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sutungpo
Reviews
Dave the Barbarian (2004)
A classic of stoner animation.
I admit to a certain prejudice here since I lived with a live action version of Fang for 9 years, but Dave may in fact be the most underrated animated series of the past 20 years. Sarcastic, witty and sly, Dave skewers modern fantasy and it's fandom with a zeal not often seen outside an episode of South Park. Dave,a beautiful steroid enhanced muscle man with the heart of the Cowardly Lion, and his two sisters, Fang, a tiny redhead with a big voice and a habit of getting her own way come hell or high water, and Candy, the fairy tale princess left in charge of the kingdom while mom and dad are off fighting evil, deal with Candy's addiction to shopping, defeat the Dark Lord Chuckles (a cute little piggie), engage in sibling rivalry, and in general just struggle to grow up and accept responsibility.
My best guess as to the lack of an audience for this gem is that the targeted demographic, the average fantasy fan and SciFi addict, lacks even a vestigial sense of humor. Dealing with the target group in a sarcastic manner only works if the members of that group are able to engage in enough abstract reasoning to appreciate being made the butt of the joke.
Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again (1982)
Worth seeing
Better than it has any right to be, this movie died a quick and painful death at the American box office. At times sophomoric, at others, bitingly satirical and witty, Jekyll and Hyde is mostly just a near perfect reflection of the times, laden with drug and sexual humor, reminding one at one time or another of everything from the Woody Allen of "Everything You Always Wanted To know About Sex" to the Mel Brooks of "The Producers", Saturday Night Live to Monty Python, Carlin to Cheech and Chong. Watch it, listen carefully because some of the jokes go by really quickly, and remember a time when comedy was allowed to be offensively hilarious.