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STUDIO: Cartoon Network
MSRP: $69.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 1200 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Not much
The Pitch
Four shows didn’t make it past the pilot phase. One show made it for a few episodes and then crapped out.
The Humans
Neko Case, George Lowe, MC Chris and C. Martin Croker
The Nutshell
Not everything produced for Adult Swim will make it to air. What we have here is a collection of four failed pilots and one lead-in to a god awful show. Most Adult Swim fans will remember the big hubbub over the Squidbillies premiere and how Perfect Hair Forever was slid-in as a last minute substitute. Perfect Hair Forever died quickly with a single season, while Squidbillies finished its third season last year. The other four pilots work better in theory than in execution.
The Lowdown
Totally for Teens is a distant cousin to those live-action kids shows that populated Nickelodeon in its Golden Age. Taking a similar cue from Tim and Eric, this show tries to use stilted situations for awkward comedy. What it does is to produce an awkward comedy of teens looking disturbed on camera. Sure, the Beauty Pageant Jamaican Skit video was funny. But, it’s not something that I could see leading into a regular show.
Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge sports some god awful computer animation. Neko Case leads a fun romp through a teenybopper infused Jem knock-off. What sucked about this pilot is the lack of focus. Is she a teen parody or is she supposed to be a hard rocker? The living mountain of Cocaine was funny, but the main story with the pregnant teen went nowhere. Plus, the ending was tacked on. Screw that.
Korgoth of Barbaria has developed a following since its pilot aired a few years back. People like to watch a shirtless thug carve people into tiny pieces. The show wasn’t that funny, but it spent its pilot opening up a world that was ripe for discovery. Sure, I can name a list of shows that played well with the ancient barbarian world. But, this program played with what it had and never received a decent shake.
Welcome to Eltingville and Perfect Hair Forever are the two shows that got major rotation on Adult Swim. Hell, Eltingville tends to get pulled out for the Sunday night block when some shows aren’t available to air. It’s a basic setup for Evan Dorkin’s amazing humor, as we get to watch four overly enthused collectors fight it out over a Boba Fett doll. Perfect Hair Forever is the pilot to a short-lived series dedicated to Adult Swim’s hatred of anime. It’s funny when you see the first rip on Anime. Then, the show becomes tired as it hammers the lameness of Eastern Animated Entertainment into the ground.
The Package
The
DVD doesn’t sport any special features, but it gives you the chance to watch these hard-to-find shows. While I don’t advocate the full release of Perfect Hair Forever, I’d like to see some sort of commentary to explain it away. The other shows are fun to have in the building a history of Adult Swim sense. But, there’s still a ton of other pilots floating out in the animated wilderness. Pull those in for a future Pilots discs and you’ve got my interested.
BUY FROM AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Cartoon Network
MSRP: $69.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 1200 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Interviews
Music Videos
Featurettes
The Pitch
The Norsemen perfect metal.
The Humans
Tommy Blacha, Brendon Small, Mark Hamill, Victor Brandt and Malcolm McDowell
The Nutshell
Brendan Small and Tommy Blacha discovered the world of metal after Home Movies ended. Their initial plan was to create a show about a band that was more popular than the Beatles. Somehow, they decided to make it a metal band whose albums determined the socio-economic future of the world. The two showrunners formed a band to back the group and thus Dethklok was born. Behold the Metalocalypse!
The Lowdown
Metal is life. When we meet Dethklok, it’s easy to see most modern metal bands in them. They approach their empire with an aloof grasp of its corporate nature. They know that their music determines how so many people live their lives. There’s an army of masked thugs that follow their every word. But, they’re dedicated to the music. Nothing’s too insane for them to try and no one’s too important to be sacrificed.
Metalocalypse began with the loud boom of Thunderhorse. This leads into the day-to-day life of History’s most famous metal band. Their cooks keep dying, women keep trying to screw with them and there’s a secret Cabal trying to control their every move. Meanwhile, they just want to find the lowest place on Earth. That way they can make the most hardcore metal sounds underwater. There’s something very Herzog about all of it.
What makes this show work is that you are brought into Dethklok’s world. When Dr. Rockso appears, he feels like some cocaine addled Krusty the Clown. A guy with history that has spent the past few decades snorting lines and boning groupies. When the members tour the world’s religions, we get to see that the sense of development goes beyond the supporting cast. These are people responding to a world that has yet to fully embrace the metal. Plus, it’s the most realistic depiction of the Church of Satan offered on American television.
