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The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

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The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
File:Grimy.jpg
The main characters, from left to right: Billy, Grim, and Mandy.
Created byMaxwell Atoms
StarringRichard Steven Horvitz
Grey DeLisle
Greg Eagles
Vanessa Marshall
Jane Carr
Rachael MacFarlane
Jennifer Hale
Dee Bradley Baker
Phil LaMarr
Maxwell Atoms
Diedrich Bader
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes72 aired so far
Production
Running time22 minutes approx.
Original release
NetworkCartoon Network
ReleaseAugust 24, 2001 –
Present

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, created by Maxwell Atoms, is an American animated television series that currently airs on Cartoon Network and Teletoon. The two main characters, Billy and Mandy, have obliged the Grim Reaper, usually called Grim, to be their best friend forever after having won a bet over a sick hamster through a game of Limbo.

The show's existence is largely the result of a viewer poll. An Internet and call-in event called the Big Pick was held from August 24 to August 25 in 2000. The three final choices were The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?, and Longhair and Doubledome. Out of the three, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy won. The first season appeared on Cartoon Network in 2001. Robot Jones would later be made into a full series despite losing; Longhair and Doubledome would reappear with another pilot episode in another Big Pick-style show later on, only to fall short once again. One of the other shows from the first Big Pick Sheep in the Big City would also appear later that fall. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is known for it's black comedy, and satirical look on life.

Originally labelled Grim and Evil, the series was a combination of two shows in one. In each show, a segment of Evil Con Carne was put between two Grim cartoons. In 2003, the network decided to give each short its own full length show. Evil Con Carne was subsequently cancelled. It re-aired in a late-night slot in the United States on Friday, August 5 2005 with the newly created intro and end credits. Characters from Evil Con Carne are still appearing on The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, even realizing that they're not supposed to be there. This is also the first cartoon network show to reach it's seventh season. Kids Next Door is currently in it's sixth season and the PowerPuff Girls ended in it's sixth season. Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy is wrapping up it's fifth season and starting the sixth next year.


Plot

Main article: List of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy episodes

Billy and Mandy are two 10-year-old children from Endsville, a typical "Anytown, USA". One day, while they were celebrating the 10th birthday of Billy's old pet hamster, Mr. Snuggles, the Grim Reaper appeared. He came to take away the hamster, but, to his surprise, Billy and Mandy weren't afraid of him at all. Mandy refused to give Grim the hamster and offered to play a game for it - if he won, he would get the hamster and Billy; if he lost, they could keep it. Grim was sure in his victory, saying that, if they win, he would be their best friend "forever and ever". Grim took Billy and Mandy to Limbo, where they would compete in Grim's favorite game—limbo. (Although in a possible continuity error, in the episode Billy and Mandy Begins, Mandy says that Grim came to reap Billy's 7-year-old hamster when Irwin asks about how they met.)

On the verge of victory, Grim asked Mandy for "any final words", to which she called out "kiss kiss", triggering Mr. Snuggles into a spasmodic fit that quickly threw the undefeated limbo champ off. Now, Grim is doomed into being the "best friend" of these two children, a task he suffers with no small amount of disdain and mockery from other supernatural creatures. Grim was very depressed in the first days of his servitude, but as the time passed, he gradually adapted to the new life. Now, he can behave like any normal man, watching television, films, using the Internet and playing video games, eating fast food and ice cream, and doing many other "normal" things. On the rare occasions, Grim can even behave effeminately: wearing a pink dress, sniffing and picking flowers, and engaging in elaborate personal hygiene routines. Although he is fairly adapted to the new life and has some kind of love-hate relationship with the children, he despises Billy and Mandy, hoping that he will eventually break free from his servitude.

Setting

Most of the show is set in Billy and Mandy's hometown of Endsville. Endsville is in an indeterminate location. The age of the town is also indeterminate, as it has appeared in flashbacks of Billy's dad's youth (The Taking Tree), the early 1900s (Who Killed Who?), and medieval times (Billy and Mandy's Jacked Up Halloween).

Grim ostensibly comes from the Underworld, so the show makes frequent forays onto his turf. Grim's scythe is able to produce cosmic rifts through which the characters can visit different planes of existence, including afterlife variations like nirvana, Asgard and Lower Heck. Billy and Mandy have traveled with Grim to places like the Halls of Time (where they accidentally flip over their hourglasses and age backwards and eventually disappear), the Circus of Fear (where real human children are considered part of the freak show), and even the Underworld's lunch room (which is open to "staph" only). Grim's scythe can also summon monsters, supernatural creatures, and various Underworld inhabitants to Endsville. Grim also can use his scythe to reap souls, even though Mandy specifically told him in the episode Mortal Dilemma, "No Grim Reaping!"

