With every movie reboot, we hear the same refrain: you’ve destroyed my childhood! That seems to be explicit goal of Syfy’s upcoming The Banana Splits Movie.
Based on the late ’60s, live-action Hanna-Barbera series from psychedelic children’s entertainment auteurs Sid and Marty Krofft (H.R. Pufnstuf), The Banana Splits Movie revives Fleegle the Beagle, Bingo the Gorilla, Drooper the Lion, and Snorky the Elephant for a new generation of young people. Or rather, grown-up young people — The Banana Splits Movie is a horror movie that arms the furry foursome with sharp objects in which to slice and dice all adult supervision.
The Banana Splits Movie owes more than a little bit to Scott Cawthon’s popular Five Nights at Freddy’s series, which finds Chuck E. Cheese-style animatronic characters breaking out in homicidal ways. The first trailer for the movie is pure horror schlock, with the always-smiling critters wreaking havoc on the staff and studio audience of a Banana Splits episode. Fleegle whacks someone in the face with a giant mallet — need we say more?
As for the actual Five Nights at Freddy’s movie, to be helmed by Home Alone director Chris Columbus, at some point in the future, Cawthon told Polygon in late 2018 that he’s perfecting the approach.
“I had a script written,” Cawthon said. “Jason [Blum of Blumhouse] liked it, and Chris Columbus liked it too, but I tossed it. I had a different idea for it, one that I liked better. I take responsibility for this delay; it’s my fault.”
The Banana Splits Movie will beat him to the punch, quality notwithstanding. The horror flick will premiere on Syfy later this year, and exclusively on Blu-ray and digital afterward.
