Troma has been with me for a while, before I was even aware of it. I've always hated Hollywood, even when I was a kid. So when I finally saw a Troma film, it was at the right time, when I was getting sick of the blockbusters that used weak cgi to compensate for plot. While I'm not interested in making any films anytime soon, Troma has given me the inspiration to express myself as an individual, regardless of whether that form of art generates the fame and wealth of Spielberg, Lucas, or Cameron. Troma has also helped me develop more analytical skills, when viewing a film. I remember my first exposure to anything Troma was the Toxic Crusaders. It would be on the same channel as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was one of the many cartoons that convinced my generation to buy a lot of toys. Not that I didn't like TMNT, but it was definitely a far cry from its underground comic roots, so it wasn't surprising that I got tired of it quickly. On the other hand, Toxic Crusaders was endearing, because there was more meaning in it than most cartoons of that day. As Lloyd Kaufman pointed out, in his book, he wanted more positive environmental messages, than most cartoons of that day. And I really noticed that. The show didn't have vague expectations of what could be done to improve my community, like another badly done cartoon with an environmentalist theme. (Captain Planet) Whenever the heroes wanted to clean up, they showed kids how to do so. They didn't use some omnipotent being or mysterious powers to make the garbage magically disappear. Afterwards, the show was cancelled, and my animation needs would have to be fulfilled from Japanese studios. But my movie needs were still very empty.

I'm one of the few kids from the 80's who grew up never seeing E.T. in a theater. Gilliam did more for me with Time Bandits and Bardon Munchausen than Spielberg did with E.T.; E.T. was just manipulative, while Gilliam's films were trying to convey the child-like sense of wonder and adventure. Anyway, E.T.'s success was the first lesson I learned about how our culture embraces everything artificial. So when I reached adolescence, I was exposed to horrible atrocities like Jurassic Park and ID4. I think what I really hated about the former film was that I enjoyed going to museums and learning about dinosaurs when I was younger. But the same ignorant masses who avoided those places automatically became "experts", because they saw Jurassic Park. Other than that, the fact that the fat guy is villified, and the white trash are "heroes" pissed me off. And ID4 was bad, because you could literally see the projection screen, when you were staring at people running from explosions. That, and the fact that one of the main catches in the commercial was the White House being blown up, even though you could tell they were scale models. I mean it just an insult to movies like Donner's Superman, where people actually WORKED to make worlds come alive, not just stick a reasonable computer-generated facsimilie! Thus began a whole decade of media propaganda. If you didn't see Schindler's List, you were racist. If you didn't see Scream, you weren't "hip" to the wide plethora of copy-cat slasher films that even hardcore fans had long gotten over. If you didn't like Trainspotting, you had a short attention span, even though it was really just a film that used MTV-style editing to make a typical heroin addiction look stylish. So I kept asking, "Where do I fit in to all of this crap?" And the answer was obviously nowhere.

Well one day, my local theater was promoting Tromeo and Juliet. I was disgusted that that wretched Leonardo Dicaprio Romeo and Juliet film was somehow making money, since Claire Danes' "My So-Called Life" got cancelled for a reason:she sucks. And nothing pisses me off more than teen girls who like shallow movies that are meant to deprive them of their money. Plus, I've always been an avid hater of Shakespeare. He constantly tried to elevate his mediocre plays, by using flowery language. And people who read and admire his works act like he's the only writer whoever contributed anything to Western Civilization; not to mention they act like they're more elite than other people, because they like his work. So FINALLY, there was someone who made an anti-Shakespeare movie.

Yes, I know Lloyd actually likes Shakespeare, and even used his style of iamebic pentameter to write the dialogue. But the fact that he actually tried to make the play apply to our current time (complete with actual subcultures) really impressed me. And he didn't try to dramatize the sex and violence, to win any Oscars. He just made it, so that it was fun. Kaufman didn't try to spread some vague artistic message through his carnage.(as opposed to John Waters) He didn't try to make some condescendingly preachy film that forced me to care about some ethereal concept. He just made a movie what it should be: FUN. While there were valid issues being brought up, they didn't get in the way of the enjoyment of the movie. While I've seen many other Troma movies after this, my heart still belongs to Tromeo and Juliet. Anyway, from then on in, I paid more attention to the more independent films out there. I even started writing in a similar way to Troma's. [I have a few stories posted at the Lit section of www.newgrounds.com , if anyone's interested.]

From the shocked looks of my peers, I knew that the content in my work would be unmarketable. But I didn't care. I was writing about how I saw my community, and the world, twisting all those lies Hollywood had served to brainwash me into believing. I actually paid attention to how people were being depicted in films. (To this day, I still feel the Matrix is racist, because of how it treated Laurence Fishburne's character, and I feel American Beauty was homophobic, because of the repressed neighbor; "if you come out, you'll be a criminal, and a Nazi memoribilia collector". Truly a message for our youth.)

So I thank Troma for expanding my awareness better than any drug. I hope they continue to make films for another 25 years.