Title: Howard the Duck
What Year?: 1986
Classification: Parody
Rating: What the Hell??? (3/5)
One thing that should be clear about me from this feature is that I
have a cast iron stomach when it comes to movies. I’ve sat through some of the
most legendarily horrible movies ever made, and when I start a movie, I really
sit through it, especially if I’ve spent any amount of money on it. It takes
something really exceptional for me to stop watching a movie. It’s one thing if
I get bored or lose interest, usually if it’s a romance or drama that would be
hit or miss with me anyway. It’s another matter for me to quit something
because it’s flat-out bad. Then if I give up because it’s too weird, we are really into extreme
territory. For this review, I’ve gotten to the one that did it for me, in the
first ten minutes.
Our story opens with a view of another world where birds instead of
primates are the dominant intelligent species (with a civilization seemingly
built on bad puns). We follow one particular seemingly average bird named
Howard to his apartment. As he sits down with some (ahem) recreational reading
material, he is suddenly sucked into a wormhole that leads to Earth. After a
rough landing, he meets up with an unlucky musician named Beverly and a
scientist who hasn’t risen above intern. As his misadventures continue, he
gradually finds out about an experiment that created the wormhole. He soon
realizes that another being known as the Dark Overlord has come through,
masquerading as the scientist’s boss. In the final showdown, he must choose
between saving the Earth. And if the outcome was meant to be in doubt, they
wouldn’t have put the final musical number in the TV spots.
Howard the Duck has been remembered as the creation of executive producer George Lucas,
though differing accounts have emerged of his involvement. Per the lore, Lucas
may have been interested in making a movie using the character, introduced in
Marvel Comics in 1973, before Star Wars was released. The eventual production was a joint venture between
Universal, Lucasfilm and Marvel. Lucas reportedly argued for producing it as a
live-action film rather than an animated feature. The ILM crew provided
animatronics and effects, including multiple puppets and suits to represent
Howard and a stop-motion creature by Phil Tippett as the Dark Overlord’s true
form. The final budget reached an estimated $36M. Unfortunately, the finished
film failed to resonate with critics or audiences, earning only $16.3M in US
box office. Worldwide receipts may have brought the gross to $37M, presenting a
relatively early example of a movie that earned more in foreign markets than in
the US.
My own experience with this film was vague awareness without much
further interest, going back to ads for its occasional airings on 1990s TV. I
finally gave it a try on Netflix streaming, but didn’t get past its opening
sequence, which I still reckon the most strange and risqué in a movie with
plenty of competition. Eventually, I ordered it on disc, and in the last year
or so, I finally bought it on Blu Ray. That finally gave me the opportunity to
fully appraise the film.
The main thing to stand out about the movie is Howard himself. The
practical effects are used to genuinely good effect, as is the voice work of
Chip Zien. It’s all the more impressive that the lines were put in after
filming. Any problems with the effects are of the “uncanny valley” variety,
particularly the very anthropomorphic eyes; after seeing that singled out by
none other than James Gunn, I began to wonder if that was part of what threw me
off way back when. Overall, Howard is a likeable if sometimes disreputable
character. Most of his jokes really aren’t that funny, but feel like a natural
response to his predicament. There is better payoff from his moments of
indignation at human treatment of birds. The human characters are well-cast.
Lea Thompson gets the most attention as Howard’s question-mark love interest,
though her scenes include some major “cringe” moments. Harold Robbins is more
impressive as the scientist, in one of his earlier roles.
The other major creature is the Dark Overlord, played by Jeffrey Jones
and voiced in part by Brian Steele. Jones delivers an entertaining and
increasingly menacing performance, noteworthy for apparently total indifference
to what human bystanders know about him. His transformation is augmented by
some impressive practical effects, including an unnerving tentacle. By comparison,
the stop-motion incarnation is disappointing, which is positively heartbreaking
for me to say. The model seems like a deliberate downgrade from realistic
creatures of Star Wars and Dragonslayer, and even more at odds with the effort put into Howard. The creature
design is almost distractingly strange, something like a mashup of an angler
fish, a scorpion and a Rancor monster. I was particularly jarred by a prominent
set of fangs that look almost like mandibles, a year before Predator was released.
For the “one scene”, my pick was inevitably going to be a diner scene
that leads into the final act. Howard and Beverly make a stop with the
metamorphosing lead scientist. While they order a meal, the Overlord quite
freely announces his identity and his further plans to wipe out humanity,
seemingly unconcerned if anyone tries to stop him. Meanwhile, Howard gives the
best of his fits when the waitress serves him eggs, then gets into a rapidly
escalating dispute with a band of duck hunters who begin to consider putting
him on the menu. It’s a great and surprisingly low-key bit of comedy, much
better than a simple summary can convey. However, it serves all too well as a
reminder what the whole movie should have been like.
On a deeper level, my strongest reaction to this movie is that of looking
at a test reel for a movie that was never made. In my own judgment, it “should”
have been animated all along. I am tempted to say it might have been better
still if the movie had gone far enough for a straight-up R rating.
Unfortunately, I’m equally satisfied that the actual production date is either
10 years too early or 10 years too late for that to have worked. In the 1970s, such
a film could have stayed in the underground scene with the likes of Fritz the Cat, while in the1990s, it could have taken
its pace as the west’s answer to the anime revolution. The 1980s, on the other
hand, were a low point for the acceptance of adult-oriented animation, despite (if
not because of) the successful example of Heavy Metal. Being associated with a name as prominent as Lucas could have easily
proved a lightning rod for further censorship and general meddling from the
studios and the “moral guardians” in the general public. On watching the
inuendo between Howard and Beverly, I must add that I’m glad nobody pushed that
envelope any further.
In the end, the lesson of history will always be that we have to judge what is rather than what could have been. In those terms, this was at the least a worthy and creative experiment. Even if you’ve seen it before, it’s worth trying again, and like me, you just might change your mind.
For links, all I have this time is the feature Introduction. More to come tomorrow.
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