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07-23-2006, 09:07 AM
I write for an up ad coming blog site (www.speakyourmind.blogspot.com for promotion sake) and I wrote something on Robot Chicken. I'm just going to throw it around just to see what you guys think of it.
''Just recently, the UK got something Animation fans have been craving for absolute yonks. Adult Swim. It was as though it was 5 years ago and America had just got on the brim of discovering adult animation. Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Venture Bros, Harvey Bridman, The Brak Show, Sealab 2021 and The legend that is Space Ghost Coast to Coast but one show in particular has caught my eye. It’s name is Robot Chicken.
For those who don’t know what Robot Chicken is, it’s best not to judge by it’s name. The only slight indication of a Robotic Chicken is in the opening sequence where a chicken left lying next to a road is picked up into the clutches of a mad scientist and is turned into a cyborg. But rather than take the chicken and sell it on eBay or make a load of money on it from the black market or something along those lines, this scientist thinks it would be a novel idea to tie the chicken up onto a chiar and force it to watch TV. For roughly 11 minutes, we become the chicken, having to endure the ‘horrible programming’ that the scientist is showing.
A good way to describe it is pretty much a good ol’ What if Senario. What if you give two guys (Seth Green, famous for Buffy and Austin Powers and Matthew Senreich, first time writer..well, ever) a bunch of old toys, cardboard sets, some cameras and a writing team? You get some really crazy and sometimes even downright brilliant stuff. You get parodys of reality TV shows like The Real World (with Superheroes) and The Surreal Life (with the Z List going to destroy the ‘One Ring’), mock film trailers and just plain Jackass style craziness. One of my favourite sketches is Ted Turner dressing up as Captain Planet kicking the asses of those who don’t recycle or contaminate the environment. Just hearing a Ted Turner impressionist cry out ‘CAPTAIN PLANET’ and kick a guy’s ass for putting a Can in the Dustbin rather than in the Recycling bin is just too funny for it’s own good.
Sometimes, yeah I do admit though, there are points when Robot Chicken goes from funny to damn well unfunny. I really don’t want to give examples, but alot of sketches, I feel involve ‘Let’s slaughter a bunch of childhood/cartoon guys’ and not much depth to them. Scooby Doo and co (except Velma) being taken out by Jason Voorhies was one of those examples. Most times, it was awkward to watch. Hey, if you find it funny, that’s up to you. That’s why there’s Freedom of Speech and all that, but for me it was just somewhat awkward to watch Scooby Doo’s head on a stick, even though it’s an action figure with clay blood coming out of it. The thing is, though, they can do the whole death sequence very well without it becoming awkward. Take the The Fast and Furious parody in Season One. The beauty of it was that alot of the racers died (Batman, The Dukes of Hazzard and MASK included), but it was much more fun to watch because there was a story to it. The race is meant to be deadly and such so they might as well kill off a few guys to justify it.
Apart from that, though, Robot Chicken is excellent and has great potential to go on and on with it’s concepts. They take on all comers in terms of subject matter such as Films, TV shows, Cartoons, Adverts, Politics (George Bush is ripped aload of times…hilariously of course), action figures. It definatly is on the level that South Park is at right now in terms of crude humour with the amount of sexual inuendos but the whole block is full of them anyway so why should this one be any different? But the difference between SP and RC is that RC brings you Pop Culture references, damn good humour and dying dolls every few seconds. It doesn’t let you get used to one thing for one time and it keeps your brain going not knowing what to expect. And something RC has up against SP is the amount of celebrity cameos it gets. You want to know how Bruce Campbell would sound like as the Red Ranger? Check out Robot Chicken. Hulk Hogan as Abe Lincoln? Robot Chicken. Scarlett Johannson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Aston Kutcher, Ryan Seacrest have all done more than one role on Robot Chicken. Scarlett in particular has done various roles for various episodes and only once as herself.
So, yeah, I really like Robot Chicken. I’d be interested in hearing your views on the show and if you are looking for the episodes, new ones are shown on Cartoon Network on Sunday nights, I believe and for us in the UK on weekdays and weekends. But if you can’t wait that long, check YouTube as one man has achieved putting up the entire of Season One and some of Season Two up there so you can have a large marathon of Robot Chicken…as I got an American friend to do.''
