Ernest Goes to Camp

Infobox Film
name = Ernest Goes to Camp


image_size =
caption = Theatrical release poster
director = John R. Cherry III
producer = Martin Erlichman
Elmo Williams
writer = John R. Cherry III
Coke Sams
narrator =
starring = Jim Varney
John Vernon
Iron Eyes Cody
Lyle Alzado
music = Shane Keister
cinematography = Harry Mathias
Jim May
editing = Marshall Harvey
distributor = Touchstone Pictures
released = flagicon|USA 1987-05-22
runtime = 92 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget = $3,000,000 (estimate)
gross = $23,509,382 (domestic sub-total)
preceded_by = "Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam"
followed_by = "Ernest Saves Christmas"
website =
amg_id = 1:15976
imdb_id = 0092974

"Ernest Goes to Camp" is a 1987 comedy film directed by John R. Cherry III and starring Jim Varney. It is the second film to feature the character of Ernest P. Worrell. The movie received a PG rating from the MPAA. It was filmed in White Bluff, Tennessee.

Cast

Plot

Jim Varney reprises his role of Ernest P. Worrell, now working as a maintenance man at a summer camp and hoping to become a counselor. Ernest gets his chance when he is assigned a small group of juvenile delinquents. At first, the boys torment Ernest, playing practical jokes and mocking his efforts to get them interested in the outdoors. Their efforts are also met by resistance from other, more affluent campers. Meanwhile, an evil mining corporation run by the ruthless Sherman Krader (John Vernon) has its sights on the summer camp, a site rich with the fictional mineral petrocite. However, Chief St. Cloud, the camp owner, refuses to sell. Krader manipulates the naive Ernest, one of the few people who speaks the chief's language, into convincing St. Cloud to sign away the land, believing it to be a conservation petition. Ernest decides to fix the situation by storming into the construction site and picking a fight with the foreman (Lyle Alzado). Ernest is savagely beaten; however, he begins to gain the respect of his campers after the camp's doctor points out that Ernest is the only person who has defended them. Recruiting the campers, Ernest plans a full-scale assault as the construction company begins to demolish the camp. Echoing the film's opening scene, which features a Native American brave surviving three tests of courage, Ernest faces down Krader, plugging the villain's hunting rifle with his finger, and then punching out the brutal foreman for good measure. The boys and Ernest succeed in protecting the land and Kamp Kikakee remains for young campers to enjoy. Ernest remains a counselor, although he still remains his clumsy, inept (yet good-hearted) self.

Trivia

*The song used to detach the box turtle from Ernest's nose is "Happy Together," a song which was written and recorded by the musical group The Turtles. It also serves as a theme song of the film.
*"Ernest Goes to Camp" aired in two parts during The Magical World of Disney, with part 1 airing on October 29, 1989, and part 2 on November 5. Prior to the movie, Ernest was seen training for, and finally riding, Disneyland's Splash Mountain attraction.
*In his song "Callin in Sick Today," Weird Al Yankovic mentions that he can "spend all day in [his] underwear watching "Ernest Goes to Camp" rather than going to work.
*A great deal of the novel and subsequent film "Hoot" closely resembles the plot of this film, with the mining company replaced by a restaurant chain and the campground replaced by an owl sanctuary.
*Gailard Sartain appears in this movie as Jake, eccentric camp chef and co-inventor of "eggs erroneous." Sartain would go on to appear in the next two Ernest features ("Ernest Saves Christmas" and "Ernest Goes to Jail"), but his character would be re-tooled and re-named "Chuck". Nevertheless, Sartain's characteristic facial expression (a sort of zig-zagging eye movement) is emphasized in all his Ernest appearances.
*At the end of the film when Ernest is almost gunned down, Sherman Krader's gun has no recoil on it. When he was trying to shoot him, the Native American music from this movie's introduction is reprised as well as this film's middle scene where Chief St. Cloud narrated the ancient tribe ceremony at the campfire to the boys and Ernest. Nurse St. Cloud translated his language in English.
* Harvey Godwin Jr. who portrayed the Young Brave's Father in this movie's beginning graduated from North Carolina's Pembroke State University four years later. He is also a descendant of Henry Berry Lowrie and the owner of Two Hawk Employment Services in Lumberton.
*Jim Henson who was best known for creating The Muppets and the PBS series Sesame Street played a Minor Construction worker, but was uncredited.
*Gary Chapman sings "Brave Hearts" during this motion picture and in the credits.

External links

* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ernest_goes_to_camp/ Read reviews of this movie at RottenTomatoes.com]