History YMMV / TimeBandits

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: In spite of the main character being a child, the movie isn't really meant for young kids. The film was rated PG, but this was before PG-13 was introduced. Some children would get pretty alarmed by the violence and scary imagery.

** One the of the destinations where the Bandits end up is on board the Titanic. In 1997 David Warner had a notable role as a villain in the mega-blockbuster.

** The game show Kevin's parents watch, ''Your Money or Your Life'', is ''terrifying''. At one point the host is badgering an old woman to answer a question with an unfailing, eerie grin, while her partner hangs from a rope over a vat. She's terrified beyond reason and can't answer the question, and later we get a shot of the man floating face-down.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: The weirdness builds up during the entire movie. Once the protagonists enter the Time of Legends, it gets downright trippy, with the final showdown against Evil as one of the most surreal moments in the history of cinema.

* WhatAnIdiot: Kevin warns his parents not to touch the strange-looking rock in the family microwave, which caused a fire in his house after being transported back to his room. [[spoiler:They immediately touch it and blow up.]]

* SpecialEffectFailure: When two gates appear at the same time, one is more lightly shaded, probably due to the animation process of layering on two gates.

* GeniusBonus: The unspoken tension between Agamemnon and his wife is a reference to their fate in Greek mythology: Their marriage ends in murder. It's perhaps best that Kevin isn't around for that.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The film was rated PG, but this was before PG-13 was introduced. A lot of kids were halfway traumatized by some of the visuals.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The opening and closing theme, as well as Music/GeorgeHarrison's song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsmSli-Lgis Dream Away]]" during the end credits. (Harrison produced the film.)
* EsotericHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Even if Kevin's parents were extraordinarily materialistic and criminally negligent towards their son, by the end of the film Kevin is a newly-orphaned 10-year-old boy. It is only alleviated by the implication of an AndTheAdventureContinues (Agamemnon appearing as a firefighter, the photos, the Supreme Being closing the scene) for Kevin, but this is not made too clear.]]

** A movie about Agamemnon with Creator/SeanConnery as the star would have been awesome, it is sad his performance is relegated to a few scenes.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: A lot of the technology is clearly from the late 1970s going into the early 1980s, such as Kevin's camera.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The film was rated PG, but this was before PG-13 was introduced - a lot of kids were halfway traumatized by some of the visuals.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** The Time Bandits themselves - a collective VillainProtagonist group? HeroAntagonist? Lovable rogues? Bratty man children?
** The Supreme Being. His vague answer when asked why he made all these people die just to test his own creation. He answers "You might as well ask why we must have Evil", which is vague because whether he was talking about the concept of evil or about the GodOfEvil who has just been defeated at that point, is very ambiguous. You could very well have an imperfect world, with "evil" in it, without creating Evil, the character.
** Was Evil literally the embodiment of evil, as his fate after he blows up seems to indicate? Or is he merely an AxCrazy EvilSorcerer with [[AGodAmI delusions of godhood]]?

* EsotericHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Even if Kevin's parents were extraordinarily materialistic and criminally negligent towards their son, by the end of the film Kevin is a recently orphaned 10 years old boy. It is only alleviated by the implication of an AndTheAdventureContinues (Agamemnon appearing as a firefighter, the photos, the Supreme Being closing the scene) for Kevin, but this is not made too clear.]]
* GeniusBonus: The unspoken tension between Agamemnon and his wife is a reference to their fate in Greek mythology: their marriage ends in murder. It's perhaps best that Kevin isn't around for that.

** Evil's army. As if a hoard of screeching, 8 ft. tall creatures with hook hands and cow skull heads weren't scary enough, they can also ''shoot missiles out of their eyes.''

** Well, rather a BrickJoke. The Supreme Being notes about [[MadeOfEvil pure evil]] that "one drop could turn you all into hermit crabs". When [[spoiler: Kevin's parents]] wind up coming in contact with it later, they just blow up.

* EsotericHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Even if Kevin's parents were extraordinarily materialistic and criminally negligent towards their son, by the end of the film Kevin is a recently orphaned 10 years old boy. It is only alleviated by the implication that Agamemnon is there to help him, but this is not elaborated further.]]

* WhatAnIdiot: Kevin is teleported back to his room, which is filled with smoke and firemen are in his house because the family microwave caused the fire. His parents find a strange-looking rock inside the microwave. Kevin warns them not to touch it. You'd expect that they give the firemen the microwave or just don't touch the rock. Instead, they touch it and [[spoiler:explode]].

--->[[CreepyMonotone "Return what you have stolen from me. Return the map. Return the map -- it will put you in great danger. Stop now!"]]

** Katherine Helmond as the ogre's wife, three years before playing Mona Robinson in ''Series/WhosTheBoss''.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Consumerism and overly mundane thinking (as well as parental displicence) are bad. The movie hammers it down to the point that [[spoiler:the death of Kevin's parents, who represent the three things, is seen as a good thing, or at least an inevitable consequence of their attitudes.]]

* WhatAnIdiot: Kevin is teleported back to his room, which is filled with smoke and firemen are in his house because the family microwave caused the fire. His parents find a strange-looking rock inside the microwave. Kevin warns them not to touch it.\\
'''You'd expect''' that they give the firemen the microwave or just don't touch the rock.\\
'''Instead''' they touch it and [[spoiler:explode]].

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Well, rather a BrickJoke. The Supreme Being notes about [[MadeOfEvil pure evil]] that "one drop could turn you all into hermit crabs". When [[spoiler: Kevin's parents]] wind up coming in contact with it later, they just blow up.

* EsotericHappyEnding - [[spoiler:Judging by the very negative portrayal of consumerism and mundane thinking that Kevin's parents represent, the filmmakers might see their total destruction to be a good thing for Kevin in the long run.]]
* GeniusBonus - The unspoken tension between Agamemnon and his wife is a reference to their fate in Greek mythology: their marriage ends in murder. It's perhaps best that Kevin isn't around for that.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs - The weirdness builds up during the entire movie. Once the protagonists enter the Time of Legends, it gets downright trippy, with the final showdown against Evil as one of the most surreal moments in the history of cinema.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The opening and closing theme, as well as Music/GeorgeHarrison's song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsmSli-Lgis Dream Away]]" during the end credits. (Harrison produced the film.)

** The Supreme Being. His vague answer when asked why he made all these people die just to test his own creation[[note]]He answers "You might as well ask why we must have Evil", which is vague because whether he was talking about the concept of evil or about the GodOfEvil who has just been defeated at that point, is very ambiguous. You could very well have an imperfect world, with "evil" in it, without creating Evil, the character.[[/note]], to some, hint at him being a JerkassGod; there's even the hypothesis that when he answered "Something to do with free will, I think" to the question "Why must we have Evil?", he wasn't talking about Man's free will, but about ''his own'' free will (e.g., he's the Creator, [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem so he can do as he goddamn well please]]).

-->[[CreepyMonotone "Return what you have stolen from me. Return the map. Return the map -- it will put you in great danger. Stop now!"]]

* OneSceneWonder: Creator/JohnCleese as Mythology/RobinHood, Creator/IanHolm as Napoleon and Creator/SeanConnery as Agamemnon.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The opening and closing theme, as well as George Harrison's song "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsmSli-Lgis Dream Away]]" during the end credits. (Harrison produced the film.)