Review: Golan the Insatiable “The Nunchuck Delivery Guy”

Spoilers Below

Dylan’s not exactly the popular kid at school, so when she finds a book of spells in the school library she doesn’t hesitate to use it and spawn a huge monster named Golan whom comes from another world where he rules with an iron fist.

Dylan soon grows fond of Golan, and pretends like she mis-placed the book so he can’t go anywhere. Golan discovers the truth that Dylan is lying, but when the book really does get stolen, a summoned backpack notes that the mean girls at school had taken it and plan to read it at a slumber party. Golan and Dylan spring into action to retrieve the book so as to send Golan back home.

Dylan infiltrate’s her enemies’ home as a kid just looking to make friends, little do the other girls know that Golan is right outside their window and subsequently casts a spell on everyone causing stuffed animals to mutilate the entire household. Golan and Dylan get the book back, and Golan tries going home. Unfortunately, his old acolyte Kruung steals Golan’s throne and pretty much forces him back to Earth. While there, he enlists Dylan as his new partner-in-crime and the duo threaten Oak Grove, MN that their small town will never be the same again.

Our Take

So yes…Golan the Insatiable’s reboot is a daring success. I say daring because the cast for the FOX ADHD series was really good, but the additions of Rob Riggle and Aubrey Plaza definitely elevate the show to a different level. There are some subtle differences and this could dissuade old-school fans of the series.

For starters, Golan the Insatiable is still as demonic and violent as he was in the 12-minute show. However, gone are the days where he’s kind of a big baby clearly a fish out of water, and in his place is a Golan that acts more like a Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin, a big oaf of a character that is more interested in ending his strifes with violence, rather than a lesson learned or moral to the end of the story. Some of the cool things that the show does with Golan this time around is that they clearly alter Rob’s voice to sound more demonic in certain scenes, and here is where the animation departments shine because whenever someone is up to no good or talking about doing evil shit, they are surrounded by flames and/or some sort of red aura. It makes for a pretty crazy looking scenes that definitely help define the show from its Sunday Night cousins.

Aubrey Plaza and Mary Mack’s respective takes on Dylan are largely the same. Sometimes Aubrey slips on this subtle British accent that doesn’t make any sense, but her dialogue is edgier, so it kind of evens out. As for the mainstays in Maria Bamford as Carole and Rachel Butera as Alexis, there are definitely some differences. There is no father figure in this series like there was with Richard Beekler in the original Golan, and while it isn’t explained what happened to him, Carole sticks out on a Sunday Night lineup comprised of largely married women. Carole’s dialogue is very, very funny and we get a fair amount of jokes with her masturbating and wanting to bang out anything that moves. The one downside to the cast is Alexis in that she goes from a teenage snobby girl in the original series to that of someone with some sort of a permanent head injury.

I will say there are some good candidates for ancillary characters for Golan the Insatiable that I think we can take advantage of. John DiMaggio (Futurama) voices the Mayor of Oak Grove and he’s already a riot. Picture Super Mario crossed with one of the little dudes in the Wreck It Ralph game, and you have a good idea of what to expect. I also want to dig into more of Carole’s co-workers because Bob has fan favorite written all over him

Overall, I think people whom did/ did not watch Golan the Insatiable the first time around are equally going to enjoy the series. You got enough of a back story for Golan to learn all about him which is actually something we didn’t get with the original show, and we get a more impressive cast of characters that I think writers can play with for quite some time. Moreover, I think Golan the Insatiable can act as a precipice for future animated shows to join the Sunday Funday lineup instead of just Summer reruns, giving me more original reasons to tune in.

Score