There are a few reasons why a Disney catalogue title might not be on Disney+. Sometimes it’s licensing issues while other times content that isn’t gaining much attention is purged so the company doesn’t have to keep paying the creatives who came up with it (e.g. Artemis Fowl). Furthermore, there are content issues, like pretty much everything about Song of the South. Then there’s Midnight Madness, which isn’t on the streamer for a particular reason, but one can likely suss it out and chalk it up to its content not being in line with the rest of the Disney+ oeuvre. But it does have a cultural curiosity aspect to it, because it was the film debut of one of the most beloved stars in Hollywood history.
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That would be Back to the Future‘s Michael J. Fox (who recently returned to acting for a role in Shrinking). This was two years before the start of Family Ties and a full five years before the beginning of his adventures with Doc Brown. So just what is this forgotten Disney movie? Let’s find out.
Why Isn’t Midnight Madness on Disney+ and Can You Find It Anywhere Else?
In Midnight Madness, five teams of youths are sent on a scavenger hunt all over Los Angeles. Each team is primarily defined by a stereotypical personality trait. The Yellow Team is filled with nice people, the Blue Team is filled with jerks, the Green Team is made up of jocks, while the Red Team is made up of unpopular sorority girls and the White Team has all the nerds.
The movie doesn’t really play like a Disney movie as one might expect. It’s not like the Kurt Russell fronted live action movies of the ’60s or ’70s nor is it like any of the studio’s animated works. It’s aiming for a teen audience, and for that reason it was only the second Disney movie to receive a PG rating. It makes sense, considering a lot of fun is poked at nerds and it can come across as fatphobic.
In fact, it wasn’t until a 2004 DVD re-release that Disney allowed the “Walt Disney Pictures Presents” logo to be attached to it. It’s thought of as a movie that would have come out of the Mouse House’s Touchstone Pictures, which created content more geared towards adults, starting in 1984 with Splash and ending with The Light Between Oceans in 2016. But it’s still a fun little look at some notable people early in their careers.
To that point, this wasn’t just the first movie for Fox. For one, David, the protagonist leader of the heroic Yellow Team (of which Fox’s Scott Larson is a part) is played by David Naughton in his film debut. The following year he would play his most iconic role as the transforming David Kessler in An American Werewolf in London.
On the Blue Team is Stephen Furst, fresh off of Animal House. On the Red Team, Maggie Roswell, who would go on to voice multiple characters on The Simpsons, including Maude Flanders. The White Team had Eddie Deezen, in between Grease and WarGames, while the Green Team had Dirk Blocker, who played the goofy Detective Hitchcock on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Perhaps most importantly, this was one of the earliest roles for the late Paul Reubens, whose Pee-wee character would start to become well-known the next year.
Midnight Madness isn’t quite a cult favorite, but it is something worth seeking out. It may not be on Disney+, but it is available to rent on Prime Video.
Which Disney catalogue title is missing from Disney+ that you would like to see on there? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme -
Image courtesy of Tor Books/Macmillan -
A photo of the Retrovolt Arcade taken in 2017, showing several classic arcade cabinets and stools.
