Main Cast: Wendell Brown, Tom Citera, J. Hutchinson, Ralph Macchio
Release Year: 1980
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A teen comedy that does not quite rise to the level of that age group, this uninspired story features Ron Liebman as the Major, a sadistic instructor at a military school. Ralph Macchio (before his 1984 hit, Karate Kid) and other teens of every stripe suffer through the indignities heaped on them by the Major and do their best with the sexual, ethnic, and racial stereotypes that the script gives them to handle. Robert Downey directs, Tom Patchett and Jay Tarses wrote the screenplay. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Review
Mad Magazine's attempt at a comedy film fails to capture the madcap spirit of the magazine and instead comes off like a third-rate knockoff of National Lampoon's Animal House. The script by t.v. comedy vets Tom Patchett and Jay Tarses lacks the specific details or inspired characterizations necessary to make the story take off, instead settling for a string of tired comedy cliches. One might have expected former underground-film darling Robert Downey to really stick it to institutions like private school and the military with a set-up like this but his handling of the material gives it the feel of a tired television sitcom livened up with a few choice bits of profanity. The only really solid aspects of Up The Academy are the soundtrack, which makes nice use of classics by the likes of the Kinks and the Stooges, and a few solid performances: an uncredited Ron Leibman gives the film's evil officer teacher character his manic all, Ralph Macchio wisely underplays his fairly amusing role as a Chachi-styled tough kid and Stacey Nelkin is quite fetching as a cadet's girlfriend who gets roped into the shenanigans. However, this handful of appealing elements isn't enough to offset the film's overall uninspired feel and Up The Academy is thus best left to collect dust with the rest of the Animal House imitators. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
The movie was an attempt to "cash in" on the phenomenal and unexpected success of National Lampoon's Animal House, which was also a movie made by a comedy magazine about a group of misfits at college. In 1983, Mad publisher Bill Gaines explained the genesis of his magazine's involvement in the film to the Comics Journal:
"What happened is that we had a contract with Warner Brothers to put out a Mad movie. It's like four years old now. They came up with a script that we didn't like, and then they came up with a script using our scriptwriters that they didn't like, but meanwhile they threw this script onto our desk... Although there were many things in it that I thought were offensive and should be removed, generally I liked the script. And I thought, 'Well, in addition to a Mad movie, there's nothing wrong with having something like Lampoon did with Animal House. Animal House was "Lampoon Presents" and really had nothing to do with the magazine, it was just using their name, and it was a good movie, and it was very successful, and it made Lampoon a lot of money. I guess. So we were going to do the same thing. "Mad Magazine Completely Disassociates Itself from Up the Academy". But that was too long for them, they can't think in that many words. They put the damn thing out without all the deletions they had promised to make, which means they're liars. I'm talking about one of my sister companies [laughter]... And there we were connected with it, and there wasn't much we could do about it. I paid Warner Brothers 30 grand to take Mad's name off for television. So for $30,000 we got out of being associated with it on Home Box Office. It won't say "Mad Magazine Presents" and Alfred E. Neuman won't be in it. And it was well worth $30,000. [laughter]"[1]
The film was neither a commercial nor critical success when it was originally released, and was disowned by both the staff of MAD magazine and actor Ron Leibman (who, despite his sizeable role, had his name completely removed from the credits and promotional material). Besides paying Warner Bros. $30,000 to remove all references to MAD from the film when it was released on home video, MAD's publisher William Gaines issued personal handwritten apologies to every person that wrote the magazine to complain. However, the film developed a small cult following. Following Time Warner's purchase of MAD (and after Gaine's death in 1992), all references to the magazine were reinstated on cable television. In 2006, the original version of the film was issued on DVD.
In the tradition of MAD making fun of movies, the magazine spoofed their own film with "MAD Magazine Resents Throw Up the Academy". The parody mainly concerned Ron Leibman's name being removed, and the teenage troublemakers being punished by having to star in the film. Unlike most MAD movie parodies which are often several pages in length, this one was only two, as the piece devolved into a series of supposed interoffice memos by the writer, artist and editors, all decrying their role in the parody. Finally, a fake note said that the entire staff of MAD quit over their shame. and the article was hereby discontinued.
The statue featuring Alfred E. Neuman with a pigeon on his head is currently located in MAD's editorial offices.[1]
Notes
^ Comics Journal #81, May 1983, Fantagraphics Publishing, p.64-66
