Home Movies:S1

My fandom of the Adult Swim block on the Cartoon Network began with the underrated but ingenious "Home Movies" and ended with its departure. It was originally aired on UPN and was cancelled after this first season. The truth is that Home Movies belonged to a special niche and the people in charge of the Adult Swim made the brilliant decision to pick Home Movies up and give the show the chance it deserved... and they haven't made a decision that good since.

Home Movies was one of the few shows on the Adult Swim one can honestly say was smart enough to actually be for adults. The situations, the characters and their backgrounds, and the socially-advanced way these 8 year olds communicate with each other, and the child-like way they approached life is what makes Home Movies the gem it is.

The loose dialogue and seemingly unrehearsed improv the characters perform gives the show a unique feel of maturity, especially in this first season. One could say that in the first season the characters and their conversations are almost too adult (in an intellectual sense). In later seasons the dialogue seems less improvised; more structured and scripted, but still holds its comic edge.

What costs Home Movie Season 1 a star in my review is this little thing known as "Squigglevision". Those of us familiar with shows like Dr. Katz or "Ed, Edd and Eddy" will know what squigglevision is. It is a very annoying method of animation where all the lines "squiggle" to give the art a more hand-drawn look as if each frame was done by hand and then animated. It bothers me, but it doesn't take away from the shows humor which is what makes Home Movies what it is and is not used beyond season 1.

Since the cancellation of Home Movies the Adult Swim block has fallen into a quagmire of dumb shows that use what I like to call "random comedy". In other words shows that tell no story, but simply have left-field events take place with no core or anything for me to relate to. Their new shows--- such as "Squidbillies" and "Tom Goes to the Mayor"--- demonstrates how shows like Home Movies made Adult Swim Comedy the perfect Sunday night treat that it once was (for me), and now how badly Adult Swim's creative people need rehab (in my opinion).

Thanks to Soup 2 Nuts, Brendon Small and Loren Bouchard for giving me such a warm and intelligent comedy program. I wish it had another 5 seasons, but the Home Movies DVDs will become a beloved addition to my DVD library. I hope this review helped a little, and many thanks for taking the time to read my worthless opinion.

Adult Swim still has the Venture Brothers, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law- still some of the best comedy on TV, but it hasn't gotten better than "Home Movies" for me, and after seeing the random direction Adult Swim seems to be taking their comedy block, I strongly doubt it ever will.

Finally, one of the funniest shows (next to "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", "Futurama", & "Family Guy") is getting the DVD treatment it deserves! This is the COMPLETE first season of "Home Movies" and although it only consists of thirteen episodes, it's still enough to leave satisfaction. The humor can also be a little mediocre, but the crude animation and the funny voices make up for that (Jason's voice especially) and it NEVER fails to entertain even the average Adult Swim fan! The episodes are as follows:

STAY AWAY FROM MY MOM: Coach McGurk starts dating Brendon's mom, and Brendon is not too happy about it. OVERALL: 4/5 the first episode that started it all and you can tell because the voices are just developing.

I DON'T DO WELL IN PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES: Paula (Brendon's mom) hesitates to attend a parent-teacher conferance for Brendon, considering he hasn't done any homework for the past year. OVERALL: 4/5 Pretty funny! The scene where Brendon shows his school project by communicating with himself on television is just hilarious!

THE ART OF THE SUCKER PUNCH: After Jason is jumped by the school bully, Shannon, Brendon decides to exact revenge by fighting him. One of my favorite episodes! OVERALL: 5/5 One of my favorite episodes. VERY funny!

BRENDON GETS RABIES: Brendon has to watch the neighbor's cat while they're on vacation. But when the cat escapes, Brendon and friends, Jason & Melissa must try and find it. OVERALL: 5/5 Another favorite! I'll never forget Jason's line, "When you lose something, don't go and find it. Because if you do, it has rabies." Priceless!

WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE TUESDAY: The cute girl in school, Lonnie takes a liking to Brendon and the two start dating. However, Lonnie becomes a burden for both Jason and Melissa whenever they use her in their movies and tries to convince Brendon to lose her. OVERALL: 3/5 Kind of weak and kind of sad. To be honest I do NOT like Lonnie's character (she's pretty damn annoying and stupid in my opinion!) And I'm GLAD they barely used her in further episodes.

DIRECTOR'S CUT: Duene writes a rock opera based on the life of Franz Kafka. Jason and Melissa choose to work on that project instead of Brendon's idea for a film called, "Louis Louis". Eventually, all four of them agree (including Duene) to make two cuts. One for Brendon and the other for Duene. Meanwhile, McGurk becomes jealous of the new soccer coach, Drew. In order to get rid of him, McGurk tries to frame Drew for vandalism but fails. OVERALL: 5/5. Who can forget the scene with Brendon and Melissa during the filming of "Louis Louis"? Brendon says, "Instead of using instruments for music, we'll do it with our mouths. Like, dum-diddly-dum-dum-dum!" LOL!

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY: Melissa convinces Brendon to make a movie tribute for her grandfather, considering that his Birthday is coming up. But after Brendon mistakingly makes fun of him in the movie, Melissa is angered and almost everything Brendon tries to do to make it up to her fails... Well, maybe another tribute will do? OVERALL: 5/5 I laugh every time I see Brendon move Melissa's grandfather's mouth along with the words, "I'm a little teapot short and stooooout!"

