The Boondocks

[El Chuxter]

So, who caught the premiere last night on Adult Swim?

The show didn't quite capture Aaron MacGruder's comic strip, but I thought it was excellent nonetheless. The design and animation are some of the most gorgeous I've ever seen in any animated series--heck, in most animated movies--and you can't go wrong with Riley and Huey.

The flashback with Grandpa during the Civil Rights movement, being late for the protest because he stopped to get a raincoat, was priceless.

I hope this show goes on for a long time. And I hope it doesn't influence the strip too much. They're going in different directions with the same characters (mainly because it'd be almost impossible to have a politically topical show with the long lead time), and I love 'em both.

When KH gets back and reclaims his monkeytar, I think I may have to take a Hueytar.

[JediTricks]

It was pretty entertaining, a little obvious perhaps but still good. I don't get the paper so I haven't read the strip, but the show had good artwork (what would you call it, vague anime?). They've ordered 15 episodes, whether they do more after is up to the ratings, but the way this show looks I suspect Adult Swim will wait it out till the last minute to renew, then we'll wait a year and a half for new eps.

Not likely by chance, but last night also had Squidbillies being racially-themed, and the clearly racially-themed Minoriteam. Squidbillies was totally crap, no surprises, while Minoriteam had some clever ideas and some cool classic comic art but overall was poorly done.

Last week's Lucy - Daughter of the Devil was hilarious though, I hope they pick that up asap! No racial themes though.

[El Chuxter]

I don't get the paper either, but I read this strip (it's the only one I still follow) daily at http://news.yahoo.com/comics/boondocks. The strip is usually much more geared toward politics and recent events, but I understand that this particular 'toon takes a year to produce, so it makes sense that it's a bit less timely.

I also highly recommend the collections Right to Be Hostile and Public Enemy Number Two, which collect most of the series. Something tells me you'd especially appreciate Huey's constant discussions with Caesar (another kid in the strip, not the guy with the snazzy Rick McCallum avatars ) about TPM and AOTC.

Some of the humor was a bit predictable, true, but it was a much stronger debut than American Dad, Drawn Together, or even Family Guy, so I have pretty strong hopes for its future.

[drsidious]

Boondocks was great, cant get over how anime-ish it felt, but it looked fantastic.
oh an i hope we get more lucy daughter of the devil

[JediTricks]

It takes a year and a half to get 'em done, actually. But they do the dialogue recording far closer to the release date, so it gives them a chance to freshen up the writing for current events.

Cool link, didn't know that was out there.

BTW, Boondocks was protested by a number of "black community leaders" for its "repeated use of the n-word". Nobody seems to care though: http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2005-11-08/

[El Chuxter]

Kinda fitting. The comic is pretty much constantly being protested against for something or another.

[2-1B]

I've never read the strip nor seen the show but I have seen Aaron MacGruder's numerous appearances on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher and he seems like a pretty good cat. I'll have to check this out finally.

[General_Grievous]

I saw it. Had to laugh a few times, especially when that crazy valet dude got wasted and started singing that song at the party. And when the kid (Huey, I think) shot the insane army guy (voiced by Charlie Murphy) out the window.

[JediTricks]

Uncle Ruckus singing definitely was the keystone bit in the party, though I still wonder why the band agreed to play his song in the first place. Riley was the one who shot the rich white kid out the window, not Huey.

[El Chuxter]

Riley = Gangsta wannabe punk

Huey = Conspiracy theorist/revolutionary/Phantom Menace hater