Check Out the Trailer
The main reason I wanted to see this film was because I wasn’t allowed to see it when I was a kid. I collected the trading cards and love them. The movie actually disappointed me. You might be thinking — well, what were you expecting. I was expecting something so bad that it was good. Some elements are like that, but the lead character story is just a mediocre after school special drama. It’s not completely awful.
Dodger (Mackenzie Astin, DREAM FOR AN INSOMNIAC) is a small 14-year-old who is always being bullied by Juice (Ron MacLachlan) and his gang. Sadly Dodger has the hots for Juice’s girl Tangerine (Katie Barberi). He works at an antique shop for eccentric owner Cap’n Mancini (Anthony Newley, 1967’s DOCTOR DOLITTLE), who has a mysterious garbage can in the shop. One day it gets tipped over and out come the Garbage Pail Kids, who are played by little people in costumes with animatronic heads.
The voices were later dubbed in by voice actors including Jim Cummings, who is the voice of Tigger. The GPK include leader Ali Gator, Valerie Vomit, Greaser Greg, Nat Nerd, Windy Winston, Messy Tessie and Foul Phil. It seems the GPK characters were chosen not for their popularity, but each represents some bodily fluid (except for Greaser Greg and Ali Gator). Greg was probably picked because he’s a tough guy and Ali, well, who knows.
The film is actually a tale of two flicks. The Dodger-Tangerine romance is a typical kid crush story. All the parts with the GPK are filler and painful to watch. At first, one can laugh at the terrible costumes and bad potty humor, but it really gets tiresome after awhile. There’s also a song. I won’t torture you with that one.
Surprisingly, there’s a message to the movie — ugliness should be judged by a person’s inside not their outside. Tangerine is beautiful, but selfish and mean inside. Dodger learns this over the course of the movie. It’s actually a kind of smart idea to counter the ugly grossness of the Garbage Pail Kids with the materialism of the 1980s. However, that story is executed poorly with low production value and redundant humor.
It’s the inherent potty humor associated with the GPK that doesn’t work. And did I mention that the animatronic heads are really, really bad. Because I was expecting something totally awful, I was surprised and disappointed. Because I found an interesting idea in the film, I was also surprised and disappointed. I think sticking a “message” inside THE GARBAGE PAIL KIDS MOVIE was noble, but come on how did they think it was ever going to work when the big running gag in the film is Nat Nerd wizzing in his pants?
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
