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 (Beyond)
The chronicles of a pint-sized auteur
On first viewing, there’s not much to recommend Home Movies, an animated series that used to show on Adult Swim – lame, Macromedia Flash-driven animation, an odd premise (about Brendon Small, an eight-year-old kid who makes home movies with his two friends), and stock characters that could have been taken whole cloth from South Park or the Simpsons (John McGuirk, Brendon’s alcoholic soccer coach, is a perfect pastiche of Barney Gumble and Chef). The show rewards a patient watcher, though, as its charm isn’t to be found in sophisticated animation or unusual characters. Instead, the show delivers a gentle, dialogue-driven humour that lovingly mocks the aspirations of middle America. I was unsurprised when I found out (thanks to the extras) that much of the show’s dialogue isn’t written, but improvised as it is recorded (with the animation taking place last). Thus the show has the luxury of drawing out jokes until they’re just right, and cutting things off when they no longer work, as well as an appealing verisimilitude in dialogue (lots of ums and ahs here). The second season’s plot loosely revolves around Brendon meeting his estranged father, and Brendon’s mother dealing with her conflicted emotions about Brendon’s father remarrying. But this plot isn’t the point – it’s really a framework around which all of the characters crack wise. While some episodes verge on the ridiculous (History, which mostly comprises of scenes from one of Brendon’s movies, is a real turn-off for neophytes), the second season of Home Movies is, by all accounts, its best (the first amateurish, the third and fourth crass and interested in shock value), and worth checking out if your idea of good animated comedy isn’t the idiocy of later South Park.
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CHAD PARKHILL
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