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DarkStorm
Since: Jan, 2001
24th Jan, 2015 08:18:16 AM
Bump #2
DarkStorm
Since: Jan, 2001
22nd Aug, 2015 03:10:25 AM
Bump #3? This one's still bothering me.
DarkStorm
Since: Jan, 2001
28th Jul, 2016 05:04:04 PM
... I can't possibly be the only person who's seen this, can I?
I asked about this on the old YKTS, but I don't think it was ever answered. I remember quite a bit about it, but can't find any evidence that it actually even exists. It was a short film (maybe 15 minutes, maybe a half-hour) shown in a grade school assembly in the late 1970s, as an educational film about mathematics (probability, specifically), with extremely stylized animation. It involves a nebbishy guy rescuing a little man (might have been a leprechaun, might have been a wizard, but he was definitely magical).
The little man gives him a magical amulet (a circle that's half-red, half-blue, on a chain) which will grant his fondest wishes... 50% of the time. His wish involves becoming a superhero, and when he first uses it (and the blue side lights up), he becomes Probability Man, a large and deep-voiced Flying Brick with the man's face. Other times, the red side lights up, and he turns into something random. (Either way, it was for a limited duration, and he changed back on his own after a while)
The part I remember best is when his would-be girlfriend (who knows his secret identity) arranges to have him rescue her from a burning building when she jumps from a high window, while news crews record the rescue so he can become famous, but the red side lights up, and he turns into a (talking) bed instead of Probability Man. She chides him and walks away, while he (still as a bed) moans "awwww", and crumples.
The little man adjusts the probability a few times during the short (at one point reducing it to 33% blue/67% red, IIRC). At the very end, he raises it to a 90% (again, IIRC - my memory could be off on any of these percentages) chance of the blue side working, and it ends with narration along the lines of "But even 90% isn't a certainty, so every now and then..." as the red side lights up, the nebbish turns into a dog, blinks at the camera, and runs away. Any ideas? Does anyone but me remember this film at all? Google gives me nothing.
Edited by DarkStorm