses along the mountain range and several layers of gates along every road in or out. Everybody goes in; nobody goes out; everyone is safe.

and he ended up claiming the kingship to give him more authority in the process - he's High King of the Noldor and Sindar and King of the Edain (given that there are like three half-vanyar in middle-earth, he's more or less king of all children of iluvatar) and so he can have command over the entirety of the West.

and with the help of the Ring, this actually works! but the corruption starts to show eventually

he uses his kinship to Gondor to forcefully drag them into his neo-gondolin-empire-creation so he can ensure none of his great-nephews will ever have to face sauron. he extends the walls to encompass Mirkwood, because he's the high king of the sindar and has a duty to protect thranduil's realm, and unleashes the full might of his melian-lite powers to purge Sauron's Shadow and the spawn of Ungoliant from the now-Greenwood.

Galadriel and Glorfindel very much see where this is going and are very very worried. galadriel won't let him build walls around lothlorien (because she lives next door to a balrog and knows exactly what happened to gondolin) but celeborn thinks it's a good idea, since after all Doriath wouldn't have fallen if Melian's girdle had still been up. glorfindel tries to talk him out of it but the ring has taken hold

the Ring's power also enhances all his natural weirdness and powers - he has his wings and maia markings permanently activated now, with or without finwean anger. he can fully shapeshift, and he goes from raising waves in the bruinen to raising tsunamis in the great sea.

except the finwean anger seems to be permanently activated now, too, and anyone who harms someone he's deemed under his protection finds themselves the target of a rather ironic vengeance quest. the shapeshifting is looking weird now - his teeth are always sharp now, and his eyes have gone fully inhuman. sometimes he has claws and his wings look more like bats than eagles. and his water powers are more like osse's- he can't calm the waters now (goldberry is the first to notice something's up) and can only stir them into massive ship-sinking storms and tsunamis.

this progresses until he's basically Evil Luthien ruling over a continent-wide Mega-Gondolin, slaughtering orc-hordes before they even reach the white walls and sinking any naval fleet Sauron tries to send around the coast. Everybody is brought in; nobody leaves; everyone is safe...?

he figures out that the dwarven legend of "Durin's Bane" has to be one of the few first age balrogs thats still unaccounted for. and well, it's living right on his border, and he can't risk another fall of gondolin, right? so he leads a small force in there to clear moria, and they shove the balrog off the edge, but it takes one of his captains (except glorfindel) with it (maybe erestor?) and he uses the ring and saves erestor, (and maybe floods the balrog for good measure), and glorfindel is sure he saw elrond's eyes go yellow for a moment.

and even fully corrupted, he knows he can't take the ring directly into mordor. but he can wipe out sauron's armies outside the walls, to protect his kingdom - because turgon's mistake was thinking he was safe even when there were balrogs and dragons and orcs outside, right?

somewhere along the way, arwen realizes what's happening and goes to live with galadriel. one of the twins goes with her; the other stays out of loyalty but eventually follows.

elrond's kingdom has become a cross between doriath and gondolin now, with all the surrounding lands warped by ring-magic to hide it, and layers of stone walls and iron gates preventing anyone from leaving. because everyone is here; nobody leaves; everyone is... safe?

[declamationark]

Danny gets punted into the DC universe for some reason and proceeds to haunt Gotham because it’s gothic and there’s this hero cave with a bunch of cool tech (he misses Sam and Tucker) and this big family (he misses his mom and his dad and his big sis). He helps the vigilantes there with their battles and writes info he learns from spying on rogues on sticky notes (he misses clockwork) to leave by the files in the batcave. He thinks he’s being slick and stealthy but all the batfam realizes he’s there and basically pspspspspsps him into the family and somehow Danny never catches on

[ryanthel0ser]

[amrv-5]

I was lucky enough to get to visit the Paley Archive in NYC recently, where I got to see a few TV pilots, TV movies, and other TV/radio texts that aren’t publicly available elsewhere. I had a great time—very much recommend paying a visit if you’re around the NYC area!!—and, excitingly, got to see a few of the above-mentioned objects that featured Alan Alda (wow!). Most of these were unsold TV pilots from the 60s (Where’s Everett (1966), The Laughmakers (1962)), some were episodes of serial TV programs that aren’t easily available elsewhere (The Doctors and the Nurses - Night Sounds (1963)), and some were TV movies or pilots-turned-TV-movies (6 Rms Riv Vu (1974), Higher and Higher: Attorneys at Law (1968)). I also checked out the pilot episode of the sitcom Alda wrote (We’ll Get By (1975)), which got a 12-episode run in 1975. I’ll be writing up brief summaries, more complete plot recountings, and minor Alda-specific notes for the majority of these on my blog—I’ll make a masterpost of links to each writeup after they’re all posted. That said, you can find the first post here, in which I summarize the unsold pilot of The Laughmakers (1962), about an improv comedy group in New York City in the 1960s.