Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars the voices of Stuart Culpepper, Adam Reed, Neal Holman, Kelly Jenrette,
Kate Miller, Killer Mike, Scott Lipe, Matt Thompson | Written by Matt Thompson & Adam Reed
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £19.99 | Runtime 144 minutes | Directed by Matt Thompson & Adam Reed
As regular readers will know (and hello to you both), I grew up in Australia. The morons in charge of that country (current and previous governments) have long held the belief that video and computer games are just for kids, and so unlike here in the UK, there is no 18 classification — games aimed at adults are simply banned (leading, of course, to piracy so that the clever people who create said games get no money from people who would happily buy them if they could).
I use that by way of introducing this adult animation — if ever proof was needed that cartoons are not just for kids, Frisky Dingo is it. The star of the show is Killface, a pasty-white, demonic-looking, androgynous, cloven-hooved naked supervillain who wants to destroy the Earth by driving it into the sun using his Annihilatrix — but first he has to work out how to do the marketing campaign (he blew his entire budget building the weapon). Standing in his way is the superhero Awesome-X, aka billionaire tycoon Xander Crews, and his incompetant team of X-ticles. What doesn't help matters is that both Awesome-X and Crews are monumental arrogant jerks.
Throw in some Seinfeld-style wit, catchphrases and running gags — plus a healthy does of graphic violence — and you've got a clever, surreal show that the New York Times describes as "a sitcom directed by Quentin Tarantino". I'd add to that "and written by Brett Easton Ellis". It's from the [adult swim] stable of brilliant animation (Robot Chicken, Harvey Birdman, Venture Brothers) and made by the guys who also created Sealab 2021. Frisky Dingo messes with the traditional superhero/villain clichés and expectations. Killface really isn't that bad a guy (except for his predilection for kidnapping marketing types, killing them on a whim and using their corpses as ventriloquist dummies). And Crews really is a complete jerk, cheating on his gorgeous TV reporter girlfriend and sacking his entire team of X-ticles on a whim. The show is full of wit, and cleverly parodies corporate America while throwing in some astute social commentary. It's also very, very funny.
EXTRAS None at all, which is just a shame, because this is one release that's just crying out for at least some audio commentaries. I was going to award this DVD 5 stars, but a star was subtracted because of the complete and utter lack of bonus features.