retro puppet master start in kolewige during 1944 where puppet master andre toulon ( guy rolfe ) and his living puppet plan to escape germany and hold up in an inn puppet master toulon reminisces about his early life and the point at which he learn the secret of give life to dead object way back in 1902 in paris when his young self ( greg sestero ) run the theate magique . he describe the fateful night when he meet a 3000 year old egyptian sorcerer name afzel ( jack donner ) and the eventual love of hi life the young and beautiful ilsa ( brigitta dau ) . he tell the story of how afzel pass the gift of life to himself and give life to his own wooden puppet that be part of the theatre magique show . however the gift of life be also a curse a the ancient god sutek whom the secret be steal from in the first place by afzel want it back and everyone who have learn it dead . a of late i have be on a bit of a puppet master bender a be a big fan of the first three i decide to watch the rest of the franchise and a such i have see puppet master 4 ( 1993 ) and puppet master 5 represent the final chapter ( 1994 ) and curse of the puppet master ( 1998 ) and now retro puppet master in the space of a couple of week and boy be it tough to get through them all and especially this one a it the bad of the series so far . retro puppet master feel like a cross between puppet master iii represent toulon revenge ( 1991 ) with it period set and puppet master 4 and puppet master 5 represent the final chapter with sutek try to kill everyone associate with his stolen life give secret . there not much continuity here either and again there none of the green serum feature in the early film and despite andre toulon commit suicide in 1939 at the start of the original puppetmaster ( 1989 ) he be see alive and well during 1944 in this . the majority of the story be tell a a flashback and concentrate on andre toulon himself rather than the puppet and the film focus on his relationship with ilsa and him learn the secret of life and it all rather dull and tedious stuff to be honest . even at only 80 odd minute retro puppet master feel long and pad with no real pace and the no central concept a the plot never really settle down and generally hop around a lot . then of course there the baffling decision to totally redesign the puppet which i find incredible and i mean why would the maker take the one basic thing that make the puppet master film so memorable and completely do away with it . the puppet be see briefly at the start and the end but otherwise we get these rubbishy look wooden caricature that be nowhere near as cool a their modern re working . it never even explain why these puppet be use rather than the one all puppet master fan have come to love although one suspect that full moon be hop to make yet another sequel which deal with that very question . if a poor story and a complete lack of our favourite puppet wasn not bad enough full moon decide to go with a pg 13 rating for this make retro puppet master the only puppet master film not rat r in the u ( obviously other country have their own film rating system ) and therefore there not a single drop of blood in the entire film and the puppet do not kill anyone and there no swearing and no nudity either . this be tame than tame kid stuff all the way . besides the puppet themselves be rubbish the special effect be the wost of the series too and there no stop motion animation at all in this one and no cgi computer effect ( surely in 1999 cgi be cheap enough . ) and all the effect be of the stiff rod puppet type effect . i mean whenever you see a puppet walk the camera be always position above it wait so it legs do not have to be show and there obviously some production assistant just push the thing along and that a complex and state of the art a the special effect get . the one positive thing that retro puppet master do have go for it be that it look rather nice and the period production design and costume and prop be actually quite impressive and it a fairly handsome film to watch at time . apparently film in bucharest in romania which double up quite nicely for turn of the last century paris . the acting here be awful and maybe the bad of the series . retro puppet master be more or less the final puppet master film a the next one puppet master represent the legacy ( 2004 ) basically edit together footage from the previous seven film and it a pretty crappy way to round the series off which start so well with three excellent and distinctive little killer puppet flick . don not bother with this and just watch one of the first three again and just remember the good time . the killer puppet would return in the terrible spin off flick puppet master v demonic toy ( 2004 ) .