New ‘Garbage Pail Kids’ Movie in the Works

The Garbage Pail Kids Movie
The Garbage Pail Kids Movie

If you were a kid in the '80s and loved all things gross and slimy, odds are you were a collector of Garbage Pail Kids. The incredibly popular (and incredibly un-PC) trading cards were like the anti-Cabbage Patch Kids. With names like "Potty Scotty" and "Smelly Sally," the cards weren't aiming for highbrow humor. But tweens loved 'em, and now, decades later, the GPKs are getting a new movie.

The Garbage Pail Kids did star in a 1987 live action musical (yes, really). Hopefully the new project, first reported on by Deadline, won't make the same mistakes. Filmmaker Pes, who won several awards for his short film "Western Spaghetti," is set to direct. If director Pes's previous work is any indication, the film may be stop-motion. Former Disney bigwig Michael Eisner, who owns the Topps trading card company, will finance the project via his production company, Tornante Company.

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Little is known about the film, but searches on Yahoo! are already on the rise. Earlier this week, online lookups for "garbage pail kids" jumped 32% and related searches for "garbage pail kids movie" surged 157%. They may be gross, but people can't look away.

The kids have an interesting history. The concept was the brainchild of legendary cartoonist Art Spiegelman ("Maus"). He collaborated with cartoonist Mark Newgarden, artist John Pound, and various others on the final product.

When they first hit store shelves in the mid-80s, the cards quickly surpassed sales expectations. They became a must-have item for kids to trade on the playground and were banned from many schools (which, of course, only added to their popularity).

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All told, there were more than fifteen different series of cards produced in the '80s. According to fansite Garbage Pail Kids Online, the first several series were produced in small quantities. Once the trend took off, Topps took to mass producing the gruesome cards.

The fad eventually faded, but the Garbage Pail Kids never fully went away. In recent years, celebs have been spoofed (check out Christina Ugliera and Paris Embarrassed).

Watch the trailer for the original "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie," if you dare:

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