non-Ugly Duckling
TITLE: Howard The Duck
GENRE: SciFi Comedy near term
CAST: Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, Tim Robbins and six people sharing the Howard Costume
PLOT: By messing with something that shouldn't be messed with, a corporation's scientists snatch a living creature from across the universe and drop it off in Cleveland. The Creature is Howard and he is a sentient being evolved from the duck species. He befriends a wanna-be rock starette and they try to find the way to return him to his world. When the machine is used again, a Dark Lord escapes and is transported here. The rest of the movie is about ho-hum saving the world and becoming rock and roll stars.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT: A and B of 10; B because sometimes it doesn't present the premise developed by Marvel Comics very well even though George Lucas and his Industrial Light and Magic operation fronted this effort. A because it's entertaining, amusing, campy and does hit on all cylinders as far as entertainment goes. The animatronics of making the duck costume work succeeded. The stunts work. the dialogue develops the characters. So, let's go with 90%A at 9/10 and 10%B at 5/10 giving 8.5 of 10.
DVD BONUSES: lots of behind the scenes from the director, producer, Thompson, Jones and the lead duck portrayer. There is no overdubbing of commentary.
ADDED NOTES: This is one of the major roles Lea T. did between Back to the Future 1 & 2. She learned to play guitar, sing and dance to play this part. Tim Robbins, the son of folk group The Highwaymen's Gilbert Robbins, fresh from college gets his first lead billing notice in this film. SPOILER ALERT: Howard is still out there amongst us, he didn't get home.