The Banana Splits Movie

Who remembers the Banana Splits? Tra-la-la la-lalala-la...That song was childhood for a great deal of us. Kudos, then, to the producers turning an admittedly lame parody of The Monkees (and probably an early progenitor for The Furries) into something kind of fresh, kind of lame, kind of fun and very gory, forty years after the show ended.

In this alternate reality where the show never ended, Harley and his family are attending a taping of The Banana Splits for his birthday. His older brother is a surly burnout, his father a neglectful adulterer and his mum a timid flake. With him is a school friend, not a real friend, Zoe, who's there because her mum forced her. A happy family this is not. Thankfully, along with a variety of victims, harley and his family are going to get the chance to bond and repair their relationships, if only they don't get murdered by the psychotic animatronics.

Overall, the cast is not capable of blending the comedy with the surreal horror of Drooper, Snorky, Bingo and Fleegel going on a murder rampage. Maria Nash, playing Zoe, fares the best as the sardonic and confident co-pilot through a world she left behind years ago. Sara Canning, as the long-suffering show producer manages to elicit some sympathy when she's dragged into the mayhem. Naledi Majoli as an audience manager doing her best is easy to like and cheer for. Dana Kind, as the fretful mum turned bad ass does enough to be believable, but the rest of the cast all seem to be in different productions.

Shout out to the special effects crew who appear to do most of it without resorting to CGI. The Banana Splits enjoy a spot of violent murder and the gleeful squirms as they treat spines like a lock to a key, or heads like giant buttons to be mashed will elicit cheers and groans of disgust from the audience. The set details, as well, as we move from each of the Splits' iconic sets adds a great bit of variety to the warehouse lot. It all climaxes wonderfully in a private showing of the Splits' final show ever, complete with violent murder and goofy gags.

This is a brave attempt at bringing something long forgotten and now completely unknown to a new generation. While it's not entirely successful (the sound design doesn't sync with either the camp lameness or the brutal horror and the editing struggles to be smooth, owing in part to using animatronics), it does a decent job of reimagining a childhood favourite for a new audience. That in itself is comendable. One for gore hounds and those on nostalgia trips!

A young boy named Harley (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) is surprised on his birthday by father Mitch (Steve Lund), mother Beth (Dani Kind), and brother Austin (Romeo Carere) taping of his favorite TV show, The Banana Splits at TAFT Studios. After new VP of Network Programming, Andy (Daniel Fox), informs the crew he's canceling their show, the animatronic members of the Banana Splits show a dark side of how determined they are to the idea that "the show must go on"

Originating in 1968 and running until 1970, the Banana Splits were a bubblegum rock group of anthropomorphic animals who hosted a variety show of animated and live action segments. The show was the result of Hanna-Barbera recruiting a then new to the industry Sid & Marty Kroft to create the costumes for the musical quartet launching their career. The Banana Splits themselves aren't super well known outside of people who grew up with them, and are one of Hanna-Barbera's lesser known properties. Outside of some educational filmstrips released in the 70s, the Banana Splits really hasn't had much in the way of staying power, and one of the reasons for that is probably because the show was designed to be a take off of The Monkees and Laugh In (at least for the host segments). In the time since their initial appearance the characters have been mostly left alone, with the one exception being a series of 2 minute shorts produced in 2008 to try to gauge audience interest in the foursome that never resulted in anything meaningful. Now from 2019 we have The Banana Splits Movie, which takes the characters and reimagines them in a horror scenario. Does it work? Well....it doesn't not work.

To get it out of the way, yes the movie does feel similar (at least in part) to the video game series Five Nights at Freddy's. Even before the movie was released there was a rumor circulating that the whole reason behind this film's existence was Warner Bros. who at one point held the film option for Five Nights at Freddy's, grew tired of sparring with the rights holders, let the option lapse, then created this film using one of the Hanna-Barbera properties they own but don't care about. I have no idea how true that rumor is or even where it originated from, but even taking that aside the whole concept and visual aesthetic is too similar to Five Nights at Freddy's to be a coincidence. While the movie isn't a complete carbon copy (the movie even seems to make a glib stab at this with a security guard), it bears enough similarities to be at least eye brow raising.