So what do you think? Do you think I'm overreacting about some things? Just want to know your views.
''Just recently, the UK got something Animation fans have been craving for absolute yonks. Adult Swim. It was as though it was 5 years ago and America had just got on the brim of discovering adult animation. Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Venture Bros, Harvey Bridman, The Brak Show, Sealab 2021 and The legend that is Space Ghost Coast to Coast but one show in particular has caught my eye. It’s name is Robot Chicken.
For those who don’t know what Robot Chicken is, it’s best not to judge by it’s name. The only slight indication of a Robotic Chicken is in the opening sequence where a chicken left lying next to a road is picked up into the clutches of a mad scientist and is turned into a cyborg. But rather than take the chicken and sell it on eBay or make a load of money on it from the black market or something along those lines, this scientist thinks it would be a novel idea to tie the chicken up onto a chiar and force it to watch TV. For roughly 11 minutes, we become the chicken, having to endure the ‘horrible programming’ that the scientist is showing.
A good way to describe it is pretty much a good ol’ What if Senario. What if you give two guys (Seth Green, famous for Buffy and Austin Powers and Matthew Senreich, first time writer..well, ever) a bunch of old toys, cardboard sets, some cameras and a writing team? You get some really crazy and sometimes even downright brilliant stuff. You get parodys of reality TV shows like The Real World (with Superheroes) and The Surreal Life (with the Z List going to destroy the ‘One Ring’), mock film trailers and just plain Jackass style craziness. One of my favourite sketches is Ted Turner dressing up as Captain Planet kicking the asses of those who don’t recycle or contaminate the environment. Just hearing a Ted Turner impressionist cry out ‘CAPTAIN PLANET’ and kick a guy’s ass for putting a Can in the Dustbin rather than in the Recycling bin is just too funny for it’s own good.
Sometimes, yeah I do admit though, there are points when Robot Chicken goes from funny to damn well unfunny. I really don’t want to give examples, but alot of sketches, I feel involve ‘Let’s slaughter a bunch of childhood/cartoon guys’ and not much depth to them. Scooby Doo and co (except Velma) being taken out by Jason Voorhies was one of those examples. Most times, it was awkward to watch. Hey, if you find it funny, that’s up to you. That’s why there’s Freedom of Speech and all that, but for me it was just somewhat awkward to watch Scooby Doo’s head on a stick, even though it’s an action figure with clay blood coming out of it. The thing is, though, they can do the whole death sequence very well without it becoming awkward. Take the The Fast and Furious parody in Season One. The beauty of it was that alot of the racers died (Batman, The Dukes of Hazzard and MASK included), but it was much more fun to watch because there was a story to it. The race is meant to be deadly and such so they might as well kill off a few guys to justify it.
Apart from that, though, Robot Chicken is excellent and has great potential to go on and on with it’s concepts. They take on all comers in terms of subject matter such as Films, TV shows, Cartoons, Adverts, Politics (George Bush is ripped aload of times…hilariously of course), action figures. It definatly is on the level that South Park is at right now in terms of crude humour with the amount of sexual inuendos but the whole block is full of them anyway so why should this one be any different? But the difference between SP and RC is that RC brings you Pop Culture references, damn good humour and dying dolls every few seconds. It doesn’t let you get used to one thing for one time and it keeps your brain going not knowing what to expect. And something RC has up against SP is the amount of celebrity cameos it gets. You want to know how Bruce Campbell would sound like as the Red Ranger? Check out Robot Chicken. Hulk Hogan as Abe Lincoln? Robot Chicken. Scarlett Johannson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Aston Kutcher, Ryan Seacrest have all done more than one role on Robot Chicken. Scarlett in particular has done various roles for various episodes and only once as herself.
So, yeah, I really like Robot Chicken. I’d be interested in hearing your views on the show and if you are looking for the episodes, new ones are shown on Cartoon Network on Sunday nights, I believe and for us in the UK on weekdays and weekends. But if you can’t wait that long, check YouTube as one man has achieved putting up the entire of Season One and some of Season Two up there so you can have a large marathon of Robot Chicken…as I got an American friend to do.''
So what do you think? Do you think I'm overreacting about some things? Just want to know your views.