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A Couple Of Clerks Reviews
SPOILER ALERT !!
El Cosmico here, good Memorial Day weekend to all of you, and a special thanks to those who we've lost in the service of our country.
I have a couple of reviews of Clerks for you today, a show coming up on ABC on May 31st, 9:30 ET/PT. Warning, there are spoilers ahead. First, a catch-all review from Cop-Rocker:
Hiya. CopRocker here.
Just got through watching all six of the "Clerks" animated series episodes.
A mixed bag, but I think fans (myself included) will be pleased overall. The
vocal performances for Dante and Randall are fine, though (surprisingly) Jay
seems a bit... well, subdued. Randall in particular is entertainingly
obnoxious.
Some celebrity cameos are fun, especially Charles Barkley's recurring role
and the use of Gilbert Gottfried to do voices of other celebrities.
The animation is adequate but unremarkable, with a tendency for too many
supporting characters to look similar (what is it with the dark bags under
so many eyes?). The art is similar to the Clerks comic books, but a bit more
streamlined. The humor, as you might expect, is heavy on pop culture
references and has some vulgar humor I'm surprised made it past the network
censors. And just when it seems they're getting a bit too fond of gay jokes,
they start joking about how many gay jokes they have.
The weakest ep, I'm afraid, seems to be the one they picked to show first.
Typical of ABC. Sheesh. I just hope they keep it on, so fans get to see the
better, later episodes. Considering ABC's quick trigger finger (cancelling
Wonderland after two episodes opposite ER??? What the hell???), I'm afraid
that might not happen.
My favorites would be a flashback episode, in which they quickly run out of
their old episodes to flash back to, and one where a fair is set up across
the street from the Quik Stop (any show that makes references to my favorite
old horror movie "Freaks" is okay with me).
Many thanks, CopRocker, now, a somewhat lengthier review from our friend Reno.
Reno here with a review of all 6 episodes of the new animated Clerks series
that will begin airing on ABC next Wednesday, May 31.
First off, let me state that I am a fan of kevin Smith, though I do see some
of his flaws as a filmmaker (static camera work being the most obvious).
Still, I think he's a great dialoge writer and the gags on the show work
well for the most part.
The first show scheduled to air is actually the 4th that that was produced.
In it, Jay slips on some spilt soda and winds up suing Dante and the Quick
Stop. This is a bad move on the network's part for a couple of reasons.
Although it has some funny moments (the jury being made up of NBA players
and Randall's very un-PC attempt to relate to them, plus the judge in the
case being Judge Reinhold)it is probably the weakest of the bunch.
The second reason is a little more complicated. Originally, the first
episode was to have been the one where evil billionaire industrialist
Leonardo Leonardo builds a rival convience store across the street from the
Quick Stop. Then the second episode was to have been a clip show, where
Dante and Randall, while accidentally locked in a freezer, have flashbacks
to all the great times they had together;i.e., last weeks episode. These two
were reviewed here before, so I won't waste too much time on them, except to
say that by moving them to later in the series run diminshes the impact of
the `biting the hand hand that feeds us' style joke of the episode.
To digress a moment, there's a lot of goofing on the regular conventions of
television in these half dozen episodes, Each show opens with a disclaimer
about the impersonated celebrity voices to which the announcer than adds
things like ``Let's rise up against pur celebrities America.'' Randall or
Dante voices over at the begining that ``Clerks is drawn in front of/drawn
by/etc. a live studio audience.'' There are frequent promos for ``Next Week
on `Clerks''' though they occassionally will appear at the begining of the
episode. All in all, good stuff for those of us raised on the glass teat.
The other three shows are, in no particular order-
(Note: I couldn't find actual episode names on the Clerks animated series
web site, so I've just tagged them with a slugline that'll help you
recognize them when they air.)
4. Pet Store- When Patrick Swayze (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried) opens up a
new Pet Store called Gerbils, Gerbils, Gerbils, Leonardo Leonardo is
accidentally bitten by a monkee leading Randall to call the Center for
Disease Control about an ``Outbreak'' of the deadly Mutaba virus. This is a
great riff off the movie ``Outbreak.'' The mayor's conference, with him
trapped in a Mayor McCheese costume is perhaps th funniest single scene in
the series, with the exception of the police chief's press conference a few
moments later, when he's trapped in a Big Mac costume. Screwy continuity
note: In this episode's teaser, Randall and Dante introduce the token black
character (a jab at all that nonsense from back at the begining of te tv
season)- Lando. Unfortunately, we already saw Lando in the opening episode.
C'mon ABC.
5. Little League- After a disastorous 10 year high school reunion (Been
there) where Randall finds out that all his ex-girlfriends have become
lesbians, Dante is asked by evil Leonardo Leonardo to coach a misfit
baseball team. Enter the Bad News Bears riff, with Jay and Silent Bob in the
Jodie Foster role. (Yes both of them). Meanwhile, Randall scores high score
on an old favorite arcade game and is recruited by a secret goverment
agency. Unfortunately, it isn't to fly starships, ala ``The Last
Starfighter,'' but to serve as slave labor in an underground cave. The
expected Indy Jones and the Temple of Doom riffs follow. The show is lead
off with a Space shuttle Challenger joke that had me ashamed I was laughing
so hard. (And why was it ok to make fun of this tragedy, but not the
holocaust with the Flinstone's List joke that got cut from Clip Show?)
