One of my clearest childhood memories is discovering the VHS copy of the first 3 Toxic Avenger movies at a restaurant/gas station's mini-video store. I don't even know if such things exist anymore. The VHS tapes they stocked must have been mainly independent but the Toxic Avenger 2 was distributed by Warner Bros home video, amazingly. And so these two films capture the peak and fall of Troma in a movie business sense. Coming off of the gritty, tasteless but ambitious "Troma's War", Toxic 2 is the most professional production Troma ever made. Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz shared directing duties as usual, but they had help from 4 different units. Not so crazy when you realize they shot on location on 2 continents, had to meet semi-major studio Lorimar's post-production schedule and only had a mild breather before shooting Toxic 3.
Toxic 2 comes very close to being Troma's masterwork. Kaufman & Herz have the balls to take their biggest opportunity at mainstream exposure and make a brilliantly original and entertaining statement against Illuminati controls in an era where no one really even knew about the corporate enslavement of America. The film opens promoting a utopian paradise in "Tromaville" of multicultural citizens trading freely and dancing in the streets, until a Bilderberg meeting of yuppie satanists, gangsters and puppets plot to kill Toxie among other things (like blowing up the World Trade Center to disrupt trade). In the commentary for Pt 1, Kaufman reveals that he read some early anti-NWO book back in his 70s Yale days which ultimately informed his future radical film business. Seems like he had a real conflict in making this film and couldn't help but load it with as much commentary and anti-mainstream sentiment as possible. I think this makes it a marvel. Where the film ultimately failed is in its editing.
For some reason, the film has a very unnecessary and unmotivated narration dub that spoils many gags and visuals. Also, many Japanese actors are re-dubbed in offensive Engrish (even though Troma's TA2 trailer keeps their voices). But the fatal blow is a tacked on 20 minutes of story that is under-shot overkill after an already fun, serviceable climax. Maybe the boys at Troma were excessive or maybe they had to rush a cut out to Lorimar/WB. I am very curious to find out.
But still there's 80 minutes of gold here that is the best Troma ever produced. Toxie was a major merch and cartoon mascot at the time (can we speculate "Captain Planet" is Turner execs' Toxie ripoff?), so Toxic 2 is more kid-friendly and lighthearted. The gore, villainy and heroism is still hard-edged but cartooned to an extreme surrealism that perfectly matches the superhero/comic book style. Anyone knocking the film's broad humor, flat dimension, childish logic or gritty execution doesn't get that this is political theater for 80s fanboys and fantasy fans.
The film's most memorable sequence is an epic choreographed ballet of cartoon violence aiming Death Wish/Taxi Drive vigilantism at the film's heirarchy of symbolic bad guys. The Toxic Avenger, a kind of pan-racial, gender-crossed (the tutu is an amazing superhero costume) and transhuman knight who slays representatives of corrupted proletarians. Gays, hillbillies, Jews, sports stars, the church, punk rockers. Every subculture that has been turned against their own interest is lampooned for their own devisiveness and reduced to pawns in a Satanic scheme of corporate world domination. The brutal violence that flows in Kaufman's work reflects an intense fear and hatred of Nazi methodology and these films are catharsis.
The film itself is extremely well-shot, better staged than anything else Troma has done, with plenty of camera coverage, impressive effects and locations and even convincing effects. I think the plot is quite good too. The Toxic Avenger begins a fish-out-of-water journey to Japan to work through his paternal issues and this was meant to bridge to Toxic 3's buried subplot about Toxie's mother issues. I might be stretching, but the unique format of the film seems like a direct influence on Home Alone 2, the only other extremely violent "lost in the city" film for kids.
Now as awesome as Part 2 is, Part 3 is an utter disaster. Plotwise, its maybe better, but the execution is terrible. I assume the funds were pulled on Pt 3 after Pt 2 either offended, abused budget or failed monetarily. Because of this, Troma makes it a much darker and amateur film. Its made with a meaner spirit and higher drama. It really would've worked if it was as well-made and fun as Pt 2. Its maybe twice as ambitious but not nearly as memorable. It feels like a long string of leftover footage from Pt 2 and it even recycles whole scenes from that film for absolutely no reason. I'm confused because Troma always claims that the films were shot at the same time, but its clear some time has passed as Kaufman's infant daughter has aged at least a year, the fashion styles have changed and the quality of the camera had definitely fallen. Its very similar in production style (and script) to the Class of Nuke 'Em High sequels made at the time. Lots of clumsy crowd scenes, weak humor, under-directing and a half-baked message about ecology and yuppie-ism... with lame heavy metal pandering. Toxie 3 would be remade essentially as Sgt Kabukiman NYPD which is probably a better film, but Toxie 3 does have its key sequences (mainly gore fx courtesy of Redneck Zombies' Pericle Lewnes).
Troma would rebound quality-wise with Tromeo & Juliet but would never make films as balanced or big as Toxie 2 (or arguably Toxie 3). Its a shame. The Toxic Avenger is an amazing symbol of freedom and cinematic heroism. I hope there's some happy ending for Troma and that their greatest creation never ends up as any corporation's unspectacular, nostalgic "intellectual property". Thankfully, Troma is such a fringe company, like Full Moon, that big studios are probably afraid of buying them in fear of looking too greasy or leftist themselves. Or maybe today's execs have never seen a Troma films. Thats wishful thinking. But somehow suburban & urban fart-sniffers need to discover these films and support them to make better ones. Thats was a titanic feat in the 1980s and it hasn't gotten easier. Whatever the solution is, its out there and I hope Lloyd and Michael find it soon enough.
Edit: I would be remiss if I didn't mention the sweeping anti-Asian racism in Pt 3's depiction of the devil. Is it camp or serious? The devil is a green-skinned dragon with a "fu manchu" mustache. The Japanese funded most of Pt 2 but pulled out on Pt 3 too. It kinda feels like a nationalist F--k You and couldn't be well received by the Asian audience. That really hurts Troma. Sgt Kabukiman is sort of intentionally ignorant and racist about Japanese culture as well, but its also flattering in some ways but still definitely exploitative. Is Troma Zionist? They hate Disney. They love violence and have a pro-military streak but they never show any extremist capitalist or nationalist politics like Cannon, not beyond the average NY/NJ conservatives. Troma are somewhat conservative socially but extremely conservative with their savings, which has given them long life but hasn't inspired their workers or helped their product become professional. Its a weird situation. They have the right morals but don't practice what they preach and don't exactly live up to what they sell. Thats the Z-grade cinema world. But its better than an F.
I would say Troma are Green Party these days and were early NeoLiberals before becoming Anarchist Capitalist in the 80s and then just Conservative Democrats through Clinton until Bush made them really seek the Far Left. I would appreciate a 2018 Troma film now more than ever, specifically a Toxie 5.
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