Although Gary Larson’s The Far Side ended almost 30 years ago, the comic strip’s forgotten TV special proves that a movie adaptation could still work. Gary Larson’s The Far Side ran from 1979 to 1995. The offbeat one-panel comic was one of the most influential and divisive newspaper comics in the medium’s history thanks to its uniquely dark sense of humor and its lack of recurring characters. A surreal strip, The Far Side often focused on aliens, talking animals, monsters, murder, and all manner of macabre, morbid subjects. Despite this, it was a genuinely hilarious and beloved strip.

Some of the funniest Far Side strips mined black comedy out of horrific circumstances, while others were lighter, sillier one-off gags. All of Larson’s strips played a part in comic history, inspiring dozens of cartoonists in the decades that followed. Despite this, the fact that The Far Side had no main characters meant that the strip never spawned a movie adaptation. While 2024’s Garfield movie is just the latest of many adaptations to bring the strip to life and the Peanuts franchise produced countless TV movies, spinoffs, and specials, The Far Side still hasn’t hit the big screen.

Tales From The Far Side Brought Gary Larson’s Comic To The Screen

The Far Side TV Special Aired in 1994

That said, there was one adaptation of The Far Side that arrived as the strip was wrapping up its original run. Tales From The Far Side did a surprisingly solid job of converting the comic to television, bringing some of Larson’s classic strips to life in animation while also adding some previously unseen new gags. With a runtime of only 23 minutes, Tales From The Far Side was far from a feature film. Despite its brevity, the short film won some considerable acclaim, airing on CBS at Halloween and winning the Annecy International Animation Film Festival’s Grand Prix a year later.

While Tales From The Far Side was forgotten in the years after Larson’s strip ended and remains tough to track down, the special proves that the cartoonist’s singular vision could be translated to the screen. Larson’s work seems to defy easy adaptation thanks to its lack of recurring characters. However, Tales From The Far Side proves that this isn’t really a problem, as the short film jumps from one zany comedic interlude to the next. The jazz score and the jittery animation style make the movie feel like flipping through one of Larson’s comic collections for an evening.

A Far Side Movie Could Borrow Tales From The Far Side’s Style

Gary Larson’s Iconic Strip Is Overdue A Movie Adaptation

Tales From The Far Side is composed of entirely dialogue-free vignettes with vague thematic links but few recurring characters, making it both a faithful adaptation of the strip and the perfect basis for a full-length reboot. Long before Gary Larson’s Far Side even began, there was a craze of sketch comedy movies in the ‘70s that mocked the advent of satellite TV by bouncing from one skit to another with wild abandon. The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Groove Tube, Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video, and Imps* show that a movie adaptation of The Far Side wouldn’t need a conventional storyline.

Instead, the movie could take its inspiration from the daring approach taken by Tales From The Far Side. Sticking closely to the source material, a movie version of The Far Side could revisit the funniest gags throughout the strip’s history while adding enough new material to keep longtime readers invested. A full movie of animated Far Side strips would be even more fun than Tales From The Far Side, which already made an admirable stab at bringing Larson’s anarchic comedy to the screen. The strip’s enduring popularity makes this prospect all the more appealing.

Why A Far Side Movie Makes Sense In 2024

A New Generation Could Discover Gary Larson’s Influential Work

Adult animation has become a big business since the height of Larson’s popularity, and his famous comic ended almost 30 years ago. As such, a revival is long overdue. When the strip was first released, Gary Larson’s dark Far Side gags about nuclear annihilation were edgy enough to upset newspaper subscribers. In contrast, the likes of Rick and Morty and Sausage Party have pushed the boundaries of what mainstream cartoons can depict immeasurably in the years since.

Larson’s work influenced everything from Gravity Falls to The Simpsons and his unique, bizarre humor can be seen throughout the contemporary pop culture landscape. The best way to introduce a new generation of viewers to his work would be via a feature-length movie adaptation of his famous strip and Tales From The Far Side proves that this could work. Thus, Gary Larson’s The Far Side needs to become a movie that does justice to the strip much like its long-forgotten short film adaptation decades ago.