The Banana Splits Movie
Rating – 3.5/4
*SPOILERS*
What is fanfiction? The name says it all. They’re stories based on popular works written by fans of said movie, TV show, or book series and anyone can put their own touch. There’s romance, comedy, crossover, and horror just to name a few genres writers can to choose from. Based on the popular children’s show from the Sixties, The Banana Splits Movie is fanfiction with a budget. Someone decided to turn a lighthearted series into a bloody horror picture.
Childhoods are destroyed.
The source material might be butchered.
And yet, the movie works.
When young Harley (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) receives tickets to a live studio recording of his favorite show, The Banana Splits, for his birthday, he’s beyond excited. Along with his brother Austin (Romeo Carere), mother Beth (Dani Kind), father Mitch (Steve Lund), and friend Zoe (Maria Nash), the group should be in for the time of their lives.
Bingo, Fleegle, Drooper, and Snorky are waiting in their artificially intelligent, robot glory.
But as in any horror movie, things go wrong. The Splits, enraged in finding out that their show is being cancelled, decide that the show must go on, forever, and ever, and ever. Remember, it’s never a good idea to piss off AI.
So, they start kidnapping and killing. And Harley and his family must survive the night against the group of murderous robots with blood, guts, and black humor abound.
I will admit, I have never seen the original cartoon and can’t judge the original characters or the faithfulness to the source material. Maybe I should’ve. But I can critique a movie and I like this one.
The movie knows what it is: a horror movie with the Banana Splits. Being based on a children’s show, there needed to be humor and charm. There are one-liners, goofy kills, and over-the-top violence…like a cartoon. It plays with its source material and turns light into dark, while embracing its ridiculousness. Literally, it’s a cartoon come to life.
The next strengths are the characters and their acting. All of them are aware of their situation and never make clichéd horror mistakes and their character traits are gradually revealed. They’re like, “Hey, we’re in a horror movie, so let’s not do something stupid!” It’s not anything noteworthy, but it’s nice that the writing made them self-aware.
And who can forget the main stars: the Splits themselves. Like the human characters, they know what kind of movie they’re in and embrace their silliness. Again, I don’t know much about the original characters’ personalities, but there’s something about the contrast between their goofiness and their killing that makes the film interesting. The original cartoon offered fun and excitement. The Banana Splits Movie stays true to the original’s tone, but adds death and dismemberment.
In a sense, it DID stay true to the original.
To me, the film is fanfiction done right. Plenty of stories are horror adaptations and this one worked. And with all of the self-aware charm, it veers into parody. For that, I don’t even think that any source material was ruined. The characters are decently acted, the scares are effective, and the humor adds levity to the situation. It might not work for everyone and may anger fans of the original, but it’s a film that puts on a new spin on an existing work and has cult classic written all over it.
Tra-la-la-la-la.
