The Banana Splits Movie: What happens when you can’t get the rights to Five Nights At Freddy’s
Film Features Home Video Hell
The condemned: The Banana Splits Movie (2019)
The plot: There’s a witty and beloved slice of pop culture entertainment that features cuddly animatronic creations becoming homicidal after hours, and the ensuing story focusing on the desperate battle for survival for humans unlucky enough to find themselves trapped with the murderous robots. That entertainment is called Five Nights At Freddy’s, and it’s a wildly popular video game that has spawned numerous sequels, three novels, guides and log books, and an in-development film adaptation. The Banana Splits, by contrast, was an extremely short-lived Saturday morning children’s variety program that ran for only 31 episodes, from 1968 to 1970, then played intermittently in syndication until 1982. It is mostly remembered by a small cadre of fans of weird-TV Svengalis Sid and Marty Krofft, who also created the better-known H.R. Pufnstuf. In other words, the first question to be asked is, why take a property almost no one knows about—especially the target audience for this film, assuming they’re courting people under 40—and make a movie that seems to assume anyone watching knows what it’s sending up? The answer, one would have to assume, is, “Because we couldn’t get the rights to Five Nights At Freddy’s.”
Admittedly, there’s nothing else to do with these creations in 2019, so one may as well have them start murdering people. The movie takes place in a world where The Banana Splits was never canceled; the show just carried on, year after year, somehow surviving (with inexplicable popularity, no less) in a tucked-away corner of a TV studio lot. Cut to the present day, where mom Beth Williams (Dani Kind) has scored tickets to the live taping of the show for her Banana Splits-obsessed son Harley’s birthday. Along for the trip are her 19-year-old son, Austin; longtime husband, Mitch (11 years married, so I guess he’s Harley’s dad, but not Austin’s); and local kid Zoe, who resists attending (he quite understandably thinks Harley is weird, in no small part because Harley seems way old enough to have outgrown this kid’s show) but is pressured into going by his mom.
We meet the Banana Splits—robotic puppets Fleegle, Drooper, Snorky, and Bingo—as their creator, Karl, applies software updates to their systems, centered around the Prime Directive: The show must go on. So when a new VP of programming cancels the series, making this the final taping, the Splits’ programming kicks in and they take deadly control of their fates, killing any adults remaining on the lot and imprisoning the children from the audience in a state of permanent viewing, as the felt-and-metal constructions perform a bloodthirsty new version of the show. Beth and her family, along with a handful of other attendees singled out for a meet-and-greet with the Splits after the show, must figure out how to survive the night and shut down the robots before they turn the Williams’ body parts into their bloody playthings.
Over-the-top box copy: Showing admirable restraint, the only words on the front of the Blu-ray other than the title is the tagline “Tra la la terror!” Flip it over, and you get the not-terribly-inventive variant “Lights. Camera. Terror.” I guess someone really wanted to suggest this movie would elicit terror, which is a bold marketing stance for something called The Banana Splits Movie.
The descent: It’s not that I’m a big fan of the hokey Americana pleasures to be found in the sticky-floored palaces of amusement-park entertainments masquerading as children’s dinner theater, best embodied by the Chuck E. Cheese (full name: Charles Entertainment Cheese) and Showbiz Pizza franchises littering our nation’s exurban landscapes. (If any childless adult tells you they like spending quality time in those places, alert the authorities.) But I do have a weird nostalgia for the cut-rate animatronic performances that serve as the symbolic frontmen for those odd admixtures of Coney Island arcade games and germ-infested ball pits.
When I was growing up, I remember it as being a huge fucking deal any time a kid got lucky enough to host his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese; the rest of us would freak out and spend large amounts of time planning our escapades in the weird maze that seemed to stretch the entire range of the building, though it was probably only like 20 yards total. That nostalgic fondness for animatronics got parlayed into curiosity by the trailer for this movie. Like most people, I hadn’t heard of the Banana Splits, so discovering it was a real TV show added an extra frisson of interest, aided by the knowledge that these giant felt-covered creations would be straight-up murdering people.
The theoretically heavenly talent: Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the Banana Splits!! …No? Not ringing any bells? How about Dani Kind, a recurring guest star on Wynonna Earp? Nothing? Actually, animation fans might recognize the name and/or voice of Eric Bauza, a longtime voice actor who’s done everything from Phineas And Ferb to DuckTales and who currently voices Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and more for the new Looney Tunes. He voices the Splits themselves, who all sound semi-similar with robotic catchphrases they periodically spout, though not so often that I didn’t completely forget they could talk in between each announcement, meaning it startled the hell out of me each time some preprogrammed proclamation, ironically reclaimed for their killing spree, emitted from their flopping maws.
The execution: I have no idea if the makers of The Banana Splits Movie were contractually bound to deliver a film more or less 90 minutes in length (the movie premiered on Syfy, perfectly fitted to a two-hour programming block with commercials). But for all the fun of watching giant animatronic children’s characters gruesomely execute people, this thing drags. By the halfway point, there is exactly one murder; that is a very long walk for what’s basically a one-joke premise.
Still, I want to give The Banana Splits Movie credit for not pretending these are beloved icons we all know and love from childhood. Other than a quick opening sequence that introduces the TV show in a roughly faithful recreation of the original series, the movie doesn’t bother doing anything other than slotting them into a narrative that could have just as easily been done with original creations. Instead, we spend a little too much time dealing with the kitchen-sink drama of this family, enduring not one, but three endless scenes in which Beth and Austin monologue about the pain of dealing with losing their family some dozen years earlier, and how that’s affected their personalities. Spoiler alert: We don’t give a shit that Beth used to be brassier and now meekly accepts what life throws her way. We want to watch her murder animatronic animals.
Besides, the family dynamics are such that you can’t even believe these people are related, let alone have been living together their whole lives prior to the start of this movie. While Harley is actually super endearing, a huge nerd with no friends who you just want to hug and reassure it gets better, Dan Savage-style, the replacement husband, Mitch, is the kind of asshole so absurd, he seems more cartoonish than the Splits themselves. Here he is telling Harley—his own child, mind you, not his stepchild—that he’s too old to be calling him “Daddy.” On the kid’s birthday, bee tee dubs; father of the year, over here.
After a car ride to the studio lot where the Banana Splits show is filmed (and some of the lengthiest, most pointless automatic dialogue replacement conversations I’ve ever heard in a film, accompanied by deeply exciting shots of the family car turning left, then right, then ambling slowly through the parking lot—easy there, Michael Bay), we get to the audience line waiting to get in to the show, where we meet the other main characters: Paige, the show’s page (eye roll); a couple of wannabe social media influencers there to document their trip; and a stage dad there to push his tween daughter in front of producers in hopes of getting her on television. Mitch, per his presumable description in the script as “a total shithead, no other defining qualities,” continues to be the worst, but at least he’s so comically awful that it’s kind of funny at times. Here’s his response to his only son almost getting killed when he’s nearly run over by the Banana Splits mobile:
In addition to the aforementioned tedium of character drama sequences that go on way longer than they should, there’s a general malaise to the script that makes it feel shoddy and slapdash, like they couldn’t be bothered to come up with plausible reasons to drive the story forward. As a result, characters tend to do things for no logical reason other than for plotting. To wit, here’s a conversation about a producer saying he’s canceling a long-running and immensely popular and profitable show, for no other reason than he personally doesn’t care for it, a situation that has happened exactly zero times in the history of Hollywood.
