Getting impatient, the cadets decide to blow up something/anything and choose what they think is an Earth defense missile. After putting their Earth domination death ray weapon back together wrong - again - they merely heat the targeted rocket up until it grows red. Only then do they realize that it’s a corn silo and it explodes, burying them in freshly popped popcorn!

After finally finding the source of the distress signal, the cadets get a radio station manager to explain to them that they’d only been listening to Orson Welles' “War of the Worlds” original radio broadcast.

Sam sends the kids behind a tractor to hide as the farmer gets ready to explode a dozen boxes of dynamite under their damaged ship to give them a boost into orbit. One child looks at the other and then incredulously at the tractor and asks “THIS is supposed to save us from the end of the world?”

In the end all turns out well. The Martians get off the planet but have to lighten the load, which entails Giggy flushing the toilet tank reservoir, unloading it all over the farmer’s fields, producing huge beans the next day and saving his farm.

The only disappointment I have is that the DVD comes with no extras like outtakes. That and Disney (Touchstone Pictures) seems to have cleaned up the language from the original theatrical version. In one scene the deputy falls victim to one of the farmer’s Martian traps and Blaznee looks at him and says, “Ain’t life a bust?” which of course originally was “Ain’t life a bitch?”

I wholeheartedly recommend watching this every Halloween, or any other time you need a good laugh to lift your spirits.

Article Author: Jet Gardner

Jet likes to collect books, music, chess sets, and friends. Favorite quote: "Evil only succeeds when good men do nothing." In 2004 his "good life" came to an abrupt end with a robbery and near-fatal beating. …

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