The Banana Splits Movie (2019) User Reviews

So-so

[preppy-3 · 6/10 · 29 September 2019]

Nine year old Harley is celebrating his birthday. He's going to a taping of the Banana Splits TV show with his mom, stepdad, older brother and friend Zoe. The Banana Splits are actually robots under their costumes. Then, during the course of the show, they find out they're going to be canceled. They malfunction, go crazy and start attacking and killing people. Can Harley and his family escape?

It's basically a one-joke film. The premise is great but they don't let totally loose with it. It was never funny or scary enough to totally succeed. There's plenty of graphic gore and they (thankfully) use practical effects. With one exception the acting is good even by the kids. Only Steve Lund disappoints as the stepdad. He has this I-don't-want-to-be-here look on his face throughout And yes--there's room for a sequel. So not a total washout but no great movie either.

Tra La La

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 20 August 2019]

I was a fan of the Banana Splits as a kid so disappointed that this instalment has no segments of The Arabian Nights or The Three Musketeers!

I doubt many people under the age of 45 years of age may even know about The Banana Splits so would not be too bothered that some kids show characters has been turned into stars of a horror film.

Set in an universe where the Banana Splits television show is still being made. This is in fact a gory version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

A group of people go to the taping of the show. Our hero Harley is a big Banana Splits fan and it is his birthday, so his family plan a special outing. Some others include a girl with a pushy parent who thinks his daughter can be the next big star. A vlogger with his girlfriend who plans to broadcast from his mobile phone.

However the new network head plans to cancel the show and the robotic puppets having heard the news go on a murderous rampage. The show must go on and on for the demented Banana Splits.

There is some grisley carnage and black humour. You kind of hope some people will get slaughtered such as Harley's stepfather, you just know he is not on that mobile phone to stay in touch with his office.

The film has a variety of ways of annihilating some of the characters. It is a shame that security is so lax at the studio where the show is taped.

Nice concept, average execution

[anthonyjlangford · 5/10 · 20 August 2019]

Like many I suppose, I was drawn to the novelty factor having the iconic Banana Splits made into a modern horror film. I was all for the concept and the basic premise is quite a good one. However the film takes itself far too seriously for it to actually work properly.

It's a ridiculous setup so there should be some humour involved. It's all delivered with such a straight face that after a while it becomes an ordinary, if not bland, slasher film.

The first execution is quite fun but after that these bananas are slipping on their own dropped peels. A shame but ultimately it's pretty dull.

Fun idea, but poorly executed

[Milk_Tray_Guy · 2/10 · 20 December 2021]

A few fun/gory kills, but nowhere near enough of them. And it takes thirty minutes before anything happens. With a 90 minute runtime, that's a long wait. So-so cast (no-one I knew). Obvious very low budget. Not one I'll ever rewatch. 2/10.

A good blood,guts.gore and suspense movie.

[casayne · 6/10 · 14 August 2019]

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.

Terrible

[day-10589 · 2/10 · 7 September 2019]

I wanted to like this movie because I used to love the Banana Splits as a kid. I understood the genre of the movie was to be a bit dark because it's a horror movie but my god this movie is terrible. The acting is horrendous and it makes you wonder if these people actually auditioned for the parts or if they were just given to the first people the producer seen.

I stuck with it for the hour and a half duration, why I don't know because this could easily be the worst movie I've ever seen.

They would have been better making a movie about how the Banana splits began, a bit like a biography but instead they tried to make a horror movie and it failed miserably.

I've given it a generous 2 star rating and that's being kind and it's only because the Banana split characters look exactly how I remembered them and the theme song was in there.

Do not waste your time on this movie.

Tra-la-la, blah-blah-blah-blah.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 23 August 2019]

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.

Stupid, awful, and weird - and not in a good way!

[hellrayzor · 2/10 · 6 September 2019]

This movie apparently takes place in an alternate universe where:

1) The Banana Splits TV show from the late 1960's is still airing in 2019.

2) The Banana Splits themselves are killer robots.

Wow.

