“In 1995, a boy called Andy had a Mr. Potato Head toy. It was his favourite vegetable. This is that vegetable.”
Due for cinematic release on Saint Patrick’s Day 2025, ‘Mash Up‘ tells of an enchanted, working-class, Golden Wonder potato who is destined to be the inspiration for the first Mr. Potato Head toy.
From humble beginnings, on a small crop in County Gallway, Ireland; a wise-cracking local leprechaun grants a young spud human facial features and limbs as well as the ability to communicate (Pickle Rick style).
As a newly sentient being, Potato Head dreams of the land of opportunity – and following the tragic loss of his parents and siblings to potato blight – he courageously hops a steamship to New York. It is here in the big apple that an industrious potato will make a name for himself. Promising to peel back the layers of a character who is fictional, but the toy is real, but the real toy also inspired a separate fictional sentient being in the Toy Story franchise, but the two potatoes are separate characters despite having the same names and that’s important to remember; ‘Mash Up’ is an historical fiction which will hash out a backstory audiences didn’t realise they needed.
Ellen Muller is a freelance writer and runs a satirical literature blog called, Poe’s very Attractive Cousin.