An Ode to Bad Reels: Foodfight!

Charlie Sheen, Hilary Duff, Wayne Brady and $45 million gives us the worst animated film I have ever seen. Foodfight! is an abomination of a film that struggled to keep me from hitting stop on my remote. I have never seen such a poor attempt at an animated movie then Foodfight! where even my five-year-old daughter lost interest within the first five minutes. The second you see the first frame of this film you realize that you are in for a long, chaotic and bizarre ride.

As I mentioned before, Foodfight! had an astonishing budget of $45 million and while you sit and watch the movie, it is really difficult to figure out where all that money went. After doing some research, I found out that even though Foodfight! came out in 2012, it actually started production at the beginning of the new millennium but according to the director and writer of this film, Lawerence Kasnoff, the hard drives containing all animation and voice work done on the movie were stolen in 2002. This forced the filmmakers to have to restart production with very little of the budget still remaining. Kasnoff referred to this incident as an “act of industrial espionage” and the film went through many pauses in production after 2002 and eventually had a low-key straight to DVD release.

Foodfight

One of the most annoying parts of this film is the movements the characters show on screen. Not only are the movements choppy and unnatural but there are way too many instances where the characters would make sporadic gestures or randomly spin around for no reason in the middle of a conversation. A very close second is when it comes to the peak of annoyance is how the main character, Dex Dogtective (voiced by Charlie Sheen), takes well-known lines from timeless movies and incorporates food with it at the end of almost every scene he is in. Some memorable quotes would include, “frankly my dear, I don’t give a spam” and “I’m not the one who’s gonna be puppy whipped, you cold farted itch.”

The plot of this movie is all over the place as well. It takes place in a supermarket where, once the doors are closed, the mascots for the products they sell come to life and the supermarket is somehow turned into a city. We get introduced to Dex Dogtective along with his best friend and sidekick, Daredevil Dan (Wayne Brady). Dex plans to propose to his girlfriend, Sunshine Goodness (Hilary Duff) but she mysteriously goes missing. Six months later, “Brand X” gets introduced to the supermarket and things start going south. Dex is no longer a detective and is now the owner of the most popular nightclub in town, however, once he finds out about Brand X, he forgets about his nightclub and becomes a Detective again. We get introduced to Lady X who seems to be the head of Brand X in “Marketropolis” and Dex quickly learns that Sunshine Goodness is still alive and held against her will by the people behind Brand X. He goes on a mission to stop Brand X from killing the citizens of Marketropolis because if they die, then the products they represent die.

Foodfight

Even with the excuse of the hard drives being stolen, you cannot build a compelling movie off of this plot. This movie takes too many influences from other animated films but does not execute it as well, including elements from Toy Story and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The characters in this film are named with very little elements, the villain is not threatening enough and even the way they defeat him leaves the audience unsatisfied. They can try to use the “industrial espionage” angle all they want but it still does not excuse for the terrible writing in this movie. The fact that this is also marketed as a children’s movie is wrong as there seem to be far too many sexual jokes that are not understandable or appropriate for children.

One memorable scene in Foodfight! was when Lady X placed Dex and Dan in a laundry dryer and turned it on. Once the dryer was on, not only did she somehow place a hologram of her face in there to talk to them as they spun to their death but for some reason, a fire inexplicably ignites in the dryer, giving the protagonists more peril. I do not know if the filmmakers know how a dryer works but if there is fire randomly igniting in there, it would not be a good thing.

Is Foodfight! worth watching? I would actually say Yes. Not only will it bring you laughter all throughout the film with the terrible animation and cheesy dialogue but if you are a film buff with a good sense of humor then you will get a chuckle out of the badly altered movie quotes sprinkled throughout this film.

Grab your favorite supermarket goodies and enjoy this terribly funny adventure.


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About Luis Hernandez 67 Articles
As Reel Talk’s Creative Director, Luis is responsible for all the visuals of the website and marketing materials. He brings the views of the everyday movie audience but still holds an appreciation for the critically acclaimed films. He enjoys all things horror (good or bad) as well as comedy and action flicks. Follow him on Twitter @luisthedesigner