The Banana Splits Movie

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.

While not as well known as today as they were back then, the Banana Splits were quite a big hit in children's programming as far as rock band animal costumed characters went. So when one would imagine a movie based on these upbeat icons, they would picture a faithfully happy colorful movie centered around the adorable mascots. However, little did anyone imagine that a horror plot would come into fruition, which is what happened in 2019 with the Banana Splits Movie. Despite getting quite the amount of attention back in 2019, it has fallen into obscurity, which is a shame as there's much to unpack with this.

The plot follows a family attending a live taping of the Banana Splits show, only to realize that the titular characters have started a killing spree around the Taft studio due to an upcoming cancellation. As straightforward of a plot as that sounds, that is exactly what we get in the execution, as everything we get throughout the 89 minute runtime is your typical kids show mascot gone psycho premise told so routinely that few surprises actually remain. It doesn't help that the center family we focus on ranges from the number one fanatic kid, the struggling parents, and the dorky half brother, with fairly mediocre performances from their actors. It's easy to figure out what will happen in the story and the film's first act is fairly rushed just to get the obvious gory outbreak of the Splits characters going on a killing spree. Even with a fair amount of screen time dedicated to the Split's programmer Karl, there isn't enough explanation given as to why he'd be okay with his creations going on a murderous spree. What we're left with is a slasher movie less focused on substance than the premise it promised.

However, for all of the film's narrative shortcomings, it does deliver some fairly creative killings in the execution. Since the Banana Splits are so innate in their determination to keep the show going, the amount of vengeance they display on the show runners and audience members is excruciating to say the least. While it's easy to say that anyone who grew up on their show will most likely resent this film for how it portrays the characters, it makes all the more sense to those who have been creeped out by mysterious costumed mascots in kids shows for decades, albeit in a more literal killing sense. Since the filmmakers went for a more practical effects driven direction based on a possible small budget, it makes the film feel more believable in how it wants to tell its story, with lots of fake gore and gushy blood effects to count. As far as the acting is concerned, the performances become a lot more earnest as the film gets more gruesome, complete with the mom coming into the picture to kick some serious splits butt. As odd as a film like this is, at least it gave what it promised.

Outside of any other notable production qualities, the real star of the picture is veteran voice actor Eric Bauza providing the voices for the Banana Splits, recreating the right amount of upbeat energy needed for the contrasting murderous rampage these characters inflict. While a lot of credit needs to go to the performers behind the Splits in the physical stunts alone, Bauza's broad range captures the disturbing fun needed for these kinds of oddball mascots, especially once the real bloodbath ensues. Even though the editing works well in the film's sporadic nature, it can often get a little too choppy for its own good, although that issue is far and few in between a fairly well paced feature. Patrick Stumph's music score adds the right amount of terror and suspense needed for a thrill ride like this, especially once the titular characters go on their obvious carnage spree. It makes sense why the film would choose to focus on the shock value more than any commentary in the entertainment industry, because with scares like this, who needs a well rounded story?

It's safe to say that The Banana Splits Movie is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, specifically those who grew up on the original show and expected a more lighthearted adaptation of the memorable rock group. While it does deserve its place in oddball obscurity, there's some delightful fun just waiting for those who have never seen the original show, let alone heard of it before. No one would have ever imagined a film like this actually happening beyond a simple online parody, and yet somehow it managed to come into fruition. Here's to whatever bizarre entity will occur next time in kids show slasher cinema.

The film lacked tension but has nasty n gory death scenes, especially the banana split a la Sean Bean's death scene from Black Death. The idea to convert a kid's show into a gory horror film is a courageous attempt but somehow the film didn't even come close to Child's Play or Chopping Mall.

I purchased and watched this movie today as soon as it came out. Blood and guts are not my usual kind of movie but I wanted to see how Steve Lund, my favorite actor, was in this type of movie. His acting was excellent,as I had expected.If you like blood,guts, gore and suspense you will surely like this movie. Steve Lund's acting was excellent, as I expected. If you like blood,guts,suspense and gore than you will surely like this movie.

I've always felt that there was something deeply unsettling about The Banana Splits (especially that moose head); clearly I was not alone in thinking this, for The Banana Splits Movie uses the once-popular '70s kids TV show as the basis for a gory horror in which furries Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky run amok, killing those present at a recording of the programme (weirdly, the moose head is nowhere to be seen).

Trapped in a studio soundstage, young Banana Splits fan Harley (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) and his family are hunted by the furry TV stars, who are revealed to be robots that have gone haywire upon cancellation of the long-running show. This premise looks set to be a whole load of demented fun, especially for those familiar with the source material, but Danishka Esterhazy's stilted direction, a general air of cheapness (the Splits' studio set is poverty stricken), and the terrible script all add up to a big dose of mediocrity.

The gory death scenes are the best thing about the film, and include a bisection (with guts!), a severed head, a scalded face, a hammer to the head, and a guy having his arms and legs torn off. But as impressive as most of the bloody mayhem is, one can't help but feel disappointment at the lifelessness of the whole thing, the lack of scares, and the fact that Esterhazy didn't go even further with the lunacy and gruesomeness. The opportunity to go large with the craziness was definitely there and should have been seized with both hands.