Movies - The Toxic Avenger

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	Movies - The Toxic Avenger

The Toxic Avenger, first released in late 1984, is the most famous movie made by Troma Entertainment, known for producing low budget B-movies with campy concepts. Virtually ignored upon its first release, The Toxic Avenger caught on with moviegoers after a long and successful midnight movie engagement at the famed Bleecker Street Cinemas in New York City in late 1985.

In 1986, the movie was banned from being release to theaters in Ontario by the Ontario Film Review Board. In a rare move, members requested that the projectors be stopped while part way through the review screening. Members noted that the film was "extremely offensive to ethnics, women, the young and the disabled". The ban was lifted some years later, with edits.

Melvin, a stereotypical geek, is constantly harassed at the health club where he works. His tormentors get more and more violent until he is tricked into wearing a pink tutu and kissing a sheep. He is then chased around the health club by laughing witnesses of the event where he eventually jumps out of a second story window. He lands in a drum of toxic waste and is deformed and radiated by the accident. He becomes a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength. Controlled by his Tromatons he cannot help himself but to destroy all evil. Eventually he finds love with a girl who loves him more for his personality since she can't see. He is also reportedly the first superhero from New Jersey.

The film was followed by three sequels in 1989, The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV in 2001. A fifth Toxie movie, Saving Private Toxie, was announced, but has been dropped by Troma.

There was also an animated tv series, Toxic Crusaders , where Toxie was the leader of a team of mutated superheroes who fought against evil alien polluters. The cartoon series was of amuch lighter nature than the movies, and, possibly due to Captain Planet debuting in 1991, the cartoon carried an ecological theme as Toxie and his group were environmental superheroes.. New Line Cinemas had planned a live action movie based off the cartoon, but the deal was ultimately cancelled.

In 2004, a stage musical adaptation of the movie debuted at the Blue Barn Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska, coproduced by Troma Entertainment, featuring a script by playwright/director Rob Urbinati and a musical score by Kevin Hayes.

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