| When attempting an in-depth analysis of the television show Robot Chicken, it’s best to keep in mind that this is a really, really bad idea. Robot Chicken, the product of the questionable-yet-enthusiastic mind of Seth Green and the somewhat-unknown mind of Matthew Senreich, is comprised of 10-minute blocks of stop-motion animation with action figures and other pop-culture creations placed in wholly satirical and parodied situations. Yes, Robot Chicken doesn’t strive to be anything, tell any kind of story. That’s because the story is everything that was going on in your mind when you were eight years old.
Granted, you must’ve had a mildly twisted childhood to come up with some of this material. The premise behind the show is that a mad scientist rescues a chicken on the verge of death after being run over by a car. The mad scientist then proceeds to repair the chicken using mechanical parts, leaving us with something that looks like the Borg from Star Trek took over the Purdue farm. So if you’re a mad scientist, and you’ve now got a cyborg chicken, what’s your next course of action? Strap him down in front of a wall of TV monitors, pry his eyes open, and make him watch for hours on end. The resulting show is meant to be us watching television through the chicken’s eyes. We see sketches and shows that last maybe several minutes, some mere seconds. If you’re in the least bit put off by shows that are “ADD,” you should never, ever watch Robot Chicken. You should know that when I screened the entire first disc of Season One in one sitting, I felt as if someone had dumped raw sugar on my brain, and then hit me with a baseball bat. It was great, but again, not for everyone.
 What kind of things do we see through this chicken’s eyes? A prime example of the beautifully twisted writing of Green and company is a minute-long segment -- which is long in terms of RC episodes -- is a story told by television and toy icons, The Transformers. The heroic Autobots are business as usual, fighting the evil Decepticons, but Autobot Leader Optimus Prime seems to be suffering from frequent and unexpected urges to urinate. A visit with the Autobot Doc, Ratchet, informs us that Prime has prostate cancer -- which he dies of shortly thereafter, a victim of a disease that could’ve been prevented with routine and early screening. Prime himself tells us this in a special “after show” message. “Remember kids: I can’t really die of cancer -- but YOU can.”
Other vignettes are further instances of parody -- Voltron in a dance competition and a Kill Bill spoof called Kill Bunny which pits Jesus Christ (as The Bride) in a fight against Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are great examples of this -- but the show is also largely driven by more satirical storytelling, like segments called “Pimp My Sister” and shorts involving familiar characters in unconventional settings. Among my favorite of these is a carpool ride with Skeletor, Cobra Commander, Lex Luthor, and Mumm-Raa from Thundercats -- the results of placing such notorious characters in such a mundane scenario make for some wildly imaginative entertainment.
An excellent secondary for of amusement while watching RC is playing “name that voice.” While Seth Green does a lion’s share of the voice acting himself, the additional voice credits read like a who’s who of popular actors. And why not? Green has worked with many of these guests on numerous other projects -- it’s just like having your friend come over to play with your toys. A quick rundown of the talent will turn up names like: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Scarlett Johansson, Breckin Meyer, Donald Faison, Mark Hamill, Macaulay Culkin, what appears to be the entire cast of That 70s Show, and freaking Dom DeLuise. Seriously. Green knows people.
Robot Chicken’s first season is currently available on DVD, although you can still catch it in rotation on Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim.” AS cautioned before, if you go the way of the DVD, be sure to take a break frequently -- that much prolonged contact with the deviant imaginations of RC’s writers could leave you with brain damage. And your mother thought it was sitting that close to the TV that would ruin you… in the end, not so much the TV -- it’s what your friend Seth is making you watch. |
