Seth Green

Robot Chicken: Season 1 Pop-culture comedy comes to life with Seth Green’s animated anthology series. by Michael Drucker

March 24, 2006 - Have you ever watched television with someone else and they have the remote? No matter how cool or how weird the subject matter, you know that it’s up to them to change the channel at their will. Thus is the basic premise of Robot Chicken. The show’s sketches range anywhere from three minutes to five seconds, each interrupted by a change of channel to a new topic. If you’ve ever played Nintendo’s WarioWare games, you have a good idea of how Robot Chicken works.

The show’s strongest point is the content itself. While the shortest sketches are usually quick sight gags - a giraffe getting hit by a train, for example - the longer ones are amazing spoofs of pop culture. Voltron has a dance-off with a space monster. Joey Fatone trains for a martial-arts tournament to get back at the Yakuza squad who murdered Nsync. The Real World Metropolis. You get the idea. If you’re reading IGN, you’ll likely be in on the heavy references to anime, video games, and movies.

Thankfully, the writing is almost always amazing. Sure, there are a few oddly cliché jokes - a "this is your brain on drugs" parody, for example - but overall, the material is handled inventively. And most of it comes from the creators’ love of the subjects. In the Real World Metropolis, for example, the show’s funny because the heroes really act like they do in the comics, just extrapolated into an annoying roommate form. Seth Green and the other creators of the show really know their audience and really love their subject.

The show’s look is also notable for its use of heavily-modified action figures. Much like the old Nickelodeon show Action League Now, the puppets in Robot Chicken are meant to look like the toys you played with as kids. It’s an interesting visual choice that really makes the show have a quirky, low-budget look that works with the humor. Seeing four super villains in a car complaining about the commute to work is simply funnier when they look like the action-figures of those villains.

The voice-work is also notable. Seth Green himself is a constant in the sketches and a variety of stars and Family Guy regulars lend their talents to these productions. Even Scarlett Johansson and Conan O’Brien get in the action for a couple episodes. The actors just have a blast and it’s great to hear. Even when you recognize the voices, it sounds like friends having fun together.

On the downside, if you’re not keen on pop-culture, you won’t find much to love here. The sketches are rarely political or culture-conscious, so if you’re looking for comedy that is going to change the world, go elsewhere.

Ultimately, Robot Chicken is an amazing stop-motion cartoon show that proves you don’t need a huge-budget and network support to create amazing comedy. With its quirky, fast-moving bits and spot-on jokes, this first season is worth owning for any almost any comedy fan’s collection.

Score: 9 out of 10

The Video Robot Chicken: Season 1 is presented in the same 1.33:1 full screen format in which it was broadcast. The quality between sketches seems to vary quite a bit. Some are clear, while others suffer from heavy grain. Bright reds and yellows also tend to bleed a little bit - it’s not awful, but still noticeable, such as in the Voltron dance sketch.

These video problems probably have more to do with the show’s low budget, though, than it does laziness on the DVD producers’ part.

Score: 6 out of 10

The Audio Presentation The show comes in a Dolby 2.0 Stereo track. While nowhere near impressive, the audio is very clear and crisp. However, since the show does have a lot of action scenes, a cool 5.1 track would’ve been extremely welcome. As is, the audio is acceptable, but not really notable.

Subtitles are also available in English, French, and Spanish.

Score: 7 out of 10

Packaging and Extras As is pretty common with Adult Swim release, Robot Chicken: Season 1 comes on two discs in a handsome cardboard case. A flap on the case itself has a list of episode and extra descriptions.

Features on the disc include:

* Commentary on All Episodes with Seth Green and writers
* Photo Gallery
* Deleted Animatics
* Deleted Scenes
* "Sweet J Presents"
* Behind the Scenes
* Wire Comparisons
* Alternate Audio Takes
* Animatic to Episode Comparison
* Wire Comparisons
* Promos
* Bumps

Wow. There are commentaries on every episode in this set, and they’re great. Seth Green and a variety of writers and actors talk about the show. They’re extremely good about staying on-topic and really explore the interesting behind-the-scenes stories of the show. This is a show that has to fight low budgets, nervous censors, and the limitations of puppetry to create a comedy, and every issue is explored. Great stuff and definitely worth a listen.

The photo gallery is downright awesome. Unlike most still galleries, this is an actual running feature in which captions explain what’s happening in the photos and how they relate to the production of the show. Most of the captions are hilarious, too, and definitely worth watching.

The deleted animatics on the disc mix with the sketches from which they come. So you’ll watch a scene and then a black and white drawing of the action is cut into the scene. Many of them were cut for good reason, usually because they simply aren’t as funny as what made it to the show. Regardless, it is interesting to watch.

The deleted scenes are something of a shame. Many of them were simply too long and a little redundant for the show. But sketches such as "Citizen Spears" and a Smurf murder mystery really should’ve been in the show. Regardless, you can now watch them on the DVD and enjoy them in all their bizarre glory.

"Sweet J Presents" is basically the pilot to Robot Chicken. Produced for Sony’s website, the show was simpler and a bit rougher than Robot Chicken, but it’s still pretty funny and worth watching.

"Behind the Scenes" is a really cool feature with Seth Green that goes into the background and design of the show. Unlike many "making-of" features, Seth is completely open about the show’s flaws and the weirdness of the show. It’s funny to see him, for example, shoot down Matthew Lillard’s idea for a porno-parody sketch of Scooby-Doo.

"Wire Comparisons" is a real-time side-by-side comparison of sets and animations before and after the insertion of special effects to remove the wires. It is interesting to see the differences, but there’s not really much to learn here.

"Animatic to Episode Comparisons" is extremely similar, showing the rough storyboarding next to the final sketches. Again, it’s worth a watch once, but probably not something you’ll return to.

"Alternate Audio Takes" is pretty funny. Kind of an audio blooper real, one can hear the voice actors really trying to get through their lines perfectly. Mr. T talking to Scully from The X-Files becomes far funnier when the voice actors fight to get their voices just right.

"Promos" are just high-speed shots of the show intended as commercials. Regardless, the various ways they cut together the shots and set up the commercials are hilarious.

"Bumps" are a series of the infamous Adult Swim text intros. They’re funny, and one of the least acknowledged portions of the time slot. Definitely worth a watch.

Overall, Robot Chicken: Season 1 is packed with great features. Sure, many of them could have gone deeper and had a little more footage of the actual animation processes, but overall fans will get a huge kick out of what’s here. Beyond the hilarious and informative commentaries, the other extras just explore the show and even give about two episodes-worth of deleted material.

Score: 9 out of 10