| The parking lot at a British high school plays host to a knock down, blood-splattering, bare-knuckle fight between rival kings of the gypsies. As a cost-cutting measure, the school’s morally vacant headmaster eliminates coffee in the teacher’s lounge in favour of pots of his own urine. And a teacher makes a misfit female student stand up in front of the class to point out that the girl literally stinks.
These are just some of the highlights of the recently aired debut episode of the animated series Bromwell High. Running as part of The Detour, Teletoon’s late-night adult programming block, this deliciously dark comedy is a British-Canadian co-production.
England’s Hat Trick Productions developed the concept with great involvement from acclaimed producer Anil Gupta, most famous for his work on the cult hit comedy series The Office. Since they had never done an animated series before, Hat Trick came to Canada looking for a partner. They soon settled upon Decode Entertainment, a production company responsible for such offbeat animated fare as Angela Anaconda and Undergrads.
However, nothing Decode has done before is as raw and edgy as Bromwell High, where characters utter phrases like "Bloody shit cakes," "Tolerance is for gays" and "Your mum is a dozy bitch. No disrespect."
Decode Entertainment producer Beth Stevenson feels that because the school-based hi-jinks of Bromwell High are so over the top, it’s hard for real people to feel like their way of life is being attacked. "They (the Bromwell High creative team) have taken it to such an extreme, it doesn’t even skirt reality," says Stevenson. "At one point in the series we have monkeys running around replacing the teachers, smoking and at one point actually exploding."
Following the lead of the also-explicitly-themed South Park, Bromwell High has a crude, childlike look to its animation. Stevenson explains the rationale. "If you have a colourful world and pleasing, simple characters, the viewer is probably more forgiving when they do something like burn down their school or get pregnant by their geography teacher."
Recently joining Bromwell High on Teletoon’s The Detour is another warped offering known as The Venture Brothers. The program answers the question: What if you put a dysfunctional family spin on the 1970s kiddy adventure series Johnny Quest?
The result is a fun and goofy animated show about simpleton teenage twins who travel the globe with their ever-so-vain, mishap-prone scientist father, Dr Venture. In the debut episode, which aired March 13, the good doctor, on a teaching gig in Mexico, wakes up in a bathtub full of ice to angrily discover that both of his kidneys have been snatched, apparently by greedy organ dealers.
Upping the chuckle factor on The Venture Brothers is the presence of burly, hotheaded family bodyguard Brock Sampson. This blond powerhouse reacts to any adversity with relentless and remorseless brutality. In the pilot episode, Sampson continues to choke a costumed henchman even after being riddled with a massive barrage of tranquilizer darts.
Bromwell High and The Venture Brothers are welcome new arrivals to a heady cartoon realm long dominated by The Simpsons and King of the Hill. Once the abysmal Family Guy dies a final, not-a-chance-of-another-comeback death, all will be well in grown-up ’toondom. |
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