Xanadu - An Autistic's Synthenasia Nightmare

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04 Mar 2008, 2:34 am

As a kid, Xanadu, the one starring Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton-John, may have had gorgeous women but to an aspie like me, it was a synthenasia nightmare. The muses out of the wall, ELO, as great as they are, didn't help with the synthetic disco rock. Things were going all over the place and when I first saw this movie at age five, I cried. I cried hard. It was a cry like i'm worried and scared. I don't know why. It's one of those things I remember as a kid, the visuals and the soundtrack on the movie was overwhelming.

Any other movies like this that made you fringe or worry as a kid due to synthenasia?

I know. Xanadu sucks. It still does except for the dancing and the chicks and the soundtrack seperately. Still, I've never had something bad out of a movie like this that made me ball out in tears out of fear. I just hope there's not enough hipsters on planet earth to revive this movie beyond the limit of a broadway play.

DukeGallison
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04 Mar 2008, 10:42 am

There's a lot of weird stuff in entertainment that somewhat scares me, as well. I used to be afraid of the opening sequence from Inspector Gadget, and I'm afraid of the MGM logo, among other things...

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jstrewth
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04 Mar 2008, 4:51 pm

NobleExperiment wrote:

Seriously, you're nuts. :wink:

As I've said before, my synthenasia movie was Altered States. I watched it on television at the age of seven, and those hallucinations scared the crap out of me. Now I watch it and just marvel at the still cool special effects. I was also afraid of the Warner Home Video logo from 1986 (the cheesy shield) and the 75th anniversary version of the Universal logo (don't ask).

DukeGallison
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04 Mar 2008, 5:13 pm

The Warner Bros. logo (the one with the band around it) also somewhat scares me as well, since it looks like someone evilly grinning at you...

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9CatMom
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05 Mar 2008, 9:30 pm

I don't have synesthesia, but Xanadu was plain stupid and annoying. It must have been a pretty awful experience for you.

KimJ
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05 Mar 2008, 10:27 pm

I don't have synesthesia and Xanadu became an obsession for me. I saw it 4 times in the theatre (I was 11) and got the cassette of the soundtrack. I have the cd of it and a VHS and managed to get my son hooked on it when he was 5. When it first came out, I already had a crush on Olivia Newton John and liked ELO. I loved the theme and the dancing and skating (I was roller skating at the time too). I also liked the 40's theme. It's led to a lifelong admiration of Gene Kelly too.

Flismflop
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07 Mar 2008, 3:02 am

Olivia Newton John switched to hidiously ugly hair styles in the '80s and then a lot of people around me were making fun of her, for her previous roles (such as in Xanadu). It made me one confused teenager, because I thought Xanadu was beautiful. I think I only saw the last third of it, though and didn’t remember it having a plot.

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Last edited by Flismflop on 07 Mar 2008, 3:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

MysteryFan3
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07 Mar 2008, 3:14 am

I saw Xanadu twice in the theater. Loved it. "Magic" was my favorite song.

The theme from "Suspense Theater" in the 60's used to scare me when I was in grade school. The theme from "The Twilight Zone" only scared me a few times, then the stories sucked me in.

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09 Mar 2008, 12:20 am

The only Xanadu I can stomach is the poem fragment by Coleridge, and the Rush song..

jstrewth
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17 Apr 2008, 3:33 pm

9CatMom wrote:

I don't have synesthesia, but Xanadu was plain stupid and annoying. It must have been a pretty awful experience for you.

f**k you, Debbie Downer. :lol:

Tim_Tex
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20 Apr 2008, 4:16 pm

I liked the soundtrack, but have never seen the movie.

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roygerdodger
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20 Apr 2008, 6:33 pm

DukeGallison wrote:

The Warner Bros. logo (the one with the band around it) also somewhat scares me as well, since it looks like someone evilly grinning at you...

I had a similar thing, the current Warner Bros. Television closing logo had this rather loud jingle with horns and drums that scared the crap out of me when I was little.

roygerdodger
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20 Apr 2008, 6:34 pm

DukeGallison wrote:

Yeah, I was scared of the MGM logo for a little bit (I was even scared to watch it in the dark!).

MartyMoose
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20 Apr 2008, 6:42 pm

9CatMom wrote:

I don't have synesthesia, but Xanadu was plain stupid and annoying. It must have been a pretty awful experience for you.

Same here

acannon
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14 May 2008, 8:17 am

roygerdodger wrote:

DukeGallison wrote:

Yeah, I was scared of the MGM logo for a little bit (I was even scared to watch it in the dark!).

I was also terrified of the MGM logo. Two movies that really scared me as a kid were Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too and the rock opera Tommy. I forget what bothered me with the latter, but with the Winnie the Pooh movie, it was just too noisy and scary. There's this one part where Rabbit gets lost in the woods (he's trying to get Tigger lost instead but he ends up getting lost) and he gets scared hearing a caterpillar munching on a leaf and a frog croaking, but it was really loud and I could see how distressed he was and it scared me a lot.

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15 May 2008, 3:25 pm

KimJ wrote:

I love the title song, as well as the song "I'm Alive". It always reminds me of the scene in Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine where Douglas Spaulding discovers he's alive while wrestling with his brother in the forest.

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