Crossover Concepts in Film

Capt., do TV shows count? If so, the current TV show "Once Upon A Time" has a bunch of crossovers, but most of them are from the Disney universe.

Some of the characters that have been included so far are Snow White, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Blackbeard, Rumpelstiltskin, Pinocchio, Red Riding Hood, Belle (from "Beauty and the Beast"), Mulan, Elsa and Anna (from "Frozen"), Merida (from "Brave"), Cinderella, Ariel (from "The Little Mermaid"), Cruella De Vil, the Mad Hatter, the Giant from "Jack and the Beanstalk", Robin Hood, The Wicked Witch of the West (from The Wizard of Oz), Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the Snow Queen, King Arthur, Lancelot, and Merlin.

How about movies like The Muppets' Wizard of Oz? Does that count?

I've never seen these, but I remember seeing them listed in the TV Guide. They certainly sound like crossovers:

Snow White and the Three Stooges
The Three Stooges Meet Hercules

And I just remembered this one:

The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones

Ooh - I'll have to look into the Muppets' Wizard of Oz (sounds like a qualifier).

The Three Stooges meeting people might fall under the same criteria as Abbot & Costello or fictional characters meeting real people, we'll see. We may end up with sub-categories!

And I'm going to say no to the Jetsons Meet the Flintstones because they were both Hanna Barbera creations, and, in my way of thinking, occupied the same universe, just different time periods (but still a crossover, just an inter-company one).

Same goes for Yogi's Ark Lark (1972) - it combined all of Hanna Barbera's animal characters on a boat (and in the pilot movie even had a human leading them named "Noah") so it was a Noah's Ark theme. A great crossover concept - and one of my earliest influences that made me so interested in this concept, but since they were all Hanna Barbera properties, it was no big deal to have them interact. (As a kid I had a fantasy that all the cartoon characters were like real movie stars and all existed together and lived in a place like Hollywood - that fantasy was kind of fulfilled in Roger Rabbit's "Toontown".)

This also brings back memories of Wacky Races - another Hanna Barbera series. It wasn't a crossover since all the characters were created for the show, but had the feel of one. I loved the whole ensemble concept of disparate characters, each with their own unique themed racing car. The cartoon was inspired by the movie The Great Race (1965).

Thanks for your suggestions, GB and for playing along (i.e. thanks for the pity)

There's also a Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz movie. I'm not usually a fan of "Tom and Jerry", but this movie was fun. I think there's also a Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes movie. (I have the DVD, but I haven't watched it yet.)

Jerry Mouse danced with Gene Kelly in the movie Anchors Aweigh. Does that count?


I've never heard of Yogi's Ark Lark . I'll have to look that one up. It sounds like something I would enjoy.


I loved "The Wacky Races" cartoon, and the movie The Great Race. I think I even connected the two of them when I reviewed The Great Race a while back.


It's not pity. I'm enjoying this. I just wish that I could think of more stuff like this.

You need to do a TV version of this crossovers thread. In addition to the TV show "Once Upon A Time", there's also stuff like "Family Guy" had several Star Wars episodes, (which I haven't seen yet, but I bought the DVDs at a garage sale recently), and Sherlock Holmes in "Star Trek: TNG".

Hi GB, like I said earlier, TV crossovers is an extensive subject, you could probably spend years trying to identify and list them all, but feel free to keep them coming.

This may sound silly, but when I was little I was really excited about Yogi's Ark - all the Hanna Barbera talking animals together in one place? It was like something astounding. Wiki gives a nice list of all the characters aboard:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi%2..._of_characters

I just wished all the other talking animals could take part (Bugs, Mickey, Woody, Felix, etc.)

When I started reading comics, I'd make believe all my favorite superheroes were part of one big team including everybody from the Justice League, the Captain Marvel Family, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, etc. It wasn't till later that comic books started having company crossovers. The rumors of an Avengers / Justice League team up began in 1982, but negotiations between Marvel & DC kept falling through on the project, and it wasn't until 20 years later that an actual mini-series for the team-up was produced.

Getting back to the Muppets' Wizard of Oz - that's a tough one because the Muppets are playing the Oz characters - not meeting them. But, since the Muppets are fictional characters and Oz is from completely different fictional literature, I'm going to declare it close enough!

I don't see why the Tom and Jerry films should not be included - they're movies (albeit direct to video, but movies nonetheless), we haven't ruled out animation and they have characters from different fictional universes meeting each other. I also found a Tom and Jerry / Robin Hood film, but (similar to the Muppet's / Oz movie) the cartoon characters take on the roles of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Still, close enough for me.

I'll have to look into Anchors Aweigh to check the context (was it a dream or fantasy?) If it was just a single sequence that otherwise didn't have to do with shared realities, I'd probably rule it out.

And - Yogi's Ark may qualify after all because the character of Moby Dick appears in the movie. Now, Hanna Barbera had rights to use the name Moby Dick as one of their stable of cartoon animals - but both the name and the fact that the character was a white whale stem directly out of Herman Melville's novel and several movies made about Moby Dick.

