Reviews Series / The Mr Potato Head Show

The Worst Thing Based on a Hasbro Product

The Mr. Potato Head Show takes a fairly uninspired idea, adds grotesque puppets, and then proceeds to waste your time for over an hour. It starts off promising enough, with PH being informed that his show has been cancelled, and then having to tell all his friends the bad news. After that... nothing happens. It's just talking heads throughout the whole film. PH and Baloney spend most of the runtime sitting in the car and having flashbacks. Sweet Potato and Potato Bug spend most of the runtime telling predictable jokes while on the ocean. Doctor Fruitcake and his meat monster spend most of the runtime in front of an obvious green screen. The rest of the cast is barely in the film, and when they do show up, it's just for a predictable joke.

In the middle of the film, there's a "musical interlude" showing a montage of short, random songs that are staged like skits with no punchline. Half of the songs just consist of one character standing in front of a dull background and barely moving. What's more, none of the songs have anything to do with the rest of the film, and are never mentioned in any way before or after the interlude.

After that distraction, PH gets the bright idea to get everyone back together again to perform a live show. Gee, I've never seen that plot done before. Naturally, only one person could be bothered to show up to watch the show, but that guy ended up leaving in the middle because one of the jokes offended him.

And then suddenly, aliens! Yes, a bunch of aliens from an earlier episode randomly decide to attack, and only PH and friends can stop them because the plot says so. So, the talking potato leads his band of random food items and Potato Bug in their flying cars to stop the aliens and their ghost plant leader from destroying the Earth with a giant hammer. And how do they defeat the aliens? With a Deus ex Machina. The Kitchen Fairy shows up and summons an Eldritch Abomination to scare away the aliens. What Do You Mean, It Wasn't Made on Drugs?

So, why is this the worst Hasbro show? Every other Hasbro show has a certain style and marketability that this one lacks. Mr. Potato Head is a toy for preschoolers. What preschool kid would watch this? This show doesn't even know who it's supposed to be aimed at. I can't tell if it's supposed to be for young kids, older kids, or stoners. It was forgotten for a reason.