The "plot" is that when the network cancels the Banana Splits TV show, the Banana Splits (who are not actors in suits, but rather killer robots) begin killing the show's producers and fans on the set.

Why are the Banana Splits killer robots? No idea. Does it make any sense? Not in the slightest. Is it any good? No, not even in a "so bad it's good" kind of way. The whole thing is just weird, dumb, and poorly made. It's obviously not meant to be taken seriously, and yet it isn't really a parody or comedy either. It just falls flat on every level.

And just think. Someone actually said "Let's remake the Banana Splits TV show, but instead of being a light hearted slapstick comedy, it will be a gore movie! And instead of being actors in suits, they will be killer robots!" And then that person pitched this to someone else who said "That's a great idea, here's a ton of money to make it!" It boggles the mind.

And who exactly is this movie made for anyways? It's certainly not a tribute to the original TV show for kids - fans of the original show will have their childhood memories of their beloved comedic slapstick characters destroyed by seeing them transformed into killer robots in a gore movie.

Fans of the Five Nights At Freddy's game will find this to be a pale imitation / rip-off.

I guess fans of really stupid, poorly written, poorly acted, gory horror movies with bad CGI and gore effects, who have never seen, or feel no connection to, the original TV show MIGHT like this. But check your brain at the door. Or better yet, check out something like KILLER CLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE instead.

Weird, stupid, and terrible. If you absolutely must see it, don't waste your money on it. Download it or wait for it to pop up on cable.

Grew Up Watching This TV Show in the UK

[steveatwal · 7/10 · 13 August 2019]

This was a crazy, fun, stupid TV show that we grew up watching. Some famous people cane on the show, including "The Monkeys" music band. This is a new remake into a movie. Worth a watch.

A painful embarrassment

[ddschneider72 · 2/10 · 4 October 2021]

Wow. What could have been a good fun campy cult classic horror movie was instead a stinking pile of elephant poo. I can't decide what is the most incompetent thing about the movie: the terrible writing, horrible direction or the wooden acting.

There are a couple good gore scenes, the mom and the little girl Zoe were good, but the rest of the actors were as robotic as the robots.

The story was so contrived and just unenjoyable. There was no scary scenes or tense moments. It was just... extremely dull. Them I saw the writers were writing SYFYs Day of the Dead series which I was looking forward to until I saw they had the same writers.

These writers & directors should stick to writing and directing used car advertisements on local late night television. Although they would probably ruin those too.

One star for decent gore and one star for getting the theme song stuck in my head.

Gleeful and gory return for the Banana Splits

[A_Llama_Drama · 6/10 · 23 December 2021]

Who remembers the Banana Splits? Tra-la-la la-lalala-la...That song was childhood for a great deal of us. Kudos, then, to the producers turning an admittedly lame parody of The Monkees (and probably an early progenitor for The Furries) into something kind of fresh, kind of lame, kind of fun and very gory, forty years after the show ended.

In this alternate reality where the show never ended, Harley and his family are attending a taping of The Banana Splits for his birthday. His older brother is a surly burnout, his father a neglectful adulterer and his mum a timid flake. With him is a school friend, not a real friend, Zoe, who's there because her mum forced her. A happy family this is not. Thankfully, along with a variety of victims, harley and his family are going to get the chance to bond and repair their relationships, if only they don't get murdered by the psychotic animatronics.

Overall, the cast is not capable of blending the comedy with the surreal horror of Drooper, Snorky, Bingo and Fleegel going on a murder rampage. Maria Nash, playing Zoe, fares the best as the sardonic and confident co-pilot through a world she left behind years ago. Sara Canning, as the long-suffering show producer manages to elicit some sympathy when she's dragged into the mayhem. Naledi Majoli as an audience manager doing her best is easy to like and cheer for. Dana Kind, as the fretful mum turned bad ass does enough to be believable, but the rest of the cast all seem to be in different productions.

