The Garbage Pail Kids Movie DVD with Anthony Newley, Mackenzie Astin, Phil Fondacaro (PG) +Movie Reviews

Ach, it's okay if your expectations are extremely low

Inspector Gadget | On the trail of Doctor Claw | 07/11/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Films can come from many inspirations and sources. There are novels, plays, true stories, comic-books, video games and...trading cards? The woefully mis-handled Mars Attacks was based on a brilliant trading card series and it was hardly high art. A lower-lever trading card such as the Garbage Pail Kids is hardly likely to make great cinema. If this sort of thing cannot appeal to you (I have broad tastes and I'm a bit too understanding of flawed films) then don't even bother watching.

I wanted to rent this movie when I was a kid but my grandmother (who always evaluated the videos first) thought it looked quite inappropriate (I subsequently went for Rambo: First Blood Part II, which she thought was more fitting for a 7-year-old). Since it's one and only incarnation on video tape in the late-80s (theatrical prints promptly vanished) this film has been totally non-existant. Luckily (if you like this sort of thing) MGM bought the rights, found a dusty print and spruced it up to give us a brand new digital incarnation of The Garbage Pail Kids Movie. With erm...garbage like this getting a DVD release I must ask where the hell is Bigfoot and Howard the Duck?

Direcor Rodney Amateau (a rather fitting-sounding surname) could have made this an animated movie (eg Care Bears) but no, he actually had the audacity and nerve to attempt it in live action. Note how I said 'attempt' and not 'succeed'.

The animatronics are just horrible. Where is Jim Henson when you need him? So bad is the puppetry that the kids cannot even close their mouths and no one even bothered to lip-sync the dialogue. They are also disgusting beyond reason (as one who is familiar with the trading cards would expect). But after while they tend to grow on you (like an ulcer) and if you switch your brain off you might find that the film is alright.

There's nothing magical here. Even for a film packed with horrendously 80s fashion and production design there isn't even much nostalgic appeal. The Garbage Pail Kids Movie is certainly nothing like The Dark Crystal or even Ewoks: Caravan of Courage. Hell, it's even many leagues beneath Masters of the Universe. But, if curiousity takes control of you and you simply MUST own the film then go ahead. Just remember what I said about switching your brain off.

The DVD is in not bad-looking 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen (considering most prints were probably left abandoned in an old mine somewhere) with Dolby Mono sound. Extras are limited to a single trailer."

I Cant Believe They Made This For Kids

E.L. Capinch | 09/12/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I recently rented this movie from a non-franchised video rental place that specialised in hard to find films. Movies like this are often unintentionally funny. While this movie made me laugh, it also left me thinking "This was a really weird movie to market at little kids."

From one of the early shots of a kid's wiggling toes that are about to be eaten by a dwarf alligator, you know your in for a weird ride.

The plot is this: Theres a kid who hangs around an antique shop. The shop is owned by a magician who keeps the Garbage Pail Kids in his store in a garbage pail. The kid is always getting chased and beaten up by these bullies. One of the bullies is actually named "Juice." THATS HIS REAL NAME! Anyways, this kid ends up falling for this marginally attractive girl with poodle-frizz hair who is sort of Juice's kept woman. The kid uses the Garbage Pail Kids to create clothes for this girl who's also a fashion designer. Then when the clothes take off she tries to swindle him out of his rights to the clothes. With the help of the Garbage Pail Kids and a motorcycle gang, the kid wins in the end. Tangerine (the girl) apologizes but boy tells her "I just don't find you pretty anymore." Maybe its the big hair or the unitard, but it's rather hard to see her as attractive in the first place.

The weird thing is that this movie's just too out there for some 8 year old kid to watch - its not that theres any R-Rated stuff in there, but theres just this really, really creepy vibe between the lines of the story.

Not surprisingly, this movie was a colossal failure. It came out in 1987, and if my memory serves me correctly the GPK fad peaked around '86, which already sets this movie out on a bad foot.

Almost the entire movie is filmed at night or in dimly lit buildings, giving it a sort of unintended sinister vibe that goes along great with the scary looking Garbage Pail Kids.

The music is horrible - horrible in the way that some of the 80's pop music was horribly, only its a very poorly done amateur version of really bad 80's pop. Theres even an obvious bad Madonna rip-off song on the sound track.

I have to admit that some of the toilet humor was very, very funny. But after about 15 minutes of that you're just stuck with this AWFUL movie, with a really SLOW plot (the whole 3 Stooges scene is painfully slow and pointless) and you have to fight to stay seated and not turn the VCR off.

"

The Garbage Pail Kids Movie Rocks! \m/

Unlord | Tennessee | 09/16/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This movie is quite good considering what is; A low budget gross-out kid's movie from the eighties. Iv'e heard a lot of talk that the movie isn't that good. Also, judging by how short it was in the theatre it wasnt that popular either. Desipite this criticism it's a unique movie. This is a plus in this age of cookie-cutter holywood filtered/politically correct movies."

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