Get ready for some late 60’s nostalgia that goes horribly wrong. Join Fleegle, Bing, Drooper and Snorky in The Banana Splits Movie as the slay their way to the top in this reimagining of “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour”. What could have been an interesting horror remake of a beloved show, in reality was just blah from top to bottom: pretty basic, boring and not funny.
The film is loosely based on the Saturday morning children’s variety show that ran on NBC from 1968-1970, which featured four furry, mascot-sized members of a fictional rock band called the Banana Splits: Bingo the ape, Fleegle the beagle, Snorky the elephant and Drooper the lion. They sang silly songs and hung out in a goofy amusement park. The series was produced by Hanna-Barbera and all the costumes and sets were designed by Sid and Marty Krofft, and was even sponsored by Kellogg’s Cereals. The show was a mix of live and animation segments, over-all a pretty solid kid show for the times.
But shows like this no longer have the appeal they once did. So, like most remakes/reimaginings, the filmmakers had to take it darker and edgier. Directed by Danishka Esterhazy and written by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas, the movie follows a young boy named Harley who is spending his birthday with his family at a taping of The Banana Splits, and the outing takes an unexpected turn. The show is being cancelled, resulting in the characters (who are robots now, because of course they are) taking on lives of their own and killing everyone in the audience. Like you do.
As a horror fan this concept was intriguing. A murderous group of robot furries go crazy and kill a bunch of people. But man did this miss the mark. It’s full of basic cliché after cliché. If someone isn’t even a fan of horror movies you could still see all the tropes coming a mile away. Clearly the original creators from back in the day would hate this movie. And I get it, it’s pretty hateable. The movie is direct to steaming and set to air on the SyFy Channel sometime this year. That’s the proper place for this to go and die.
Not to say this doesn’t have its charms. The gore is over-the-top and pretty decent if that’s why you’re here. Some respectable effects using prosthetics and the kills are creative for the most part. A huge lollipop is shoved down a man’s throat at one point and the effect works pretty well.
The actors are hit and miss, most are all over the place as far as character and direction. Some are pretty good, I think: that or they are just the biggest fish in a small pond of mediocre. It’s hard to say. The lead child actor Finlay Wojtak-Hissong plays the birthday boy and number one fan of the Banana Splits, Harley. He carries the movie pretty well for someone of his age. And the Splits producer Rebecca played by Sara Canning is pretty much the only actor who has the most recognizable credits and was really fun to watch. I feel she knew what kind of movie she was in. But the rest of the cast was over dramatic and average.
This wasn’t a waste of time, but it wasn’t a good time either. Great concept and look, but overall just boring and not funny. A horror movie like this needs to be funny, and other than a few chuckles here and there, it’s pretty bland. There will not be a second of viewing of this. Two out of five stars at best.
