Meet the Feebles

Title: Meet the Feebles (1989)
Dir: Peter Jackson
Tagline: From the creator of Bad Taste comes a movie with no taste at all!
Rating: **** out of 5 stars



There were moments during this film where I would pause the DVD, run my hands over my face and say, "Wow this is fucked up." But when my jaw wasn't hanging open, I was laughing. Peter Jackson is a sick, hilarious individual and I wish he still made movies like this.

If you have not heard of Meet the Feebles, imagine The Muppets on acid. Or "Greg the Bunny", but without humans and the puppets are 100 times more crude. It is entirely about a gang of puppet animals who are putting together a variety show for television. There are a few nice characters (the hedgehog and the worm, that's about it) and a plethora of sick, morally-depraved animals. There is even a frog with a Vietnam past and an addiction to smack (note: the Vietnam flashback scene was the moment I officially loved this movie).

I don't find this movie to be crude just for the sake of being crude. There is very little vomiting or disgusting jokes like that. It is shocking but not in a way that makes me roll my eyes. It is just thoroughly violent and tackles subjects not usually addressed by puppets (STDs, drugs, guns).

And the puppetry work is fantastic! I don't even mean "Oh it's good for an old low-budget film", I mean it is really good. Some of them are actual people, and some are full puppets but they move and dance pretty convincingly. And the worm puppet...oh my god, the faces it makes. I want one!

The weird thing is, after I finished watching it, I kept getting flashbacks to it in my mind and it felt like it wasn't even puppets. The characters never feel like "just puppets", but like actual characters. That's pretty impressive.

I advise you to not read too much about the film before watching it. It's better that way - you'll be more shocked and laughing your ass off at how far it goes. Have fun!