Meet the Feebles

November 18, 1998

I am from the ‘Muppet Show’ era. My favorite episode was the one with Liza Minnelli. In it, she and that big ugly monster (that I can never remember the name of) did a musical number to Copacabana. Imagine Liza Minnelli naked on rollerskates, smoking crack while the big ugly monster sells acid to schoolchildren in the Copacabana and that is the same general impression that you will get while watching ‘Meet the Feebles.’

An impressive first film by Jackson, ‘Meet the Feebles’ is out there. Nevertheless, he manages to use basic film conventions and story-telling techniques in the world of Vietnam Vet gators and AIDS-ridden bunny rabbits. The use of puppets always requires weird camera angles to hide the fact that you are indeed watching puppets, but many of the Feebles are a lot closer to human size, so the camera angles aren’t as funky as those in, say, ‘Star Wars’ or anything else involving Muppets.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful…I dream for the day that some unsuspecting video clerk sees puppets on the video box and sticks ‘Meet the Feebles’ in the children’s section. We’ll have the next Charles Manson on our hands…