THUMB WARS: THE PHANTOM CUTICLE - REVIEW


"If there were thumbs in space and they got mad at each other there would be..."

Thumb Wars was Steve Oedekerk's first attempt at making a short film spoof entirely out of thumbs and it was just as crazy and brilliant as you would expect.

The 29 minute-long parody not only introduced a unique and bizarre thumb-based technique to tell its story (actors faces superimposed over clothed thumbs with wigs) but it spawned several other such spoofs. Thumb Wars retells Episode IV: A New Hope with Oedekerk's very own brand of silliness peppered throughout. Every character is given a goofy (or goofier, I should say) name and gets the full thumb treatment, whatever that means. Obi-Wan Kenobi is now Oobedoob Scoobi-Doobi Benubi and he quickly tries to convince Luke (aka Loke Groundrunner) to touch tongues with him, meanwhile Leia literally has buns on her head, hence the name Princess Bunhead, Yoda (aka Master Puppet) freely admits to being a puppet and Darth "Black Helmet Man" Vader reveals he is in fact Loke's mother in a shocking twist.

Some of the best jokes include a very whiny Loke, a terrifying-looking Chewie (aka Crunchy), a thrilling good-vs-bad speech from Bunhead, some clever thumbed freaks in the cantina (one of them a foot), nail-sabers, Loke fighting a piƱata, Jabba (aka Gabba) being an upside-down head. Spoofs like this one tend to be hit-and-miss but this hits more than it misses and, like the Robot Chicken Star Wars shorts, the madness and creativity that went into the making of it adds some extra points. This, and the whole thumb franchise by extension, is a cult oddity which proved time and time again that Steve Oedekerk deserves a lot more credit and opportunities than he currently gets.

One of the better thumb movies, Thumb Wars is a must for any Star Wars fan looking for a few laughs watching something knowingly stupid yet kinda genius.

The thumb is strong with this one.

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