Frisky Dingo: Season One
BY Ryan LaMarca / 2008-03-26
Since it began in 2001, Cartoon Network's late-night animation block, Adult Swim, has had some pretty weird shows, most with the typical limited animation style with outlandish plots and characters. That doesn't even come close to describing "Frisky Dingo," which aired for the first time in October of 2006. In fact, I can't even describe what this show is about. It's so bizarre that you have to wonder how they even thought of something like this. Now, I thought I'd give it a shot, after all I had been a huge "Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law" fan and had a moderate interest in "Sealab 2021" and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," other shows from the block, how bad could "Frisky Dingo" be?
Killface, a pale alien despot with a skull-face and British accent, wants only one thing: to propel the Earth into the sun with the aid of his device the Annihilatrix. He shows no regard for humanity and slight compassion for his son, Simon, and various women that show up over the course of the show. Meanwhile, billionaire entrepreneur Xander Crews, who is secretly the superhero Awesome-X, has cleaned up the city and gotten rid of every single supervillain around. However, now Crews wants to market Awesome-X as an action figure series, but has no villains to package alongside him. This leads him to go after Killface using elaborate schemes in order to get him to sign off on his likeness. Also in the mix is Crews's girlfriend, ace-reporter Grace Ryan, as well as various members of the two respective sides, dealing with the problems of everyday life such as going to the hospital, the bank, and so forth.
The animation used in the show is by far the cheapest I've seen in recent years, rivaling the animation from other Adult Swim original shows. I know they do it on purpose and have virtually a shoestring budget, but sometimes this just looks awful. And if you're wondering why the show is called "Frisky Dingo," I have no idea. It has no relation to the show at all, except for one minor reference in the last episode in the season, which I won't spoil for you. The series also goes by very fast, mainly because each episode is only roughly eleven minutes long. I was actually able to watch the entire season in one night, so it's a very quick ride. The thing is that most episodes are hit or miss. Sometimes this show can be hilarious, and I did laugh out loud several times, but other times it can be a real drag, jokes fall flat, awkward silences, too much violence that doesn't qualify as humor, stuff like that.
I was a little worried as to what this show was going to be about after watching the first two episodes and saw that they were almost completely unrelated except for two seconds at the end to connect them. The first episode deals only with Killface (who sounds a little like Stewie from "Family Guy"), who steals the show every time he shows up, while the second episode focuses on Xander Crews, who I find so pathetic, annoying, and unfunny when alone. When Crews gets together with Killface, then he gets a little better, but I think nothing works for him while he's with his group of characters, and believe me, both sides have a ton of supporting characters thrown in the mix. As I said before, Killface and his band of cronies are hilarious when thrown out of their environment, especially when he goes on a "Regis and Kelly" type talk show to promote his super weapon. The humor in the show really works in situations like this. His other major contribution is a postcard invitation with the message "Welcome to you're "DOOM!"" where everyone continuously pokes fun at the misspelling of "your" and the excessive quotations.
What I was upset about was that the DVD release of the first season doesn't have any special features. Bonus material could have been so much fun hearing from the people who created this show, so hopefully we'll see some when season two hits stores. The season set comes in a standard DVD case and everything fits on one disc because the season is only made up of thirteen eleven minute shorts. I really went into this blindly because there's not even a description on the back of the box, probably because the studio couldn't even figure out how to describe the show.
As much as I like "Frisky Dingo," there was too much I didn't like. Some of the violence felt a little too harsh and awkward. The presence of Xander Crews and Awesome-X also brings down the humor and quality of the show, added to the horrible animation and unnecessary bleeping out of words. But I'll give "Frisky Dingo" this: it's very ambitious, inventive, addicting, and bizarre, but in a good way. The show just gets weirder and weirder as it progresses but I did enjoy most of it and couldn't wait to find out how they were going to connect everything or resolve anything at the season's end. If you've never seen the show before but enjoy the Adult Swim style of humor, then I would give it a mild recommendation, but if you feel you might be offended by it, then steer clear of this one. I think I might actually get the second season when it comes out just to see what kind of wacky stuff these guys can think up.
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