Return of the Killer Tomatoes
| Return of the Killer Tomatoes! | |
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 Theatrical release poster. |
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| Directed by | John De Bello |
| Produced by | Stephen Peace |
| Written by | John De Bello Costa Dillon Stephen Peace |
| Starring | Michael Villani John Astin Karen Mistal Anthony Starke George Clooney |
| Music by | Neal Fox Rick Patterson |
| Cinematography | Victor Lou Stephen Welch |
| Editing by | John De Bello |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 22, 1988 |
| Running time | 98 min |
| Language | English |
Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (1988) was the first sequel to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
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[edit] Synopsis
Set 25 years after the events of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (referred to as the Great Tomato War in the movie), the basic plotline is that after the events of the first film (where the tomatoes were stopped by the worst song ever composed called "Puberty Love") a misanthropic villain, Professor Mortimer Gangreen (played by John Astin), has created a tomato transformation chamber by which he can turn ordinary tomatoes into humans. By dipping ordinary tomatoes into vats of toxic waste and then placing them into the chamber, Gangreen uses music to his advantage, as the juke box that is hooked up to the chamber syncs up with the tomato transformation chamber, allowing him to create virtually anything by the use of whatever song he has picked. With these, he plans to conquer the world. Though the veterans of the Great Tomato War have something to say about that.
This film marks the first appearance of FT, the Fuzzy Tomato. Other notable characters are Chad Finletter (Anthony Starke), nephew of Wilbur Finletter (the semi-main, but more popular, character of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!) and his girlfriend Tara (Karen Mistal), who is actually a female Killer Tomato turned into an attractive girl by the device. Tara turns back into a tomato when she hears the opening musical notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony; however, the musical notes of the theme to Gone with the Wind restores her to human form.
The characters and timeline of this film were recycled for the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series (with some changes, such as Professor Gangreen's first name being changed to Putrid and his title being changed from 'Professor' to 'Doctor' and Tara having an 'allergy' to salt which changes her back into a tomato with pepper changing her back to human form).
Return of the Killer Tomatoes! also has the distinction of being one of George Clooney's earliest movies.
This was shot in National City. It was also filmed on 3rd Avenue in Chula Vista in what is now known as Don Pedro's Taco Shop.
A trailer to the film shows up on some VHS copies of Dead Heat.
[edit] Cast
- Anthony Stark as Chad Finletter
- George Clooney as Matt Stevens
- Karen Mistal Waldron as Tara Boumdeay
- Steve Lundquist as Igor
- John Astin as Professor Gangreen
- J. Stephen Peace as Wilbur Finletter
- Michael Villani as Bob Downs
- Frank Davis as Sam Smith
- Harvey Weber as Sid
- Charlie Jones as the Sportscaster
- John De Bello as Charles White
- Ian Hutton as Greg Colburn
- Rick Rockwell as Jim Richardson
[edit] Art
The art for the poster, shown above, was created by then illustrator, now Encinitas, CA fine artist, David R. Darrow. The original design[1], as assigned by designer Kevin Eaton and completed by Darrow, used the design of a Campbell's Soup can, using the face of actor John Astin in the center seal. The idea was sidelined over copyright / branding concerns, and a "patch" was created to alter the work. High-end digital compositing was too expensive at the time, so Darrow was further commissioned to create the new replacement label which was physically glued over the original illustration, preserving the original background and tomato characters. Darrow still retains the original, 2-layer artwork.
[edit] External links
- Return of the Killer Tomatoes at the Internet Movie Database
- Return of the Killer Tomatoes at AllRovi
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