Customer Reviews

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, Vol. 1

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Harvey Birdman Season one, here Amazon, "Take my money!" . Take all your favorite 70's cartoon characters and resurrect them into this hilarious show...a must for kids of the 70's !

I never lauged so hard in my life

Most superheroes go from dullsville jobs to exciting planet-saving adventures. Harvey Birdman did the opposite.

Adult Swim's late night programming is full of weird stuff, so a winged lawyer is right up their alley -- as is a world full of superheroes, Hanna Barbera characters, and general goofiness from an earnest lawyer who has more wings than brains.

Harvey Birdman was once a superhero in "Birdman and the Galaxy Trio." But now he's retired from his superheroing, and works for the law firm of Sebben and Sebben, with his purple eagle Avenger as his legal secretary. There's also his clever, equally strange clerk Peanut, and his bizarre, obnoxious boss Phil. Also a bear.

And Harvey is not a terribly good lawyer, but he bumbles through the various cases that come before him. Shaggy and Scooby-doo are arrested for using pot, Boo-boo Bear is suspected of being a Unabomber-style killer, Fred Flintstone may be a mob boss, Race Bannon fights his gay partner Dr. Quest for custody of his two boys, and other strange cases centering on cartoon characters.

Birdman himself comes under suspicion when he's passed over for promotion, in favor of an inferior but more charming new lawyer. When Birdman is assigned a humiliating new office (in the men's room), the new guy's robot dog turns up dismembered in the xerox machine. And he's stalked by a fanboy assassin, gets addicted to bronzing cream, and has to find another bird-secretary when Avenger quits. ("No emus in my courtroom!")

"Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law" is one of those wonderful series that have absurd jokes, played with a straight face. As if the idea of a superhero law firm (and rival law firms) wasn't funny enough, the creators take the idea and run with it -- by having almost every episode feature a cartoon character in the courtroom.

The animation is pretty standard Adult Swim -- rather two-dimensional, flows nicely, and is full of visual gags, weird running jokes and courtroom scenes that always descend into chaos. It's not unusual for there to be giant spiked maces swinging through one of the offices at Sebben and Sebben.

But the dialogue is pure hilarity, whether it's terrible puns ("I'll be keeping my eyes on you." "Eye." "I didn't know you were Scottish!") or just strange ("It is considered customary in our culture, once a business deal is concluded, to blow something up").

And Harvey Birdman is the kind of lawyer you would NOT want working for you -- a nice guy, dedicated to his job, but it's basically a matter of chance whether he wins his cases or not (especially since the judges are all insane). He's backed up by an increasing number of giant Apaches, winged people, inch-tall detectives, hammy mind-readers, and paranoid little aliens with shrink guns.

"Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law" is a hilarious little comedy series, especially for anyone who likes to mock the judificial process -- and old cartoons. Very fun.

One or two good episodes does not equal a good show. I would not mind watching Harvey on TV at 3am, but I regret paying money for the DVD set.