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The
brainchild of actor Seth Green (most people will know him as the son of
Dr. Evil) is a mixed bag of sketches, but the thing that sets this
apart from so many other failed US skit shows is that Robot Chicken is made completely from stop motion animation. The
reason behind the often woeful sketch shows in the US largely stems
from the fact that, in my opinion, most Americans just assume what they
are doing is hilarious. Like they already know the joke is coming, and
they expect the laugh (Case In Point: MAD TV). Monty Python,
Shaun Micallef and numerous other English/Australian comedians (well,
the ones that did it well anyway) knew the key to successful sketch
comedy is to under-play the characters as much as possible. Subtlety has never been a US specialty (bar, perhaps, Saturday Night Live
- which stands as one of the best sketch shows of the last 30 years),
so thankfully, with the aid of animation the over-acting element is
eliminated. Another key to the success of Robot Chicken
(which has become a cult success on the Adult [swim] Channel on cable)
is the sheer strength of it's writing and performing talent. Green has
obviously pulled some strings to assemble all his friends in the one
place. Stephen Colbert, Ashton Kutcher, Seth McFarlen (the chap behind Family Guy) are all on board, along with a slew of others which you can spend you're time trying to pick. Sketches range from pop culture icons Superman to The Super Mario Brothers to Paris Hilton to random acts of violence performed on, well, anyone!
Like
any sketch show, it can be hit and miss. But with episodes at the short
sharp running time of 10 minutes each, there's always another sketch
after a dud to keep you laughing. A rare US success. EXTRAS
Madman
are doing a superb job with these Adult [swim] DVD releases. Not only
does the packaging look spiffy, but there's a butt load of extras to
boot.
Theres Episode commentaries, Behind the scenes footage, Deleted scenes,
Wire comparisons, Animation meetings and some hilarious Alternate audio
takes.
Well worth the dosh.
Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: 70%
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