Although the ’80s and ’90s nostalgia machines continue to run at full tilt, the childhood properties of ’70s kids aren’t tapped with quite the same regularity these days. Perhaps that’s just an issue of demographics. Or perhaps it’s because the kinds of properties available are The Banana Splits, and well … you know.
Nevertheless, that isn’t stopping Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and Syfy from teaming up to make a Banana Splits reboot film—and oh yeah, it’s a horror movie.
Sure, the very idea of a bunch of adults playing Chuck E. Cheese-style animal band members in puffy suits was always a little creepy, but was a slasher movie really the most obvious way to exploit that irresistible Banana Splits IP? Well, I suppose if we get what is essentially an unlicensed Five Nights at Freddy’s adaptation out of this, it might not bee too bad. According to TVLine, the film will debut first via Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and then air on Syfy later this year.
Per the announcement, the film is about “a boy named Harley” who is celebrating his birthday by attending a Banana Splits TV show taping with his family. Things then “take an unexpected turn, and the body count quickly rises.” Does that mean the Banana Splits are secretly murderers? Or does the set come under attack by malicious forces? Syfy’s own Dani Kind from Wynonna Earp stars, alongside Sara Canning (The Vampire Diaries).
The original The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was of course about a band of anthropomorphic animal musicians—a gorilla, a beagle, an elephant and a lion named Bingo, Fleegle, Snorky and Drooper—who perform spirited, wholesome rock music. One of many children’s shows from producer team Sid and Marty Krofft, it aired for only two years (1968-1970) but lived on in syndication throughout the ’70s.
It all begs the question: What’s the youngest audience segment that actually remembers anything about The Banana Splits? While you wait, refresh your memory with the original theme music below.