They couldn’t have just included one line about how this weird and anachronistic children’s show was no longer popular? What, did the acquisition of rights to the characters include a line in the contract about how no one could suggest the Splits are anything less than America’s sweethearts? Perhaps, whenever the Splits aren’t onscreen, all the other characters could stand around saying, “Where’s the Splits?”
Once the show within the film is over, and no one’s left but our small group of lucky potential victims, things pick up a bit, simply because it’s fun watching these goofy-ass characters kill in gory ways. Drooper seems to take the lead, as he receives an update to his programming early on that features—mixed in among lines of code—the words “THE SHOW MUST GO ON” in giant red letters, letting us know these ’bots will continue to try and entertain by any means necessary. (If that was too subtle, the Splits’ engineer has also made it so that their eyes can turn red, murderbot-style, in the kind of nonsensical flourish that there should’ve frankly been more of, if they’re so intent on leaving rationality so far behind.) And once the deadly intent of the Splits becomes clear, some of the moments meant to create ominous tension are genuinely funny in their stupidity, like this scene of Mitch walking away, only to have the camera slowly pan in on Snorky watching malevolently in the distance.
But all of this is ultimately in service of the kills, and there are a few good ones. The sole human performer from the show (a surly drunk) gets killed via Drooper shoving an oversized novelty lollipop down his throat, and the stage dad gets a blowtorch to the face, made better by Drooper doing a little dance right in front of him as the guy burns. In general, however, it’s actually surprising how straight the movie plays these kills, with nary an arched eyebrow or moment of ironic distance to be found. It’s just gruesome murders of the variety you might find in any slightly over-the-top slasher film. Watch how somberly The Banana Splits Movie treats a social media douchebag getting bisected via a magician’s sawing-in-half box:
It’s too bad the pacing and stretched-out feel really do this movie in, because the occasional bright spots show the fun, disreputable potential lurking under the blandly polished sheen of the film. It ends, as seemingly every movie of this ilk must these days, with a blatant setup for a sequel. But for every macabre murder and portentous jump scare attempt, there’s a painfully drawn-out scene that could’ve used some judicious editing. The movie doesn’t seem to know if it wants to be funny or not, and it ends up in a muddled gray area that doesn’t lean efficiently into either comedy or horror. At least we’ll always have the incredibly weird and off-putting way that Paige pronounces “the Ba-NA-na Splits”:
Likelihood it will rise from obscurity: It’s just not enough fun to merit such recognition. I guess we’ll see if the eventual Five Nights At Freddy’s film manages this kind of material more effectively.
Damnable commentary track or special features: No commentary track. Instead, we get a few promo-style features of behind-the-scenes hype: one called “Behind the horror” talking about how much fun it was to make the film, another focused on the production design, and then a satirical two-minute news report about the events of the film: “Breaking News! The Banana Splits massacre.” This news segment breathlessly reports that “the casualties include hundreds of studio audience members.” That news team might get fact-checked, as I counted roughly 50 people watching the Banana Splits do their twee little dance routine.
259 Comments
As someone who remembers the Banana Splits TV show this has no doubt ruined my childhood and now i’m gonna sue!!Where do i send my suit?
To your local dry cleaners.
The tag says “dry clean only”. That means it’s dirty!
Maybe the tailors too to be let out if it hasn’t been worn since the 70’s.
Boy, the Banana Splits haven’t aged well, have they?–Joel Robinson, 503-Swamp Diamonds
I’m not sure The Banana Splits are as obscure as you think they are, Alex. Not a Dickies fan?Funnily enough, I saw the mentioned this weekend just gone, as someone said that Jurgen Klopp looked liked Bingo.Also, from the way you wrote that it just ooks like Paige pronounces ‘Banana’ the British way.
I only know the Banana Splits because of the theme song, but it’s a great theme song.
Bob Marley apparently liked it too, because that tra-la-la riff turns up in Buffalo Soldiers, which is too weird to be a coincidence but maybe it is I don’t know I need more coffee.
I was watching a documentary on Bob Marley once and realised he was spending a lot of time with a family with small children in London at the right time when the Banana Splits were on Saturday morning television. And spending his time stoned out of his brains, of course.
His family denied he ever ripped it off.Apparently this has come up before and they had to come out and state that he had never watched the show at all when he wrote Buffalo Soldiers.
Sure, but it only gets louder and louder and louder as it repeats over and over and over again in your head.** TRA LA LA, TRA LA-LA LA. TRA LA LA, TRA LA-LA LA!
The theme song is fine and memorable and all but it ain’t got nothing on this monster:
(A dozen or so years ago, I sang in a band which only performed covers of songs from cartoons and we came very close to skirting that concept so we could do this one.)
Wnow. And a dozen or so years ago I used to run a live 365 station that only played music from cartoons. I could have made you a star! (ok, maybe not, but I would have played your stuff! )
We never actually released any recordings as that would’ve run us up against copyright issues, but I appreciate the thought. Ultimately, it wasn’t copyrights which did us in, it was a trademark!
https://isthmus.com/music/trademark-tiff-the-outer-toons-drop-anvil-on-the-outtatoons/
(And while not mentioned in this article, despite being unaware of the existence of any other cartoon bands when we started — and we did look — we always billed ourselves as “The greatest cartoon song cover band in the Midwest!” so I was extra amused by this whole kerfuffle.)
Ok, that is a banger.
Bob Marley agrees.
I still want to know who poached motifs from whom: Bob Marley from the Banana Splits, or the other way around?
Yeah I feel like even though the show wasn’t on when I was you they showed the music numbers in between Saturday morning cartoons for years and years, well into the 80 and maybe early 90s. Plus they were a staple of the early Cartoon Network late night content. Even before Adult Swim, Cartoon Network has figured out their late night demographic was drunks and stoners and bored 20 somethings and the Banana Splits was a perfect thing to show during those time slots
I knew it, you are a shapeshifter!
No, I’m not…You are the shapeshifter!! Shoot him!!
No, I’m the real Riker! Shoot him!
Between the CN airings and the Saturday Morning Cartoons’ Greatest Hits album, lots of 90s kids probably remember them. Just a few weeks ago I watched two different shows or movies within like a day of each other that referenced the theme song, one was Legion, can’t remember the other.
I don’t think the Splits are overall obscure, It’s just that the overlap in audience between them and Five Nights at Freddy’s is (or at least was) really small.
Liz Phair does a kickass version as well from the truly wonderful cartoon theme song cover album Saturday Morning (which is about the most 90s thing EVER).
That CD is so great.
I honestly can’t believe some of the bands they got to contribute, especially with it being such a silly concept (that totally works).
Honestly, the real terror here is that the yout’s may not know who the Banana Splits are. Makes me realise how Boomers feel when kids don’t know who The Beatles are.
Yeah I remember them because in the 90s Cartoon Network was oddly obsessed with them. For a short while they were heavily featured and imprinted into my young brain.
I would never have guessed there were so few episodes. The show originally aired before I was born but I definitely knew who they were.
My lord were Sid and Marty Krofft weird (and even better, claimed there were no subtextual drug references in any of their shows).
They were obligated to deny the drug references – they were producing content for network TV in the 60s after all.The awesome part is that anyone believed them.