The first season comes to DVD in a window-boxed format. The later seasons were presented in true widescreen with slightly sharper A/V Quality. I don’t know what factors into that, but it can’t be the runtime. Season 2 was also presented at the shorter 15 minute block, but the visual quality was much better. I hope that Adult Swim revisits this release, but I doubt it. They would’ve fixed the transfer issue on the first try. They’re usually pretty good about that.
The Package
The
DVD for the first season contains a top secret tour of the Dethklok lair dubbed Mordhaus. There’s a bunch of outtakes and deleted scenes. Plus, you get to take a look at the Murder Reel. The only way that the package could’ve been better is if an isolated score track was available for all of the episodes. This is probably the best release in the larger Adult Swim in a Box.
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STUDIO: Cartoon Network
MSRP: $69.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 1200 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Commentaries
Featurettes
The Pitch
Orel wants you to be good with God.
The Humans
Carolyn Lawrence, Britta Phillips, Scott Adsit, Jay Johnston and William Salyers
The Nutshell
Orel is an 11 year old boy that just wants to do the Lord’s work. It’s just a shame that everyone in Moralton is so fucked up. Authority figures constantly try to each Orel lessons about life, but the little guy reminds confused. Reverend Putty and Orel’s father both try to combat the stimuli that fills Orel’s life, which results in hilarity. Semen, censorship and outright murder all play into the first couple of episodes.
The Lowdown
Series creator Dino Stamatopoulos made his bones with Robert Smigel on TV Funhouse and other ventures. When he first bowed Moral Orel on Adult Swim, it was a little predictable. Two months passed and the audience realized that they were in for something darker. Taking cues from Lutheran claymation ventures of old, Dino found amazing material to be mined. Mainly, a young child’s views of the most screwed portions of the Judeo-Christian faith.
Moral Orel proved its worth with God’s Chef. This episode was delayed upon its submission to the network. Its graphic depiction of a young child practically raping women with stolen semen was a bit much. Hell, if you want to see the original cut…it’s available in the special features. Let me repeat that for the people that weren’t paying attention. It’s a cartoon about a middle school aged child using his semen to impregnate local women.
What works so well with this series is the sincere mockery. Using the episode mentioned above, you see that Orel is painted as some sort of Jesus freak. He’s an honest kid that takes what he learns in Church and tries to apply it to his life. What he doesn’t have is that strong filter that lets him know when things are absolutely nuts. The later seasons would dwell in this material. Unfortunately, the third season lost the focus and tried to go way too dark with what Orel was meant to learn.
The last chunk of the first season was made up of the three episodes that Standards and Practices delayed. The first episode featured Orel learning about maturity and when it’s appropriate to drink your problems away. The second of the delayed episodes focused on Orel and his new best friend. They discovered what it means to be loyal, as they team up to gay bash some kids. I can’t think of any other Adult Swim show that was so willing to push the envelope.
The Package
The
DVD set comes with promos, commentaries and basic featurettes. The selling point in terms of supplementals has to be the Comic-Con panel footage. Dino Stamatopoulos showed up to the Adult Swim panel expecting that the Convention folk hated his show. He’s a little drunk and disorderly, which leads to some lulz with the Robot Chicken and Venture Brothers crews. It’s awkward and it’s a scene that I still believe was staged.
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STUDIO: Cartoon Network
MSRP: $69.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 1200 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Deleted Scenes
Commentaries
Featurettes
The Pitch
Seth Green plays with toys.
The Humans
Seth Green, Gary Holm, Marion Ramsey, Fred Tatasciore and Michael Winslow
The Nutshell
Breakneck jokes about toys and movies made in 1980s fly past you with Robot Chicken. Did you ever wonder what it would be like if Professor X was in charge of the Police Academy? I didn’t think that you did, but it’s fun to watch it acted out with Mego figures. The runtimes vary per episode, as some jokes get a few seconds while others can take up to a third of an episode. The ADD kids are in charge of the asylum.
The Lowdown
Seth Green started the show by using the basic principles behind the Twisted Mego Theater and giving it fifteen minutes to shine on Cartoon Network. The DVD takes the same toy playing adventures and presents them uncensored. There’s no tits or anything, but you get to listen to Lion-O say fuck. That’s thrilling, right? You guys like to hear childhood creations act all mature.
