he Cartoon Network fans have spoken, and now a pilot they chose has been
developed into the series Grim & Evil. The 30-minute series was created
by Maxwell Atoms and is comprised of Evil Con Carne and The Grim
Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
In Evil Con Carne, after Hector Con Carne's (La Marr) body is blown up in a freak accident, his
brain and stomach are attached to a circus bear
named Boskov (Welker). Criminally insane and determined to take over the
world, Con Carne threatens to turn the world into smoking rubble with the
help of a doomsday device.
However, when unstoppable commandos attack, it looks like Con Carne and his
crew are done for. That is, until the commandos take a lunch break and Con
Carne replaces Boskov with a robotic body that features everything from plasma
cannons to side air bags. Will Con Carne achieve his goal of world domination?
Will the commandos get back from their lunch break in time to save the world?
And what's to become of poor Boskov the bear?
In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, two young kids, goofy and
sweet Billy (Horvitz) and cynical Mandy (Delisle), are best friends with the
Grim Reaper (Eagles). In "Skeletons in the Water Closet" Billy's mom finds the
Grim Reaper sleeping in Billy's bed and thinks Billy's turned into a big scary
skeleton. Billy's father checks out the situation and finds Billy, but no
skeleton. When Billy's mom sees the Reaper in the shower, she believes Billy
has now turned into a big scary naked skeleton. But when Billy's dad goes to
look, the boy is just fine. Billy and Mandy decide they want to play hide and
seek with the Reaper, but Billy's mom is the one who finds a big surprise.
The Big Pick partially pays off
The winner of the Cartoon Network's "The Big Pick" last year was The
Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, the second half of Atoms' new animated
series Grim & Evil. "The Big Pick" allows viewers to sample several new
animated series pilots and vote on the one they'd most like to see become a
series.
It's an interesting way to develop a show, and Grim & Evil is a
moderately successful result. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is
the funnier of the two darkly themed cartoons, but neither show is as funny as
it could be. Each cartoon is well drawn and has a unique style of its own, but
Evil Con Carne is as a little too deeply plotted considering the
10-minute running time.
Evil Con Carne has a clever premise and amusing ideas, but there
isn't any payoff. It relies on puns and the evil genius, and just isn't enough
fun. The story sounds funnier than it plays.
The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, on the other hand, has a
lot of humor, and it's easy to see why this show appealed to the
Cartoon Network viewers. The reason Grim works better than Evil
is that it has a less complicated story that focuses on the characters. Mandy
and the Grim Reaper are quite amusing. The rest of the characters aren't as
well done, but give Grim some time to develop as a series. There's no
doubt that Evil would work better as a 30-minute cartoon by itself.
However, Grim is nicely suited to the shorter format.
Creating a macabre semi-adult cartoon like Grim & Evil is a good way to
draw in those 18-34-year-old adult viewers the Cartoon Network is trying to
attract. Also, giving the viewers a chance to see their choice in "The Big
Pick" make it to series is a good way make viewers feel they have a say
in what they watch.