But they STILL deny it, at least as of the most recent interview I read a few years ago. PufNStuf? Lidsville??
Wait, really? I guess… good on them for sticking to their guns?
I heard an interview with Butch Patrick where he says one of the brothers got his ideas for the varied shows by going to the beach and sitting for hours on acid.
That makes a hell of a lot more sense.
I’m okay with believing them. Some folks have decent imaginations, and at the heart of it most of what they were doing was generic slapstick in cartoon-inspired costumes.
they were on cartoon network when i was a kid, in the late 80s early 90sEDIT: saw someone else say this after, liked their post, don’t know why i can’t delete this one :
Yeah, I remember the Banana Splits vividly from my childhood. Never heard of HR Pufinstuff or Five Nights at Freddy’s… guess it’s a generational thing.
HR Pufinstuff is of the same vintage as the Banana Splits, though. It is best known for two lawsuits — one against the Krofts by Paul Simon (the theme song tune intro “H.R. Pufinstuff. Who’s your friend when things get rough?” is basically a copy of his “Feeling Groovy”), and one by the Krofts against McDonald’s (the McDonaldland characters like Grimace and the Fry Guys look an awful lot like Pufinstuff characters).
The early versions do: I actually remember when the McDonaldland characters went away and came back in way-toned-down form. For years I detested the bland, cutesy Hamburglar who replaced the original, who looked like a creepy, distorted Bruce Dern from Hell.
I believe that the Krofts also tried to sue the producers of ”Barney.” I don’t think it went well.
I can see their point!
My guess is a lot of people know the song and have heard of the show but couldn’t tell you much about it.
That’s correct. The Article itself implies that while the show didn’t produce many episodes, it was on TV in syndication for 14 years, which doesn’t include when Cartoon Network stared airing it again in the 90’s. They even tried to reboot it in the late 2000s. While it’s by no means huge, I’m sure the name along dragged a fair amount of people in.
The other place they have shown up recently is when they appeared with the Suicide Squad in a comic book in 2017. James Gunn, you have your next sequel!
I always thought Billie Piper looked like Bingo.
I can see that.
I see your Dickies, and raise with….
Also, from the way you wrote that it just ooks like Paige pronounces ‘Banana’ the British way.If you can watch the video embedded after the writeup (understandably some people can’t if they’re at work, say), it’s not the British/Aussie/Kiwi way like ba-NAW-naw, it’s the American pronunciation but with a really weird emPHAsis. Trying to transliterate it without any actual phonetic alphabet, it’d be like “introducing the… b’NANNA splits.”
I think that Banana Splits are probably recognizable to a very specific sliver of the population but it’s not like we are discussing a bigger name… Compare the number of people that remember them to the number of people that would recognize Scooby doo. Trust me – the Banana Splits are dinky in comparison. Not totally forgotten because, come on – the theme song is too catchy – but certainly not a property that can be said to be in the cultural awareness like other ones.
I daresay the Banana Splits probably have a far larger pop cultural footprint than Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Cant wait to see what they do to the Bug-a-loosThough I am still, STILL holding out for Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space.
They can do whatever they want to the Bugaloos, just make sure Joy brings, uh, joy to a new generation of preteen boys.
and baby drag queens
As an old I’m sad but also thrilled that you named two of my favorite shows from when I was a kid. Me, I’m holding out for a gritty reboot of “The Space Nuts” myself. Also, in the Pussycats in Outer Space movie Gleep becomes a murderous killing machine.
That’s FAR OUT Space Nuts to you!
I thought that show was a fever dream for a while…I had only seen it for a year or so in re-runs as a kid and I forgot about it until seeing an old commercial on YouTube for the regional NY channel it ran on. Then it all came flooding back to me, although I’m pretty sure the show wasn’t too great. I loved The Bug-A-Loos a ton, to say nothing of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Puf ‘n’ Stuff and Lidsville.
I remember watching H.R. Puf’n’Stuff back in the 70s. I always had two questions about it:1. Just what was that stuff Those folks werre puffing when they made that show?2. Where can I find some? I wanna see what happens if I do.
1. Just what was that stuff Those folks werre puffing when they made that show? Oddly enough, harmless tobacco supplied by Mr. Burns while pretending to be Wavy Gravy2. Where can I find some? I wanna see what happens if I do. – Just wait for the next white guy reggae band to swing by your town. Pretty sure that terrible Sublime with Rome band is always on tour so…
I’ve seen the Splits and HR rerun, but never Lidsville. I really wanted to after the X-Files “Jose Chung” episode.
Lidsville is just as odd and disturbing as the rest of the Krofft stuff, but with the bonus of Charles Nelson Reilly…
I’ve found my people! How about Lost Saucer and Dr. Shrinker. These shows only ran for a year between Sept 75 to Sept 76′ which is probably why no one remembers them. Anyone ever visit The World of Sid and Marty Krofft at the Omni in Atlanta?
I have a friend who went there – he was young though, and his memories are vague.
I said “lunch” not “launch”!
The first kids show to feature a female president.
My middle daughter watched it…it wasn’t bad but it lacks the sheer off the wall of the 70’s one.
Me, I’m holding out for a gritty reboot of “The Space Nuts” myself.Scene 1Barney: “I said ‘lunch’ dammit! We’re screwed!”Junior: “Why in motherfucking hell is the button for ‘Lunch’ right next to the button for ‘Launch!?’ What complete fucking asshole designed this ship?”Honk: [To himself] “These fucking guys. I’d kill and eat them while they sleep, but they probably taste like moist Cheetos.”
I’d watch that for a dollar!
Why is there even a button for lunch?
We already had a parody like that with Nibbler in futurama – I’ve prefer him to be a sentient Farscape-esque 3-dimensional character. Though I could see Gleep & Melody as star-crossed lovers (though Melody always came across like a pre-Riverdale Jughead – completely oblivious to romantic intentions).
Jabber Jaw or nothing!
“STILL holding out for Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space.”Considering what’s going on with the titles at Archie Comics, your wish may come true sooner than you’d expect.
What stuff? Do you mean the modern artistic revamp in 2015? Or Chilling Sabrina’s horror roots?
That, and the dramatic swing in the storylines.And, of course, the boardroom drama that has been festering since 2010 between the Goldwater and Silberklett families. Jon Goldwater wanted to move the characters and titles into the formats they now inhabit; Nancy Silberklett wanted to keep things as they were. Goldwater convinced a court to bar Silberklett out of the company; and they settled around 2015.
No Dr. Shrinker, no peace! But big budget – with Brian Cox and Warrick Davis.
Holy shit, Dr Shrinker! I haven’t thought of that in over 40 years!I’m going to see if my Shogun Warriors and Micronauts are still around
I’m holding out for the Super Globetrotters.
I think I saw a porn version of Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space a while back. Like 10 years ago. I’d search pornhub and post a link here, but i fear the repercussions.
better box copy: One banana, two banana, three banana, GORE!
You 100% deserve an EP credit on this movie, as you’ve clearly put more effort into it than anyone who was involved.Back in the early 90s we were all over my buddy’s place watching TV (not drunk/stoned/etc, just watching the tube), and as my then-GF was leaving, she asked me to call her apartment in 30 minutes to make sure she got home (pre-cell-phone era). After she left, we found a “Banana Splits Meltdown” marathon playing on TBS, and watched, entranced, for faaaaaar longer than that 30 minutes.The next morning, as I tried to explain to my girlfriend exactly what I was watching that was so damn diverting? Yeah, that went about as well as you’d expect…
Tra-la-la-TRIAGE
As much as a giant fucking mistake as this project was, this is actually pretty clever.
Nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah.
Pay this man!
This is pure genius! Give up your day job immediately…Unless your dayjob is writing promo blurb for movies, in which case demand a 20% pay rise!
I saw this in a Walmart and had to go home and check if I was actually remembering what the original Banana Splits was, or if my brain had some wires crossed.I think the issue with any Five Nights At Freddy would be matching the tone to the audience.. Most of the merchandise seems targeted towards a younger crowd, so they probably couldn’t go hard-R with it. I know my 9 year old absolutely loves it, despite never having been allowed to actually play any of the games.
Weeell… the new FNAF movie is being handled by a studio known for taking horror a bit far.Still, it’s conceivable it won’t be rated R – especially given that the games themselves aren’t all that inappropriate in the first place.
I dunno, man. It’s obviously no FNAF (which I maintain is still really scary once you get past the oversaturation), but I’ll always get a little shiver over evil theme park mascots/animatronics.
This is fucking wild and weird. I only remember The Banana Splits as weird segments from Cartoon Planet. It freaked me out back then and I guess my opinion of them haven’t changed much today.
I too remember them from Cartoon Planet (and later, the Boomerang Channel). It always weirded me out that the Banana Splits were seemingly the only living creatures in their world, and that they never ran into a single human.
I can think of at least one time they encountered a human within the show, when their rivals the Sour Grapes Gang sent some creepy little dancer girl to deliver a message.
Here it is!
Thank you!
There were also two little girls who played down the street.
Yep and they also played the guitar, the Dilly Sisters. Some say they were born in Mexico, but somehow sang in perfect english. Tarara-bom-de-ay!They also had a talent to pop up in the strangest places. Fleegle and Drooper loved them and enjoyed their cheesy, cutesy singing.
“Hold the bus! HOOOO-OLD. THE. BUS!”
The anthology horror show Channel Zero has a season about an 80’s tv show exactly like this one. Only the kids of a small town remember it and it drives them to murder.Pretty entertaining.
I don’t know if it was a British thing, but they were a big deal for a while over here. Mainly for the cartoons – Arabian Knights and The Three Musketeers iirc, plus some weird island adventure (“Uh-oh, Jungo!” was a catchphrase I think) – but the Splits were popular too. I’ve got a beany of one of them knocking around somewhere.
Kid’s TV over here was pretty staid in the ‘70s – TBS was practically punk rock for us.
You’re thinking of “Danger Island” which was the live action segment of the Splits. States guy here who grew up in the 70’s and I remember them being a semi-big deal as well, albeit in re-runs. In the early 80’s the USA channel was punk rock for us suburban kids in the states as we got Night Flight, Groovy Movies and USA Up All Night as alternatives to the John Hughes pablum.
You didn’t mention that Richard Donner directed the “Danger Island” segments. Are you new to the internet?
I’m nerdy but not THAT nerdy….
But it’s the law!
*I* am the Law.
Yeah but I fought the law AND I won…
#notmyjudge
*I* am the Lrrr, ruler of Omicron Persei 8!
Before the vid loaded i thought you were making a reference to the character “The Law” in Video Game High School reference
You’re hardly in a position to talk, have forgotten to mention Jan-Michael Vincent!
Aiso, it starred a young Jan-Michael Vincent.OOPS-someone already said this.
I’m old enough to have seen the show when it aired – at least a few times. All I remember from it was Danger Island which starred Jan-Michael Vincent. Oh, plus a cute girl in a red blouse. (Just looked her up, she was Ronne Troup, daughter of Bobby Troup who was singer-songwriter-actor; he wrote “Route 66″.)Danger Island (which I only just realized was a different thing from Land of the Lost) seemed to want to be a live-action Jonny Quest. It failed at that, I’m gonna say because it didn’t have pterodactyls, although maybe it did. I was just looking at Ronne Troup.
I real vaguely remember Danger Island, although I can remember the Banana Splits host segments better for some reason.Like any 70’s kid I LOVED Land of the Lost (and Jason of Star Command, and any other live action show that was on Saturday Mornings)
Jason of Star Command. I loved that show as well.Remember to raise a glass for Sid Haig, who played Dragos. He passed last week.RIP, Sid.
I don’t know if Danger Island was ever aired in order after the Splits’ original run; the ones I saw in 70s-80s reruns never made a bit of sense, likely due to being aired in totally random order.
I was too young for the original run, but do remember it being a staple Saturday morning show in the UK during the 70s. It was broadcast in the summer covering for live UK shows taking a break.
I’m a 90s kid and Channel 4 would air The Banana Splits just before the Big Breakfast, pretty sure they’re on the pop culture radar of a decent chunk of British millennials as a result. They are infinitely better known than HR Pufnstuf in the UK, that’s for sure.
Kid’s TV over here was pretty staid in the ‘70sSally James getting creamed by the lads on live TV was staid????Also…
Heh – that must have been a later rerun. This was about 1970 iirc. TV was so boring that I ended up falling in love with test-card girl (it was age appropriate at the time).
The Banana Splits show was a pretty big deal in Canada as well when it was made. I can (just) remember watching it when it originally aired, although was more familiar with it in reruns, when The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn aired during the show. The theme song is almost unbearably catchy and memorable, and is now lodged in my head, so – thanks?
I think it was “Uh-oh, Chongo!” and Jan-Michael Vincent(RIP) was the blonde kid.
I loved, loved, loved and still love this show. This show was crack to me as a child. I still use “Rosan Kobar!” and say dumb shit like “Size… of elephant!” Shit will never get old for me.
/sparksafatty/na na na, nanana na, na na na, nanana naHaving said all that, I can’t say I really want to see this film. I don’t mind that it exists, I’m not one of “those” people… but it saddens me… such lovable characters gone so dark and reduced to soul-less robots. /bleh 🙁
I watched The Banana Splits in VCR in the late 90’s/earlt 2000’s. Loved the Banana Splits (hated them bullying the droopy elephant but also found the elephant creepy so i was emotiinallt divided). Loved 3 Musketeers & Arabian Knights but hated Danger Island.
Back in UK 1968, The Banana Splits were a BIG thing.
and equally, I’ve never even heard of Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Chongo. UH oh, CHONGO!
I’m surprised that Banana Splits are considered obscure to people who professionally report on pop culture. FWIW, they were not animatronic, just guys in costumes. The show was peppered with running cartoons such as Gulliver’s Travels, my first introduction to Swift. The Dickies covered the theme song. They have a decent pop culture footprint.
I remember the Banana Splits but i’m not sure one show from 1970 and a The Dickies cover song gets them out of obscurity. It wasn’t always obscure, but it definitely faded there after time. Most people are just not aware.
In this film they are definitely animatronic for whatever reason
Easier to establish blind murderous intent. & makes the B. Splits more durable to chainsaw attack.
I love the Splits and this is what hurts me most about this movie… that the Banana Splits have been reduced from living beings to soul-less animatronic robots. I hate it. 🙁
I consider myself pretty well-versed in culture (pop and otherwise) and I’ve never even heard of the Banana Splits; but part of that might be that I find everything I’ve ever seen by the Kroffts immensely off-putting and go out of my way to avoid them. (It’s possible I’ve read some mention of the Banana Splits in some article at some point and then had my memory erased.)
