DVD REVIEW: REGULAR SHOW “SLACK PACK”

Is the latest DVD release from Regular Show worth your hard-earned money? Welp, after the jump find out!

 

When I unexpectedly received this DVD in the mail, I read the title “Regular Show” and I instantly knew that I had no clue what the fuck I was holding. It’s clearly a cartoon, and on its white, plastic case is what appears to be a blue jay gesticulating in my direction. There is a raccoon pointing as well. They don’t appear to be angry in any way, but clearly they’re singling me out for some emotional reason. The back features a lesbian-she-hulk-looking motherfucker,riding on top of a golf cart being driven by a small, smiley, innocent-looking ghost head. His only appendage is a single, long, skinny arm grasping the steering wheel.

Twelve episodes, here we go.

(132+ minutes later)

Alright, it took me a while to think of a way to describe the animation and emotion of this show, but I might have it. Did you ever see that old Nickelodeon cartoon Angry Beavers?

The two main characters in Regular Show, Mordecai (the blue jay) and Rigby(the raccoon), are kind of like Norbert and Daggett of Angry Beavers. One is the cool, laid-back dude (Mordecai/Norbert) and the other is the uneasy, ultra-hyper, immature partner-in-crime of the former. The animation is also reminiscent of children’s cartoons in that it is generally simply-animated, but the characters are extremely expressive and emotional. Certain scenes can also be more detailed visually for emphasis. It’s almost in the realm of Spongebob Squarepants or Ren & Stimpy in this regard. Whether the characters are angry,
sad, ecstatic, or anything else, it is overemphasized by their expressions and body language. They also have this ability to look cute, which is the only way I can think to describe a moment when something visually makes you laugh, but isn’t necessarily funny. It just makes you chuckle. It’s cute.

But don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a Nickelodeon show like Angry Beavers or Spongebob where young children are the primary audience. It airs during prime time on Cartoon Network, and its target audience fits comfortably in the tween-teen age group that you’d expect for a show in that timeslot. The protagonists are 23-year-old slacker friends, who dude-around like a couple of bros, yet their word selection still manages to fall in a range that parents of middle school – and even some elementary – students will be comfortable with. They might say “pissed” or “screwed” or make allusions, like saying another character is going to “drop his balls when he sees” something (he’s a gumball machine), but it’s nothing like the colorful vocabulary that airs later in the evening during Adult Swim. It gets a TV-PG rating, which is fair, but at times it can actually seem a bit generous. Though most of the allusions will fly right over the heads of younger viewers, they will still definitely get others like the character’s occasional self-censorship (“How the H are we gonna fix this S?”) and a few other more obvious ones, stated later.

The plotlines are simple, as you’d expect from an 11-minute kids show, and have obvious goals or focuses. In one episode the duo has to set up chairs for a birthday party, yet keep getting distracted. In a different one they must purchase and deliver a grilled cheese sandwich to their boss. In another they start a band. They might need to find a TV to beat an extremely-difficult videogame boss, or desperately try to get a song out of their heads. Though the goal always remains clear, the episodes usually branch off on a giant tangent, only returning to wrap-up in the last minute or two. Oftentimes the ending has a moral or lesson, like in “Mordecai and the Rigbys” where Mordecai pulls the plug on their band because lip-synching is lying, which is wrong. Respect.

Some of my favorite episodes were: “The Power”, for all the “hamboning” and for Rigby stealing a keyboard from some wizard taking a leak in the bushes. The dance numbers were also entertaining, especially Rigby singing random things to the moon.

“Just Set Up the Chairs” was also great for the ‘special entertainment’, featuring a drunk clown with a talking horse, and the lamest video game names ever created, like “Staring Contest.”I also enjoyed watching Mordecai and Rigby’s one-upsmanship skills in their lying contest during “Grilled Cheese Deluxe”. They slipped another mentionof “balls” in there too. “Brain Eraser” featured tons of genitalia references and allusions as well, with terms like “shriveled” and “junk mail”. They even make an erection insinuation with Benson the gumball machine’s prize door.

The other secondary characters include Muscle Man (the green little Hulk-ish guy), High Five Ghost (see above), the upbeat Pops, and Skips the yeti (voiced by Mark Hamill…a.k.a. Luke fucking Skywalker!) They make for an amusing posse for sure.

The DVD “Slack Pack”, a best-of collection of 12 episodes, was a great way for a noob like me to break into the show. The self-proclaimed “12 episodes of pure awesome” also featured one bonus feature: a short clip (yes, even shorter than 11 minutes) called “Rah-Ha Ringtone”. Definitely worth a watch!

Overall I was pleasantly surprised with Regular Show. Although it’s an appropriate program for kids not even into their teen years, there were still plenty of things for a 20-something like myself to laugh about. A lot of these ended up being the allusions and semi-questionable jokes, but I think that’s what makes it a great show – the ability to draw cartoon fans of almost all ages (ha, get it, ‘draw’?) In fact, I don’t think it would be as successful of a show without this humor, just as the same could be said about Spongebob, Rocko’s Modern

Life, etc. – both of which I was/am a big fan of. Between bits of risqué humor, I enjoyed watching the comical animation and the banter between Mordecai and Rigby as I waited. Seeing them dance was a hoot as well. So would I pop the DVD in again to hang with the gang? Maybe. But I won’t be rushing out to buy any of the entire seasons if they’re available (they’re not). However, if it happens to come on TV randomly…Well, let me just say that for the first time I have a reason to check what’s on Cartoon Network well-before Adult Swim begins.

ONE THUMB UP

(8.0 out of 10)