Originally posted by: SilverWook
I honestly can't think of any other practical way Howard could have been done live action in 1986. Man in a (duck) suit was really the only way to go. There was also a puppet used for some shots.

Speaking strictly in terms of live action I think you're right, but they could have opted to do him as a cartoon character and combined him with live action, as was done in Roger Rabbit. Maybe they didn't because of budgetary reasons, but even a cheap attempt at this would most likely have looked better than what they ended up with.