Howard the Duck is the 1986 live-action Universal Pictures adaptation of the Marvel Comics character of the same name.
The film follows plot points from the comic series, finding the titular Howard (voiced by Chip Zien, with a team of costume and F/X performers), an anthropomorphic duck who gets scooped up by an inter-dimensional portal and ends up in Cleveland, Ohio in our world. There, he meets and falls in love with Beverly Switzer (Lea Thompson) who takes him to a goofy fraud, pretending to be a scientist, named Phil (Tim Robbins) in hopes of finding a way to send Howard home. This does lead them to Dr. Walter Jenning (Jeffrey Jones) who has the actual technology to send Howard home, but he's possessed by an interstellar entity who is using the tech to pave the way for a full scale invasion.
Directed by Willard Huyck from a script he co-wrote with Gloria Katz, the movie is widely regarded as one of the worst movies of all time. With weak special effects, a clunky story, and failure to capture the satirical tone of the comics, the movie has been eviscerated by critics and fans alike for years. It also flopped at the box office.
Howard the Duck is one of the first mainstream, theatrical movies based on a Marvel character. Howard would later enjoy cameo appearances in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Endgame films. Plans called for an animated series to be developed for Hulu, but those plans were cancelled in early 2020.