Robot Chicken opens its second season with a rather forgettable riff on Alias. This is followed by the little nerd kid from the above screenshot. Seth Green has the star role in the show, as this little nerd kid that gets involved in all sorts of adventures. Whether it’s trying to bang Scarjo or getting a Unicorn to shoot magical mayonnaise, I love it whenever he shows up. Plus, that voice that Green uses. I don’t where he pulls it from, but it’s television magic. Like the moon landing or that episode of Roseanne where Mariel Hemingway kissed John Goodman.
When the show debuted Darth Vader’s phone call to Emperor Palpatine, it began a life of its own. Forever cemented by Seth McFarlane’s spot-on work as the Emperor, Seth Green and company realized that they had a second goldmine. Getting available celeb friends to stop by and make jokes about random creatures at the Mos Eisley cantina. These efforts were spawned off into two Star Wars specials and endless repeat fodder. George Lucas even got in on the fun. Do you think Lucas remembers what fun is? I mean he made Gungans. Gungans are like AIDS fucked racism.
The second season suffered a little, because you had jokes about random toys and celebs that went on too long. The above screenshot is from a segment about Mol-Arr: Dentist of Eternia. It plays like some awful modern SNL sketch about a dentist terrorizing the He-Man backlot. Some jokes work during this season, it’s just that there’s no sense of timing. The problems with the pacing comes across in the deleted scenes too. But, the showrunners had the sense to cut that. For a show that runs a brisk 12-15 minutes, you’d figure that they would know how to keep it running a little tighter.
The Package
The
DVD for the second season comes with a ton of featurettes, commentaries and deleted scenes. Hell, there’s even a collection of video blogs and some info on this season’s PS3 promo. The winner got some junk from Sony and a stop-motion cameo on the show. Thrilling to say the least, but it doesn’t make for exciting supplemental material. The A/V Quality is on par with the other Robot Chicken releases. Just don’t expect an amazing audio track.
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STUDIO: Cartoon Network
MSRP: $69.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 1200 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Tribute to Harry Goz
Commentaries
Featurettes
The Pitch
A gang of wacky scientists cause trouble under the sea.
The Humans
Harry Goz, Erik Estrada, Ellis Henican, Bill Lobley and Kate Miller
The Nutshell
Captain Hank Murphy is desperately trying to keep Sealab running. He declares Martian Law, heads to the Pro Shop and discovers a Gloop. Erik Estrada also shows up as the token Latino. There are other folks, plus MC Chris shows up every once in awhile. He’s the little guy named Hesh that wants sex. So, there’s that.
The Lowdown
Season 2 was this show’s pinnacle. Sure, the latter half of the episodes collapsed under a column of weird vs. a pillar of self-referential humor. The show became more friendly to its Hanna Barbara roots and started to play around with a lot of those old concepts. There’s jokes about Challenge of the Superfriends, The Herculoids and Wally Gator. But, what really sells this show?
Sealab 2021 was one of the first Adult Swim shows to perfect the fifteen minute block of programming. Cold openings that lead into absurd set-ups that end with quick finales were the status quo. The humor was quick and there were so many non-sequitors that you couldn’t keep up. But, if you were a buzzed college student…it was the funniest thing since whatever aired before this show. Everyone could find a character they liked on the show, but most people loved Captain Murphy.
The best episode has to be Hail, Squishface. Captain Murphy has discovered a litter of Gloops in one of the Sealab pods. Murphy takes a parental shine to the little creatures and he decides to befriend them. Watching Goz perfect Murphy’s timing and vocal nuance is amazing. I know that sounds really snooty to stick into coverage of an Adult Swim program, but Goz was delivering gold here. It’s just a shame that he’s no longer around.
The second season also sported the Tinfins episode, which began the long-line of show-within-show jokes that came to a head in the final season. The whole bit with Grizzlebees was fun until it became a retread for every following season. The last half of this season also sported the blackout episode and everyone abuses Affirmative Action. Jokes are had and then they manage to squeeze in a fake behind-the-scenes episode. That episode gets a pass, since they squeeze in a dolphin boy joke.
