Looking for a Laugh? Watch Frankenthumb!

Frankenthumb

It's alive! Gasp at nonstop comedy in this outrageous spoof of the horror classic, direct from the mind of Steve Oedekerk (Jimmy Neutron, The Nutty Professor). Incredible stylistic detail brings you into a world of gothic laboratories, hunchbacks, and even a deceased Thumb brought back to life! Hold on to your electrodes!

Thumbtanic

"I'm the cuticle of the world!" Steve Oedekerk and his digitally enhanced digits board the fateful Thumbtanic (a.k.a. the ship of death) and square off against a really big ice cube. The old story of young, impulsive, and fairly stupid thumbs is spiced up with tortured visual puns (our hero wins his ticket in a pub wrestling match--thumb wrestling, of course), a giant spider invasion, and a happy ending. Oedekerk's doofus humor and askew sight gags run a bit dry here--it lacks the lunatic inspiration of Thumb Wars and the gonzo goofiness of The Blair Thumb Project--but this third "thumbation" farce is kept above water by moments of absurd invention, oddball twists, and the most eccentric and inspired mutant thumb puppets to wiggle through a movie spoof. The DVD also features commentary by writer-producer Steve Oedekerk, storyboards, and trailers to other all-thumb parodies.--Sean Axmaker

Thumb Wars
The Phantom Cuticle

You'll believe a thumb can talk! Writer-director Steve Oedekerk (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) compresses highlights of the entire trilogy into this goofy burlesque of the original Star Wars. The humor is pretty adolescent, a spoofing series of pithy puns, winking in-jokes, silly sight gags, and character caricatures, but the screwy magic Thumbation skews it all into a brand-new realm. This revolutionary process marries desktop digital effects and good old-fashioned thumb puppetry with a twisted, sick genius: human mouths and eyes are not merely morphed onto the thumbs but squished into cartoonish exaggeration. The resulting creations are like strange alien beings from a galactic farce far, far away, and the film is an equally oddball mix of chintzy toy sets and doll costumes and elaborate CGI space battles. For an all-thumbs production, it's genuinely inspired.

The commentary by creator Steve Oedekerk and producer Paul Marshal doesn't shed much light on the production, but it does up the pun quotient significantly. The DVD debut also features trailers from Thumbation classics Thumbtanic and The Blair Thumb; gag "thumbographies" of the characters; a strange, silly interview with Gabba the Butt; and a gallery of storyboards (look closely and you'll see the title The Incredible Mr. Limpet printed on the bottom--guess who was funding this picture's preproduction). --Sean Axmaker

The Godthumb

Steve Oedekerk (who wrote and directed Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) masterminds a series of movie parodies in which the actors are replaced by thumbs--more specifically, thumbs with eyes and mouths digitally superimposed. The Godthumb has a script that would be funny even if performed by normal actors (something that can't be said for all the Thumbation movies), but the bizarrely high-quality thumb effects push it to the point of surrealism. The Godthumb parodies all the high points of The Godfather (the horse head in the bed, the death of Sonny, the orange peel), but it's at its best when it spirals off into its own peculiar universe. Fans of the Thumbation flicks will not be disappointed. --Bret Fetzer

The Blair Thumb

Lost, stupid, and really, really scared, Stressy turns the camera on herself and whimpers, "I don't know where this snot is coming from because I don't have a nose." Well no, she doesn't, because she's the star of Steve Oedekerk's surreal all-thumbs parody of The Blair Witch Project. Three camera-wielding digits get lost in the forest, fight off a shark attack in their tent ("It could have been an owl," Stressy hopefully offers), and relentlessly film every moment of their blind panic. This bizarre spoof has it all over the recent rash of parodies: it's shorter (under half an hour) and sillier, and it stars Jaws, Frankenstein's monster, and a handful of talking thumbs with squished-together eyes, run-amok eyebrows, and overactive mouths spewing nonstop nonsense. And it's pretty darn funny to boot.

The spoofing continues through the special supplements, with a mock "making of" featurette (where the thumbs blab on about coffee, motivation, and irritating butt rashes), outtakes and deleted scenes, and a thoroughly nonsensical, incomprehensible Insane commentary track to accompany the Sane (but only slightly more informative) commentary track. --Sean Axmaker

All Thumbs
The Complete Collection

There's thumbthing for everyone in this 6 DVD box set from writer/director Steve Oedekerk (Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, Jimmy Neutron, Ace Ventura)! Includes "Bat Thumb" (2001, 28 min.) - Super hero Wuce Bane and his sidekick Blue Jay must save Gaaathumb City from the evil, despicable, and poorly dressed "No Face." "The Blair Thumb" (2001, 28 min.) - A clever tale about three thumbs who encounter terror during their search for the truth behind The Blair Thumb. "Frankenthumb" (2002, 32 min.) - Gasp as a deceased Thumb is brought back to life in this outrageous spoof of the gothic horror classic. "The Godthumb" (2002, 31 min.) - A gripping tale of true crime mixed with sensationalistic falsehoods and wrapped in vicious mobster stereotypes. Don't fuhgeddaboudit! "Thumb Wars" (1999, 29 min.) - Reluctant hero Loke Groundrunner and his tasty companion Princess Bunhead battle Black Helmet Man and the Evil Thumbpire! "Thumbtanic" (1999, 27 min.) - They thought nothing on earth could come between them. Then, they hit an iceberg...