Squidbillies is a show about redneck squids living in Georgia, among the redneck townsfolk of some unknown little town. Were it not created by people in Georgia, I am sure the locals would hate the stereotypes expressed in this cartoon, and perhaps they still do.
But the stereotypes are not of typical southern folk, but instead of a family of squids… squid hillbillies… hence the name of this production. Even the creators seem to cringe at the fruit of their labors, as they embarrassedly express their opinions of the show in it’s special features.
The story centers around Early Cuyler, father of the squid family and lead protagonist. Early is a whiskey swilling, shotgun toting outspoken redneck who is trying to be a family man after spending 15 years in prison. He’s inbred and mean, often shooting people for no good reason.
Early has a son, Rusty. Rusty was raised by wolves while Early was in prison, and shows his social ineptitude for the experience in almost every situation. When not humping random things, he’s wrecking his car or getting slapped around by his father.
While most of the story centers around Early and Rusty, there is a wacky supporting cast including Early’s smoke addicted sister, his eccentric and sometime incontinent old mother, and a barrage of outsiders who are shot at and constantly told to “Get off my land” by Early.
The Squidbillies, it seems, are an accidental creation of the folks down at Cartoon Network, following a lineage of other nonsensical cartoons which have made it’s late night television block a fan favorite for many young adults.
The parody is easy enough to understand, almost formulaic for the shows in Adult Swim. Take some over stereotyped, off the wall characters and put them in bizarre and unrealistic situations. Subtract any amount of common sense and then pit them against one or two logically thinking creatures who are outnumbered by the rest of the fictional dim-witted world. Presto, instant comedy.
I will admit, I am a huge Adult Swim fan, and for the most part this formula works. Maybe I am a little narcissistic, and the idea of seeing such ridiculous situations makes me feel smarter vicariously. Or maybe I sublimate the stupid people in my own world onto the characters I see in their programming. Perhaps it’s just that I am a fan of slapstick, off the wall humor. Whatever the case may be, I like it.
The Squidbillies are an exception to the rule. The animation quality is horrible, the characters are flat, the scripts are too crazy to follow, and I really can’t identify with whats going on. Maybe it’s because I live in Kentucky, and the craziness of these redneck squids hits a little too close to home? I doubt it. I think it’s because even the animators and writers had trouble with the concept behind this show.
In the behind the scenes extras they also discuss the number of revisions the scripts saw before ever being produced. Some would say that this is just a refining process, and it shows a commitment to quality. After seeing the end result, I’d say thats just not the case with this series. Try as it may, there is very little actual humor in this series. Instead, we are treated to a series of shocking moments.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some funny moments in this series. But finding a funny moment in this series is like finding a kernel of corn in a turd; It may be good, but it’s still surrounded by crap.
One thing this DVD does have going for it is a pretty good set of extra features. There are two discs, and both discs contain additional content that is surprisingly entertaining. There are 6 never before seen pilot episodes, an anime talk show, the preview that was played at Comic Con 2004, deleted scenes, a gallery of art (including concept art leading up the the final design of the characters), a great behind the scenes with the cast and creators as well as some interviews with the people who created this show.
Voices are mostly done by the people from Williams Street, and if you follow Adult Swim, you’ll hear some familiars. The music is original and actually quite well done so audibly this show does quite well.
The animation quality however is lacking, something which is made fun of a little bit in the way this DVD is packaged. Menus look to be hand drawn, and the box itself looks like it’s packaged in brown bloodstained paper.
The menus are well done and easy to navigate, and despite my dislike for the show itself, on whole this is packaged well. For fans of the series, I think you’ll be quite happy with this two disc volume.