I forgot about the Tom and Jerry / Robin Hood movie. I have that one on DVD too, but I haven't watched it yet. (Walmart usually sells those cartoons movies on Black Friday for $1.98, so I buy the ones that look good, but it takes me a while to actually sit down and watch them. )


I haven't seen it in a while, but if I remember correctly, in the scene with Jerry Mouse in Anchors Aweigh, Gene Kelly was telling a story to some kids in school about how he (a sailor) got his medal, and he dances with Jerry Mouse.

More Trivia Time - since the Wizard of Oz has come up (and crossovers and comics)...
The first crossover between the world's two larges comic book companies (DC and Marvel) was NOT Superman vs. Spider-Man or any other superhero story. It was a "Treasury" sized comic called "MGM's Marvelous Wizard of Oz" from 1975.



And it was simply the classic movie told in comic form - there was really nothing about it besides the company names that would let you know it was a historic coming together of rival companies. But it did lead the way to future projects.

The next collaboration was:

50th Post Anniversary Special.

Well friends, today's very special post includes some MAJOR announcements!

I'm officially putting Yogi's Ark Lark on the list solely because of the inclusion of Moby Dick - the great white whale from the eponymous Herman Melliville novel.

Also, Hanna Barbera's Moby Dick was part of their stable of sci-fi / action / hero cartoons (he appeared regularly in a half hour segment with the Mighty Mightor!) In other words, the Moby Dick cartoon was a relatively serious adventure series compared to their comedic talking animal cartoons. So placing Moby Dick in with Yogi's gang of wise-cracking, anthropomorphized animals was a strange inter-company crossover in and of itself... especially considering that the producers excluded some of their other talking animals from Yogi's Ark.

And I know this may be disappointing to many of you out there, but I'm putting Tom & Jerry: Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse in the unconfirmed / to-be-debated area because, although Robin Hood is a folklore legend, literary and movie character, he was also an allegedly real person. However, this is a highly debated question with some historians saying the character is highly embellished folklore that may loosely be based on several historic people, but which grew into something so highly individualized and removed from history as not to remotely resemble any real person, or that Robin of Loxley was indeed a real historic figure.

It's Friday night and I'm on a posting binge!
(Wow - looking back at that last sentence... what a sad commentary.)

Anyway here's the updated list:

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
House of Frankenstein (1944)
House of Dracula (1945)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
Mad Monster Party (1967)
Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (1972)
Yogi's Ark Lark (1972)
Murder by Death (1976)
Murder Can Hurt You! (1980)
The Monster Squad (1987)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Van Helsing (2004)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005)
Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)
Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes (2010)
Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz (2011)
Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse (2012)
Hotel Transylvania (2012)
The Lego Movie (2014)
Hotel Transylvania II (2015)

Up for debate / clarification:

March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934)
Babes in Toyland (1961)
Into the Woods (2014)

Come on, folks - there have got to be more films utilizing the crossover concept than just monster movies and kids' cartoons!

More on the way!

In the meantime, how about some suggested concepts you'd like to see!

Hi, Chyp!

I've never seen The Cabin In The Woods, so I'll have to look it up to see if it qualifies. (Is this the one I was trying to think of on earlier pages of this thread where they have a bunch of spoof versions of the "slasher film" killers like Freddie, Jason, Leather Face, Michael Myers, etc.?)

Either way, I love to hear all suggestions, recommendations, speculations or just people's ideas for crossover concepts. So keep 'em coming!

At some point I'll submit one idea I've been playing with for a while - nothing highly original, but a team I'd like to see consisting of "pulp fiction" era heroes & villains (and here I'm referring to the fiction magazines of the early 20th century).

I never intended this thread to focus on monster movies, but it seems Universal leads in the world of cinema with the concept of crossovers and a shared universe of previously established characters from literature or entertainment.

Thus, I must announce that Universal plans to reintroduce or reboot their shared monster universe to a new generation.
It seems they plan to do with the Universal Monsters what Marvel Comics has done with their properties within their cinematic universe.

(The difference is that Marvel characters don't really fit this thread's criteria since they were all created by Marvel for Marvel - or, in some cases, by Marvel's former publication identities of "Atlas" and "Timely" Comics. Timely Comics was the publishing entity that gave the world the Sub-Mariner, the original Human Torch and Captain America during comic books' "Golden Age" of the late 1930's - 1950's.)


More on the upcoming cinematic crossover universe of the Universal Monsters...

http://screenrant.com/universal-mons...boot-universe/

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/How-U...rld-71203.html

I just want to know... what makes this thread so popular?

Merry New Year from the Crossover Thread!

Please, don't everyone respond at once with New Year's wishes and suggestions for Crossover Concept films because this thread just can't handle that level of activity in addition to all the activity on it so far!

