Meet the Feebles

MEET THE FEEBLES (18)

D: Peter Jackson

Intervision/OPEIU/Wingnut (Jim Booth)

New Zealand 1989

97 mins

Comedy

W: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Danny Mulheron & Stephen Sinclair

DP: Murray Milne

Ed: Jamie Selkirk

Mus: Peter Dasent

voices of: Mark Hadlow (Robert the Hedgehog / Heidi the Hippo / Barry the Bulldog), Peter Vere-Jones (Bletch the Walrus / Arthur the Worm / Newspaper Mouse), Donna Akersten (Lucille the Poodle / Samantha the Cat / Dorothy the Sheep), Stewart Devanie (various characters)

Muppets on drugs. That's pretty much the central theme of this movie, which has become a modest cult success following Peter Jackson's rise to stardom and his Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

This black comedy focuses on the perverse shenanigans which go on behind the curtains at a puppet variety show, satirising The Muppets in a rather filthy way.

Enjoyment depends wholly on how filthy your sense of humour is, but it has to be said that the whole film is dirty, even achieving a sickeningly seedy look through its cinematography, production design and puppetry. 

As Jackson said upon his Best Director win for Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - The Academy were very wise to overlook this.

4/10