A sarcastic humanoid duck is pulled from his homeworld to Earth where he must stop an alien invasion with the help of a nerdy scientist and a struggling female rock singer.A sarcastic humanoid duck is pulled from his homeworld to Earth where he must stop an alien invasion with the help of a nerdy scientist and a struggling female rock singer.A sarcastic humanoid duck is pulled from his homeworld to Earth where he must stop an alien invasion with the help of a nerdy scientist and a struggling female rock singer.
- Awards
- 5 wins & 4 nominations
Chip Zien
- Howard T. Duck
- (voice)
Holly Robinson Peete
- K.C.
- (as Holly Robinson)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to reports at the time of the movie's release, George Lucas had just built the $50-million Skywalker Ranch complex, and was counting on this film to get him back in the black. When it bombed, he was forced to start selling off assets to stay afloat. His friend Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computer, offered to help by buying Lucasfilm's newly-launched CGI animation division for a price well above market value. Lucas, in dire straits and thankful for the assistance, agreed. That division eventually became Pixar Animation Studios.
- GoofsPalm trees in Cleveland, Ohio.
- Quotes
[Together in bed, Beverly seducing Howard]
Howard T. Duck: [flustered] I've got a headache...
Beverly: And I've got the aspirin!
Howard T. Duck: Be gentle.
- Alternate versionsIn the UK two cuts totalling 46 secs were made to secure a PG rating. One is of Lea Thompson pulling a condom out of Howard's wallet, the other is of the bad guy sticking his tongue in a car cigarette lighter socket to recharge himself. The scene with the condom was left intact on the film's television premiere on the BBC. Although the cuts were fully restored in 2008 for the 12-rated Metrodome release the same company reissued the film later in the year with a PG certificate, and this release lost 52 secs of cuts to photo shots in a sex magazine and a scene where Howard works in a sleazy sauna parlour.
- ConnectionsEdited into Nostalgia Critic: Max Payne (2019)
- SoundtracksHunger City
Performed by Lea Thompson, Dominique Davalos, Liz Sagal, Holly Robinson Peete (as Holly Robinson)
Produced by Thomas Dolby
Written by Thomas Dolby and Allee Willis
Featured review
Though I knew of its infamy, I'd never actually sat down and watched "Howard The Duck" before, so noticing that it's currently available on Sky Movies, and with a spare evening, I thought now was the opportune time.
Howard (Jordan Prentice & Chip Zien (primarily)) from a planet where the duck, rather than monkey, was the dominate species, is transported across the Galaxy, to Earth, where, despite his appearance he connects with Beverly (Lea Thompson) a struggling rock singer. Their attempts to find a way for Howard to return to his own planet are assisted by Beverly's friend Phil (Tim Robbins), who brings in Dr. Jenning (Jeffrey Jones) but their research only results is something much worse being brought to Earth.
So, no. It's not good. Not good at all. Particularly for the first half. Tonally it's all over the place, with duck playboy magazine and the visit to the brothel feeling at odds with the PG Certificate. The plot takes an age to get going and the set pieces are dull or incomprehensible. The acting is terrible, from some pretty big names too - what is Tim Robbins doing? It's also not helped that time hasn't been kind to the very 80's sensibilities, from the awful band, to the massive hair, to the outfits that everyone wears to the weird Rock club, to the generic 80's street thugs.
But is its reputation as one of the worst films of all time actually warranted? Not really, of course it was a financial failure and essentially ended up costing Lucas Pixar, but those consequences shouldn't really be considered when appraising the movie. Does "The Shawshank Redemptions" initial financial failure affect people's opinions of that film? The second half of the movie is alright, when the plot finally starts. I actually quite like the effects for the evil overlords race, I'm a bit of a sucker for stop motion animation.
Whilst never approaching a level you would describe as "good" the film is, never the less, rather unfairly grouped in during the "worst of all time" conversations and Howard himself is overdue his full MCU reboot.
Howard (Jordan Prentice & Chip Zien (primarily)) from a planet where the duck, rather than monkey, was the dominate species, is transported across the Galaxy, to Earth, where, despite his appearance he connects with Beverly (Lea Thompson) a struggling rock singer. Their attempts to find a way for Howard to return to his own planet are assisted by Beverly's friend Phil (Tim Robbins), who brings in Dr. Jenning (Jeffrey Jones) but their research only results is something much worse being brought to Earth.
So, no. It's not good. Not good at all. Particularly for the first half. Tonally it's all over the place, with duck playboy magazine and the visit to the brothel feeling at odds with the PG Certificate. The plot takes an age to get going and the set pieces are dull or incomprehensible. The acting is terrible, from some pretty big names too - what is Tim Robbins doing? It's also not helped that time hasn't been kind to the very 80's sensibilities, from the awful band, to the massive hair, to the outfits that everyone wears to the weird Rock club, to the generic 80's street thugs.
But is its reputation as one of the worst films of all time actually warranted? Not really, of course it was a financial failure and essentially ended up costing Lucas Pixar, but those consequences shouldn't really be considered when appraising the movie. Does "The Shawshank Redemptions" initial financial failure affect people's opinions of that film? The second half of the movie is alright, when the plot finally starts. I actually quite like the effects for the evil overlords race, I'm a bit of a sucker for stop motion animation.
Whilst never approaching a level you would describe as "good" the film is, never the less, rather unfairly grouped in during the "worst of all time" conversations and Howard himself is overdue his full MCU reboot.
- southdavid
- Apr 21, 2020
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Howard el pato
- Filming locations
- Petaluma, California, USA(Petaluma River is used for almost all waterway scenes, with takeoff from Western Avenue)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $37,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $16,295,774
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,070,136
- Aug 3, 1986
- Gross worldwide
- $37,962,774
- Runtime1 hour 50 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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