The show universe, in addition to frequently violating the laws of physics, also contains a number of historical variations and anachronisms. Abraham Lincoln is President, save for Ecto Cooler, where he appears as a ghost and is a personal friend of Billy. The world police organization is not the United Nations, but the League of Nations (disbanded in 1946 in reality). The presence of a what appears to be a Communist leader in the League of Nations may also suggest that the Soviet Union has not dissolved in this universe. In this and many other ways (such as the anti-romance between the characters, and bizarro beliefs in race and sex) it resembles George Herriman's poetic and ground-breaking Krazy Kat.

The universe is also Evil Con Carne's universe: the characters meet, briefly, in the episodes Chicken Ball Z (a parody of Dragon Ball Z) and Duck!. In the third season episode Skarred For Life, General Skarr meets the characters in what could be seen as a full crossover. Skarr is now a recurring character in the show, and he struggles with fighting his addiction to war. He usually overcomes his desire for power by making cornbread or gardening.

From time to time, the main characters surprise with aphorisms unusual for quick-draw (even semi-adult) type animation, such as: "Evolution takes no prisoners" (Mandy), "Money is the root of all evil" (Mandy), "Hope is wasted on the hopeless" (Mandy), "Romance is for the weak-minded" (Mandy), "Ordinary morality is for ordinary people" (Mandy), "Mind control doesn't work on people who think" (Eris), and "Man's loneliness is but his fear of life" (Grim).

Mandy's introductory comments

At the beginning of each episode, after the introductory theme, Mandy appears on an entirely black screen and delivers an introductory comment, breaking the fourth wall in her usual acerbic tone. While her very first comment was "Shut up, prepare for the show" on the Grim and Evil show, her comment is usually an aphorism, such as "It's not enough to succeed; others must fail," and "Evolution takes no prisoners." Other lines include: "When you change the channel, we start talking about you behind your back,"Shouldn't you be outside or something?", "This is the end. Smash your television set." "If you are what you eat, I could be you, by morning" (whereafter she holds up a knife and fork), "You can change the outcome of this cartoon by the power of your mind," and "Is it weird in here, or is it just you?" (followed by Mandy's face transformed into a monstrous creature). The comments are often a reference to famous or infamous sources. On one occasion Mandy declared, "Do as thou wilt' shall be the whole of the law!" This is a reference to the notorious Aleister Crowley's The Book of the Law. Mandy has also quoted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles: "As you value your life and your reason, keep away from the moor." In another opening, mandy said "Evil. Pure and simple from the Eighth Dimension.", a line from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Sometimes other characters deliver the introductory comments. The Crawling Niceness / Smarten Up / The Grim Show is the first episode which Mandy didn't comment—this time Billy walked onto the screen, and said "Where am I? Who are you people?". In the episode Wild Parts / The Problem With Billy, after Mandy asks "Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of a man?", Grim suddenly appears, shouting "I do! I do!" (parodying the opening line of the radio serial The Shadow).

Unusual endings

There is limited continuity between episodes, allowing for the destruction or alteration of the world, or with the disappearance or horrific transformation of the main characters. Often the episode will end with no resolution at all. For example, in the episode Halls of Time, Billy, Mandy, Grim and Irwin all disappeared forever after their life hourglasses were turned upside down. In the episode Chocolate Sailor, Billy exploded into a large quantity of chocolate syrup, then was chocolate syrup that Grim and Mandy were eating. In Sickly Sweet, Mandy was turned into a giant monster by the "Mask of the Beast". Mandy wishes that everyone in the world would go away in Dumb Wish. Also when Mandy smiles she destroys the fabric of reality and transforms their reality to the Powerpuff Girls'. Because the producers compromise the safety of the characters in each episode, the show avoids the cliché that good always triumphs over evil.

Characters

Main article: List of characters in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
See also: List of minor characters in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

Grim is the Grim Reaper, the personification of Death, here portrayed as a scythe-wielding skeleton in a black hooded robe. He is thousands of years old, as he was a child at the time of the Neanderthals. His accent and use of patois suggest that he is Jamaican. He enjoys all kinds of chaos, despair, and torture (except his own), martial arts activities (he attends a children's kung-fu class), being a country rockstar (due to his dad 's love for country music), and many other dark things.

By losing a limbo contest to Billy and Mandy, he is fated to be their "best friend" forever. He needed some time to adapt to the new life, but now he watches television, films, he can use the internet and play video games, eat fast food and ice cream, and many other "normal" things. Although he is fairly adapted, he despises Billy and Mandy, hoping that he will eventually break free from his servitude.