The Package
The two-disc release for Season 2 comes packed with a ton of commentaries and featurettes. The cast take some questions and you get a wonderful tribute to Harry Goz. Goz died of cancer between the second and third seasons. Some people place the show’s shark jumping on his departure. Honestly, I don’t see how the humor could’ve been stretched that much longer. Oh well, it’s still what it is.
BUY FROM AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Cartoon Network
MSRP: $69.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 1200 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Deleted Scenes
Commentaries
Music Video
Featurettes
The Pitch
Food fights crime and solves mysteries.
The Humans
C. Martin Croker, Carey Means, Schooly-D, Dana Snyder and Dave Willis
The Nutshell
Frylock, Meatwad and Master Shake made their names with their sophomore season. Dr. Weird’s introductions were becoming shorter, as the stories got crazier. The trio grew closer together, as they learned more through their meandering activities. There’s plenty of guest stars and wackier adventures to be had this year. What’s nice is that this is the last season before the wacky guest-star train started.
The Lowdown
The second season opens with Carl ordering a mail-order bride. When that goes to shit, he tries to share her with Master Shake. Meatwad gets a snake, discovers the Universal Remonster and gets tickets to the Super Bowl. If that wasn’t enough, Meatwad also finds a way to connect to the Meat Zone. Sadly, there’s no additional Ol’ Drippy segments this year. Ol’ Drippy was voiced by Oscar nominee Todd Field. You might remember Todd Field as the creepy piano player from Eyes Wide Shut.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force also debuted their most beloved Christmas creation this year. The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future arrived to tell us all of a time when things would go wrong. The Ghost then makes Carl’s house bleed and scares the living hell out of the last Jersey pimp. This leads to a truly inspired cameo from Glenn Danzig as himself. Danzig makes anything better and he manages to sell the performance with a simple growl.
Adult Swim should actually go back and define where the first and second seasons ended and began. Most people tend to state that Super Birthday Snake was the season opener for the second season. But, it’s the second episode of this set. The same line of thought also states that this season ends with The Last One which featured the Mooinites’ master villain team-up to destroy the Aqua Teens. It’s not like any of that hurts the story telling. You could show most of these episodes out of order and people couldn’t tell what’s the right chronology.
The second season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force is also where the true off-the-wall humor began. Following weird tangents based in character faults allowed for Willis and Maiellaro to really build the world of ATHF. You got new villains and more time spent with the players introduced in Season 1. Emery and Oglethorpe lacked the finesse of the Mooinites, but they served to introduce the Universal Remonster and push the team along. Plus, we had the early signs of Carl stealing the show. Carl is the star of the show…you know this to be true.
The Package
The second season DVD comes loaded with a Baffler Meal music video and a ton of commentaries. If that’s not enough, you also get to see the full puppet sections taken from the first season. The first six or so episodes also sport a ton of deleted scenes. The A/V Quality is standard for TV on DVD, but I’m left wanting to know why the transfer couldn’t have been a little cleaner.
BUY FROM AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Cartoon Network
MSRP: $69.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 1200 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Commentaries
Extended Episodes
Featurettes
The Pitch
Tad Ghostal interviews celebs.
The Humans
George Lowe, C. Martin Croker, Andy Merrill, Dave Willis and Don Kennedy
The Nutshell
Space Ghost loved to interview C-List celebs in the 1990s. Show Director Moltar and Band Leader Zorak helped to keep the peace, as the 1997-1998 season actually rose above its nature. Charlton Heston showed up to talk to Space Ghost, as only Moses could speak to a cartoon cut-out. I was never a fan, but I enjoyed the moments spent with Zorak and Brak. Remember Brak? Everyone loved Brak.
The Lowdown
In the mid 1990s, Ted Turner realized that he was sitting on top of a ton of classic animation. The problem with that was the total lack of 18-30 year old viewers. So, he sent a bunch of Turner Entertainment workers to a tiny shanty on Williams Street to crank out some entertainment. This lead to cartoon cut-outs and jokes about classic characters hurting each other. Screw the kids, it’s time for them to get out of the pool.
Space Ghost: Coast to Coast began its fourth season with a bevy of interviews. Jon Stewart, David Cross, Charlton Heston, Mark Hamill and others beamed up for an interview with the Space Ghost. That stuff was always second-rate when compared to the hi-jinks among the animated cast. Whether Zorak was shilling ointment
