Meet The Feebles

Meet The Feebles (1989)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Peter Jackson (yes, that Peter Jackson)

Starring: A bunch of puppets and some people in giant costumes

From: Wingnut Films

It’s still amazing to me that Peter Jackson has made a hugely successful trilogy of films (none of which I’ve seen and I have not too much in the way of interest in ever seeing them) and then did a remake of the famed King Kong and now has out The Lovely Bones, a big-budget flick with wildly divergent opinions as to its quality. I say that because before he hit it big, he made a trio of out-there movies that frequently are extremely graphic and have warped senses of humor, and yet manage to be quite awesome. They are 1987’s Bad Taste (easily found via Google Video), 1992’s Braindead (i.e. Bad Taste, probably the bloodiest movie ever made), and this one, a film about *puppets* who do a variety show-it’s obvious what it’s a parody of-and on their show they’re like the Muppets but off-screen they have their own world and it’s probably every taboo you can think of, from S&M to sodomy to drug use, perverts, paternity suits, and muckraking reporters.

There are a number of little stories in the film but the main ones are that the day is a big one (yeah, it mostly takes place during one day), as if their performance that night is great, they’ll get a fancy new TV contract, and a hedgehog named Robert (who speaks like Elmer Fudd) is there as it’s his first day on the job as part of the show’s chorus. From there you see how the characters act off-camera and it’s positively not for all tastes; if you have an out-there sense of humor and can laugh and enjoy off-color subjects, then this is for you. But, it’s not one of those gross-out fests where they’re as vulgar as possible with no skill involved at all. There’s a lot of legit humor here which just so happens to be usually on the vulgar side. There are even some musical numbers, and they’re all well-done. It’s unique and I think it’s a great time and it’s another one of those films that I can watch multiple times with no problems, and there aren’t too many of those around. It moves very quickly and there's never a dull moment.

Note, though, that the movie can be found on DVD released by several different extremely small companies, and the version I rented from college way back when and the one I have on DVD, the print is in rather horrid condition. It adds to the surreal experience, but oddly enough, on YouTube you can easily find the movie broken up into 10 parts, and there the print looks much better. So, that may be the way you want to see it. If you have any programs to download videos off of there… but not that I would ever condone such actions…

I’ll be back by this time next week with at least one new review.