For those of a certain age, there are likely fond but likely incredibly surreal memories of an American television show called The Banana Splits (technically, ‘The Banana Splits Adventure Hour‘) which was originally broadcast between 1968 and 1971. Though hard to explain, it was essentially a mixture of live-action and animation. The main characters were in the costumes of Bingo (an orange-furred gorilla), Fleegle (a kind of beagle), Snork-y (an elephant-like creature) and Drooper (a lion) who were members of a rock-band that felt like a cross between Looney-Tunes and The Monkees. To get the tone of the show, it’s perhaps easier to show the bizarre-trippy opening titles… There was a lot of studio-shot material interspersed with Hanna-Barbera carton adventures such as The Arabian Nights, The Three Musketeers and Micro-Ventures. There were also episodes of a live-action adventure called Danger Island, an early job opportunity for Jan-Michael Vincent). It only ran for 31 episodes, but became popular internationally and was often seen in repeats on UK holiday tv schedules until the early 1980s.
Earlier this year there was talk of some sort of reboot and that it might be treated as more adult fare. And yes, unlikely though it seems, Hanna-Barbera and SyFy have now come together to create a ‘R-rated’ horror-movie based on the show. The original main ‘furry’ characters are back but the main thrust of the movie is that of a young boy called Harley whose parents take him to a recording of a live version of the show… but when news comes that the production is being cancelled, the cast rebel in dangerous and deadly fashion and now Harley’s best birthday treat will be his simple survival. US audiences familiar with the multimedia-concept of Five Nights at Freddy’s, originally a computer game, will likely appreciate the tonal shift.
Some thought the new trailer for the film was a skit or parody but the project itself looks to be entirely real and will debut on DVD and Blu-ray later this summer with a SyFy broadcast later in the year. The film stars Dani Kind, Steve Lund, Romeo Carere, Maria Nash and Finlay Wojtak-Hissong. Danishka Esterhazy is directing from a script by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas…