Shout out to the special effects crew who appear to do most of it without resorting to CGI. The Banana Splits enjoy a spot of violent murder and the gleeful squirms as they treat spines like a lock to a key, or heads like giant buttons to be mashed will elicit cheers and groans of disgust from the audience. The set details, as well, as we move from each of the Splits' iconic sets adds a great bit of variety to the warehouse lot. It all climaxes wonderfully in a private showing of the Splits' final show ever, complete with violent murder and goofy gags.

This is a brave attempt at bringing something long forgotten and now completely unknown to a new generation. While it's not entirely successful (the sound design doesn't sync with either the camp lameness or the brutal horror and the editing struggles to be smooth, owing in part to using animatronics), it does a decent job of reimagining a childhood favourite for a new audience. That in itself is comendable. One for gore hounds and those on nostalgia trips!

Such a bad idea and an even worse result

[jmolta · 1/10 · 25 August 2019]

This is a horrible film not a Horror film, and that's being polite about it.

Really fun

[qbarkdude · 8/10 · 13 August 2019]

This is a special type of movie that is stupid but knows it's kind of stupid. I really enjoyed the deaths and Splits themselves. I never knew what was gonna happen next. There are some good scenes which are well passed and eerie. There are of course the clichés that are in every low budget horror movie. But they work because of the solid writing and good characters. I was always excited to see what happened next. I would have liked more dialogue from the Splits themselves. Hell, I would have loved if they were in the movie more period. But as it is, it's not amazing, but it's pretty good. Give it a watch before you give it 1 star.

Awfully written

[adeleysim · 2/10 · 5 September 2019]

This could have been good. I thought it was an amusing concept and it developed okay. However, it quickly went from a 5 to a 2 right around the middle of the movie. There is no semblance of logic in the creatures' behavior and the victims' reactions.

Soooo Bad

[graf-97905 · 1/10 · 25 August 2019]

The only thing scary about this film is trying to figure out why it was made in the first place. Better yet who thought this film was a good idea. So incredibly bad.

Hopefully someone gets fired after this

[havlin33 · 1/10 · 30 August 2019]

I watched the Banana Splits as a kid and when I heard about this movie I was so excited! How could you go wrong with the banana splits becoming killers? But alas it went terribly wrong, so disappointing.

Why?

[popcereal · 13 October 2019]

The original show, just like most of the Kroft Saturday morning classics, were done on small budgets. But craftsmanship and creative talent made these shows into the iconic, well loved shows they are. This film probably has the budget from the entire run of the original series, yet manages to look like it was made by a community access gang. What a waste of time and resources. I don't understand why the director took on this project. By looking at her IMDB resume, she seems to have talent.

One Banana, Two Banana, Three Banana, Four...

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 6/10 · 25 August 2019]

I have to admit, I REALLY wanted to see this movie... and... I really didn't want to see this movie.

Damn, how old are the Banana Splits? I remember watching these goofy characters and their hilarious messy antics when I was a kid... Oh My GOD! That was so long ago...

Because of my fond memories, I hoped and wished the director and the writers hadn't destroyed the Splits personas too much. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the reverence that had been paid to them. Their personalities even helped to create their darker and nastier side. The best hook of the story and the film is The Banana Splits. Their origin and who they are works so magnificently in this context.

The writers, Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas are marvellous at bringing these dated TV heroes up to date. Though neither, Bingo, Drooper, Fleegle, or Snorky are any different than I remember, placing them in the present day was a great idea. It allows Elinoff and Thomas to create relatable scenes and characters. Such as the wonderful live-streaming couple, Poppy (Celina Martin) and Thadd (Kiroshan Naidoo). Even the mother, Beth (Dani Kind) is well written. A struggling single mother of two who latches onto the first "good man" that comes along to secure her family... but loses her strength in the process because the "good man" is strong and manipulative. There are undercurrents in most of the main characters and this gives them strength and power. Beth's son, Harley (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) is still a kid when in this modern age, children age faster and act older. This has caused him a distinct lack of friends. When his only friend is too ill to make the show Beth invites her friend's daughter, Zoe (brilliantly portrayed by Maria Nash). In the beginning, she sees Harley as a kid. Though as the story progresses a little more of the kid comes out in her too and a friendship is formed.

