In what must be one of the broken seals of the impending apocalypse, the world now has a super-deluxe 4K special edition of one of the most notorious American films of the 1980s: The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, a feel-good vehicle for the notorious, parent-outraging Topps trading cards characters. For those who weren’t around or don’t remember, those punny, gross-out antics were a direct parody of the retail frenzy that erupted over the utterly wholesome but very creepy Cabbage Patch Kids, which had spawned violent behavior among unhinged holiday shoppers. Sort of like a very, very lowbrow riff on Edward Gorey, the Garbage Pail Kids became particular favorites with youngsters thanks to their tasteless gags and an attitude familiar to many juvenile horror fans. Their sole theatrical movie outing (which is still one more than the Cabbage Patch Kids ever got) weirdly dodges the potential horror content, instead making them destructive cheerleaders and buddies for a bullied kid. Still, the result was surreal enough to earn a gradual fan following, and it somehow takes the cake as the most bizarre film from onetime TV director Rod Amateau who had already done films like The Statue, Drive-In, The Seniors, and the still undiscovered would-be cult oddity Lovelines.

Hiding out from alarmingly older bullies at an antique store owned by Cap'n Manzini (Anthony Newley, because why not?), young hair-sniffing Dodger (Astin) notices a garbage can he’s instructed not to approach under any circumstances. Improbably, Dodger gets to stick around and help out at the shop only to get targeted later for another attack that ends up overturning said garbage can (which may be from outer space, depending how you interpret the opening scene) to release some green goo and the grotesque puppet kids we’ve been waiting for: Ali Gator, Windy Winston, Greaser Greg, Messy Tessie, Valerie Vomit, Nat Nerd, and Foul Phil. Pretty much every bodily function you can safely depict in a PG-rated movie gets indulged in as Dodger and the girlfriend of one of the bullies, Tangerine (Barberi), get pulled into a string of misadventures involving truck hijacking, biker bar brawling, sweat shop equipment theft, and a bold new wave in garbage pail fashion.

This film marked the first theatrical feature to bear the Topps name, and they quickly followed it up with an animated TV series and occasional later films like Mars Attacks! The short-lived production company and distributor, Atlantic Entertainment Group (who had handled films like Valley Girl, Teen Wolf, and Night of the Comet), was very busy around this time but would fade out by the following year; almost all of its catalog ended up at MGM who has been involved in all of this film’s home video releases after the initial VHS release from Kartes Video Communications. The first widescreen release was a 2005 DVD from MGM, which looked quite nice for the time and featured the theatrical trailer. Scream Factory debuted the film on Blu-ray in 2015 with the trailer and a quartet of featurettes starting with "The Effects of the Garbage Pail Kids Movie" (11m46s) with much-missed special makeup effects creator John Carl Buechler and makeup effects artist Gino Crognale discussing their own takes on how the characters could have been used, the process of working with Atlantic who wanted things to be "cute," the skills of the actors inside the suits with animatronic heads, and the cartoony nature of the kids they had to capture in real life. In the quick "On the Set" (6m22s), first assistant director Thomas A. Irvine recalls being impressed with the work of Bluechler and company, plus his memories of seeing the characters come to life and working with the actors. In "The Artful Dodger" (27m16s), Astin explains the card craze at the time and his mom's disgust for them, his career at the time coming off of The Facts of Life, the conflicting opinions of his family and agent over doing this film, the numerous TV vets on this production, the film's legacy for better or worse, the positive experience of working with Newley, the pop culture influence in the costumes, and the methods of working with the "kid" actors. Finally in "The Kids Aren't Alright" (21m21s), Windy Winston actor Arturo Gil and Ali Gator actor Kevin Thompson talk about the concepts they had for their characters that didn't necessarily align with the end result, the visits from Patty Duke Astin and John Astin on the set, the ad libbing they worked into their performances, the heaviness of the animatronic heads, and the interaction they had with the puppeteers.

The 2025 Vinegar Syndrome edition upgrades the film to 4K UHD and an expanded Blu-ray special edition featuring a fresh scan from the 35mm original camera negative, featuring a significant amount of extra info on the right and bottom sides. The new Blu-ray is otherwise fairly close to the Scream Factory in terms of detail and color timing, but the UHD gets a significant boost with the HDR10-compatible Dolby Vision grading bringing out significantly deeper and richer black levels in particular that give the image a greater sense of depth. Those electric pink accents in Tangerine's clothes really jump out here, too, and the overall '80s kitsch aesthetic really shines here. As this was a very quick, low-budget production, the film only got a basic mono mix which is represented here well with a DTS-HD MA 2.0 English track with optional English SDH subtitles. It's too bad a multi-channel mix of some kind wasn't in the cards as the soundtrack is one of the film's strongest assets (and it even got a vinyl release back in the day). A commentary track with Barberi (via speakerphone, which is hard to hear at times) and Astin moderated by William Morris is great fun as they chat about dating at the time, the logistics of handling scenes surrounded by the titular kid performers, the shooting in the San Fernando Valley, and lot more. "Tangerine's Dreams" (27m1s) is a new interview with Barberi chatting about this film a bit but mainly covering her entire career, Mexican-American upbringing, and later success as a telenovela star. She has some very funny stories here and also points out a pretty crucial deleted scene that explained why Dodger doesn't just go home at some point. In "Anything is Possible" (26m9s), special effects and animatronics artist Hal Miles is interviewed about the roles of Ray Harryhausen and Forrest J. Ackerman in his career path, his work in stop-motion animation, and the circumstances that led to him working with Buechler on this film-- including some equipment he's kept around years later. All four featurettes from the prior Blu-ray are also ported over along with the trailer, and you also get a 40-page book with essays by Austin Trunick, Chris Shields, and Walter Chaw covering the popularity of the cards, the irate response they caused, the translation to film, and the following it still maintains to this day.

Vinegar Syndrome (UHD)



Vinegar Syndrome (Blu-ray)



Scream Factory (Blu-ray)

Reviewed on February 18, 2026