Meatballs (1979) on Netflix
Tripper Harrison, head counselor at Camp North Star, pranks director Morty Melnick and mentors lonely camper Rudy Gerner. Across the lake, Camp Mohawk has won twelve straight Olympiads.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.2/1026,452 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes72%
Trailer
Plot summary
Camp North Star is a cut-rate summer camp in Ontario, where Tripper Harrison leads a group of counselors-in-training and stages practical jokes on Morty Melnick, the camp director, moving him from his cabin at night so that he wakes in odd places. Among the campers is Rudy Gerner, a lonely boy sent away by his workaholic father a year after his mother died. Tripper sees that Rudy lacks confidence, finds him at a nearby bus station when he decides to run off, and looks out for him, the pair jogging together each morning. Tripper also tries to win over Roxanne, the girls' head counselor. Across the lake sits Camp Mohawk, the wealthy rival camp that has taken the yearly Olympiad twelve years in a row.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Meatballs (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- According to Harold Ramis, director Ivan Reitman did not know for certain whether Bill Murray would appear in Meatballs until Murray showed up for the third day of filming.
- Eddie Deezen was approached to play Spaz in Meatballs but declined the part because he was already committed to the film 1941.
- Meatballs became the first Canadian film to gross more than $2.5 million in Canada, passing 1970's Deux femmes en or to become the country's highest-grossing film with $4.2 million, and won that year's Golden Reel Award.
- It was also the highest-grossing film in the United States made without any American investment at the time, until Chariots of Fire overtook it in 1982.
- David Naughton performed "Makin' It" for the Meatballs soundtrack, and the song served as the theme of his own sitcom, which was canceled before the film's release.
