I Watch Films: Howard The Duck
Howard The Duck
Mostly this film is a fun kid’s adventure where the practical effects (fights, duck costume, microlight stunts etc) are much better than the special (weird lightning, stop motion etc). It’s also extremely horny; during the short sequence on Duckworld Howard opens a copy of Playduck and looks at the centrefold and when he is dragged to our world he goes past someone in the bath and we see duck boobs.
Later he flirts with Beverley and has to stop her taking her top off. She claims she’s just playing but they’re about to kiss when some scientists arrive to explain what’s actually going on. This is about an hour into the film. By this time Howard has been to the Ohio bureau of employment and ogled the bum of the counsellor (who identifies him as a slacker who avoids getting a job due to his “controversial” appearance). She then sent him to be a towel boy at a hot tub place which is either a brothel or just a place people go to shag, it’s not clear.
The film is significantly less horny in the second half when the plot starts and the power that brought Howard from Duckworld to Earth is revealed to be a plan of one of the Dark Overlords. There’s several good setpieces at Papa Roma’s Cajun Sushi Diner each of which undercuts the next as they are jammed together. Then it goes into an overlong and confusing final fight sequence and a valedictory musical number.
The film is strangely paced; Howard spends an hour wandering around Cleveland having more or less amusing adventures as a three foot tall humanoid duck, then we discover there was a science experiment that went wrong and an actual plot kicks in, with Howard trying to get home and the Dark Overlord trying to conquer the world. None of this is bad for an undemanding adventure film, and I expect kids would like it. But I’d be uncomfortable showing it to kids because as I said at the start it’s weirdly horny.
Watch This: For a curious and weird 80s adventure film
Don’t Watch This: If a horny duck film is a step too far
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