While Blumhouse can’t seem to get a movie based on the popular video game series ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ off the ground, Syfy and Warner Brothers are moving forward with a horror flick based on the 1960s Saturday morning series ‘The Banana Splits’, which featured human actors in large mascot-like costumes running around having misadventures. It may just be a coincidence that the Banana Splits at least superficially resemble the animatronic characters from ‘Freddy’s’.
Here is the synopsis for ‘The Banana Splits’ movie:
“In the upcoming horror thriller, a boy named Harley and his family (brother Austin, mother Beth, and father Mitch) attend a taping of The Banana Splits TV show, which is supposed to be a fun-filled birthday for young Harley and business as usual for Rebecca, the producer of the series. But things take an unexpected turn — and the body count quickly rises. Can Harley, his mom and their new pals safely escape?”
Dani Kind, who stars on Syfy’s ‘Wynonna Earp’ will portray Beth. Finlay Wojtak-Hissong will appear as Harley, Romeo Carere as Austin, Steve Lund as Mitch, and Sara Canning as Rebecca. The movie will be directed by Danishka Esterhazy, while Jed Elinoff & Scott Thomas provide the script. The movie will be released via Warner Home Video first, before airing on Syfy.
Obviously, it’s not clear what the quality will be. Syfy has been trying to elevate its image, but it spent years cranking out low-budget crap, best exemplified by the ‘Sharknado‘ franchise. Perhaps Warner Brothers’ involvement will result in something a bit better. It also isn’t clear whether the Banana Splits will be the “new pals” of the human characters, or if they will be monsters, like the animatronic ghouls in ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’.
‘The Banana Splits’ Saturday morning show was produced by Hanna-Barbera, which is owned by WB, and originally aired from 1968-70. The costumes and sets were designed by Sid and Marty Krofft. The first season was directed by none other than Richard Donner! The show mixed live-action with animation. The Banana Splits were meant to be an anthropomorphic spin on ‘The Monkees’, and consisted of: Fleegle the dog (presumably a beagle) on guitar and lead vocals; Bingo the orange ape, on drums; Drooper the lion on bass; and Snorky or Snork, the elephant on keyboards.
Numerous songs were recorded for ‘The Banana Splits’, although not all were released commercially on the accompanying record album or 45 singles. Their most famous ditty remains the opening theme “The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)” which you can check out below:
Yep, that’s pretty horrifying.
Oh well, ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’, you snooze, you lose.
What do you think of these Hanna-Barbera kids characters returning in a horror movie? Could this be fun, or is this a blatant knockoff of ‘Freddy’s’?
Source: Deadline
