Any Ernst Fans?

[dwayne1115]

Do we have any Ernest fans in the house? I'm talking great movies like: Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Saves Christmas, Ernest Goes to Jail, Ernest Goes to Africa, and many more.
I myself have always been an Ernest fan, and now my kids love Ernest. I think my fav movie would be Ernest Goes to Jail It just really shows Jim Varney's true talent.

 

[D'Snowth]

I LOVE Ernest!

I didn't think much of Ernest at first, but I was well aware he was played by Jim Varney, whom I had known previous as the voice of Slinky from the two Toy Story movies.

It wasn't until I saw a few of his commercials on YouTube several years ago, that I slowly got hooked - the more commercials I saw, the more I loved him, and then I started watching more of the Ernest movies (Ernest Rides Again, Ernest Goes to Africa, Ernest in the Army, etc).

A few years ago, I got The Essential Ernest DVD set as a Christmas gift (that DVD's actually out of print now, so glad I got it when I did), and while I think they could've done a better job with it (like ALL the movies, commercials, etc), I still like the content it has, like the hundreds of his commercials, the special Hey, Vern! It's My Family Album and the Your World as I See It shorts.

I heard that another movie Ernest the Pirate was in post-production when he died... I wonder if they simply didn't release it to honor him, because otherwise, if it was just in post-production, then maybe it could've been released.That sounds like a fun one, lol.

 

[dwayne1115]

I know what you mean about Ernest the Pirate movie, I have read up on it myself. The thing that I think would keep them from releasing it would be the fact that they use a lot of dubbing voice overs in his movies.
For an example: In Ernest goes to Jail when he is getting draged by the sampooer he says things like "You can't go up the wall" and just all of the other screaming was dubed over in post production, so that would be something they would have to think about.

Did you see the one on the family album one where he was at the fort? He was truly a one man show there, and I think it was some of his best work.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I LOVE the Ernest movies! Ernest P. Worrell- ha ha- so hilarious!
I've seen all the Ernest movies and some of his other specials and commercials and such- like some of the Hey Vern, It's Ernest TV show. Good stuff.
Hard to pick a favorite movie- they were all funny. I think I like Ernest Goes to Jail particularly well, along with Ernest Goes to Camp and Ernest Rides Again. Ernest In the Army is really funny too. But I can't forget the holiday inspired ones- Ernest Scared Stupid is a great one for a funny Halloween movie (and not too terribly scary).
However- since I'm a huge Christmas fan in general and love Christmas movies so much- I'd definitely have to say Ernest Saves Christmas pretty much tops the list for me. KnowwhutImean?

 

[dwayne1115]

I love that you brought up Ernest Rides Again. That is a really great movie and I have been looking every where for a copy of it on DVD.

I think one reason I like Ernest is because the first few movies where shoot in Tennessee, and I don't know about anyone else but I think Tennessee is a great place to shoot a movie just because of the richness in nature.

 

[D'Snowth]

Although pigeon-holed in the role of Ernest for much of his career, did you know that Jim Varney was a very classically-trained Shakespearian actor with a near genius IQ? It's also my understanding that as he was taking his last breath from lung cancer (he tried to quit smoking, cold turkey, but by then it was too late), the last thing he said was "I wanna go home, I'm ready" - "home" refering to Heaven, as Varney was also a Christian.

 

[dwayne1115]

Yea he even said he was a southern baptist in Ernest goes to the Army.
I know that when takeing the role of Ernest he wanted to brach out ad do other things, but Ernest kind of took control. I also think that if he was trained he would have also made a great puppeter. He had such a wide rage of voices and would have really been neat to see that.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Wow- that's pretty neat. I didn't know Jim Varney was a Christian.
Though he will always be remembered for Ernest, I think animation fans will continue to also remember him fondly as the voice of Slinky in the first two "Toy Story" movies. So at least he did some voice work- I don't know if he ever used any puppets at any point- maybe on his TV show? - but yeah, he probably would've been great at that too.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Amazon.com has a listing for "Ernest Rides Again" on DVD, but I tend to get suspicious of such listings.
http://www.amazon.com/Ernest-Rides-...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1257727633&sr=8-1

I'm pretty sure this is probably a bootleg DVD- but I don't know, I might be wrong.
There's also the VHS version here.
http://www.amazon.com/Ernest-Rides-...=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=video&qid=1257727633&sr=8-3

 

[dwayne1115]

yea i really think Disney had no clue what they had when they got such a talent as Varny. They could have really used him in more ways then just Ernest. I think they could have also done more with Ernest as well, but we will never really know.