Terry Gilliam’s 1981 film Time Bandits was an accidental classic. The film he really wanted to make – dystopian dark comedy Brazil – was suffering production delays, so he teamed up with fellow Monty Python member Michael Palin (and got funding from Beatle George Harrison) to write a story about a young boy who joins a crew of time-hopping thieves. Fantastical, funny, and brimming with odd-ball charm, it was a surprise smash at the box office.
Now, Apple has remade the film into an equally enjoyably quirky 10-episode series. It’s co-written by supremely droll New Zealanders film-maker Taika Waititi (Thor: Love and Thunder) and Flight of the Concords’ Jemaine Clement, along with Inbetweeners co-creator Iain Morris, and combines Clement and Waititi’s hallmark dry, wacky humour with Morris’s ear for comedic banter. It’s Horrible Histories on a Hollywood budget.
Time Bandits has an agreeably breezy quality thanks to a zinging script and great casting. Friends star Lisa Kudrow is particularly delightful as Penelope, disorganised leader of the temporal thieves. If you’ve ever wondered how Phoebe would fare as Doctor Who‘s titular time lord, now you have your answer.
Nerds everywhere will identify with Kevin (Kal-El Tuck), the boy who accidentally joins the Time Bandits when they blunder into his bedroom. He’s always last pick on the football team but an expert on Mayan civilisation and the board game Risk. There are shades of Harry Potter to his backstory: he too starts the series trapped in drab suburbia (Bingley, West Yorkshire) with adults who don’t understand him (his parents wish he spent more time on his phone, less reading about Ancient Rome), unaware of the mind-bending adventures that lie in store.
After an 11th birthday that begins with a visit to Woodhenge (Stonehenge without the stones), he is surprised when his wardrobe door flies open and he claps eyes on a Viking (Rune Temte) dashing away from angry Norman archers. This Norse warrior, Bittelig, is soon revealed as one of the Time Bandits, who are also fugitives on the run from “the Supreme Being” – a godlike figure with three shining faces and a booming voice, and also their former lord and master (he is God, but with a shorter temper).
Penelope and the gang – which also includes Tadhg Murphy as the flamboyant Alto and Roger Nsengiyumva as the flaky Widgit – have stolen their ex-boss’s time map. This isn’t just any cartographical curio. It is a magical device used to locate portals to various spots along the timeline, including Kevin’s bedroom. Fleeing the Supreme Being, they accidentally drag Kevin through the latest temporal maelstrom and wind up on an 18th century Chinese pirate ship.
The new Time Bandits doesn’t bust a gut trying to be faithful to the source material, and Waititi and Clement add their own twists. Winks to the Jazz Age, Bridgerton and Jurassic Park elevate Waititi’s take on the tale (he directs the first two instalments) beyond Terry Gilliam homage. The pair make cameos, too: Clement chews chunks of scenery as “Pure Evil” – a Satan-like baddie who sends a monster with glowing eyes on the trail of the bandits and their precious map – and Waititi pops up in a surprise role (to reveal more would ruin the fun).
The 1981 film had a rickety, seat-of-its-pants pizazz and that energy is preserved in an endearing reboot. This rambunctious caper will still appeal to fans of the original, but is easy enough to delve into for those unfamiliar with Gilliam’s eccentricities. If thing we might have in common with the gang, its that our time is precious – it’s worth spending yours on Time Bandits.
New episodes of ‘Time Bandits’ stream on Apple TV+ on Wednesdays.