At long last, the 1993 Australian cult classic “Bad Boy Bubby” has been released on DVD through the good folks at Blue Underground. Finally, the Chester the Child Molester type weirdos of the world are just a little closer in claiming that unsung hero status that’s been eluding them for years.
Okay, maybe not.
Bubby has spent his entire life living with his mother, locked away in a cold, lifeless apartment that looks much like a prison cell. Bubby is 35-years-old. Sound familiar? Sure, but this is a lot different than your typical shut-in case. Bubby and Mommy…do things with each other…that a parental unit and her child probably shouldn’t be doing. But when Bubby’s father shows up at the apartment unannounced after being completely absent from his life, Bubby decides to make a break from his prison.
So, much like your scarier of comic book convention attendees, Bubby enters this world with social skills that are more than lacking, except that his case is more severe as he’s never once set foot outside his crummy little apartment, nor interacted with anyone other than his twisted mother. But, despite our world being completely alien to him, Bubby presses on, freaking some people out with his peculiar behavior and charming others. And, unlike your typical social retard, Bubby gets laid right off the bat, becomes a rock star, helps the disabled and falls in love. Nope, Bubby doesn’t sound like too much of a bad boy after all, unless you call living bad.
The adventures of Bad Boy Bubby are an unsettling mix of humor, revulsion, charm and alarm – much like if you were to watch a real child set out into the world all by himself, forced to become an adult immediately. You’d be watching through your fingers, but you wouldn’t be able to turn away. This isn’t some mainstream magical puff piece. Sure, Bubby’s journey is fantastic, but it isn’t entirely uplifting, the fact that life is a bitch is ever present and real-life dangers lurk around every corner. The bizarre, sometimes brutal, characters and their relations, as well as the harsh treatment of animals also distances this one from the old beaten track of feel-good cinema. All in all, “Bad Boy Bubby” is about a good man, trying to make his way through a bad world, a story that many of us can relate to, but the misadventures that Bubby stumbles through aren’t cute and playful, but often disturbing if not flat out revolting and that’s gonna throw a lot of people for a loop. Actually, it’s been throwing people for a loop for over ten years now. Thanks to Blue Underground, we finally get to see what all the hub-bub is about.