Same here. The first time I’d ever heard of them was when this movie was announced. I’m guessing they weren’t a thing here in Canada. A lot of people from the comments seem to know them from the Cartoon Network in the 90’s. We didn’t that channel here.
I’d offer that some of it *is* generational, in that anyone who grew up in the 70s – we are all middle aged now – probably remembers it as the Splits was a “bumper” between a lot of shows. It was basically a way for UHF channels to fill time with minimal cost, like a lot of other cartoons that got a kind of second life in syndication.
I mean, my friends’ kids talk about cartoons that I never hear of either, even though I know they are a pretty big deal in that demographic. (If I had kids I’d probably know them better)
I think it’s definitely generational. Born in 1986 and the Banana Splits are definitely in my pop culture blindspot, and I actually watched reruns of H.R. Pufnstuf as a kid.
For some reason my post is now in three places, and I can’t delete it. Sorry.
Correction: Zoe is a girl, played by actress Maria Nash…
I’m this movies target audience in that I vividly remember watching and loving the Banana Splits as a child. They were re-run all the time on my local channel in NY during the 70’s. “Danger Island” also had a young Jan Michael Vincent chilling on it.And yet…this sounds pretty terrible and I probably won’t bother.
And yet…this sounds pretty terribleI have to admit, it doesn’t sound like lots of fun for everyone!
I think the review nailed it on the head in that you could remove the Splits at any point and make it a generic horror film.
I think the review nailed it on the head in that you could remove the Splits at any point and make it a generic horror film. I think so too, and I for one would have been more likely to watch the movie. The notion that the evil characters could be the Banana Splits would make a nice inside joke, and they could have saved money by not buying the rights.
Jan Michael Vincent was the best part of Danger Island!
Hey, don’t disrespect Dani Kind! She is quite funny in Workin’ Moms
I’m guessing the movie ends with Bill Brasky stalking and killing all four Banana Splits with a machete. They all beg for their lives. Except Fleegle.
Bill Brasky gave me three beautiful children!
(…and four ugly ones. But we don’t discuss the Basement Children.)
And Snorky, who never spoke anyway.
Essentially, the Banana Splits were in TERRIBLE skits that were bumpers to cartoons. But they had great, classic voiceover work and a theme song easily in the top 10 of all time. It’s so good that it shows up randomly in movies (Kick Ass, Boss Baby off the top of my head) with no context and very limited possibility anyone recognizes it.
I didn’t think I’d heard that song, but when it got to the second set of Tra-La-La-La’s I knew exactly what the melody was going to be. So either it’s something deep in childhood, or somebody else borrowed that melody. Now that’s going to be on my mind all day.
Got it – it’s a similar melody to the chorus of the Bob Marley song “Buffalo Soldier.” I guess Bob was a fan.
No mention of the Sour Grapes? They could’ve saved the day!
When I first heard this, I thought they’d be doing the murdering.
I do like how the biggest name attached to this film is Patrick Stump off Fall Out Boy. Also can’t wait for the eventual crossover between this and Mr. Blobby.
I read that last paragraph and was completely unrelated for the insane way that was says Banana Splits. The only fucking robot here is her.
I loved the Banana Splits as a kid. Kick ass theme song (I’d probably rank it top 5 all time), and I will always remember the show for one piece of personal trivia: it was the first VHS tape my family ever rented.
Damn, the Banana Splits, The Brady Bunch, and Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey. King’s Island is a celebrity destination.
Unless that was some billion-dollar animatronic tech, the original Banana Splits wasn’t animatronic but just a bunch of people wearing giant mascot costumes. I guess that would have been a different kind of horror-comedy movie, but it probably wouldn’t have been any better.
I was hoping for black magic and demons, not stupid robots.
The people in the costumes could be revealed to be held captive at the studio and over the decades completely brainwashed, with the same directive – the show must go on.
To some extent that essentially becomes the episode of Angel where he’s accidentally turned into a muppet?
The animatronic thing is probably the most clear indicator that this was conceived of as a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie.
I obviously can’t speak for the execution, not having seen it, but the concept is pretty stellar. The Banana Splits are in the exact right zone for this — they’re nostalgic enough, yet not beloved, so you’re not doing unspeakable things to anyone’s childhood. In fact, all Krofft creations are pretty creepy. They could do a whole shared horror cinematic universe of them. Too bad it sounds like they didn’t quite pull it off.
Obscure Animatronic.. Wha…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rock-afire_Explosion
They should do this with Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp. I’d watch a bunch of mangy geriatric chimpanzees in leisure suits ripping people apart!
Now that I have the entire series on DVD. So many bad puns!
After a car ride to the studio lot where the Banana Splits show is filmed (and some of the lengthiest, most pointless automatic dialogue replacement conversations I’ve ever heard in a film, accompanied by deeply exciting shots of the family car turning left, then right, then ambling slowly through the parking lot—easy there, Michael Bay)Are you sure you weren’t watching the first hour-plus of Death Proof?
Or Manos: The Hands of Fate.
To be fair this sounds like a couple more shots of a car turning than in Manos, but I’ll wait until this is on MST3k to find out.
I like Death Proof a lot, and I think there’s good stuff in that first hour… but nobody should ever have to watch Eli Roth act. The movie really picks up steam once the real cast takes over.
I guess my question is; why they couldn’t just use the same story for their 5 nights knock-off and avoid the whole relationship with “that” show. Why? Just, why? It’s not even a good name. I’m truly having a hard time reconciling this.
They are going to have a huge lawsuit waiting for them someone realizes this is all surveillance footage from Chuck E. Cheese’s.
less people know whatever the fuck five nights at freddys is
My thoughts exactly.
This looks like one of those films that’s trying way too hard to be too many different things. There’s a half-baked message about the dangers of nostalgia, a crappy Tarantino riff on violence in pop culture, a winking horror comedy, but then also completely-straight horror and a legit attempt at family drama? Too many cooks, man.
Also, Dani Kind was pretty fun when she popped up on Wynonna Earp. It’s a reminder of how much of a shitty struggle being an actor is for most performers.
I hope a streaming service picks this up. Totally in Netflix’s line. B-movie esque, but interesting pretenses. Just watched Hell House LLC the other night, that was a pretty good one to get pepped for Halloween season!
I see they clearly didn’t try to make the human-controlled suits robotic enough. just looks like loose suits on skinny guys. At least I thought they’re supposed to be robots lol.
They should have gone with:“We tra la la tried.”
You’re showing your age, Alex, and your ignorance. Don’t assume just because YOU haven’t heard of the tv show, that it is ‘a property almost no one knows about’, remembered ‘by a small cadre of fans’. It was huge in the UK, and as a 56 year old I still remember it fondly. And if it was so obscure, why did The Dickies make a song about it, a song that got to no 7 in the UK charts?
Yep, his insistence that TBS are obscure is absurd.
To wit, here’s a conversation about a producer saying he’s canceling a
long-running and immensely popular and profitable show, for no other
reason than he personally doesn’t care for it, a situation that has
happened exactly zero times in the history of Hollywood.Yet I seem to encounter fans on the internet all the time who are sure that’s why one of their favorite shows got cancelled. On TV Tropes, if I recall correctly that would be “Screwed by the Network”.
