Meet the Feebles

Meet the Feebles (also known as Frogs of War in New Zealand as the film's English fake working title) is a 1989 New Zealand adult puppet musical black comedy horror film directed by Peter Jackson, and written by Jackson, Fran Walsh, Stephen Sinclair, and Danny Mulheron (who also performed the body of lead character Heidi the Hippo). The plot follows a stage troupe of anthropomorphic animals in a perverse comic satire. In contrast to the positive innocence and naïve folly of The Muppets, the Feebles largely present negativity, vice, and other misanthropic characteristics. The film is the first Jackson co-wrote with his future partner Fran Walsh, with the two collaborating on all his subsequent films. The film also marked the beginning of Jackson's collaborations with Richard Taylor and Wētā Workshop, as created by Taylor and Tania Rodger, who all worked on Jackson's subsequent films.