Puppet Master: The Legacy (2003)

Movie Info

Now, tell me in cinematic detail what you know about Toulon!!!

Maclain (Kate Orsini) is hunting for something.  She is seeking out the mysterious life giving Andre Toulon formula that has the ability to animate inanimate objects.  Her search leads her to the Bodega Bay Inn where Toulon’s former ally and assistant Eric Weiss (Jacob Witkin) is carrying on his work.  With Weiss as her prisoner, Maclain demands the truth about Toulon, and Weiss even learns things about his former friend that he didn’t know…can Toulon’s puppets ever be stopped?

Directed by Charles Band, Puppet Master:  The Legacy is a horror B-Movie.  Following Retro Puppet Master in 1999, Shadow Entertainment takes over for Full Moon in the production of the film.  It was met with negative reviews.

Full Moon movies aren’t great, but they are ok time killers.  Puppet Master:  The Legacy makes the previous Puppet Master movies look like high art.  Even watching Puppet Master:  The Legacy as an ironic joke “so-bad-it-is-good” viewing isn’t worth it.

Can I give you a hug?

Puppet Master movies never tied together.  Toulon is sometimes a villain, and sometimes he’s a hero.  Sometimes certain puppets existed in the past and future but not in-between (like Six-Shooter), and the Toulon is dead/resurrected storylines of the first couple films don’t fit with the Toulon is a Nazi fighter.  Here, the “story” attempts to ret-con all the Puppet Master films into a steamline tale…and it isn’t very inspired even in the attempt.

The movie is literally a clip show.  In the 1980s especially, TV series would do clip show episodes where the characters “remembered” events from other episodes as a quick way to spit out a story.  Here, it is done with Puppet Master movies.  The video is rehashed and forced into somewhat of an order with “new” material dispersed throughout (which primarily consists of the only two actors talking or pushing play on a tape recorder).  It is incredibly weak and even the editing of old clips is poorly done with horrible audio matching.

Wait is a puppet going to do something cool? Nope…

I doubt that if they had gotten two Shakespearian quality actors for the new material that the film would work, but it would be better than Kate Orsini and Jacob Witkin who struggle to make any compelling story out of their dialogue.  It is stunted and choppy.  The viewers do get to see some slightly better actors in some of the clips but even those actors don’t always match up within the movie…William Hickey played the Puppet Master early on and later Guy Rolfe played him (and they look nothing alike other than being old white guys).

I do have to admire the audacity of Puppet Master:  The Legacy in the attempt to pull off a movie without making a movie.  The characters essentially say “remember this” and counter with “yeah, but remember this!!!” for the whole short film.  It isn’t worth watching and if you have struggled through all the previous Puppet Master movies, you’ve already seen it (and they don’t even use the best clips from the movies).  Puppet Master:  The Legacy by the SyFy made-for-TV movie Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys in 2004 and later Puppet Master:  Axis of Evil in 2010.

Related Links:

Puppet Master (1989)

Puppet Master II (1991)

Puppet Master III:  Toulon’s Revenge (1991)

Puppet Master 4 (1993)

Puppet Master 5:  The Final Chapter (1994)

Curse of the Puppet Master (1998)

Retro Puppet Master (1999)

Puppet Master:  Axis of Evil (2010)