Terror Toons 2

A Review by Andrew Shearer

In my 2002 write-up on the first TERROR TOONS, I used words like "bizarre" and "original" to describe FX master Joe Castro's wild cinematic trip. Five years later, it has attained cult status and remains one of the most creative and ambitious low-budget genre films ever made. So when I got word that a sequel was completed, I was quite literally unable to imagine what it could possibly be like. Would it be more of the same, or (gasp!) even weirder?

Dear readers, Castro and nimble-fingered editor Steven J. Escobar have not only topped themselves, but they have succeeded in creating what I can only describe as an exploding vomit-bag of cartoon color, sound and fury. From its 10-minute opening sequence featuring b-movie legend Brinke Stevens as a giant witch to the G.I. Joe in Hell climax, TERROR TOONS 2: THE SICK AND SILLY SHOW is, and I shit you not, a wall-to-wall eye-popping FX madhouse. Everything in this movie either screams, bleeds, pukes, mutates, burns or explodes - and some of the unluckiest ones do all of the above and more. Castro and Escobar use a combination of gore, puppetry, creature suits, blue screen, digital and frame-by-frame animation to pull off a comedic massacre 10 times as supercharged as the first film. The excellent lighting, looney-tune score and sound effects only serve to elevate this movie to an almost unclassifiable category.

No one is making movies like this. I don't think any sane filmmaker would even think this stuff up, let alone attempt to actually bring it to life. It's like someone took Joe Dante's segment of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE and let Peter Jackson, John Waters and Tex Avery handle everything else. Folks, this is comedic creature carnage at its absolute finest. Fans of HAPPY TREE FRIENDS, as well as connoisseurs of imaginative horror deaths will definitely eat this one up. And later on, when they get sick, their vomit will most likely be filled with neon confetti.

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