You're toxic: Lloyd Kaufman on The Toxic Avenger
The legendary Troma filmmaker talks about his most famous offspring
Take away all the gory violence and kinky mutant sex, and what remains of The Toxic Avenger is a film about environmentalism—at least that’s what its creator Lloyd Kaufman claims. The B-movie mogul owes a lot to the 1984 camp classic: It catapulted Troma Entertainment, his production company, to the edge of mainstream success, where both the film and the studio have remained since. But that’s exactly how Kaufman prefers it. Ubiquitous within the Troma brand, Toxie has generated sequels, comic books, toys, and even musicals. The A.V. Club chatted with Kaufman (who appears tonight as guest host at the Esquire Theater for a Midnight Madness screening of the low-budget flick) and asked him to weigh in on all the Toxic spin-offs.
The Toxic Avenger (various musicals)
Lloyd Kaufman: There have been some different productions of the musical, one in Portland and one in Omaha. I wasn’t very involved. All I did was give them the right to do it. Normally people charge for royalties, but I don’t do that. I just let those fans put on the show, and whatever happened they could benefit from it. And then I guess these Broadway people also liked Toxic Avenger, and now it’s coming to New York with music written by the guy from Bon Jovi, David Bryan. That version played at a very famous theater in New Brunswick, N.J., and it was the highest-grossing show they’ve had in their history.
The Toxic Avenger: The Novel
LK: No one’s ever heard of it, unfortunately. But the novel answers all the questions about the history of Tromaville and Toxie’s family. I think the problem was that we wrote a full-blown novel, as opposed to most of these other movie books that basically just reduce the dialogue to prose. None of the people who are supposed to be critics read the Toxic Avenger novel. They just assumed it was a supermarket regurgitation of the screenplay. So nobody knows about it. [Laughs.] It’s a big secret, I’m sorry to say.
Toxic Crusaders (the short-lived, mid-'90s animated series)
LK: The company that was making the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys wanted another cartoon show, and they somehow found The Toxic Avenger. It is certainly the only movie in history where a young boy’s head gets crushed by an automobile that was then made into an environmentally correct children’s cartoon show, that’s for sure.
The A.V. Club: Was it in competition with Captain Planet at the time?
LK: Captain Planet was afterwards, and Captain Planet sucked.
AVC: New Line Cinema was also going to make a live-action movie based on the cartoon, right?
LK: Right. But unfortunately New Line signed a contract that they reneged on. They’re scumbags, and we had to sue them. And that’s what killed the cartoon, because the movie never got made. During the one or two times that I have been able to penetrate the hymen of the mainstream, I’ve been the one that got fucked. That’s why Troma is independent. We make movies that come from the heart. We make movies that we believe in. We’ve created a brand. People know that when they come to see a Troma movie, that they will have an adventure in the cinema. They will see something they have never seen before. And they know that they are going to see something that, 20 years from now, a major studio will make. Like, Toxic Avenger came out in 1984, and all the studios now make comedic superhero movies. We have gotten a good reputation for movies from the future.
The Toxic Avenger (various musicals)
Lloyd Kaufman: There have been some different productions of the musical, one in Portland and one in Omaha. I wasn’t very involved. All I did was give them the right to do it. Normally people charge for royalties, but I don’t do that. I just let those fans put on the show, and whatever happened they could benefit from it. And then I guess these Broadway people also liked Toxic Avenger, and now it’s coming to New York with music written by the guy from Bon Jovi, David Bryan. That version played at a very famous theater in New Brunswick, N.J., and it was the highest-grossing show they’ve had in their history.
The Toxic Avenger: The Novel
LK: No one’s ever heard of it, unfortunately. But the novel answers all the questions about the history of Tromaville and Toxie’s family. I think the problem was that we wrote a full-blown novel, as opposed to most of these other movie books that basically just reduce the dialogue to prose. None of the people who are supposed to be critics read the Toxic Avenger novel. They just assumed it was a supermarket regurgitation of the screenplay. So nobody knows about it. [Laughs.] It’s a big secret, I’m sorry to say.
Toxic Crusaders (the short-lived, mid-'90s animated series)
LK: The company that was making the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys wanted another cartoon show, and they somehow found The Toxic Avenger. It is certainly the only movie in history where a young boy’s head gets crushed by an automobile that was then made into an environmentally correct children’s cartoon show, that’s for sure.
The A.V. Club: Was it in competition with Captain Planet at the time?
LK: Captain Planet was afterwards, and Captain Planet sucked.
AVC: New Line Cinema was also going to make a live-action movie based on the cartoon, right?
LK: Right. But unfortunately New Line signed a contract that they reneged on. They’re scumbags, and we had to sue them. And that’s what killed the cartoon, because the movie never got made. During the one or two times that I have been able to penetrate the hymen of the mainstream, I’ve been the one that got fucked. That’s why Troma is independent. We make movies that come from the heart. We make movies that we believe in. We’ve created a brand. People know that when they come to see a Troma movie, that they will have an adventure in the cinema. They will see something they have never seen before. And they know that they are going to see something that, 20 years from now, a major studio will make. Like, Toxic Avenger came out in 1984, and all the studios now make comedic superhero movies. We have gotten a good reputation for movies from the future.
