Review time and we look at a show that just finished, it's Regular Show.
A couple of weeks ago from time of writing, Regular Show ended it's run, the final episode closing on what has been the best cartoon I've watched in many years and I don't say that lightly.
The exploits of park keepers Mordecai and Rigby were a sight to be hold, one minute you're slacking off work, the next you battle an intergalactic space demon from an arcade machine or battling the very forces of the internet, anything they can come up with they did, heck the first episode featured a rock, paper, scissors game that nearly destroys the world.
What made this show work were three things.
1. No cartoon had really covered the in's and out's of a young twenty something adult.
2. The music and references as well as the throwbacks were more than enough to appeal to the gradually growing twenty something demograph.
3. When it did have to give a serious message it was spot on, most notably on Mordecai's tortured love life.
And that really helped this demograph blossom along with the help of Adventure Time and the My Little Pony reboot, all released after 2009 the darkest days of animation and Cartoon Network especially.
This cartoon isn't for everyone; a younger person won't get the references, some jokes are outdated while others outstay their welcome and as it was nearing the climax it was starting to show decay in the writing but all forgiven based on how the final episode went.
If there is one thing I can take away from Regular Show is this; the real test of life is done in your 20s not your final school days or in your College years or University, it's what you do after.
Your ideal job may elude you, the qualifications you get may go to waste, love isn't as simple as it was in school, there will be plenty of people to screw you over and nostalgia will feel like your only escape but you are not alone, the most perfect of diamonds still need to be mined in the cold dark ground and even the most awkward looking gems still have value and Regular Show despite it's penchant of going way over board with it's most weird and unusual concepts still had enough life lessons to survive the twenty something era.
Had I been born in a different era I wouldn't like this but as it arrived as my 20s were in full swing I embraced it as a cartoon I could really get behind and I doubt we'll see another one like this again, least not for a long time.
It's sad to see it go and I do wonder what Cartoon Network will do next now this show has ended and Adventure Time is drawing to it's conclusion but its got a tough act to follow.
That's Regular Show, it's anything but.
And as the late David Bowie sang as well as the song used in Regular Show's Final Episode.
"We can be heroes, just for one day"
Ask any creator of popular cartoons where their ideas came from and you might be surprised how much you find out; it's considered fact that the Simpsons is a yellow skinned representation of the creators own family while in anime land the likes of Evangelion are created to represent the creators depression, but what if I was to tell you that Regular Show originated from a short about an acid trip? Need more convincing? This is the story of "2 in the AM PM"
Regular Show gets away with a lot of adult jokes in an era that still finds the likes of Shezow mind corrupting. (Yeah that's a pretty stupid show to complain about) So adult works may come as no surprise when you dive into the origins of creator J.G.Quintel's work. As a student he first designed a short about a lollyman called the "Naive Man from Lolliland" which starred a character that would later be called Pops in Regular Show where said character tries to pay for a bill with candy.
However his second short "2 in the AM PM" is ten times more adult than the Lolliland short. The short begins with 2 gas station workers who sound familiar, mainly because they are the voices of Mordecai & Benson, Mordecai of course is JG Quintel while Benson is voiced by his friend Sam Marin.
Anyway the two workers are bored until they eat some candy containing acid, this is when the trippy bit begins as both characters keep turning into different things including a gumball machine and a blue jay, yeah the whole cartoon is an acid trip and those forms I just mentioned were the design choices for Mordecai & Benson for Regular Show; so the million dollar question is: Was Regular Show created from Acid Trip? Who knows? It's not my place to ask people about their personal habits; if you consider the content of Regular Show and the fact that Mordecai is the creator himself then it's possible but it's something that Quintel wouldn't want to admit.
No preview video, the short is mature rating and you know the rules by now.
