YMMV / The Rocketeer

The 1991 film

• Adaptation Displacement: The movie is more well-known than the comic book.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • Believe it or not, ridiculously-shaped buildings like the Bulldog Cafe really did exist; they were something of a fad in midcentury Los Angeles. Perhaps the most famous is the Brown Derby restaurant, a stars' hangout in old-time Hollywood and the place where the Cobb salad was invented. Since they were built for novelty, not durability, most are gone—but a handful survive, most notably Randy's Donuts of Inglewood, which is shaped like a giant donut.
  • Hitler really did send swastika-emblazoned zeppelins on "friendship tours" of the US - including, most infamously, The Hindenburg.
• Awesome Music: James Horner's score. The entire score.
  • In particular is the main theme, people have described it as the perfect audio representation of the feeling of flight. If you've heard it even once, then you know just what they mean.
  • Melora Hardin singing "Begin the Beguine" at the South Seas Club. Very much evocative of the glitz and glamour of 1930's Hollywood. Plus, the song itself is a nice Big Band standard in its own right.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: If you took the fans at their word, you'd think Jennifer Connelly's role in this consisted of her putting on a stocking and later wearing a tight white gown with a very flattering neckline.

  The MAD parody joked that there was a lot that was hard to believe about the movie - including her cleavage!

• Catharsis Factor: Love him or hate him, Sinclair plummeting to his death with the immolated rocketpack is very elaborate and cool. Same with Lothar caught in the blast of the zeppelin too.
• Cult Classic: The movie despite its poor box office performance at the time is very fondly remembered today—to the point that the franchise has managed a resurgence in spite of that.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Neville Sinclair. You'd be surprised just how many people thought Jenny should've ended up with him. It helps that he's played by Timothy Dalton.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Terry O'Quinn as Howard Hughes just straight-up owns every scene he's in, being a Deadpan Snarker Reasonable Authority Figure Gadgeteer Genius who takes no crap from the government officials and fully supports Cliff throughout the film.
  • Those Two Guys cops Fitch and Wooly provide some good laughs while also having enough moments of competence and nuance (especially in the Novelization) to be more likable than several more prominent characters.
  • Wilmer is only in two scenes, but has a good fanbase for being an Affably Evil and deceptively cunning and loyal hoodlum who sets the plot into motion by hiding the jetpack in Cliff's old plane.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • The Mafia were fighting Benito Mussolini in Italy.^note  The truth is slightly more complicated. Parts of the Mafia aligned with Mussolini in his rise to power, while other parts stuck with the establishment, seeing Mussolini as too risky a bet, and the two groups came into conflict. Once in power, Italian Fascists had little interest in actually fighting organized crime, which continued and even thrived in their operations, but they made it illegal to report on Mafia crime, creating the impression that Mussolini defeated the mafia. They certainly wouldn't approve of his Axis partner.
  • Mr. Valentine's disgusted reaction may also be due to the fact that LA was the West Coast headquarters of the Jewish mob in the United States.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Being a movie about flight, James Horner died in a plane crash in 2015.
  • "I do my own stunts!" Not so funny for Daniel Craig, who does most of his own stunts in the James Bond series, and has the injuries to prove it.
  • At the end, Jenny says Cliff doesn't look too happy about having saved the world. Cliff replies, "Well, at least I got the cracked ribs to prove it." Cue Mitch (played by Campbell) at the end of Enough.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: A young Jennifer Connelly playing an aspiring actress. Ten years later, she wins an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Billy Campbell convincingly played Cliff Secord as a chivalrous, heroic, and decent man. About ten years later, he played Mitch, who, as an entitled, stalking abuser, couldn't be more different. Also, both his leading ladies are called Jennifer.
  • This wouldn't be the last time that Joe Johnston directed a film about a Golden Age World War II comic book hero with an unashamedly idealistic edge. In fact, that's probably why Marvel hired him. What's more is that Jennifer Connelly would later star in two different Marvel movies (Ang Lee's Hulk and Spider-Man: Homecoming).
  • Malcolm (Eddie Jones) is saved from an on-air mishap by a flying man. Just two years later, Jones would play Jonathan Kent, adoptive father to another heroic flying man, on TV.
• Magnificent Bastard: Neville Sinclair masquerades as a Hollywood star while secretly harboring a scheme to steal a rocket pack to help the Nazi government Take Over the World. Hiring a squad of gangsters to assist him, Sinclair also pursues charming Jenny Blake, girlfriend of Cliff Secord aka the Rocketeer and moves quickly to follow leads, allowing Sinclair to capture Jenny and force Cliff into meeting him to trade the rocket for her. When his American cohorts turn on him for his exposed affiliations, Sinclair uses a battalion of German soldiers and nearly escape via zeppelin, only stopped by Cliff's quick thinking.
• Memetic Mutation: "The Rocka-who?"
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The Nazi propaganda film showing Nazi rocketmen attacking America.
  • Lothar's signature method of killing people: folding them in half.
    • For such a big guy, he's very stealthy...
• Older Than They Think:
  • Watch this film, and then watch Iron Man, and you'll see how similar the flying scenes are between both films. "Industrial Light & Magic" is in the credits for both. Not surprising.
  • The art direction and film choreography is also reminiscent of Captain America: The First Avenger. Which is helped in part by both films sharing the same director.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: There were two video games based on the film, the NES version in 1991 developed by Ironwind Software and Realtime Associates and published by Bandai and SNES version by IGS Corp. in 1992. The NES version has colorful cutscenes that follow the movie, but still suffers from an overabundance of enemies who can easily kill you while it's hard for you to kill them, as well as a jetpack that requires you to find fuel for it, and even then, should only be used sparingly. While the game does provide a password system, you still get a Game Over after losing one life. The SNES version, despite being on a more advanced console, is even worse, as the first few levels require you to beat an airplane race, and in order to win it, you must pay close attention to what's going on in the tiny box in the HUD, not what's going on on the main screen, when it should be the other way around. In the shoot-em-up levels, which appear later in the game, you can actually destroy your health power-ups, and while enemies can change direction to attack you, you can't. Your reward for beating both games is an A Winner Is You ending. The Angry Video Game Nerd has reviewed both these games, saying that the SNES version in particular may have surpassed The Wizard of Oz and Hong Kong '97 as the worst SNES game he's ever played.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Terry O'Quinn, aka John Locke, as Howard Hughes.
  • Blink and you'll miss her, but Melora Hardin as the South Seas singer.
  • Margo Martindale plays Millie, who works at the Bulldog Cafe.
  • Eddie Jones (Malcolm), aka Pa Kent from Lois & Clark
  • Director Joe Johnston, who would go on to direct Jumanji and Captain America: The First Avenger
• Spiritual Adaptation: You know that 1930's Art Deco Superman or Batman movie that some people often tout? This may be the closest thing to it.
• Vindicated by History: Time has been kind to this film. It suffered the year it came out (1991) surrounded by bigger blockbusters - Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (the 2 highest-grossing films of the year!), City Slickers, and others - but it received favorable reviews and gained a cult following thanks to video rentals and TV, as well as earning a spiritual successor in Captain America: The First Avenger (also directed by Joe Johnston) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. HBO was was very kind to it as well.

