Review: Regular Show The Movie

One of the high points of my writing career has been covering Regular Show for a really long time. Sometimes Cartoon Network gets stupid and puts it on weird times, but when it premieres new episodes at its rightful Thursday Night time slot, I know the world is safe. Moreover, I love watching the maturation of the series, and how JG Quintel didn’t just make a show, EP the hell out of his name, and go off and make ten more things. No…he does, and IS, Regular Show. 

So it makes perfect sense that he would want to do a movie. Just like other great animated shows of yesteryear i.e. The Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead: Do America, and others, Regular Show has done plenty enough to warrant the longer format, and for the most part he does the franchise absolute justice. But, it wasn’t just him. All the important names that have helped bring this franchise to greatness are represented, Calvin, Mike, Andreas, Toby, Sean, and a slew of others that could effectively make the all-star team of Regular Show if need be.

For the feature-length, all of the voice cast is here and accounted for…times two. Yep, Mordecai and Rigby go back in time in an attempt to stop the formation of timenados and to rescue their friendship. The extensive time travel helps us see to the past, present, and future for the cast, but not always in the way we’ve known them. For example, Muscle Man doesn’t change much in the past, and neither does Mordecai and Rigby. But, in the future, Mordecai and Rigby are rogue space warriors out to kill each other and we find out why. Normal plot concepts from the TV show are here, Rigby screws something up and has to own up to his mistakes or something bad happens. With the time travel element, the producers do a fantastic job of following the rules of producing a time travel epic ala Terminator, Looper but  they don’t hang themselves up on it.

We also get a bit more of a dramatic Regular Show instance than what we get on the show. And while the focus isn’t entirely on the comedy as a result, the show’s classic humor stylings are still in tact. Muscle Man fighting Muscle Man is hysterical, and work place comedy elements sandwich the beginning and the end of the almost 70 minute run-time. David Koechner guest stars as the Principal of Mordecai and Rigby’s old school, and he’s out of control. Instead of solving things the normal way, Principal Kevin would rather scream ala Benson but also has no problems with flipping out violently.Jason Mantzoukas excels as Randall Ross, our main antagonist of the adventure, whom at the end of the day is annoyed that Rigby ruined his volleyball championship game. That’s right, it’s volleyball’s fault!

But, in its heart, Regular Show The Movie really is an action film. We’ve got space battles, betrayal, heart break, and the continuation of the best choreography in the cartoon business. Fans of past Regular Show big battles will be blown away by just how big the scope of this universal struggle, all the while not getting lost on the finer details of what makes a good Regular Show story.

There were a few nuances that kind of irked me. For starters, I think the plot elements didn’t seem cohesive at times, and I would’ve liked to have seen a longer run time which could have helped smooth those over. Maybe a 90-minute run-time with a bigger contribution from the girls would’ve been just fine. I also think there have been episodes on the TV show that may have had better and more elaborate fight scenes, certainly the classic 100th episode is the standard bearer when it comes to big-time Regular Show fights.

Even with the small gripes, Regular Show: The Movie is rather fantastic. It has all of the elements that keep fans of the existing fan base on board, all the while not secluding those whom may have never seen the show. At the end of the day, it’s a time-traveling space caper in an effort to stop the bad guy and save a friendship. There is no reason everyone shouldn’t watch the culmination of what has been seven very-long seasons of hard work from a crew that has been nothing short of legit. Just don’t forget the breakfast burritos…it could save your job.