Baby Huey's Great Easter Adventure (1999)

A Major Disappointment

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

"Baby Huey's Great Easter Adventure" is a live action film featuring long-lived comic book/cartoon character Baby Huey. A 7-foot-tall baby duck, dim of wit but big of heart (and strong of arm), the film serves as an "origin" story of sorts, set in a small town called Bitsville.Nick is a local boy who, while walking home from school comes across a giant egg which fell off a delivery truck. Naturally, Nick takes the big guy home to his parents, who are surprised, but apparently not scared to death that a giant talking duck has just followed their son home (Mom is Maureen McCormack aka Marcia from "The Brady Bunch"; the relentlessly fix-it-minded dad is played by David Leisure).Huey quickly becomes Nick's best friend and a surrogate brother, and Nick's parents observe how Huey inspires the normally shy Nick's self-esteem. Hijinks ensue, usually involving Huey's heft making a mess of his surroundings.Meanwhile, a couple of unethical grown-ups have their eyes on Huey for selfish reasons. Birdwatcher (and amateur taxidermist) Professor von Klumpp (Harvey Korman) wants Huey as a lab project; hapless showbiz promoter PT Wynnsocki and his sidekick (Joseph Bologna and Martin Lander) see Huey as a novelty stage act to bring in the big bucks.The effervescent Huey wins over the kids of the school and (temporarily) even the teachers. The school's principal is played by John Vernon ("Animal House") the irony of which is made clear when one considers that the film is directed by Stephen Furst (who played Flounder in "Animal House" and also voices Baby Huey here).A pending Easter celebration at the school serves as the film's plot, but while it's pretty threadbare, there are some nice, if abrupt, segues into songs by the principal cast, including a few led by Huey himself.That the filmmakers chose to play the subject matter straight is to its benefit, as there's not really much of a choice when the main character is a giant duck in a diaper and bonnet. The character design is actually spot-on for the character who was created back in 1949. As such, Huey technically predates Sesame Street's Big Bird, though there is little chance of BB's place in pop culture being usurped anytime soon.All in all, this is an enjoyable film for kids: The veteran actors featured here are fun to watch, though the roles are maybe a little thankless. Still, this is a nice, inoffensive diversion that the family can watch together.

SPOILER ALERT: The film opens with David L. Lander (Squiggy from "Laverne and Shirley") meeting with some kind of Hollywood agent. Squiggy claims the dog would do a trick, but the dog does nothing. The agent demands a real animal act.But where will Squiggy find an animal act? In the next scene we get a big clue... and I mean BIG when a giant egg falls out of an egg truck. Soon after, a little boy named Nick finds the egg and Huey hatches out of it.In other words, Huey was just a short drive away from being some dude's omelet.Nick heads home where his dad (that Joe Isuzu guy) is trying to fix a toaster... or a car... or something. I don't remember exactly. He tries to fix a bunch of different things throughout the flick and it never seems to work out. Nick's mom, Marsha Brady is just in shock about Baby Huey.It's interesting to note that we have not SEEN Baby Huey yet in the film. He has been off screen for both his scenes so far. They are building him up for a big "reveal" later in the film. Of course, we all know exactly what he looks like because he is on the cover of the DVD.Perhaps they are actually NOT waiting for the reveal. Maybe they are just really ashamed of Baby Huey.Nonetheless, a few cameos later we finally see Huey as he hits a home run during Nick's little league game.The next twenty minutes or so was a bit of blur to me, but I remember a few things: Nick and Huey went to Dead Man's Gulch. It's just a cliff, but it's important later... that is if you consider ANY of this important.Huey also breaks a whole lot of things and Joe Isuzu tries to fix things. They don't really play up the connection between the two, but perhaps it's a sub conscious thing.Sorta like how Homer Simpson and Krusty the Clown look alike. The big difference here is that watching Homer and Krusty doesn't make you want to swallow a bucket of rat poison.Meanwhile, Huey is being hunted relentlessly by Squiggy.Squiggy tells Huey that he could perform at in Las Vegas.Then we see it: Baby Huey on stage at the Circus Circus. Suddenly he gets eaten by a tiger.Sadly, it was just a dream sequence.Later, when Huey goes to bed he is seen wearing a shower curtain. He also tries to sleep in top bunk and breaks the bed. The next day he breaks all of the equipment at the playground. Then he goes into Nick's class leads them in a sing along and then breaks stuff.At the same time the bad guys are plotting some ridiculous plan to capture Baby Huey. See, they want to steal the town's Easter eggs and blame it on Huey.They also do a big song and dance number. I don't care how evil you are, once you start dancing, I love you! Anyway, I don't want to spoil EVERYTHING, so get a copy of this film and see how it ends.

Quite admittedly, this isn't the best movie in the world. But the fact that it's so camp-ish makes it better than if it had seemed terribly serious in nature. Then again, the only reason I have seen this movie so many times is that I am such a huge fan of David L. Lander (who is positively adorable here), and the inclusion of other classic TV stars is fun (if not a little sad that this is the best material some of them can get). My sister said of this movie after watching it, "It's bad, but in a good way." Very true. I love most of the music in here (but try not to laugh at a giant baby duck singing a heart-felt song about not belonging anywhere). Watch it without trying to take it too seriously; that will make all the difference!

A seven-foot tall baby duck being raised by ex-Marcia Brady Maureen McCormick and her family is somehow accused of stealing Easter eggs and wrecking school property. It is like Big Bird's worst nightmare... and any viewer's. I caught it during a baseball rain delay and had to keep watching -- in disbelief that something this bad had been made.