The 2019 series

• Adorkable:
  • Kit definitely embraces this, thanks to her love of aviation and generally cheerful attitude.
  • Tesh is also this thanks to his more quirky behavior, and energetic personality.
• Awesome Art: The series boasts a very vibrant art direction for a television CGI-rendered series. The animators at Icon Studios and Wild Canary do an amazing job. It almost looks like a Pixar movie.
• Awesome Music: Everything about the show's music says "I want to be a hero", but the theme song definitely applies due to how inspirational it is. Being composed by Dominic Lewis helps out.
• Fridge Logic: Orsino's plan to steal the jetpack makes little sense. Unlike Sylvester, he is willing to make a show out of his flight instead of using it for illegal deeds. But the real Rocketeer (who is well-known and respected in the town) could easily reveal the truth, not only ruining the trick, but also destroying Orsino's reputation and giving him serious legal trouble.
• Jerkass Woobie: Valerie is a character full of ego and pride, not wanting to be shown up by anyone. Despite undergoing a face-heel turn in "Valerie The Valkyrie" due to The Rocketeer, you can't help but feel bad for her.
• Moe: Both Kit and Tesh are definitely this, thanks to their idealism and Adorkable behavior.
• Too Good to Last: The show was very warmly received by critics and audiences, even earning a Daytime Emmy nomination, but Disney Junior's unfair treatment ensured it would only last one season. This is especially jarring since shows like T.O.T.S. and Mira, Royal Detective got renewed for a second season before or shortly after they debuted.

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