More than 30 years after its 1983 cinema release, National Lampoon’s Vacation remains a cult classic. A critical and commercial hit, the film starred Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo as Clark and Ellen Griswold who, with their kids, embarked on a series of (mis)adventures as they took a cross-country trip from Chicago to America’s “favourite family fun park” – Walley World in Los Angeles.
To this day the film retains its status as a landmark comedy, inevitably spawning numerous sequels and imitations – with families going on a European Vacation, a Vegas Vacation and also a Christmas Vacation … with varying degrees of success.
The new addition to the series, Vacation charts a similar course, with Clark and Ellen’s son Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) now all grown up and deciding to follow in his father’s footsteps – by surprising his wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) and two sons with a cross-country trip back to Walley World. Needless to say, things do not go too well …
Vacation is written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. Both profess their love for the franchise, particularly the film that launched it.
Goldstein and Daley’s script was met with enthusiasm by the film’s protagonists. Helms described it as “funny, contemporary, totally fresh and original, but still in keeping with the comedic values of the original movie”; and Applegate described it as “sharp and smart, and yet they are able to write heart”.
We wanted our new take on Vacation to work for people who know and love the original, but also for those who may not be familiar with it
Directors and cast clearly feel reverential to Chase and D’Angelo, who brought the original Griswolds to life and also earned strong notices for their respective performances, with Helms describing the couple as “comedy royalty”. That the directors managed to persuade both actors to come on board and reprise their characters was a coup – or rather, “a dream come true. We were fan-boying the entire time we were directing,” laughs Goldstein.
The feeling was mutual, with veteran and beloved comic Chase commenting that he loved the script and was flattered to be asked to take part for this latest adventure in the series.
“There’s something about the optimism in the Griswolds that is relatable,” he says of the famous family of which he is the patriarch. “Regardless of everything going wrong that can go wrong, they’re going to get to Walley World or wherever, and that’s where everything’s going to go right. Of course it doesn’t. But that’s what it’s all about – wanting it to, and it’s those little comic moments along the way that really make it worth the trip.”
Of the family and the cult status it still enjoys today, D’Angelo states, “It became a kind of phenomenon that has never really gone away. I just think that there’s something about Clark Griswold that struck a familiar chord in people, to make a dream come true against all odds.”
Vacation also stars Leslie Mann, Skyler Gisondo and Steele Stebbins, with Chris Hemsworth making a rare venture into comedy, in the role of Stone Crandall, Rusty’s irritatingly successful brother-in-law.