Uh, forgetting CBS’s “rural purge” are we?
I think those became less profitable once advertisers started paying based on demographics rather than pure headcount.
But it still fits the criteria of “we’re too good to be making these rube shows”.
Indeed. It remains unclear to me whether that was just arrogance on the part of CBS management, or whether there were marketing/demographic justifications that weren’t clearly data-justified, simply because there wasn’t as much audience data to be parsed back then.
I have to give them credit. They are finding new ways to rape my childhood memories.
Honestly, with the differences they made to what constitutes The Banana Splits Show in movie, and how little time they spend on the show part anyway, it’s more like a bunch of hairy actors you liked as a kid are now starring in a completely different project. None of the extra stuff that made the Splits special (set design, rad bubblegum jams) gets too much of a look in during the horror section.It’s not bad, it’s just way more of a Five Nights… film than a Splits one.
At least I’m getting fucked, that’s all I ask.
CHILDHOOD RUINED!
It may have never happened in Hollywood, but I’m pretty sure “the new exec hated the popular show” is exactly why Doctor Who went off the air in the ‘80s.I’ll admit this thing sounds like it commits the additional sin of trying to be a serial-numbers-filed-off version of a property that doesn’t even understand the appeal of said property to begin with. The FNaF crew aren’t just homicidal monsters: there’s an element of tragedy to them. Some of them would be legitimately charming if circumstances didn’t result in them trying to jumpscare you to death. (At least, by some strange irony, they are somehow less uncanny valley terrifying than the animatronics which inspired them!)
Like most people, I hadn’t heard of the Banana Splits,And then you wonder why the world views Millennials as incompetent fuck-ups who should keep their opinions to themselves???
I hope they sing: “You’re the birthday, you’re the birthday…boy or girl!”
And now we know why Scott Cawthon turned down a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. Avoiding a trainwreck…big props Scott Cawthon!!!
As others have said, The Banana Splits really aren’t that obscure.Legion’s nod to the show recently was great.But, this movie was godawful. Needless to say, I loved it
Yes, this movie came out of them losing the Five Nights at Freddys rights.They just went into the Hanna Barbara library.
“…canceling a long-running and immensely popular and profitable show, for no other reason than he personally doesn’t care for it, a situation that has happened exactly zero times in the history of Hollywood.”This is basically what happened to Doctor Who though.
I enjoyed the hell out of it, honestly. It could have been far, far worse for a slasher movie about the Banana Fucking Splits. An aggressively silly, shoestring budget splatter flick was exactly what I wanted out of it, and it delivered on that. I’m also endlessly amused by the fact that the Sid & Marty Krofft canon technically now includes a gorefest like this. Actually, I hope it sets a precedent and kicks off a small wave of movies with a similar premise. H.R. Snuff N’ Stuff. Land of the Lost Limbs. D.C. Follies But With Knives.
How were Sid and Marty Croft “svengalis”? Who exactly was the person they exerted excessive control over?
What constitutes “ironic distance” here? I feel like there’s some darkly funny contrast between making a girl watch her boyfriend(?)’s intestines spill out and forcing her to be an accomplice, yet wrapping that up with jazz hands. It’s impressively grim compared to the clips featuring the kids that all skew a little more goofy.
Every Gremlins deserves a Critters, and every Critters deserves a Hobgoblins.
and every Puppet Master deserves a Demonic Toys
I refuse to be Orca to your JAWS!
And every Jurassic Park its Carnosaur. Fun fact about Carnosaur — it starred Diane Ladd, Laura Dern’s mother. They should make it a rule that knockoff movies need to star a parent of an actor in the real movie.
Here’s a pro reviewing tip: If a film is an adaptation of an existing property that you’ve never heard of, maybe go around the office and pass it off to somebody that has heard of them. The banana splits are world famous…. everybody knows who they are.
It needed some gratuitous nudity. Aren’t all low budget horror movies contractually bound to have gratuitous nudity?
“In other words, the first question to be asked is, why take a property almost no one knows about—especially the target audience for this film, assuming they’re courting people under 40—and make a movie that seems to assume anyone watching knows what it’s sending up?” You have to appreciate the very open ageism of this piece. Should be over 40 not be courted?
The Banana Splits were apart of Cartoon Network’s programming somewhere in the late 90’s. That’s how I, someone under 40, remember watching episodes.
I didn’t watch the Banana Splits as a kid but I honestly do feel kinda… disappointed by this? Just the basic concept of taking an actual kid’s show property and making it a horror thing feels wrong, even if the show in question was very long ago and not that popular. Not that this film seems to have turned out scary at all (though arguably that’s worse, because if you’re gonna do this you may as well make a good horror film at least.)Surprised that the Krofft estate was down for it. They in financial trouble or what?
So no one here watches Workin Moms?? No one at all, just me? Shame……..
Could we please, next, get a psychosexual drama Lars Von Trier style starring The New Zoo Review? Please and Thank you.
The “New Zoo Review”! Sometimes, I feel as if I only dreamt it…Nope. Google confirms it. (Image searches. The only reason I ever run Chrome… I hate how Facebook have invaded Image Search flyouts. Hate it. Despicable. Oh, wait…wrong children’s programming…)ETA: does anyone else get Lars Von Trier and Joachim Trier confused? I mean, I’ve watched Well. There’s dark, and then there’s dark.
So this is a “Must Watch” film? Yeah, and they aren’t that obscure. Did you know that “Doin’ the Banana Splits” and “Adam Had ‘Em” were sung by Frank Zappa vocalist Rick Lancelot? (50-50, Zomby Woof). Anyway, I loved the Splits when I was a kid.
And “Doin’ the Banana Split” was written by Barry White! https://youtu.be/OD5lqTIL6mk
Do they even acknowledge that the Banana Splits were guys in costumes and not robots?Either way, I can’t wait for the guys from Rifftrax to get a hold of this.
Likely not since this is literally the FNAF film with the names changed.
I’ve never seen the Banana Splits so disgracefully slandered. This is a new low for the AV Club, who’ve somehow found a way to sink lower than the Kinjapocalypse. I look forward to 50 years from now when Disney-Univision revives the AV Club as a horror movie. You deserve it.
Well, The Onion Movie was a beloved cinema classic, so who knows?
I just saw this a few days ago in a discount rack for under $5 and am now regretting not picking it up.It would fit perfectly with Southland Tales and my other “movies I show people I want to never interact with again”
They aren’t too obscure. I mean the Simpsons mocked them once. When Krusty dies, Kent Brockman says to a protest of kids sitting down, “I haven’t seen kids this depressed since the small plane crash, that killed the Banana Splits.”
Next year we get: Beanie & Cecil: Blood in the water
I was so excited for this movie. I know that sounds insane, but The Banana Splits were a big influence on me. I was 4 and 5 when they first aired, and hopped up on late 60s cereal.The director’s (Danishka Esterhazy) previous film (Level 16) was one of my favorites of 2018. So my expectations were high for this film.
There’s a mad scientist laboratory scene in “KISS Meets The Phantom” where the severed head of “Fleagle” can be seen sitting on a shelf.
