eave it to Comedy Central to come up with the first animated reality show, mixing up both genres to maximum effect. In the opening episode, eight cartoon characters from different types of animation are brought together to live under one roof, Real World style, with a million cameras watching their every move.
The eight housemates are Captain Hero, a lecherous Saturday morning-type superhero; Clara, a sweet if bigoted fairy-tale princess; Toot Braunstein, a black-and-white fat sex symbol from the '20s; Foxxy Love, a sexy black mystery-solving musician; Spanky Ham, a foul-mouthed Internet download pig; Ling-Ling, an adorable Asian trading card mini-monster; WooldoorSockbat, a wacky "watchamacallit"; and Xandir, a video-game warrior.
No sooner do the cartoon characters move into their lavish new digs than trouble starts. Clara assumes Foxxy is a servant girl and doesn't understand why she won't take her bags to her room. Foxxy is not having any of that, and a catfight ensues, much to the excitement of the cartoon guys. Afterward, everyone is down about the fight, so Foxxy tries to fix things using her natural talents and a whole bunch of booze.
Meanwhile, Toot has her eye on Xandir. Unfortunately, he's on a continuing mission to save his girlfriend. Toot decides she'll do whatever it takes to get Xandir's attention, and she does, including leading Xandir's girlfriend to believe that his continuing mission might have changed to include hot-tubbing with the housemates.
The rest of the gang find themselves in the midst of trouble when they have to decide if they're going to vote one of their own out of the house or if they're just going to watch Clara and Foxxy make out.
Crude and occasionally funny
Talk about politically incorrect. This is one nasty piece of work. And yes, it has some very funny bits. However, Comedy Central's "first animated reality series" should be much funnier than it ends up being. While this sendup of cartoon characters and reality shows has some priceless moments, the excess of bodily fluids, primarily courtesy of Spanky Ham (think Real World's Pug, but more disgusting), adds plenty of ick factor.
As is often the case, some characters work better than others. Clara and Foxxy Love have the most interesting and funniest relationship, while the Toot and Xandir story falls flat until Toot realizes she wants to play the bitch and causes as much trouble as she can manage. Captain Hero has a couple of good lines, and mini-monster Ling-Ling ends up being the best supporting character. However, Spanky adds nothing good to the series, and WooldoorSockbat should be voted "most non-character."
The best moments come when the characters break into Disneyesque songs with decidedly un-Disneyesque lyrics, especially when Foxxy lays a big wet one on Clara. However, other moments are almost disturbing, as when Toot uses razor blades to cut herself or a guillotine to chop her head off. Nothing kills laughter like a little self-mutilation joke or watching Spanky mark his territory in increasingly disgusting ways.
True to their word, the producers have incorporated various styles of animation, and it works for the show. Drawn Together is drawn traditionally and in 2-D digital ink-and-paint animation. It effectively captures every style from anime to Toot's 1920s black-and-white style.
Comedy Central has ordered eight episodes of Drawn Together. If the producers can dial back on the crudeness just a bit, this show could be brilliant.
