The Banana Splits Movie

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was a Saturday morning variety program for kids that ran on NBC from 1968-70 and then for a decade afterward in syndication. The Splits were a band of goofy animal characters—Fleegle the Beagle, Bingo the Ape, Drooper the Lion, and Snorky the Elephant, all played by extravagantly costumed actors—who performed as a rock band and introduced live-action and animated segments. This oddball revival is a campy horror movie in which a family is visiting the set of the show on the day when the Splits—depicted as robots—are informed that they have been cancelled. The loopy engineer who designed the robots alters their programming and they go berserk, killing the programming vice president and their detested human costar as well as some of the adult audience members, while also taking child fans captive. Everything is played for laughs, although the humor is distinctly dark, the execution clumsy and cheap, and the acting is strictly amateur hour. Fans of the old show are unlikely to be amused by this film that is definitely not for kids. On the other hand, devotees of really cruddy horror flicks—the kind relegated to cable channels and midnight movie slots in theatres—might find it ghoulishly amusing. Optional. (F. Swietek)