The feature of this blog wishlist is the Arrested Development movie, which has been proposed ever since 2008, but has recently been told it's returning with a mini-series to come before the film. Since we know the series would consist of showing where each of the Bluths is at since the last episode, I shall be doing the wishlist on the movie. So what would truly make an Arrested Development movie?
Bring Back the BluthsThe first thing that should be on the agenda for this film is to bring back the entire Bluth family. Buster, Lucille, Maeby, bring everybody back or don't bother, because an Arrested Development movie without the entire cast back would be like The Simpsons having a movie without Nancy Cartwright, or an entry into the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy without Nick Frost. Granted, it may be difficult trying to get enough screentime for all 9 members of the Bluth family, so one or two characters may need to be trimmed down, but so long as they're in the movie, as accomplished by Joss Whedon with his film, Serenity (but we don't want any of our beloved Bluth's to meet their end though). Plus, with the new series showing us where each Bluth is at, that makes it much easier to fit everybody in.
Bring back the Narrator
Arrested Development would not be Arrested Development if it were not for a certain someone who appears in every episode, despite us not actually seeing him. The Narrator, voiced by executive producer, Ron Howard, is not your typical narrator, who's just there to narrate what the characters are doing, what they are feeling and what happened off-screen. Granted, he does do this, but he also makes stray observations and manages to often contribute to the (high) laugh factor of this show, making this stray voice seem like another beloved character, and it would not be an AD movie without him.
Bring back Franklin
We've already listed the important characters here, but there is one character who's lit up the screen everytime they appear, one character who's responsible for some of the show's best lines, one character who cannot help but make puppets awesomely cool, and that is Franklin, Gob's African American puppet who seems to have a mind of its own. To have Franklin back would be a great fan-service to the AD fan base, and would help provide the continuity that the show does so brilliantly. And perhaps a new rendition of "It Ain't Easy" would be great also.
Keep the Humour Intact
Whenever a show returns from the dead, the question on every fans lips is whether it'll still be the same show they fell in love with. For Arrested Development, i'd say the biggest worry would be whether or not the humour stays the same. I love Family Guy, but the humour has changed since it returned from the dead, with more drawn out jokes, more toilet humour and a lot more darker jokes. I'm not saying AD's jokes will go down the same route, but with creator Mitch Hurwitz's projects since AD being Sit Down, Shut Up and Running Wilde, my mind is less clear on this being as hilarious as the show was, but then I go back and watch the series and my fears lessen very much. To put it simply, we want the satire, we want Tobias is gay jokes and we want the smart humour that made us demand an AD return for so many years.
Family Moments
While the show is brilliant when it comes to humour, there is another part of AD where the show really shines through, and that's in the family moments where we're reminded that whatever foibles and feuds these characters have, they do genuinely care for one another, even if we don't see it too often. My favourite family moment is in the final episode when George Michael finally admits to his dad that he loves his cousin, and the long-overdue father and son moment that we get from these two characters actually sitting down and talking in a heart-warming moment that was just worth the wait. Sure, it's fun to see Gob and Michael fighting outside a courthouse, but moments like Gob singing his cover of "Everything I Do (I do it for you)" to his brothers are definitely worth sitting down and watching, and the movie needs moments like these.
Continuity
If there is one thing amongst many that Arrested Development has excelled in, it is continuity. The show excelled in setting up jokes and off-hand references early on which paid off later, with some of the seeds being sown as early as season one and not being pulled off until the third season, and a lot of the previous references going over your head until you catch it in a rewatch, seeing what you previously thought to be a random part to actually have some relevance and foreshadowing. A great example of the shows continuity is with Buster losing his hand to a seal and getting a hook replacement, as early on we are shown Buster playing a claw machine game to get a seal toy, sitting on a bench with the words "Arm Off" visible to the screen and a flashback to Buster in a play as Captain Hook, with his hook falling from the hand little Buster would later lose. It would be brilliant to see the AD movie use some of this fabled continuity, perhaps sow the seeds in the mini-series that'll air before, or put a few of them early on in the movie. Either way, Arrested Developments brilliant continuity is a must to return.
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So long as Arrested Development can be everything that the show was over it's three seasons and actually return, i'm sure us never-nudes will be content.
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