It’s been years seen I’ve seen Howard the Duck and I’m not really interested in seeing itsoon. That being said, I don’t know what it is about the movie that has given it universal hate. Could some one please fill me in?
Can’t help ya. I always kind of liked it.
It’s cringingly bad. Bad dialogue, bad characters, bad costumes, bad plot.
It’s a movie about a talking duck. Isn’t that enough?
It was written by people who didn’t understand how the character worked. Howard the Comic Book was about satirizing the culture, targeting major political figures, popular culture, economic and psychoanalytic theory, changing sexual mores, etc.; Howard the Movie bravely lampooned stuff like “Cajun Sushi.”
The film was promoted as a brilliant special-effects bonanza by George Lucas. The actual slogan was “You’ll Believe a Duck can Talk!” And this bloated expectation was met with a midget in a plastic duck suit. The only upside was Lea Thompson as an 80s-updated, brassiere-bustin’ Beverly Switzler; If they made it today (like THAT could happen!), they’d probably cast Laura Prepon.
If you ever encounter anything called “Howard the Duck” and it’s written by anyone but Steve Gerber, run. And even if Gerber writes it, there’s a fair chance you should run anyway.
Nonsense! Go pick up a copy of The Essential Howard The Duck which is all the Gerber written HtD’s and only costs $14.95. That’s good readin’!
But yeah, the movie blew.
The movie wasn’t that bad. I think people misunderstood it a bit. It was intended to be campy. Consider Jeffrey Jones as the Galactic Overlord. That was hilarious. Loved the Galactic Overlord.
Especially when he french kissed his car’s cigarette lighter.
Well, I could have gone without the topless duck-woman in the bathtub. ::shudder::
The costume lost it for me. I was willing to take the simplified script, the recycled humor, the cheesy '80s songs… but “midget obviously in a duck suit” just broke the camel’s back, as it were.
“What’s white, ovular and reminds me of my birthday?”
That line has always struck me as really really funny.
I’m just strange like that.
As a friend of the dwarf in question, do not ever called him a “midget.” It’s considered offensive and he personally find it infuriating and I’d quickly pit you n his behalf. Rjung that goes for you too.
Back to the OP. The robotics that Industrial Light and Magic developed for the film were really, really advanced at the time. If you could see how the remote control worked the eyeballs and see up close the dexterity of the beak, it was truly incredible - though I think a lot of that detail was lost onscreen because you never got the time to really study it. Standing in front of you, the duck mask was eerily cool. Seriously, wow-inducing. (They also used a puppet in some scenes that I thought looked stupid.)
The main problems were that the script-writers couldn’t seem to commit themselves to the fact that Howard is intended to be an character for adults, so his abrasive personailty was whittled down so he no longer had his personality (but he was still a little too crass to appeal to kids). It was niether an adult’s movie, nor a kid’s movie.
Secondly, when hubby and wife Willard and Gloria team up as directors, it ends in disaster (American Graffitti notwithstanding). The Willard Huck was the director, Gloria Katz had her hands in the screenplay (I dunno if they’re still married – she used to have a shrill “Wiiiiiilllaaaaard!” coive that reminded me of Star Trek’s, Harry Mudd’s wife.) She did not seem to be the kind of person who ever would have been a genuine Howard fan.
Everyone seemed to lose sight of “Howard” the character because they’d all become so preoccupied with how they were going to get the technology and FX to work. I’ve never been on such an absolutely tech-obseesed set before. I honestly don’t think anyone gave a rat’s ass about the script, they just wanted to get it done.
Ultimately, I think the Lucasfilm folks console themselves by thinking of the flick as “research and development.”
I also didn’t think it was that bad in the end (coulda been worse, turst me!), but it’s not a good film.
Gah! Dammit! Preview! Preview!
Laura Prepon as Bev…Yeah, that’d work.
I haven’t seen the film since the original release, but I have to say that:
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It wasn’t as bad as it’s made out to be, but it’s still not good.
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There was a BIG marketing blitz on when it came out, and the heightened expectations might have magnified the film’s deficiencies. (Does anyone remember that Playboy had an article on this – it featured pix from the “PlayDuck” magazine Howard reads in his apartment.)
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the film didn’t feel at allk like the comics.
I haven’t seen the film since the original release, but I have to say that:
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It wasn’t as bad as it’s made out to be, but it’s still not good.
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There was a BIG marketing blitz on when it came out, and the heightened expectations might have magnified the film’s deficiencies. (Does anyone remember that Playboy had an article on this – it featured pix from the “PlayDuck” magazine Howard reads in his apartment.)
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the film didn’t feel at allk like the comics.
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I don’t care how much time and effort they spent on the audioanimatronics of the character – it still looked like a Guy In A Duck Suit, and unconvincing as hell.
Brother, actually Lea Thompson is much, much better looking in person. The camera is unkind to her. She didn’t quite have the right voice for Beverly though. Should’ve been scruffier sounding. (In my head, Beverly sounds like Bonnie Tyler.)
I don’t disagree with you at all. It looked as realistic as the dinosaurs from “Dinosaurs.” However, the dexterity of the thing was still truly impressive. It still didn’t work. Far too corporeal and solid.
A Roger Rabbit cartoon approach would have even worked out better – but either way, the personality wasn’t Howard. And that poof thing on his forhead made him look “cute” (an earlier version of the head was a lot more accurate, but unappealingly creepy.) You’d need someone like Dennis Franz, not Chip Zien (the soap star who did the voice). Robin Williams was slated to do the voice at one point, but wisely declined. They did however, steal the line “prepare to eat beak!” from him.
In the immortal words of F. Scott Firesign:
I’m gonna go with:
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The film didn’t feel at all like the comics. So it lost those of us who watched the movie because we liked the HtD comics.
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It wasn’t particularly good at being anything else, either. It couldn’t make up its mind on what sort of movie it was supposed to be. The latter part of the movie was like the ending of Ghostbusters without the humor, as I recall. (Don’t trust my recollection too far; I saw it the once, back when it first came out in the 1980s. That was a long time ago.)
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Screw all the audioanimatronics wizardry – it still looked like a Guy In A Duck Suit, and unconvincing as hell. Ultimately, unless you have a decent movie underneath all the Industrial Light & Magic, the IL&M isn’t gonna save your ass.
Well, here’s my two cents:
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The movie is absolutely awful, among the worst major films of its time. I know people really want to like it and apologize for it, but it’s an utterly putrid movie all the same.
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The byline of the movie was “Trapped In A World He Never Made.” What?
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The movie’s big-budget names and expectations combined with what a catastrophe it was got people to turn on Lucas. It’s gratifying to people when a big successful guy like Lucas bombs out; we want the powerful brought down a notch from time to time. So people rejoiced in the awfulness that was “Howard the Duck.” Ha ha, big Mr. Star Wars Man made a turkey! If some no-name had made the movie it wouldn’t be nearly as hated and mocked as it is; it would have died a quick death and vanished, like “Leonard Part 6” or “Evolution.”
The fact that it was different from the comics didn’t have much to do with it, I suspect; few people have ever read the “Howard the Duck” comics and they’d have to bring in a much broader audience to make any money. If it had been a good movie anyway it could have worked even if some comic book guys were bitching about the differences. But the movie sucked big time.