My godfather, who remembers EVERY show he worked on, has no recollection of the Banana Splits. This, despite the fact they gave me bleacher seats for the Macy’s Day Parade the year they were the featured performers. He remembers it as Dennis the Menace giving me the seats, despite the fact I’m too young for that. I remember loving the show, along with the swag that was for PR purposes only, and thus coveted by my peers, but little else about the actual show, save the theme song. I’d bet many of my peers are in the same boat, but we’ll all try to watch this at some point for the nostalgia.
Holy shit, I need to see this movie. When I was a toddler, I had cups with their images on them and remember all those scenes on tv of them sliding down those weird amusement park slope ride thingies. To see them as homicidal killers today would be damn hilarious and awesome.
To wit, here’s a conversation about a producer saying he’s canceling a long-running and immensely popular and profitable show, for no other reason than he personally doesn’t care for it, a situation that has happened exactly zero times in the history of Hollywood.Isn’t that basically what happened to The Beverly Hillbillies? Long running show, still got decent ratings, but the network decided to ax its “rural” shows for hipper fare?
I was spot-on demo when the Banana Splits hit the airwaves. They were trying to obtain nuclear fusion by accelerating atoms of Laugh In, The Monkeys, the then relatively obscure work of Sid and Marty Kroft, and a mashup of HHanna-Barbara’s patented pseudo-Johnny Questicle action-adventurism and anthropomorphic trash pandas and smashing them together. Of course, we ate it up.
Now see here, you young whippersnapper. There was a time when Hanna-Barbera was THE name in television entertainment. And given the way that they recycled all of their properties and licensed and syndicated them, there’s no way you could actually escape them. I didn’t see the Splits during their initial broadcast, but I’d seen merch and of course knew the song. So when it started turning up on Turner properties in the 80’s and 90’s, I was already aware of it. For a website that dwells on pop culture minutae, you would think you would be better informed. It’s like in 40 years time thinking the MCU wasn’t a big deal.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen the comment here, but the premise of the headline is slightly off.WB DID have the Five Nights at Freddy’s license. The movie WAS in development.Then Scott Cawthorn, not sure exactly why, revoked the license. Since the movie was already well into production, WB took the script, changed some terms around, and made The Banana Splits Movie.
Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this but the character of Zoe is a little girl played by a little girl… reviewer refers to Zoe as “him” 👍
You know, I’ve never been a huge fan of any of Sid and Marty Croft’s output (guess I’m just not on their wavelength), but as others have noted, the author seems to be working just a wee bit overtime to sell us all on the idea that the Banana Splits are an “obscure” pop culture product. Because I’ve got too much time on my hands, I thought I would try and parse out all the times he says this:1. “The Banana Splits, by
contrast, was an extremely short-lived Saturday morning children’s variety
program that ran for only 31 episodes, from 1968 to 1970, then played
intermittently in syndication until 1982.”[Editorial note: I guess this is a novel comment for a guy who writes for a freaking media site, but “syndication” refers to the process by which television stations pay the owner of a program for the rights to show it on their station, in the hopes that its popularity will lead to increased ad sales. It thus makes very little sense for said stations to have paid for a property over the course of 12 years, if it was essentially an obscure, niche product.Furthermore, the author’s decision to call the show’s 31 episode one “extremely short-lived” also shows his naivete. In past years it was actually fairly common to produce a children’s’ show for roughly the same amount of episodes as one or two seasons of an adult program, and then sell it off into syndication.]
2. “In other
words, the first question to be asked is, why take a property almost no one
knows about.”[See comment above, and also add that when you make sweeping but essentially impossible to verify assertions about what “people” or “anyone” or “no one” knows, wants, thinks, etc., you seldom sound very intelligent.]
3. “It is
mostly remembered by a small cadre of fans of weird-TV Svengalis Sid and Marty
Krofft, who also created the better-known H.R. Pufnstuf.”4. “[E]specially
the target audience for this film, assuming they’re courting people under
40—and make a movie that seems to assume anyone watching knows what it’s
sending up? The answer, one would have to assume, is, ‘Because we couldn’t get
the rights to Five Nights At Freddy’s.’”
5. “The movie
takes place in a world where The Banana Splits was never canceled; the
show just carried on, year after year, somehow surviving (with inexplicable
popularity, no less)…”6. “Ladies and
gentlemen, presenting the Banana Splits!! …No? Not ringing any bells?”7. “Still, I
want to give The Banana Splits Movie credit for not pretending these
are beloved icons we all know and love from childhood.”8. “They
couldn’t have just included one line about how this weird and anachronistic children’s
show was no longer popular?”
All the stars for you. I noticed how hard the author tried to relegate the BS’s to obscurity. Won’t work though, just makes him look like a douchetool with an agenda or something. “It wasn’t a part of my childhood, so it’s not important”.
To wit, here’s a conversation about a producer saying he’s canceling a
long-running and immensely popular and profitable show, for no other
reason than he personally doesn’t care for it, a situation that has
happened exactly zero times in the history of Hollywood.
Well, maybe not exactly like that, but it hasn’t always been about profit and popularity…During the 1966–1967 television season, Gilligan’s Island
aired on Monday nights at 7:30 p.m. Though the sitcom’s ratings had
fallen well out of the top-30 programs, during the last few weeks of its
third season, the series was more than holding its own against its
chief competitor, The Monkees, which aired at the same time on NBC-TV. Therefore, CBS assured Sherwood Schwartz that Gilligan’s Island would definitely be picked up for a fourth year.
CBS, however, had signaled its intention to cancel the long-running Western series Gunsmoke,
which had been airing late on Saturday nights during the 1966–1967
television season. Under pressure from CBS network president William S. Paley and his wife Babe, along with many network affiliates and longtime fans of Gunsmoke, CBS rescheduled the Western to an earlier time slot on Monday evenings at 7:30 p.m. As a result, Gilligan’s Island
was quietly cancelled at practically the last minute, while the cast
members were all on vacation. Some of the cast had bought houses near
the set, based on Sherwood Schwartz’s verbal confirmation that the
series would be renewed for a fourth season.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilligan%27s_Island#Cancellation
I thought this was so funny when I was eight years old that I remember it 50 years later.Banana Split 1 answers the phone, listens for a second or two:“You don’t say.” Listens again.Repeat. Repeat. Banana Split 1 hangs up.Banana Split 2: “Who was it?”“He didn’t say.”
I loved the Banana Splits. They were must see TV for me growing up. I think you underestimate how many people my age loved them
for not pretending these are beloved icons we all know and love from childhood.Sez you. I enjoyed watching them when I was a kid.
Fun fact: This IS the Five Night’s at Freddy’s movie we almost got.The studio got so tired of the long FNAF rewrite hell that they took one of the early FNAF scripts and, to get something out of their effort, licensed the Banana Splits on the cheap and did some hasty script editing.
Ah, Alex once again mistakes his own lack of knowledge or interest in an IP as universal. One of these days he will hopefully STOP pretending that his own pop culture schema is EVERYONE’s pop culture schema.Backdraft is awesome you dick.
Liz Phair also covered the opening song, as well … the video shows how truly bizarre the show was:
Also, it isn’t 100% a given than ADR stands for automated dialogue replacement. There’s also additional dialogue recording. Or variations thereof. So when referencing ADR, just say ADR.
I expected more but this article ended being another biased, apologetical, ‘out with the old and in with the new’ review of the tired “Killer (insert noun here)” formula. The movie is a cheap, plodding, non-scary trainwreck which brings nothing new to the table.