Billy is an extremely happy-go-lucky child, with an impossible IQ stated as -5, far below the upper limit of being mentally retarded. He has a 'squeaky' and high voice. He has a pink, oversized nose, wears a blue and white striped shirt, and has red hair covered by a red hat. Like his father, he has a number of unpleasant habits, including nose-picking, flatulence, male chauvinism and unapologetic idiocy. Prone to surprising (if nonsensical) fits of rage, he is extremely hyperactive, with a knack for causing all kinds of disasters and ending in various parallel dimensions, usually by experimenting with Grim's supernatural items.

Mandy is Billy's closest friend, although her character stands in stark contrast with Billy: a blond, noseless girl, who sleeps with a headless doll, with an acerbic attitude, evil personality ("I believe in abusing and exploiting the stupid"), and often surprising intellect and knowledge of the supernatural, spouting semi-useful information about a strange creature they come across. Mandy is a fearless fighter who will stand up to schoolyard bullies and monsters from the underworld without flinching (a fawning Irwin has aptly described her as a "tiny Valkyrie"). She rarely smiles, except on a couple occasions, and in the episode My Fair Mandy, when she finally succeed to smile of her own will, her smile is so malicious that it causes reality to fall apart. She is rude to essentially everyone, including her parents, who fear her very presence. Appearing as something of a downer in the very first episodes, she has since become more dark and powerful; her role with Billy has also changed from a good friend to ruling over him, constantly bossing him and Grim around.

Voice cast

Voice Actor Characters
Richard Steven Horvitz Billy
Harold, Billy's father
Grey DeLisle Mandy
Greg Eagles Grim
Sperg
Vanessa Marshall Irwin
Claire, Mandy's mother
Jennifer Hale Gladys, Billy's mother
Dee Bradley Baker Phil, Mandy's father
Phil LaMarr Dick, Irwin's father
Dracula
Diedrich Bader Hoss Delgado
Rachael MacFarlane Eris
Mindy
David Warner Nergal (Seasons 1 - 2)
Martin Jarvis Nergal (Season 3 onward)
Debi Derryberry Nergal Junior
Maxwell Atoms Piff
Jeff the Spider
Jane Carr Pud'n
Jake Thomas Nigel Planter
Armin Shimerman General Skarr
C. H. Greenblatt Fred Fredburger

Cultural references

Main article: Cultural references in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

The series often parodies horror—the horror film The Ring is parodied in Aren't You Chupacabra to See Me?, and The Little Shop of Horrors is parodied in Little Rock of Horror. In the episode Tricycle of Terror, Billy is given a possessed tricycle, a plotline similar to Stephen King's novel Christine, in which a teenage boy buys a possessed antique car. Another example of a horror movie take-off would be the episode Tickle Me Mandy, which was a mimic of the Child's Play movie series, about an evil killer doll that no one believes is truly evil except for the doll's owner, a young boy. in the episode Wishbones, the truck that transports the giant pillow, (during Pud'n's wish) has the Transformers autobots logo on it.

The series has parodied many famous scenes from popular movies, such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Akira, Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Over the Top and Kill Bill. Harry Potter is a recurring theme—several episodes are based on "Nigel Planter" (Harry Potter) and "Toadblatt's School of Sorcery". For example, in the episode Toadblatt's School of Sorcery, the Sorting Hat was parodied as a "singing squid," played by "Weird Al" Yankovic. In the episode Secret Decoder Ring, Billy's "decoder ring" translated text from back of the cereal box as a picture of a woman asking for help. This is a homage to Princess Leia Organa's plea for help broadcast from R2D2, the famous scene from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Other frequent subjects of parody are Frank Herbert's Dune series and H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. There are many offhand references to the Dune, such as Gom Jabbar being the part of the beauty pageant in the episode My Fair Mandy, and Lord Byron saying "You must not fear. Fear is the death that brings total obliteration." in the episode Ecto Cooler. The entire episode Mandy the Merciless is a parody of God Emperor of Dune. Cthulhu Mythos is parodied in the episode Big Trouble in Billy's Basement, in which the "Bad Book" recalls the Necronomicon, with Billy needing Grim's scythe to summon Yog-Sothoth. Another example of Cthulhu Mythos parody is the episode Prank Call of Cthulhu, a parody of The Call of Cthulhu.

Music

Several episodes feature music performances. The episode Little Rock of Horror, which parodies the musical version of The Little Shop of Horrors, features a song by Voltaire, titled 'BRAINS!'. In the episode Battle of the Bands the song 'Into The Darkness' by SPF 1000, composed by David Ivy, who sold the rights to the song to the show. In the show, the song was performed by Grim and a garage band "Purple Filth" for the Battle of the Bands contest. Also,In the Chistmas Special credits,Round and Round,By Ratt was played.

