If any of you remember the very first time you got a computer, you may have played one of the earliest educational games, ‘The Oregon Trail’. It felt like a right of passage to play this game in the 80’s and 90’s. Apparently it will be hitting our movie screens in the not too distant future. In the form of a movie musical (probably animated).
The YouTube clip above will give you a reminder of the game if you have forgotten how the game went. For those unfamiliar with the game, it helped teach kids what life was like for westward-bound migrants along the 19th-century Oregon Trail. And it didn’t shy away from capriciously killing off players from any number of diseases or accidents, including (but not limited to) a broken bone, a snake bite, exhaustion, fever, and drowning.
The team that is behind the film ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ are the ones making the film. That would be the directing duo of Josh Gordon and Will Speck, and the songwriting team of Benj Pasek who created Broadway’s Dear Evan Hanson.
They are also the ones who were behind the music of La La Land and The Greatest Showman. You can read a bit more about this HERE.
For the record, the movie will have comedic undertones, as the game may have unintentionally did. Either way, a bit of nostalgia on the big screen is not a bad thing, and I wonder how young kids will react to it. Or for that matter, adults who played this game as a kid. Did you play the game? Hope it was fun and educational.