The movie itself is something of a mixture of Death to Smoochy, The Terminator, Westword, and even a bit of Child's Play. The first half of the movie is basic slasher setup establishing a number of characters who are supposed to be unlikable because they're kill fodder for later in the movie. After the set up the movie becomes a fairly standard "killer in the house" scenario with the only major difference being the killers are cute fluffy costumed animals. The clash between the kid's show atmosphere and gory slasher violence will be largely the deciding factor in whether or not you like this movie. Personally, I enjoyed it enough, but it is hampered by an obviously restrictive budget, a limited location, and some rather jarring logical gaffes even taking into account the kind of movie this is.

The performances are fine for the most part. The movie is filled mostly with newcomers or Canadian TV actors and most of them are fine, though a character of an aspiring child actress and her overbearing stage father grew quite grating in areas. Most of the characters in this movie aren't all that interesting or fully realized and feel more like stock types from various other horror films. Dani Kind has some nice moments channeling an Ellen Ripley like attitude in the latter half of the movie, but when contrasted against herself in the earlier bits of the movie it'll be a case of either you buy it or you don't. Romeo Carere as older brother Austin was also rather odd. He plays a 19 year old burnout who still lives at home but there's not much to him beside that nor is there anything all that well built around it.

The kill scenes in The Banana Splits Movie are at least creatively insane. From magic tricks gone horribly wrong, to evisceration by plastic blue keys, giant hammers, or being drawn and quartered on a wheel of fortune, the gore and effects team are to be commended. And then there's the Banana Splits themselves. Some scenes involving the spits are perfectly fine and give the creepy Terminator vibe they're aiming for, but in long shots and group shots the movements don't feel robotic and it's clear they are guys in suits. If they wanted to get a more robotic look to come across in the splits they should have choreographed the movements to have less articulation and more unnatural characteristics. What we have isn't bad, but even in the climax where fur is ripped away the movie doesn't sell us too well on the idea these are robots.

The Banana Splits Movie is okay. It's not poorly made enough to be bad, but it's also not creative enough to be good. It just happens to be a very middle of the road movie with a somewhat out there premise. In all honesty the movie being killer robot versions of the Banana Splits isn't all that unique and if they were replaced with killer Teletubbies or Barney the Dinosaur the aesthetics might change but the overall experience wouldn't. It's probably worth a rental for horror fans or even just for curiosity's sake, but I unfortunately guarantee you that whatever killer Banana Splits movie you're imaging will probably be more entertaining than the one you just saw.

Like many I suppose, I was drawn to the novelty factor having the iconic Banana Splits made into a modern horror film. I was all for the concept and the basic premise is quite a good one. However the film takes itself far too seriously for it to actually work properly.

It's a ridiculous setup so there should be some humour involved. It's all delivered with such a straight face that after a while it becomes an ordinary, if not bland, slasher film.

The first execution is quite fun but after that these bananas are slipping on their own dropped peels. A shame but ultimately it's pretty dull.

I was a fan of the Banana Splits as a kid so disappointed that this instalment has no segments of The Arabian Nights or The Three Musketeers!

I doubt many people under the age of 45 years of age may even know about The Banana Splits so would not be too bothered that some kids show characters has been turned into stars of a horror film.

Set in an universe where the Banana Splits television show is still being made. This is in fact a gory version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

A group of people go to the taping of the show. Our hero Harley is a big Banana Splits fan and it is his birthday, so his family plan a special outing. Some others include a girl with a pushy parent who thinks his daughter can be the next big star. A vlogger with his girlfriend who plans to broadcast from his mobile phone.

However the new network head plans to cancel the show and the robotic puppets having heard the news go on a murderous rampage. The show must go on and on for the demented Banana Splits.

There is some grisley carnage and black humour. You kind of hope some people will get slaughtered such as Harley's stepfather, you just know he is not on that mobile phone to stay in touch with his office.

The film has a variety of ways of annihilating some of the characters. It is a shame that security is so lax at the studio where the show is taped.

Nine year old Harley is celebrating his birthday. He's going to a taping of the Banana Splits TV show with his mom, stepdad, older brother and friend Zoe. The Banana Splits are actually robots under their costumes. Then, during the course of the show, they find out they're going to be canceled. They malfunction, go crazy and start attacking and killing people. Can Harley and his family escape?

It's basically a one-joke film. The premise is great but they don't let totally loose with it. It was never funny or scary enough to totally succeed. There's plenty of graphic gore and they (thankfully) use practical effects. With one exception the acting is good even by the kids. Only Steve Lund disappoints as the stepdad. He has this I-don't-want-to-be-here look on his face throughout And yes--there's room for a sequel. So not a total washout but no great movie either.