Time to reveal my "Pulp Heroes" concept - it's the same concept as Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, except it's utilizing characters from the "pulp" era which refers to adventure magazines of the early 20th century (roughly from 1896 to the 1950's).

Corrections are welcome.

Tarzan - Real Name: John Clayton, Lord Greystoke – 1st app.: 1912 “All-Story Magazine” created by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Zorro - Real Name: Don Diego - 1st. app.: 1919 All-Story Weekly “The Curse of Capistrano” by Johnston McCulley.

Buck Rogers – Real Name: Anthony Rogers – 1st app.: 1928 Amazing Stories pulp magazine by Philip Francis Nowlan.

The Shadow - Real Name: Lamont Cranston a.k.a. Kent Allard - 1st app.: 1930 As a narrative character on Detective Hour for American radio sponsored by Street & Smith.

The Lone Ranger - Real Name: John Reid - 1st. app.: c.1932 On station WXYZ radio show owned by George W. Trendle.

The Spider - Real Name: Richard Wentworth - 1st. app.: 1933 “The Spider Strikes” pulp magazine by R.T.M. Smith (Note: Creation credit to Harry Steeger as competition to the Shadow.)

The Phantom Detective - Real Name: Richard Curtis Van Loan 1933 (Note: similar look to other dark-suit pulp characters, but wore a domino mask, top hat & bowtie).

Doc Savage - Real Name: Clark Savage Jr. – 1st. app.: 1933 Pulp novel, “The man of Bronze” created by Henry W. Ralston.

Mandrake the Magician - Real Name: Mandrake ? - 1st. app.: 1934 Newspaper comic strips dist.by King Features Syndicate, created by Lee Falk & Phil Davis.

Flash Gordon – Real Name: Flash Gordon – 1st app.: 1934 Newspaper comic strips distributed by King Features Syndicate first drawn by Alex Raymond.

The Phantom - Real Name: unknown (family persona passed from father to son) – 1st app.: 1936 Newspaper comic strips dist.by King Features Syndicate created by Lee Falk

Green Hornet - Real Name: Britt Reid – 1st. app.: 1936 On station WXYZ RADIO SHOW. Created by George W. Trendle.

The Crimson Avenger - Real Name: Lee Travis – 1st app.: October 1938 “Detective Comics” #20 - written & illustrated by Jim Chambers. (Included here because he was the first masked hero appearing in COMIC BOOKS before the Batman, but in the tradition of Pulp heroes like the Shadow.)

The Avenger - Real Name: Richard Henry Benson – 1st. app.: 1939 “The Avenger” magazine published by Street & Smith Publications, created by Paul Ernst. (combined elements of Doc Savage and The Shadow)



Proposed Pulp Team:
Tarzan
Zorro (since Zorro is a period character this would be his grandson: Zorro III)
The Shadow
Doc Savage
Mandrake the Magician
Flash Gordon
The Phantom
Green Hornet & Kato

Exclusions and why:
Buck Rogers – his story is strictly one of time travel and his story takes place in the future, however, he could be referenced as a colleague of Flash Gordon’s who disappeared.
The Spider – was created as competition for the Shadow and is similar to The Shadow and Green Hornet in both look and motifs.
The Phantom Detective – don’t want 2 characters in top hats (and Mandrake wears a top hat) also very similar to the other “dark-suit” pulp characters. Also it would be difficult having two characters with “Phantom” in their name on the same team – and the Phantom Detective was usually only referred to as the Phantom in his books.
The Lone Ranger – he is also a period character, his story is from the late 19th century, we already have one of his descendants on the team; the Green Hornet. However the Lone Ranger along with Tonto could be frequently referenced as both a predecessor of the Hornet and a colleague of the original Zorro.
The Crimson Avenger – although prior to Superman, he was strictly comic books and he’s very similar to the other “dark-suit” pulp characters.
The Avenger – it’s acknowledged that he combined elements of the Shadow and Doc Savage. Although he was a popular pulp character, we’re trying to avoid redundancies.

Potential Villains:
Fu Manchu - a pulp classic that came to represent “The Yellow Peril”.
The Cavendish Clan - descendants of Butch Cavendish - the Lone Ranger’s arch enemy.

Just a bump to update the list (qualifications & exclusions can be found discussed throughout this thread):

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
House of Frankenstein (1944)
House of Dracula (1945)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
Mad Monster Party (1967)
Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (1972)
Yogi's Ark Lark (1972)
Murder by Death (1976)
Murder Can Hurt You! (1980)
The Monster Squad (1987)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Van Helsing (2004)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005)
Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)
Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes (2010)
Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz (2011)
Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse (2012)
Hotel Transylvania I & II (2012, 2015)
The Lego Movie & sequels / spin-offs (2014 - 2019)
Descendants I, II & III (2015, 2016, 2019)
Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019)
Godzilla vs. Kong (2020)

Up for debate / clarification:

March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934)
Babes in Toyland (1961)
Into the Woods (2014)

Suggestions welcome.