Silly Movie Trailer of the Week - The Banana Splits Movie

Originally I had something else planned for this post; in fact I was going to drop a whole "silly" movie trailer angle altogether just keep more general. But then this thing happened.

I know the internet as a whole has already gone that's over this but come on, how could I not have it as a silly movie trailer of the week. There are so many layers to this one to unpack!  Now it's worth mentioning that I myself didn't grow up with the Banana Splits, they were before my time, and more of an American thing.  One show on CBBC had a sort of tribute act called the Pineapple Chunks, but so far Google has failed me to find anything about them, another one of those childhood memories that I do wonder whether they really happened, or was it some weird Candle Cove-esque experience.  The point is, I don't have the same nostalgia attachment for the Splits as some do, but I can understand a lot of people getting angry about this being done to them.

So what lead to this being created?  Well I think there are two major factors.  Firstly, Five Nights at Freddy's.  Now I don't just mean that this looks like what The Asylum would make if a FNAF movie got made; I mean that for a while Warner Bros, who made this film, had the film rights for an adaptation.  However those rights have since gone over to Blumhouse, who are still working on it two years later (Scott Cawthorn is working carefully on the script; I guess since the series is his baby, he wants the film exactly right, which is admirable).  So I'm guessing that Warners had the script lying around, thought "what else do we have the rights to that's a bit similar", and just went "what the hell!".  The second factor is that this isn't the first time Warners or their affiliated companies have done something like this; heard of Hanna-Barbera Beyond?  It's a series of comics done by DC, which takes some pretty bold re-imaginings of various cartoon characters; for example there's a more thoughtful and quite satirical Flintstones title, but there's also Wacky Raceland (which is Wacky Races filtered though Mad Max... yes, really!), and then there's Scooby Apocalypse...

I have to stress that this isn't something from Deviantart; this is an officially licenced comic, on sale for real money and everything!

Next to that, this doesn't seem too unreasonable, does it?  Needless to say, given the schlock I've been through, I'll be doing Canary Duty on The Banana Splits Movie when it comes out (I'll give fair odds that Frightfest may have a preview).  In the meantime, here's a game a few Facebook friends and I came up with... what kids franchise will get horror-fied next?  So far we came up with...

• Rainbow Brightburn
• Shadow of the Comet in Moominland
• "Underground, Overground, Wombling Free!  The Wombles of Wimbledon Common are COMING FOR YOU!!!"
• Going a more harsh social realism route, Crystal Meth and Alastair
• "Here Comes Bod... EVERYBODY RUN!!!"
• " I kill you, You kill me, We're a Jonestown family..."
• "Bertha, lovely Bertha... You are an Evil Machine!!!"
• I was thinking of Worzel Gummidge, but that was already pretty weird and disturbing.  Have you seen the pictures of the new version?

So, what else can you think of?  Link to me on Twitter with the hashtag #KidsShowHorror for your suggestions!