In 1986, a between-trilogies George Lucas exec-produced two light-spirited cine-fantasies. Neither went skywalking at the box office; but where the lavish Labyrinth built a affectionate following, Howard The Duck was mercilessly Raspberry-ed into Hollywood’s all-time Hall of Shame. A failed attempt to turn Marvel Comics’ smart-billed waterfowl into “a new breed of hero”, the film cost a bomb, then became one. Yet finally hatched on DVD, it surprises by being not as stinky as you’d think...

Oh, there’s a whiff of soiled feathers, all right. The tone is a sticky fudge between family frolic and suggestive satire. (In the opening minutes, Howard curses, smokes, scratches his crotch and leers at Playduck magazine.) Whether on Duck World or – after being rudely sucked into a vortex at the start – in Ohio, there’s as little spark in the waddler’s wise-quacks as there is in his lifeless, theme-park-costumed eyes.

But as the film shifts from drab, duck-out-of-water comedy to madcap chase caper, things modestly improve. One of the film’s four Razzies was for Worst FX, but you can see where the money went in the ka-booms, laser-zaps and glider stunts that frantically multiply as the diminutive duck and his pals (frizzy-haired Lea Thompson, baby-faced Tim Robbins) combat a demon-possessed Jeffrey Jones.

DVD Extras:

Trailers

This is the uncut version – at last, the ickily inappropriate condom gag! – but it suffers as a bare-bones disc. There’s not a peep from Lucas, his American Graffiti cohorts Willard Huyck (director/writer) and Gloria Katz (co-writer) or any of the eight actors who played Howie. Poor for a cult anti-classic almost as infamous as The Star Wars Holiday Special. Now when’s that coming out?