Cheap

Exciting movie made with Flo & Eddie after their edition of the Mothers of Invention's splitting up in the wake of Frank Zappa's being injured by a deranged fan onstage in London in 1971. This included Mark Volman, Howard Kaylan, Jim Pons, Aynsley Dunbar, and more surprisingly, Tim Weissberg. This movie fits well into Zappa's Conceptual Continuity, and even provides links not common in Zappa's oeuvre. People who find 200 Motels entertaining and funny will find this movie uproarious.

Many people seem to think this movie is a Fritz the Cat knockoff, but it is lightyears from that movie; all the two really share in common is an X rating and that they're animated. The biggest difference is that Dirty Duck, like most of Zappa's work, does provide social commentary, although it might not be exactly what you want to hear.

Plotwise, it may be confusing to today's viewers given that many references have passed out of mainstream popular culture, especially those who were born in the early 70's. For those who were there, it'll bring back things you thought you forgot about. Many old movie cliches are bandied about mercilessly.

Some of the sexual humor is a bit juvenile, like the Flo & Eddie era Mothers, but at no point is it gratuitous. This movie has everything in its place for a reason even if it's not readily apparent, much like Zappa's music. Zappa fans (especially Flo & Eddie era Mothers) will flip. The rest of you may scratch your heads and find it funny in spots. I just rewind my copy and watch it again and pick something new up from the plot (it's *that* layered, folks).

Yeah, I get it. This movie is supposed to be offensive and cheap or whatever and that's the beauty of it but come on. This movie would not be acceptable if they tried to release it today. It's easy to say that this is easily one of the most homophobic, racist, and sexist cartoons ever made. And the said jokes involving that content aren't even funny. On top of that, the animation was very crudely done and was never easy to look at. Only watch this hippy crap if you're wasted.

D-

Flo & Eddie of The Turtles and Zappa fame perform the songs and voice the main characters of this pretty good animated film. It's short, coming in at barely over an hour, but it's effective in it's animation style (the animation over still photos and clip art) and funny for a number of reasons. Highly sexual, satirical and slapstick. Also highly offensive, especially when it comes to race; as evidenced by the subway pimp that the main character encounters.Set to a lamentably unavailable soundtrack, it's surreal animation sequences more than make up for any lulls or inferred rip-offs. This is a better film than 200 Motels, that's for sure. And who can fault a movie that opens with the song lyric "This whole movie is a giant piece of sh*t..."?

I stumbled across this movie in a mom & pop 80's movie rental place. It was on the bottom shelf and being the crazy 20 something I picked it up. My girl and friends loved it so much that when the mom & pop closed and they sold off all their titles, I bought it (VHS). Still have it and every once in a while I'll pop it in for a chuckle. A buddy of mine and I still joke around quoting lines from it. The cop/lesbian(s)/duck scene is one of the all time favorites and is probably the cause for an earlier than normal demise of the late great John Wayne. I'm not much of a movie critic but I will say that this is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. "You've been on my s$%t list for so long that I had to make a new s$%t list, you know, like private stock." "Duck's don't love America, they fly over it and leave big green kaka all over it. Why just the other day I was havin a drink of java and a duck flew over and left a duck terd in my coffee cup. Ducks love America." Crazzzzzzy!!

I wish I could find a copy! This is an outstanding piece of sexual satire and general weirdness by Flo & Eddie, with a surreal sex scene that's an obvious and direct precursor to the one in The Wall. I managed to save an audio tape of only part of the song with our favorite lines: "Dogs, horses, or a guy, Give someone DEAD a try!" and Willard's creation of his artificial girl.