MOVIE REVIEW: THE BANANA SPLITS MOVIE

Jeffrey Bracey

5 years ago

Tra la la, la la la la. Soooo The Banana Splits Movie, well here’s something I never saw coming. As a preface I’m going to let you all know that I spent my childhood loving The Banana Splits show as part of my Saturday morning cartoon entertainment. Immediately when I heard about this movie my nostalgia got excited but when I saw the trailer and discovered it was a horror movie my childhood cried out for its memory not to be ruined. In the end I decided to watch and then review this as an objective professional, lets see what we end up with.

PLOT

The initial set up is that a small child who adores the Banana Splits gets to go to the show on his birthday. On this day it turns out that the show is getting cancelled and the Splits, who are actually robots, go on a murderous rampage when they learn of their cancellation.

This movie feels very 80s in terms of plot and story structure. It doesn’t worry so much about making sense, you just take the premise that these robots refused to be mothballed and go on a killing spree, sparing only the children, who they desire to keep as a captive audience. A lot of the Split’s tv show gags are used here to a more horrific effect. It’s got enough gore for an R rating but the gore in the film is rather unrealistically comical. In fact that whole thing is rather cheesy and farcical. Its all pretty thin and its apparently a cheap cash in on a film that honestly should have been Five Night’s At Freddy’s instead of the Banana Splits. The situations are all over the top, reinforcing the idea of an 80s schlock horror but with a somewhat more polished look. I get the idea that the filmmakers just couldn’t decide how to handle this film. They failed to commit to the real horror of the premise but at the same time didn’t go so far as to make it a true horror comedy in the vein of the brilliant Tucker and Dale vs Evil or Cabin in the Woods. The lack of tone is one of the factors that contribute to this film not really working.

CHARACTERS

Most of the characters in the film are so one dimensional as to be caricatures. The great majority of the actors are just phinung this one in and its hard to blame them when the script makes them carboard cutout characters but I still wish more of them had put forth some genuine effort. Standouts in the film are Naledi Majola as Paige the show host who actually seems pretty genuine and likable in her performance. Lionel Newton as Karl, the engineer who created the Banana Splits robots really gets into the part with some gusto. You can believe that he truly loves his creations to the point of madness when things go bad during the film. Finlay Wotjak-Hissong as Harley, the little boy who loves the Splits more than anything else exudes the sort of love only a child fan can have for something. He is just pure charm, innocence and faith in the belief that his beloved Splits are still basically good at heart.

Too many of the characters are so unrealistically unlikable that your either don’t care if they die or you are looking forward to it. Even supposedly “good”“ characters are so lamely writtn that you can;t properly connect with them enough to care.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I can’t help but wonder why anyone would think turning a beloved tv show into a bad horror movie was a good idea? They didn’t go far enough in one direction like Candle Cove nor did they pump up the entertainment value in the absurdity of it all. They really should have hist made this a Five Night’s at Freddy’s movie, which would have avoided any fan backlash.

On a weird note this film pushes diversity in a bizarrely forced way. Every couple is mixed (or has been previously mixed) racially. Its not a spoken thing but since its every couple/family in the film it becomes excessively noticeable. It was a weird move and once you notice it, you can’t stop seeing it. 1 out of 5!

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]