It amazes me the depths and the pinnacles of creation that come from Williams Street Productions, the home-grown animation studio that feeds Cartoon Networks Adult Swim with USA based animation to balance off the ever popular Japanese Anime titles. From the freakishly crappy and boring wastes of time and gray matter such as "12 oz. Mouse" and "Perfect Hair Forever" to the witty and cutting edge creations like "Sealab 2021" and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force".
The most recent is the small select half dozen episodes of "Squidbillies", a crudely drawn, but decently animated product of the Radical Axis animation team and hysterically written and performed under the guidance of Jim Fortier and his team. Every redneck sight gag and myth is turned on it's ear with this impossible family of hick squids, from the drunken, pumpkin raping, knife-wielding Earlie Cuyler, who urinated pure Bourbon whiskey, his equally ignorant and put-upon son, Rusty, cousin Lil, complete with a nail job that resembles tap shoes to the over-sexed, dementia ridden Grannie perpetually slung from a walker. Add to that the clueless sheriff (played with great panache by legendary Russ Meyers bad guy Charles Napier), the hugely overweight siren of the hills, Krystal, a massive , immobile, mega-gulp swilling hulk of a woman who is the illegitimate mother of Rusty who so much as refuses to move an inch that she's eventually declared a historical monument as an outdoor shut-in, to the dwarfish, griffin riding, sheet rock and deadly home appliance magnate Dan Halen, who markets rust laden home surgical kits and barb wire baby hammocks, and who, when sued by the parents of an unfortunate child, sues them back for calling his creation a "baby death trap", claiming he already had a copyright on the name.
Never has there been so much buzz been produced on the web and in animation fan circles produced by these six, 15 minute episodes of sheer hysteria, if for nothing else, but to see what happens when new episodes premiere in September. I, for one, have busted a gut seeing the two coming attractions.
The most recent is the small select half dozen episodes of "Squidbillies", a crudely drawn, but decently animated product of the Radical Axis animation team and hysterically written and performed under the guidance of Jim Fortier and his team. Every redneck sight gag and myth is turned on it's ear with this impossible family of hick squids, from the drunken, pumpkin raping, knife-wielding Earlie Cuyler, who urinated pure Bourbon whiskey, his equally ignorant and put-upon son, Rusty, cousin Lil, complete with a nail job that resembles tap shoes to the over-sexed, dementia ridden Grannie perpetually slung from a walker. Add to that the clueless sheriff (played with great panache by legendary Russ Meyers bad guy Charles Napier), the hugely overweight siren of the hills, Krystal, a massive , immobile, mega-gulp swilling hulk of a woman who is the illegitimate mother of Rusty who so much as refuses to move an inch that she's eventually declared a historical monument as an outdoor shut-in, to the dwarfish, griffin riding, sheet rock and deadly home appliance magnate Dan Halen, who markets rust laden home surgical kits and barb wire baby hammocks, and who, when sued by the parents of an unfortunate child, sues them back for calling his creation a "baby death trap", claiming he already had a copyright on the name.
Never has there been so much buzz been produced on the web and in animation fan circles produced by these six, 15 minute episodes of sheer hysteria, if for nothing else, but to see what happens when new episodes premiere in September. I, for one, have busted a gut seeing the two coming attractions.