Rating: 
Today Forbidden Planet hosted a movie screening for Fido. Fido; coming to a theater near you June 15th, 2007; is a story of a little boy named Timmy Robinson and his pet zombie, Fido. Yes folks, Fido is a zombie flick. I am quite delighted to share that this film was hilarious. Its satire comments on our society are priceless and to be quite honest I couldn’t get enough of them.
The movie, set around the late 50’s- early 60’s, sort of reminded me of World War Z by Max Brooks, in the sense that it’s taking place after a “zombie war”. Zomcom; being the corporation that immediately turns crazed zombies into useful members of society through a leash that “contains their desire for flesh”; has found a way to domesticate zombies—allowing humans to bring zombies into their homes and not feel threatened.
The movie focuses on a family who seem bizarre at first, but apparently the social norm has changed dramatically during this era. If you don’t own a zombie the neighbors will talk about you, you’d be the laughing stock of the town. Timmy is a lonely boy whose father ignores him and the kids at school see as the perfect target to bully. His mother is no help; when he reaches out to her, she’s concerned about how messy he looks. Things begin looking up for Timmy when his mother convinces his dad to have a zombie in their home. He quickly becomes Timmy’s best friend, rescuing him from the bullies and always up for a game of fetch.
Unfortunately Fido’s collar somehow shuts off and he eats a mean old lady in the park. This obviously poses a problem for Timmy, if you aren’t responsible for your zombies families are cast to the “wildness”. That’s the other side of the fence, where no one looks out for you and zombies lurk about in anticipation. Timmy’s forced to take matters into his own hands to protect his friend… soon though, things get worse. Thankfully Timmy’s mother, played by Carrie Anne Moss (known to the common population as Trinity from The Matrix), becomes a supportive mother who oddly enough seems to have fallen in love with Fido.
I thought that every cast member chosen for this movie did a great job. Since this was a movie screening, Billy Connolly was there for a brief Q& A. He was hilarious, and you’d swear he was drunk. He shared with the crowd that his double actually died on set from a drug overdose– obviously this is horrible; and yet he couldn’t help but laugh. He was like, “I thought it would be cool to share that story since you’re watching this movie about the dead and he really died.” He also talked about not knowing whether he could be still enough to play a zombie, so he asked the director; “why me?!”
Finally, this movie is strange and doesn’t really follow any zombie rules—other than the undead factor. These zombies are the newer models of Bub’s. I love them. The cast was great, the display of classic cars was awesome… and well we all just really want to see Timmy happy. I would love to own this movie when it comes out on DVD, America just needed a new movie in the zombie category and this definitely filled the void. Check it out and tell me what you think.
