Thanks to Steven Spielberg and his many followers, '80s kids had plenty of entertainment made specifically for them. However, that didn't mean we were immune to the occasional fright from movies like Gremlins, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or, for my younger brother, The 'Burbs.
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| 'Time Bandits' APPLETV+ |
Nobody, though, specialized in making films that appeared to be for kids but clearly weren't suitable for all kids quite like Terry Gilliam. One of my earliest moviegoing memories is abruptly leaving a revival screening of Jabberwocky because it wasn't the film my parents expected.
Audiences felt similar discomfort with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and, earlier, 1981's Time Bandits, a film that is often a playful juvenile romp but filled with dark imagery and narrative jagged edges. The movie captures the chaotic weirdness of childhood dreams, yet avoids the usual moralizing that often grounds kid-friendly stories.
Most of those jagged edges have been smoothed out for Apple TV+‘s new version of Time Bandits, which focuses on the "romp" aspect of the original, significantly reducing the weirdness. This approach is typical of co-creator and occasional series director Taika Waititi, whose entire style can be described as "Terry Gilliam with bowling bumpers."
This comparison isn’t meant as an insult. Gilliam could sometimes benefit from bowling bumpers. This Time Bandits spends four or five chapters—out of 10 episodes running between 30 and 46 minutes—as something flat but amiably so.
My interest waned in the show's bland attempts to replicate the movie almost exactly at the point Time Bandits finally starts to find its own story, its own take on the time-traveling concept, and its own voice.
Between episodes six and nine, Time Bandits hits a good stride, becoming actively funny, clever, and a bit emotional. The series, featuring Jemaine Clement and Iain Morris as creators alongside Waititi, starts efficiently. We are quickly introduced to Kevin (Kal-El Tuck), an 11-year-old obsessed with history and uninterested in keeping his passion to himself.
Due to Kevin’s nerdiness, he is always picked last for everything at school, and his parents constantly urge him to engage in normal kid activities. Even his younger sister Saffron (Kiera Thompson) teases him.
Outside of his books and intricate models, Kevin’s life is quite dull until he discovers that his bedroom wardrobe is a portal—a "time egress." Out come five time-traveling bandits: the uneasy leader Penelope (Lisa Kudrow), the empathetic Judy (Charlyne Yi), the aspiring actor Alto (Tadhg Murphy), the very large Bittelig (Rune Temte), and their chief navigator Widgit (Roger Jean Nsengiyumva).
The bandits, former employees of the Supreme Being (Waititi), have stolen a valuable map—a "celestial chart of the anomalies and portals of the intimately interwoven intricacies of time, space, good and bad, and all dimensions including one, two, three, and four, which allows us to travel throughout the universe," as Penelope puts it. They plan to use the map to travel through time and steal treasure.
The Supreme Being is displeased with the theft, while his nemesis Pure Evil (Clement) is malevolently excited by the sudden availability of the powerful artifact. Pure Evil sends Fianna (Rachel House), a huntress with fire lasers for eyes, to retrieve the map by any means necessary.
Regarding maps, the film provided the creators with a straightforward blueprint. As peculiar as it is, the movie is purely episodic. Kevin and the bandits leap from one significant historical era to another, not quite grasping how the map functions, while comic personifications of good and evil scheme against them.
The film is filled with humor, but despite featuring John Cleese and Michael Palin in supporting roles, it doesn’t overtly resemble Monty Python’s work—perhaps because co-writers Palin and Gilliam aimed to create something distinct from a sequel to Holy Grail or Life of Brian.
The series creators don’t face the same pressure to avoid self-repetition, and the first half of the season feels like talented individuals indulging in Monty Python karaoke. In smoothing out the rough edges, they incorporate hints of Mel Brooks and, in assembling this group of bandits, the ensemble ends up resembling both the British and CBS versions of Ghosts.
There are laughs to be had, but they feel derivative, especially in episodes about the Trojan horse and another set in the Middle Ages. The show is heavily dialogue-driven, and even though it’s self-aware about its structure, the routine of jumping into a portal, arriving in a new era, having Kevin lecture everyone on historical figures, solving a minor issue, and moving to the next period becomes familiar and eventually tedious.
The history—unlike the movie, which primarily focused on entertainment—aims to deliver educational tidbits along with life lessons, but does so in unremarkable ways. Much of the film’s cult appeal comes from its DIY approach to special effects, sets, and locations, while the series, filmed in New Zealand, opts for "pretty" instead.
The first half of the season still allows Tuck to showcase an enthusiastic, naturally charming screen presence and gives the show a chance to refine Kudrow’s sharp line deliveries, Murphy’s theatrical antics, and Nsengiyumva’s endearing confusion.
After a few strong early punchlines featuring Judy’s struggle with her empathetic skills, the series loses its way with Yi’s trademark deadpan. The character’s disappearance feels abrupt, especially given Yi’s very publicized behind-the-scenes challenges during production.
The series' shift from forgettably entertaining to something more engaging coincides with a greater focus on Thompson’s Saffron. Her different energy and presence on her own history-spanning adventure allow Time Bandits to finally carve out its own niche and approach to the paradoxes of time travel.
Episodes seven and eight, written by Clement, spotlight Saffron, bringing hilarity through her clearer personal arc compared to Kevin's and her droll, slang-filled, youthfully sardonic delivery. This fuels the show’s take on anachronism and dramatic irony, making her character and performance a pivotal shift for the series.
I’m not entirely convinced that the show has figured out how to make Clement and Waititi’s characters fully integrated adversaries. It often feels like, “Meanwhile, back in the places we’re not calling Heaven or Hell…”. However, there’s some complexity in the depiction of “good” and “evil.” The closing episodes set up future seasons interestingly.
Kudrow, in particular, gets several moments in the final stretch that transform Penelope from just a source of sharp one-liners into a more sympathetic and human character. Additionally, the series smartly begins to address the dwarf erasure that happened in the transition from the big screen to the small screen.
The new direction that Time Bandits finds in its second half isn’t necessarily ambitious or inspired and certainly won’t traumatize young viewers. Decide for yourself if a less disturbing, less bizarre Time Bandits is a pro or con, but it’s fun and something I’d gladly watch more of.
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