The Kids Parents Loved to Hate

Read Time:7 Minute, 37 Second

MOVIE REVIEWS
30 Years of Garbage: The Garbage Pail Kids Story – Blu-ray
–

Genre: Documentary, Biography
Year Released: 2017, 2026 Blu-ray
Runtime: 1h 54m
Director(s): Joe Simko, Jeff Zapata
Where to Watch: available now, order your copy here: www.moviezyng.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: At nearly two hours, 30 YEARS OF GARBAGE: THE GARBAGE PAIL KIDS STORY has considerably more to say about a bunch of gross-out trading cards than anyone really might expect. Joe Simko and Jeff Zapata go all the way back to the original artists and Topps employees who created the Garbage Pail Kids, then follow the property through playground, angry adults, lawsuits, merchandising, an infamous movie, its disappearance, and eventual return. There's a lot of good stuff here. There's also so much of it that the documentary eventually starts to feel like it doesn't know when enough is enough.

That will probably be its biggest selling point for fans or collectors. The Garbage Pail Kids weren't simply cards with funny pictures on them. They came into 1985 as a parody of the enormously popular Cabbage Patch Kids, combining the tradition of Topps' Wacky Packages with the cartoonists who were perfectly okay making children laugh at vomit, snot, explosions, mutilation, and practically anything else likely to horrify their parents.

The documentary is particularly good when it stays with those artists. Art Spiegelman, John Pound, Tom Bunk, Mark Newgarden, Jay Lynch, James Warhola, Len Brown, and others explain how the characters and jokes developed, giving the cards a history that's easy to overlook when remembering them simply as a fad. Seeing the sketches and artwork while listening to the people who made them makes it clear how much thought can go into crafting a joke that looks wonderfully disgusting.

John Pound's contributions receive the attention they deserve. Images such as Adam Bomb became instantly recognizable, and the film does a nice job of showing how that style developed rather than treating the finished cards as objects that somehow appeared from nowhere. The names, visual jokes, alternate versions, packaging, and the production process all mattered. What looked like chaos on the front of a sticker pack had an organized creative operation behind it.

There's also an interesting contradiction running through the Garbage Pail Kids phenomenon. Topps created a highly successful product partly by selling kids a parody of another highly successful product. The cards felt rebellious because adults found them tasteless, even though they were being manufactured and sold by a major company. Kids could buy something at a store and somehow feel like they were participating in an act of defiance. No wonder I’m such a leftist now!

30 YEARS OF GARBAGE is essentially a celebration made by people who love Garbage Pail Kids for people who are at least interested in Garbage Pail Kids. Critical distance appears occasionally, particularly when the documentary gets into the backlash and commercial excess surrounding the cards, but nobody seems especially interested in dismantling the mythology. For most of the first hour, that enthusiasm is enough. The stories surrounding Topps, the development of the cards, and their sudden popularity provide a progression. Garbage Pail Kids quickly became something children traded, collected, and argued over. Parents and administrators objecting to them only reinforced the idea that these little pieces of cardboard belonged to kids rather than adults.

The legal fight with the owners of Cabbage Patch Kids was inevitable. The resemblance wasn't exactly subtle, and the eventual settlement forced changes to the Garbage Pail Kids design. That part of the history is more than a bit of corporate trivia because it demonstrates how quickly a parody that began as a joke became valuable enough to fight over. By that point, the gross little kids weren't just a trading-card novelty anymore.

Then came THE GARBAGE PAIL KIDS MOVIE. Any documentary about the franchise has to spend some time on the film itself, and this one wisely brings in performers who were actually in those costumes. Mackenzie Astin, Debbie Lee Carrington, Arturo Gil, and others offer an entertaining look back at a production whose reputation has become almost as notorious as the cards themselves. The movie's failure is treated with a sense of humor rather than embarrassment, which fits a brand that has never exactly depended upon good taste for survival.

The problem is that 30 YEARS OF GARBAGE continues long after its peak. Once the explosion in popularity, controversy, lawsuit, and disastrous movie have been covered, there's a natural place where a better-edited documentary might begin wrapping things up. None of those subjects covered are irrelevant. Several are genuinely interesting. Together, though, they push the runtime to 114 minutes and begin to repeat ideas that have already been shown. Fans love these cards. Artists love creating them. Collectors can become incredibly serious about owning them. By the time the documentary makes those points for another round, the information has begun to lose some of its impact.

A deeper edit could have taken 20 or 25 minutes out without sacrificing much. There are so many moments of slideshows that seem to go on forever. I love the art, but these could have easily run along with other information to cut down some time. The documentary doesn't lack information; it has difficulty prioritizing it. Interviews sometimes cover similar stories, and certain subjects get more attention than their importance to the larger story warrants. The result is informative but uneven, with an energetic first half gradually becoming a much more specialized fan document.

Garbage Pail Kids remain fascinating because each card has a complete little joke built into a single image. Looking back at them also reveals how imaginative some of the artists were when inventing increasingly elaborate ways to destroy, deform, mutate, or humiliate their cartoon children. The grossness was the obvious attraction, but the craftsmanship is what allowed so many of those images to survive beyond their original moment.

Time has also changed the way that rebellion looks. Garbage Pail Kids is now a collectible property, celebrating anniversaries and releasing new editions for adults who grew up buying the originals. Something once confiscated by teachers can now be graded, protected, displayed, and sold to collectors. The documentary touches on that evolution even if it doesn't examine the irony the way it could have.

The current Blu-ray is a welcome option simply because a documentary this dependent on artwork, cards, archival photographs, commercials, and other visual material benefits from remaining available in a physical format. It also makes sense as a collector-oriented release for a film about people who aren't exactly known for throwing things away. Someone who has spent decades protecting Garbage Pail Kids cards in plastic sleeves seems like exactly the audience still interested in owning the documentary rather than hoping it remains available on a streaming service. Yes, I felt targeted lol.

30 YEARS OF GARBAGE works better as an archive than as a tightly constructed documentary. Simko and Zapata assembled an impressive collection of artists, creators, performers, and fans, and there's genuine value in hearing these stories directly from people who were there. The amount of material eventually becomes the problem, with a runtime that asks more from casual viewers than the subject needs.

For Garbage Pail Kids collectors, that probably won't matter much. Every additional interview, sketch, card, and behind-the-scenes detail is another reason to keep watching. Everyone else gets a lively and informative history of one of the strangest children's crazes of the eighties, followed by considerably more Garbage Pail Kids than they may have needed. That feels strangely appropriate for a franchise whose entire philosophy was built around the idea that too much was usually the right amount.

Please visit https://linktr.ee/overlyhonestr for more reviews.

You can follow me on Letterboxd, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. My social media accounts can also be found on most platforms by searching for 'Overly Honest Reviews'.

I’m always happy to hear from my readers; please don't hesitate to say hello or send me any questions about movies.

[photo courtesy of MOVIE ZYNG, AV ENTERTAINMENT, PEEL HERE PRODUCTIONS, INDICAN PICTURES]

DISCLAIMER:
At Overly Honest Movie Reviews, we value honesty and transparency. Occasionally, we receive complimentary items for review, including DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, Vinyl Records, Books, and more. We assure you that these arrangements do not influence our reviews, as we are committed to providing unbiased and sincere evaluations. We aim to help you make informed entertainment choices regardless of our relationship with distributors or producers.

Amazon Affiliate Links:
Additionally, this site contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may receive a commission. This affiliate arrangement does not affect our commitment to honest reviews and helps support our site. We appreciate your trust and support as you navigate these links.