This was like a long episode of "Leave it to Beaver" with zombies. The concept was funny and unique, and I was excited to see where the movie went with it. The movie was set in the revisionistically idyllic and puritanical time of 1950's America. Take every 50's T. V. trope you can think of and it probably appeared in "Fido."
Earlier in the century space dust settled on the country and reanimated the dead. There was a great zombie war that resulted which the living won with the aid of Dr. Geiger (Andy Parkin). He figured out that head shots killed the zombies. He also developed a special collar which domesticated the dead. From that point a company called Zomcon dealt with all things zombie related and zombies became big business. They did everything from delivering milk, delivering newspapers, gardening, and being house servants.
I think the movie became what it set out to mock. It was funny at first then got kind of stale. The main character's name was Timmy (Kesun Loder), which was very typical. Timmy had the typical 50's parents, Bill (Dylan Baker) and Tammy Robinson (Carrie-Ann Moss). Bill worked while Tammy was a homemaker.
Tammy, without her husband's consent, purchased a zombie for the family because "the neighbor has six." It was an "I Love Lucy" moment of a bygone era. Bill was miffed by the purchase, Timmy was ambivalent. Eventually, Timmy became good friends with the zombie and named him Fido (Billy Connolly).
Fido became a source of problems when his collar was disabled and he partially ate Mrs. Henderson (Mary Black). It was treated as a standard sitcom "oops" event. That set off a chain of events which coincided with a chain of lessons for Timmy and a mini zombie outbreak.
"Pleasantville" this was not. I felt they fell short of truly capturing the era in the most satirical fashion they could have. At times you could see the parody and the satire, but it became a lame sitcom about a boy and his zombie. Fido was supposed to be akin to the family dog, very analogous to Lassie. At one point Timmy was in trouble and told Fido to "go get help boy!" Fido in this case was a necrotized corpse who loved and protected Timmy, and had feelings for Tammy!? Yes, strange. Stranger still, Tammy also had feelings for Fido!? She even said, "I wish I'd met you before you died" as she lovingly caressed his face. It was a weird idea to begin with, but it crossed over to some very uncomfortable fetishy territory. It was bad enough that their neighbor, Mr. Theopolis (Tim Blake Nelson) had a serious case of necrophilia with his zombie, Tammy (Sonja Bennett).
I just thought the Timmy story went from a funny lampoon and settled into a rather boring sitcom that I would never spend time watching. Instead of going very absurd with it to parody 50's television, they stayed faithful to 50's television with a subtler message. There was an attempt, but as I'm seeing more and more, movies aren't delivering on the back end.
Free on Tubi.
Earlier in the century space dust settled on the country and reanimated the dead. There was a great zombie war that resulted which the living won with the aid of Dr. Geiger (Andy Parkin). He figured out that head shots killed the zombies. He also developed a special collar which domesticated the dead. From that point a company called Zomcon dealt with all things zombie related and zombies became big business. They did everything from delivering milk, delivering newspapers, gardening, and being house servants.
I think the movie became what it set out to mock. It was funny at first then got kind of stale. The main character's name was Timmy (Kesun Loder), which was very typical. Timmy had the typical 50's parents, Bill (Dylan Baker) and Tammy Robinson (Carrie-Ann Moss). Bill worked while Tammy was a homemaker.
Tammy, without her husband's consent, purchased a zombie for the family because "the neighbor has six." It was an "I Love Lucy" moment of a bygone era. Bill was miffed by the purchase, Timmy was ambivalent. Eventually, Timmy became good friends with the zombie and named him Fido (Billy Connolly).
Fido became a source of problems when his collar was disabled and he partially ate Mrs. Henderson (Mary Black). It was treated as a standard sitcom "oops" event. That set off a chain of events which coincided with a chain of lessons for Timmy and a mini zombie outbreak.
"Pleasantville" this was not. I felt they fell short of truly capturing the era in the most satirical fashion they could have. At times you could see the parody and the satire, but it became a lame sitcom about a boy and his zombie. Fido was supposed to be akin to the family dog, very analogous to Lassie. At one point Timmy was in trouble and told Fido to "go get help boy!" Fido in this case was a necrotized corpse who loved and protected Timmy, and had feelings for Tammy!? Yes, strange. Stranger still, Tammy also had feelings for Fido!? She even said, "I wish I'd met you before you died" as she lovingly caressed his face. It was a weird idea to begin with, but it crossed over to some very uncomfortable fetishy territory. It was bad enough that their neighbor, Mr. Theopolis (Tim Blake Nelson) had a serious case of necrophilia with his zombie, Tammy (Sonja Bennett).
I just thought the Timmy story went from a funny lampoon and settled into a rather boring sitcom that I would never spend time watching. Instead of going very absurd with it to parody 50's television, they stayed faithful to 50's television with a subtler message. There was an attempt, but as I'm seeing more and more, movies aren't delivering on the back end.
Free on Tubi.