Another positive is the director, Danishka Esterhazy. She has a marvellous use of light in this film. At the outset, everything is bright and sunny. When we make it to the taping of the show things get a little dimmer. Then when all the good stuff (sorry, horrible and nasty stuff) takes place she plunges the audience into the shadows. This works. The scene where they find the rest of the audience is very chilling indeed. She also has a good hand at working with characters, and like the writers, pays them respect while strengthening their roles.

For all the gorehounds out there, Esterhazy doesn't pull any punches. Most of the effects are disturbingly realistic. My two favourites, because they shocked me, were "The Giant Hammer" scene and "The Magic Trick", in that order. It was also refreshing to have a director who didn't over utilise the jump scare tactic. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for that.

If you like your comedy on the dark side then you will enjoy this film. The writers do a nice job of weaving in some subtle comedy, whereas Esterhazy slaps you in the face with visceral slapstick.

There's not much I can say about the cast. Nobody stood out as better than the rest and nobody stood out as being bad. Therefore they were all good at their portrayals... though I do hope there's a sequel with Poppy - her end sequence was brilliant.

So... Tra' La La, Tra La-La La, Tra La La, Tra La-La La, One Banana, Two Banana, Three Banana, Four. Four Banana's Make A Bunch And So Do Many More... Once upon a time I wanted to be in that bunch... not so much now!

If you loved The Banana Splits and love horror films then rush out and get yourself a copy. If you want to have an enjoyable hour and a half in the dark side of humour then give this film a try. More than worth a watch this may not make it onto my Guilty Pleasures List (come on over and check it out) but I will definitely be watching this little gem again.

Really not worth watching at all...

[fueledbyboredom · 1/10 · 25 August 2019]

The idea of The Banana Splits being murderous robots sounded fun when I first heard about it, and I was genuinely excited to see what they did with it. But after actually seeing the movie, I really wish they tried harder to make something interesting and fun to watch rather then try to beat Five Nights at Freddy's out the door.

This movie was not what they hoped it would've been.

[trfesok · 6/10 · 30 April 2021]

After decades of suing and counter-suing each other, the Splits finally, to the delight of their worldwide fan base, signed on to this reunion project. Their initial worldwide, maniacal success was followed by the inevitable tensions and decline. Things began to come to a head during the recording of "The Yellow Album". When Drooper took up with performance artist Cherry Cheetah, his songwriting style began to diverge sharply from that of his partner Fleegle. Meanwhile, Snorky, being a descendant of Indian elephants, embraced Transcendental Meditation in his songs. However, he had trouble coming up with a mantra that fit his three note, bicycle horn range, so he gave his songs to Bingo to sing.

Despite having a huge hit in the form of Fleegle's hymn-like title track for the "Let it Peel" album/film documentary, the group was no longer making up a mess o' fun. Over Fleegle's objections, Snorky, Bingo and Drooper hired shyster lawyer Willie Weasel to run their failing record label, Banana Records. Sadly, the group rode their Banana Buggies off into the sunset after that.

Drooper and Cherry ended up forming their "conceptual band", The Plastic Elastic Felines. Many of their albums consisted entirely of Cherry snarling and growling.

Fleegle ended up marrying photographer Rhonda Rottweiler. He decided to form the band Tails with her, ignoring the small detail that her paws had never been near a microphone or a keyboard.

Without Snorky writing songs for him, Bingo's solo career foundered. He spent way too much time partying with Keith Moon, who always had plenty of bananas around to feed Bingo's increasingly destructive habit. He was in and out of rehab with Dr. Jane Goodall several times.

After observing Snorky's wild stage antics (including stabbing his Hammond with his trunk), Greg Lake and Carl Palmer got excited about forming a new prog rock band with him. But they decided that "SLP" made for too klutzy a logo. The Snork ended up as a sideman with Barbra Streisand's band, where he became a beloved icon of the gay community.