6- Goin' Old School- After a disastorooooous appearance at a comic book
convention, Randall and Dante decide to take their show back to its roots,
by not having anything actually happen. They then sit around the store while
all sorts of interesting things happen across the street- carnavils, fires,
escaping, marauding gorillas, etc. ``I don't care how much plot is going on
outside, I'm staying right here,'' states Dante. Eventually they do go
outside only to find themselves at the mercy of a cruel animator, ala the
Daffy Duck short ``Duck Amuck.'' Lisa Spoonauser returns as Dante's
ex-girlfriend Caitlin.
Sure there's lots of pop culture refernces, but that's what makes it
Viewaskewian. Smith fans should have a lot of fun trying to point out the
more obscure ones. (Evil billionare Leonardo Leonardo has the same initals
as another evil billionare type)And hey, Walt Flanagan and Steve Dave make
appearances too.
The character design is nice though reminiscent of Jim Mahfoods work on the
comic series. For once in the history of television animation, people have
five fingers!!! (It's cheaper to do four fingers rather than five.)
Overall, I enjoyed this series, will rewatch them as they air, and curse ABC
for screwing up and giving this show short shrift.
Reno out.
Many thanks to both of our readers for sending in these reviews. Have a good weekend...
-El Cosmico
mail me at: elcosmico@austin.rr.com
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I know I amn't waiting for the american DVD to watch it, i'm gonna get a US friend to tape them and send them over. Don't bak on someone over here picking them up either, at best Channel 4 might in a couple of years.
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I admit I don't have the reources I wish I had, but how does it seem eveybody else gets advance copies of everything? I never got to see the JLA movie or the FF movie and now people have advance copies of animated Clerks. How do I get mine?
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Well, the All Bitchy Conservatives network has screwed us again......first by cancelling what had the makings of a good(albeit dark) show in Wonderland in two episodes, now, they will take kevin smiths brainbaby, and put the screws to that by never giving it the publicity it deserves. Personally, if i were Kevin Smith, i'd start looking for a good cable network to move to, before its too late, HBO, probably, but anything thats as far away as humanly possible from the iron conservative clutches of "The Mouse". Because the last thing we need right now, is having the hole that used to be a pretty good kevin smith show filled by the Millionaire abomination.
"Revolution is my name..." -
Why is it that Studio execs fuck up good shit?
huh?
is it because they don't know shit for shit?
IS it they wouldn't know something that's good even if it took a huge chunk out of their ass?
ABC quit fucking with Clerks!
FOX pull your head out of your ass and make what the people want and we don't want any damn more whiney Aaron Spelling FLUFF PUKE FESTS.
CBS need some more crack?
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Well, they _did_ put an ad for the show on last week's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", the second-highest rated show in the US, so that's something. I just wonder how many KS/VA fans normally watch "WWTBAM"...I just do it to feel superior.
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Like most of the world, I'll have to wait until they air to see the "Clerks" cartoon. But just a couple of general comments... In spite of how many times it's been tried, very few feature films in history would make decent TV series... and fewer would make decent sitcoms. Still, looking back at the original play and film "The Odd Couple," it would seem obvious that the concept would lend itself to an ongoing series. Such is also the case with "Clerks," I've always felt. I originally pictured a half-hour live action sitcom, B&W, replete with swear words (obviously it would have to air on Showtime or HBO). As great as they are, none of the actors ever made the "A" list, which means most of them could conceivablly come back for the series (I won't factor in the brief-but-public freud between Kevin Smith and Jeff Anderson). However, with all the time passed, there would be only two ways it would work... first, recast the parts with younger actors. Now, that's no good: Brenden O'Hallaran IS Dante Hicks. The other is to work in the idea that Dante and Randal are now pushing 30 and still working crappy jobs. Not so much with Randal, but part of the point of the film was that Dante is supposed to be smart enough to get himself out of that situation.
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As I was saying... so when I heard about the cartoon, I hit the roof. What a perfect compromise! The characters can stay forever young with the voices of the original actors. Still, everything I've read so far (and I've actually skipped some of it to be just a LITTLE surprised) says that the show is adapting the same quick-edit pop-culture-reference format which was invented (or at least perfected) by "The Simpsons," then later "South Park," "Family Guy" (about which, let's face it - "Simpsons" rip-off), "The Critic" and even "Animaniacs." Now don't get me wrong - I know Smith can not only do this, but do so brilliantly. Still, it's the character study and back-and-forth between Dante and Randal that made "Clerks," in my opinion, one of the best movies of the past twenty years, and that's what I was hoping would be the focus of a series version. In short, I made be getting a "Clerks" I want, but not necessarily the one I was hoping for. Well... all will be answered on Wednesday.
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There will be a DVD, hopefully,
or at least vid release I hope...
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I don't know how that show is gonna last. with all the big brows at ABC up the writers asses, but i fucking love Clerks, and the CLerks comic books.
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I don't know how that show is gonna last. with all the big brows at ABC up the writers asses, but i fucking love Clerks, and the CLerks comic books.
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I don't know how that show is gonna last. with all the big brows at ABC up the writers asses, but i fucking love Clerks, and the CLerks comic books.
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Way to stick it to the man!
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It's simple... I'll watch it and laugh myself silly (i hope) Did you SEE the lost episode comic and just how fab and WRONG it was?!? I loved it...loved the Clerks christmas special and most all that Smith does. I really hope that ABC gives it a decent chance. but WTF is it even at ABC? I mean...I know FOX has a lot of animated stuff, but the Mouse House?!? ick!
here's hoping...
cheers!
and two the weenie who got all upset about the o'neal/ foster thing... get over it!
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