METHOD OF ACTING: While Paula begins teaching a creative writing class, Brendon tries out for a town play. But after getting in, he quickly gets kicked out due to his bossy/picky attitude. However, Brendon decides to convince the director to let him back in by showing a tape of him acting. OVERALL: 4/5 Not bad. Seeing Brendon's character in a drag while singing, "I'm a pretty lady!" is just hysterical!

LIFE THROUGH A FISH EYE LENS: Brendon and friends try and get a fish eye lens for an upcoming movie, but Paula is on a budget. Knowing this, Brendon decides to save up some money himself by working in numerous jobs: a paper boy, a janitor at the ice cream shop, and working at Erik's (Melissa's father) Real Estate business. Meanwhile, Coach McGurk plans to toughen the team up in order to beat an old mentor in the next game. OVERALL: 5/5 I love this one A LOT! I can't get enough of the scene where Paula decides to take the kids out for ice cream. KIDS: Three cheers for Brendon's mom! Three cheers for Brendon's mom! Three cheers for Brendon's mom" PAULA: No, seriously, kids! Stop it or I'll drop you off at the next corner! LMAO!!!!

SCHOOL NURSE: Brendon wants out of school and tries to fake an illness so he can go home. Meanwhile, Jason has a crush on the sexy school nurse and tries to hook up with her. OVERALL: 5/5 Extremely funny! I like the scene where Jason attacks Coach McGurk by biting his leg while screaming, "I'LL KILL YOU!" lol!

MORTGAGES AND MARBLES: After Brendon's baby sister, Josie sticks marbles in her nose, Brendon decides to make a video on teaching little kids not to put marbles in their nose. Unfortunately, the lesson fails. Elsewhere, Coach McGurk makes plans with Erik to buy a new house but doesn't seem to have the luck. OVERALL: 5/5. My third favorite episode of Season One. Who can't resist the crazy Spikey McMarbles puppet used in Brendon's movie?

LAW & BOARDER: After Brendon gets hit by a car while riding his bike, he is wrongfully accused and punished by writing an essay on why what he did was illegal. Brendon decides to do a video essay instead of a paper essay in order to prove what REALLY happened and to claim his innocence. Meanwhile, Paula's old friend, Stephanie comes to town and stays with them for awhile due to her own problems back at home. OVERALL: 3/5 Another weak episode that's not as funny due to the fact that I thought it was unfair and stupid that Brendon got in trouble while Paula had to pay for the car damages. I mean, WTF?!! The people that hit him were obviously rich anyways so I don't see why they couldn't pay for it! Also, the judge in this episode is a complete [ass] at times. Nevertheless, it did have SOME funny moments! The way Brendon, Jason and Melissa filmed his video essay as a renactment of Brendon getting hit by the car was cheesy but in a funny way! MELISSA: Yeah, we should run over some children! JASON: Yeah, let's kill children!

AWARDS AND ANGER: After winning first place at the local Film Festival, Brendon, Melissa, and Jason meet up with Channel 1 news who wants to do a documentary on them. Unfortunately, the outcome doesn't work as Brendon and friends expected. Elsewhere, Coach McGurk has to enter an anger management course due to his anger problem. OVERALL: 5/5 My last (but not least) favorite for Season One! Jason is damn funny when he says, "Sometimes cats come in the sandbox and poop" ROTFL!

Anyways, there's many other funny quotes and parts in each episode that I haven't listed. I give the whole show altogether a 10/10! It's one of the best shows I've seen and I wish they hadn't taken it off the air after four seasons because it's a good comedy! Well, I'm glad they're deciding to put all the seasons out on DVD. The First Season however is the first and ONLY season in squigglevision (where the outlines on the characters move) I think this release will be worth it and I reccomend it to EVERYONE!

Back in 1999, on struggling over-the-air network UPN, a small series from Tom Snyder Productions premiered Tuesdays at 8:30 after Dilbert: The Animated Series as UPN tried to capture some of the "animation craze" that was finding an audience in shows such as The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Family Guy. This series, featuring animators and voice talent (also including Paula Poundstone in the "lead role" for the series) involved in the cult favorite Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, played for five episodes on UPN, drawing unremarkable ratings and a subsequent cancellation. If this was the end of the story for Home Movies, it would've been just another failed experiment in the annuls of television lore -- but thanks to Cartoon Network, which picked this show up two years later, we now have a full 13 episodes for season 1 of one of the best animated series you've never heard of.

Anyone who is familiar with Home Movies knows that it was recently "not renewed" by Cartoon Network after 52 episodes of the show were produced and aired -- not a preferable way to end the series, but infinitely better than being limited to 5 episodes of the series where the animators and voice talent were struggling to find their niche. The episodes in season 1 are occasionally hit-and-miss; however, you can see hidden gems in the skewering of pop culture (in particular that found in popular movies and music), and the series really finds its center in episodes 6-13, where Cartoon Network gave Soup2Nuts Productions (formerly Tom Snyder Productions) financial backing and a place to showcase their brilliance.

The list of special features is quite enticing for fans of the show as well; I'm especially looking forward to the interviews of Brendon Small and Jon Benjamin, arguably the two most versatile voices on the series. But really, if you're a fan of animated entertainment that isn't just for kids, you can't go wrong with Home Movies. Run, don't walk, and get this DVD set when it comes out on November 16th; you won't be sorry.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 72 reviews  4.8 out of 5 stars