What Do You Get When You Mix Teddy Ruxpin With A Post-Apocalyptic Society? Brigsby Bear

Thursday's second panel in Hall H was a pretty interesting one. It was for the feature film Brigsby Bear. It was moderated by Anthony Breznican of Entertainment Weekly. Right out of the gate Breznican was gushing about how amazing this movie is. Although he told us he really couldn't describe it to us. He did however guarantee that it would blow our minds!

After that they played the opening 12 minutes of the movie and he wasn't lying because it was pretty amazing. The pedigree on this film alone is astounding. It's being released by Sony Pictures Classics. It was produced by the outstandingly talented Lonely Island, and the geniuses behind 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie aka Christopher Miller and Phil Lord. To top it off it was co-written and stars SNL's Kyle Mooney.

The movie starts as if it was a VHS with bad tracking being played. We see the opening of a low budget 80s television show starring a robotic looking human-sized bear (aka Brigsby Bear) flying around in a spaceship doing mundane things in the future. I know that doesn't sound appealing but it is amazing. Then we see the video being fast-forwarded.

The video picks up on Brigsby being shackled to the wall with plastic looking leaves. Across from him are two attractive looking twins who are also shackled. Then a giant human faced moon starts menacingly talking to them. Brigsby realizes the leaves that are shackling them are hallucinogenic and that they're not really shackled at all. The shackles disappear. There's a crystal in the middle of the set and Brigsby grabs it, points it at moon face, a laser beam shines at the moon, and it disappears. Out of the blue one of the twins starts doing a math problem (all the math appears on the screen) as if it's a learning lesson.

As this is happening they keep cutting back to Kyle Mooney intensively watching this show on an old tube TV. His room looks like a child's room. It's clustered with Brigsby Bear items. There's Brigsby Bear posters, toys, books a whole encyclopedia style collection of VHS', Brigsby Bear bed sheets, Brigsby Bear lamp shades with a brigsby bear lamp. Pretty much if you can think it it's there and the bear is plastered on it. He idolizes this character so much.

Once he's done watching the VHS he runs over to a very old looking computer and starts recording a Brigsby Bear vlog. Even though he's excited it just seems so bleak like something's wrong. He says he's almost figured something out but he doesn't want to say what it is just yet. Then it cuts to him explaining what he's discovered to his parents. He uses a giant poster board diagram of all this Brigsby Bear information. His dad calls out of flaw that he notices in his son's explanation. His mother questions him and doesn't understand why he's worshipping this show so much. She would rather her learn science to save the world.

We then cut to the family praying and eating dinner together. His father invites him out to the pier with him. We then realize that there in an underground bunker and they're climbing up to the outside world. However once they get to the top their in a geometric dome. The outside world is bleak and there's robotic animals.

The father and son have a bonding moment. The son asks if other humans are like him and if their watching Brigsby Bear too. The dad says other humans are trying to survive like them.

It then cuts to Kyle back in his bed laying down. We hear his father's voice over an intercom saying goodnight and that they're powering down. After that all the power and electricity shuts off. Kyle pulls out a flashlight and flashes it on a poster of one of the twins and masturbates.

The next morning Kyle wakes up and his father tells him he can not watch any Brigsby Bear until he gets his work done. His dad takes off. Kyle looks out the window and sees his dad wearing a gas mask as he gets in his car.

There's  a montage of Kyle doing mundane chores. Then when lights go out Kyle puts on a gas mask and he sneaks out into the real world. I'm not taking about the dome I'm talking about the actual outside. It's a desert that looks like a wasteland. We see flashing lights coming towards Kyle. Then the clip ends.

After that two-thirds of the Lonely Island came out (Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone), the director (Dave McCary) came out, the two main stars (Kyle Mooney & Back Bennett) came out, and lastly the co-writer (Kevin Costello) came  out. We find out all these guys have been friends since middle school.

The inspiration for this comes from Kyle's obscured collection of 80s stlye vhs's. More interestingly he buys them at thrift stores. He scours them for the cheesiest scenes to show his friends. They've been developing this movie for over 7 years.

One of the big stars of the movie wasn't there today. That star is Mark Hamill. But fear not he shot a video for us talking about how great this movie is. He said he's never read a script like this one.  He pretty much compared the love that Kyle's character has for the Brigsby Bear show to the obsessively loyal love Star Wars fans have for the holy trillogy.

All and all the panel was killer. The footage they screened was stellar. The cast and crew were delightful. And everyone had nothing but praise for this film. I for one can't wait to see it when it comes out next Friday July 28th.