Structure

Gross humor

The show frequently uses gross humor, dealing with bodily functions or gore. For example, Billy blowing green mucus out of his nose onto his cat; Billy talking about how a person at his school vomited onto a wall, and how the rest of the students ate it and got sick, but how he did not, despite "going back for seconds"; and Billy digging through his cat's litter-box and claiming that he "found another piece of candy", which is implied to be fecal matter; also in That's My Mummy, it is implied that Billy uses dog feces as a shampoo. In Reap Walking Billy says he "found some chocolate near Saliva's doghouse", again implied to be fecal matter. In the episode Keeper of the Reaper, the character Fred Fredburger uses the restroom, makes stress noises, and comments later that "the nachos made his poopoo really stinky". Also, when Billy crashes his bike into a tree on the way to get some lemonade, his face is a wreck and you can see his cranial skeleton. It also happened when Billy stuck the mixer in his face and when their school mascot, a cat, clawed his face off. It also usually shows Billy and his father pulling their brains out of their noses and eating them.

Adult humor

Sometimes the show features more adult-oriented content, unusual given its kid-friendly rating. This is very similar to the show Rocko's Modern Life, which also got away with adult content despite its rating.

  • In That's My Mummy, necrophilia was implied. Irwin's father revealed that Irwin's mother is actually a mummy. He said that they "have managed to make it work all these years, leaving a whole lot of questions that don't need to be answered." Before Billy could finish his question "But how did you and Irwin's mom have ...", Irwin's father interrupts, repeating "leaving a whole lot of questions that don't need to be answered".
  • Billy alludes to Grim watching a pornographic film in Sickly Sweet, when he tells Mandy that Grim "was watching my Mom and Dad's special DVD."
  • In Mommy Fiercest, when Billy's mother turned into a child and told Billy that she is actually his mother, Billy answered: "No, you are not. My mom is ancient and grappling with the onsets of menopause."
  • It has also been implied that Billy's mom had an affair with a sasquatch. In the episode Bearded Billy, when Billy's hair grows out of control, she thinks the sasquatch is still stalking her.
  • In the episode where there is a supernatural ghost growing out of Billy's nose, Billy goes up to his father and says, "Dad, my body is changing and I don't know why." Billy's father goes on to talk about the facts of life.
  • In the episode The Secret Snake Club, Grim goes online to revive Shnissugah but he spells the site name wrong. You can then hear apes yelling. Grim then yells "WHOA! You kids shouldn't see this stuff!" and blocks the screen.
  • In the episode Here Thar Be Dwarves, when Billy is standing at the dwarven gate, he reads the "ancient text". He reads aloud: "For a good time, call..." but is cut off by the dwarf.
  • In the episode where Mandy "loses her nerve", she enters Billy's brain to reclaim it. She finds it, and the rest of the nerves in Billy's body, gathered at a "party", which her nerve is DJing. You can see a baby's pacifier hanging around his neck, usually an icon of ecstasy raves.
  • In the episode where a portal opens up though the pool, and the group goes in, if you have captions on, it will show Billy saying "Hot Damned Pies."

Fantasy violence

The show sometimes uses an extreme fantasy violence, even to the point of showing gore. For example, In the episode Brown Evil, there is a scene in which Hoss Delgado battles hordes of zombies, using chainsaws, guns, and his other gadgets. The remaining zombies combine into a giant decomposing monster, and the episode ends with the monster blowing up, causing a rain of the body parts. In the episode Tastes like Chicken, Mandy was suspected for being a cannibal, and in the end, it was implied that she has eaten Irwin. The episode Little Rock of Horror involves a giant alien asteroid eating brains of everyone in the town, while singing the song BRAINS!. In the episode Tricycle of Terror, Billy falls from the bike, and when he looks up his entire face had been shredded, although he says "One lemonade please!" Pinocchio, who appeared in episodes Nursery Crimes and Billy Ocean, believes that the only way to become a real boy is to devour Billy's flesh and is willing to do this to the point of insanity. Because of the many similar occurencies, the show is rated in the US as TV-Y7-FV, where FV means a higher degree of the fantasy violence.

DVD release

Though Cartoon Network and Warner Home Video have no plans for season or volume sets of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, certain episodes have been featured on various other Cartoon Network DVDs.

Made for TV movie

There will be a 90-minute TV movie called Billy and Mandy's Big Boogie Adventure in early 2007. "In the 90-minute Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, when Grim is stripped of his powers by the denizens of the underworld, Billy, Mandy and Irwin must take matters into their own hands."[1]. Judging by the name of the name of the movie, the villain will be Boogie (AKA The Boogie man) however this is not confirmed.

Video Game

Main article: The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (video game)

A video game about the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is in currently in development by Midway for the GameCube, Wii, PS2, GBA, and PC. It is set to come out in October 2nd 2006.

See also

References

  1. ^ Ben (March 5th, 2006). "TV Movies Form Backbone of New CN Slate, Live Action Downplayed (Updated)". Toon Zone. Retrieved 2006-05-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
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