Howard The Duck was a passion project of George Lucas, and he sunk a good chunk of money into producing this 1986 disaster of an movie. Howard was a Marvel Comics character created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik in 1973, growing in popularity into the mid-seventies with his own comic title. Howard captured the angst of a generation fed up with crooked politicians and disillusioned with the American Dream turned corporate greed.
Instead of a Ralph Bakshi-style animated movie (which would have captured the surrealism of the comic book much better), writer/director Willard Huyck and co-writer Gloria Katz were pigeon-holed to come up with a live action sci-fi farce that had no connectivity to the spirit of Gerber and Mayerik’s artistry, despite bringing Gerber in for some minor creative consulting.
Howard is sucked from his home planet DuckWorld and winds up on Earth, where he meets struggling musician Beverly Switzler (Lea Thompson). The movie disintegrates from there, devolving into thwarting a plot by an evil alien calling itself the Dark Overlord. It is not worth recounting the utterly-stupid plot.
Writer/director James Gunn would bring a CGI Howard into Guardians Of The Galaxy and Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2, and Howard is seen briefly in the final battle of Avengers: Endgame.