Matches the humour and consistency of the strip (and yes, that is a good and a bad thing)

bob the moo

score /10

School kids Huey and Riley move out of the city to live with their grandfather in the suburbs. The predominately white area provides a more stable environment but it is not going to be easy for the family to fit in. Huey immediately sees neo-conservative conspiracies at every step, while Riley is determined to keep it real and be thugged out – even though the streets are far from gritty. Meanwhile both boys only drive their grandfather to despair.

I happened to be in the US when this series started on Adult Swim so my opinions of it are based on just the first episode – not something I would normally do but I'm guessing it will never make it to the UK since the comic strip gets zero love over here. Which is a shame because, like the strip, the series has plenty of funny moments that provide good digs at various things. These targets are similar to the strip and include the white/black divide, rich/poor divide, politics and the black culture (people who think McGruder has an anti-white agenda have never bothered to read his work beyond a few strips). It doesn't all work of course (it isn't the new Simpsons) but it should be enough to please fans. The main "plot" of each episode might be a problem (although not a massive one) because the series shows its strip roots by being best in very small snippets and thus the plot tends to be a way of producing lots of small snippets, rather than being an end in its own rights.

I wasn't sure about the use of King in the two main roles but she actually does it pretty well. Her voices do have a bit of a winey edge to them which could get a bit annoying but generally she is well suited. No such reservations about Witherspoon though, he fits Granddad like a glove and does really well with the character. Everyone seemed to do well in the first episode's supporting cast but really these main three are the ones that matter the most. The animation matches the strip well while also expanding on the magna-influenced art work in some of the strips (and book covers). It borrows from other styles of course but I didn't think this was a massive problem and thought it actually looked goo Overall a pretty enjoyable 20 minutes that will please fans even if the "patchy" nature of the delivery will mean it may not win new ones easily. I would have liked to have seen more.

bob the moo 16 November 2005

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1218085/