In my entire, comic book reading life, I have read exactly one comic featuring Howard the Duck. And he teamed up with Spider-Man in that story, so it probably wasn't that indicative of the stories centered on the titular water fowl.
But taken on its own, the film is a LOT of fun. Even things that are "bad", have enough charm to carry them through to the next good part.
To begin with, both the Duckworld and Cleveland set scenes are a perfect skewering of 1980s pop culture. The duck-centric jokes are puns centered around ducks and birds. Those set on Earth are a send up of hair bands and 80s pop music.
The special effects are, for their day, actually pretty decent. The animatronics and stop-motion puppetry hold up well, but the optical composite shots are a tad weak.
For a ridiculous premise, the cast are all acquitting themselves very well; they mostly inhabit that sweet spot between taking themselves far too seriously and playing it so broadly and making the film devolve into camp. Particular praise must go to Chip Zien perfectly matching his vocal performance as Howard to various suit performers (primarily Ed Gale), which comes together to seemlessly create a single character. And even greater praise must go to Lea Thompson as Beverly Switzler, she absolutely carries the film as the human point of view character, she also did her own singing and it's excellent.
Following on from Lea Thompson's great singing is that the film has an awesome soundtrack. The score by John Barry and Sylvester Levay matches the emotion of each scene perfectly, and the pop songs penned by Thomas Dolby and performed by Lea Thompson and her in-film band Cherry Bomb are some serious toe-tappers.
Even for being "infamously bad", the film really is an enjoyable romp. It's the kind of movie that is just fun to watch, and even more fun if the viewer is of age and partaking of an adult beverage. So just let loose and have a good time.
But taken on its own, the film is a LOT of fun. Even things that are "bad", have enough charm to carry them through to the next good part.
To begin with, both the Duckworld and Cleveland set scenes are a perfect skewering of 1980s pop culture. The duck-centric jokes are puns centered around ducks and birds. Those set on Earth are a send up of hair bands and 80s pop music.
The special effects are, for their day, actually pretty decent. The animatronics and stop-motion puppetry hold up well, but the optical composite shots are a tad weak.
For a ridiculous premise, the cast are all acquitting themselves very well; they mostly inhabit that sweet spot between taking themselves far too seriously and playing it so broadly and making the film devolve into camp. Particular praise must go to Chip Zien perfectly matching his vocal performance as Howard to various suit performers (primarily Ed Gale), which comes together to seemlessly create a single character. And even greater praise must go to Lea Thompson as Beverly Switzler, she absolutely carries the film as the human point of view character, she also did her own singing and it's excellent.
Following on from Lea Thompson's great singing is that the film has an awesome soundtrack. The score by John Barry and Sylvester Levay matches the emotion of each scene perfectly, and the pop songs penned by Thomas Dolby and performed by Lea Thompson and her in-film band Cherry Bomb are some serious toe-tappers.
Even for being "infamously bad", the film really is an enjoyable romp. It's the kind of movie that is just fun to watch, and even more fun if the viewer is of age and partaking of an adult beverage. So just let loose and have a good time.