”FNaF is a witty and beloved slice of pop culture… blah blah. The Banana Splits, by contrast, was an extremely short-lived Saturday morning children’s variety program”You know, the Banana Splits were themselves a witty, beloved slice of pop culture entertainment back in the day, in fact they were a massive hit for Hanna-Barbera Productions. There were lunchboxes, toys, T-Shirts, Comic Books, and a major deal with Kellogg’s (who also shipped those cool vinyl hand puppets with each box of Frosted Flakes and – Puffa Puffa Rice. Yum!). They even got their own animated TV movie years after the original show was cancelled (1972 to be exact), had a spiritual sequel of sorts in The Skatebirds (which debuted in 1977), ran in syndication through the 80’s, and were rebooted in 2008. How is that, exactly, ‘Extremely short-lived’? Some research done there. “It is mostly remembered by a small cadre of fans”Now this is just sad. Sounds like you don’t have the slightest idea who these guys are and immediately assume they are obscure, obsolete garbage destined to be forgotten. Old doesn’t mean bad, and impopular doesn’t mean forgotten. The Banana Splits are not hot stuff in 2019, but their place in Kid TV history is more than cemented. Such disrespect is what keeps the proverbial ‘generational gap’ growing bigger and bigger. Will the young ever learn to respect the past?
”There’s nothing else to do with these creations in 2019, so one may as well have them start murdering people”I wonder if you would tell that to Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera in their faces. No, you wouldn’t. “But who cares, they are dead, right? We’re WB, we own the property and can do with it whatever we want”. Without Hanna-Barbera there wouldn’t be Flintstones or Jetsons. And The Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers and more wouldn’t even exist. Seeing those millennial director and writer posing smugly at the premiere of their abomination as if they had invented the wheel made it even more cringeworthy. Hollywood has clearly run out of fresh, new ideas.
Btw, this is how you introduce the Banana Splits to new generations of young fans. It’s a ton more creative than another lazy, cheap horror movie:
I’m pretty sure this was supposed to be a 2 minute Robot Chicken sketch , not a movie.( Also ‘obscure?’ , really?)
I’m one of those people who is such a big fan of the show. They weren’t obscure back when it was released. It was as popular as what all of the rest of the Hanna-Barbera shows like Scooby Doo are today. It had a lot of merch, a brand deal with Kellogg’s, a fan club, and branding inside of King’s Island. It was huge here in the states. Especially the east coast.
I wouldn’t mind, but they couldn’t even get the Split’s costumes right.
These look like third-rate knock-offs.
The Banana Splits were far superior to HR Puffinstuff (fuck Jimmy and his flute). I somehow saw the trailer for this, and my thought was “I don’t mind if they make the characters of one of my favorite childhood TV shows into murderous robots as long as it’s fun and we’re all in on the gag”. Looks like they missed the point.
Split Happens
I saw this movie and… I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it either. It’s a pretty standard lower budget horror movie. The only dash of fun is the fact that it is the Banana Splits being the villains. But beyond that, absolutely bog standard movie for that sub-genre of horror – the “Robots gone bad” that Westworld did a heck of a lot better in he 70’s. But if you have it on in the background while playing a game on the phone, it’s a way to pass some time.
They only made 31 episodes of The Banana Splits! No way!
Did the Banana Splits reruns come back on TV at some point? Because I was born in ’88 but I very clearly remember the show, and the Danger Island live action segment.
Here he is telling Harley—his own child, mind you, not his stepchild—that he’s too old to be calling him “Daddy.”Maybe Harley’s actual parentage was one of those subplots that got not entirely snipped, and in this scene Mitch is just tired of being called “daddy” by some rando’s seed.
This doesn’t make sense to me. I admit that I am probably one of the few people who remember this show, but I do. I was six when it was shown. It had a fan-club to which I belonged with an official membership card and everything. It isn’t like this was something that inspired a huge cultural backlash. Why use a real IP when many (I assert most) of the only people who remember it enough to actually care are unlikely to ever watch something that trashes a fond childhood memory?
What is all this “Snorky” crap? It doesn’t go “Poppin’ like a corky”!!It’s SNORK you infidels! SNORK!!!
I’m 56 years old, and The Banana Splits were a pivotal part of my Saturday morning TV diet while they were on. No, they weren’t Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. But people of a certain age are well aware of them, and can sing their theme song (which, it would appear, Bob Marley stole part of for his tune, “Buffalo Soldiers”!! Listen to them on YouTube if you don’t believe me!)
Please let me stress why, at least for a very small demographic, The Banana Splits were important. There is a group of us born in the early 1960s who are stuck between the true Boomers and Generation X. As very small children we knew that there was something going in the world that the Older Kids were involved with. Something involving flashing lights and bright colors and weird music. It was exciting but, or so we perceived, not for us. We were too little. The Banana Splits made it for us. The show made us feel as if we were finally invited to the party.
I never cry ruined my childhood when something comes up like this. Until now.The Dilly Sisters, The Sour Grapes, Live action featuring Danger Island and Huck Finn. Plus cartoons.
Completely forgot about this show, when I was a kid the people wearing costumes show was CUCUMBER Club which had a Beaver and a Moose. Yay Canada!
I’m a little surprised nobody’s referenced “Meet the Feebles”.
How old are you? The reach of Banana Splits was far larger than that of Guardians of Galaxy, and going further, than Iron Man if you look at reach of TV show especially thanks to syndication & merchandise vs comic book circulation for those Marvel titles before Marvel took a chance on them. Five Nights actually owes A LOT to trippy Banana Splits as well as Child’s Play (original) in that it plays on what happens when something cute for kids turns homicidal. Hell I finally checked out Five Nights because it was posited as “What if old Hannah B/Kroft characters went crazy.” The Kroft’s most popular series was actually Land of The Lost…So click bait desperation for ad revenue aside, what the frelling frak were you on that propelled you to even try to posit this as the result of not getting Five Nights license other than probably being born withing past 20 or so odd years & was just too lazy to look up old ish? So you stuck with what you knew (Five Nights) and lazily researched what Banana Splits is & tried to throw shade?Good grief. God help us all in this new age of so-called film critics that can’t even spend time to research cultural significance of classic isht.
My theory about this is that they partially did it because WB has the rights to a ridiculous amount of properties (Hanna-Barbera, Looney Tunes, DC Comics, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim/Toonami, pretty much everything involved in either The LEGO Movie and/or LEGO Dimensions), and they want to use some of those copyrights in order to keep them. But some of the Hanna-Barbera stuff hasn’t aged well. Sometimes it works— the Flintstones comic apparently had some very good writing, and their comic about Snagglepuss as a closeted gay playwright in the 1950’s won a GLAAD award. But it’s mostly them just doing more Scooby-Doo! stuff, because that property’s main concept is pretty timeless. So no FNAF movie + dormant license + self-aware “ha ha, yes, we know these costumes are creepy” Disney self-awareness (Lindsay Ellis just put out a good video essay on how Disney’s sort of handled that badly) = ????I admit I was pretty excited for FNAF’s movie— I like seeing indie devs do well, and Jim Henson’s production company was supposed to do traditional effects for it, but it seems like Scott Cawthon hasn’t written a script he’s happy with yet. He’s gotten better with his 3D modeling, but I feel like he needs help from a professional writer.
“a social media douchebag getting bisected via a magician’s sawing-in-half box “I’m in!