As negotiations for this reunion film got underway, the script went through numerous rewrites. Directors came, went, and came again. Unfortunately, the group lost creative control as the project swung in a darker direction.

As one could imagine, the fans revolted. So, they planned a huge reunion tour for 2020, to be filmed for a feature film documentary in order to compensate. Of course, the pandemic derailed that. Damned COVID is NOT making up a mess o' fun! But we can keep hoping!

There's no explaining this mess.

[smidebarry · 1/10 · 25 August 2019]

If you're looking for the utter ridiculous and non-scary Horror film then this ones for you. At no moment does this film offer a glimpse of tension and or horror that is palpable in any way. It's devoid of impact and any motive worth wasting your time on.

I'm sorry you didnt get it.

[mikwlsn · 10/10 · 14 August 2019]

Not only was this so ridiculous and a crazy fun time but a good few parts genuinely creeped me out. This movie is supposed to be ridiculous. It's a revised five nights freddy's script!! Great movie

Solid if unimportant slasher effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 6 September 2019]

Attending a taping of his favorite show, a young boy and his family hoping for a fun birthday celebration are suddenly faced with the deadly reality that the performers have snapped and started killing everyone at the shooting causing them to find the real reason for the performers to go on their spree and get away alive.

Overall, this was a decent enough slasher outing. Among the greater features here is the film's fun setup to the entire premise of the show. Tapping into the nostalgia of children's morning cartoon/variety shows to deal with the early moments of the cheesy characters going through the early run-through of their show which gets us involved in their world rather nicely and gives a reason for the devotion to the characters. Being backstage at the show and seeing the setup and preparations for a taping with what goes into it, there's a rather enjoyable air that sets up the robots to become the killers later on which plays into the idea of the lovable mascots going on a rampage. The finale of the film, where they get to explore the real motivation of the killer robots hoarding the abducted children into the bowels of the studio for a fully demented and over-the-top variation of the show that's exceptionally enjoyable for how dark it gets in front of kids, makes for a great conclusion to this story and takes the idea of the animatronic killers doing it on their own to absurd levels. As well, there's a lot of enjoyment to be had with the general slasher attitude present. The setup early on about the performers and their true identity, which is nicely previewed here with the interaction outside the stage and then turns into a fine series of short stalking scenes that rely heavily on their unassuming nature of the robots' ulterior nature creates a lot of fun to be had here. The first attacks on the incidental members of the crew provide some decent moments, while the later scenes featuring their rampage on the guests have a lot to like here with the creatures getting to utilize quite creative and original methods of killing them that are accomplished through fantastic practical effects is a fantastic aspect that adds even more to the film. These here are what hold this one up over it's few flaws. There are some big problems with this one though. The main issue here is an unbelievably underwhelming story that has plenty of big issues here. The fact that there's nothing given for huge plot holes in the film as for why exactly the characters are animatronic robots for the show, and why no one questions this revelation despite at times switching between being surprised that they're robots to knowing all along which together make for excessively detrimental and distracting efforts. There's also nothing about why they're going on the rampage, as it seems to be a faulty programming update completely by accident that they can't stop to times where the head programmer is making them evil, perhaps doing so out of revenge for the show being canceled but the scene showing this is done before the reveal making that quite curious. That also doesn't help with the piling on of utterly moronic cliches that aren't related to the robots on the rampage, from the constant splitting up in the factory knowing there's something wrong and the general lack of energy or reaction to anything going on around them. On top of that, with some awful effects work for the kills also lowering this there are some problems here.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and continuous scenes of children-in-jeopardy.

Why not set in the 70s?

[wayneandjane · 5/10 · 30 June 2021]

Apart for the first couple of minutes it lost all of the personality of the original show, I could have been watching any modern low budget badly made slasher movie. So why contemporary? I guess to draw in a younger audience, but 1970's setting would have been so much more fitting, in keeping with the original vibe while paying homage to all those 70's slasher movies. Wasted opportunity.

Wow That Was Bad

[macdagreatest · 1/10 · 25 August 2019]

Stinks to the high heavens with bad. Where did this come from and please send it back there.