REVIEW: BLACK DYNAMITE”Just Beat It or Jackson Five Across Yo’ Eyes”

When Cream Corn saves young Michael Jackson from an assassination attempt, the pint-sized pop star finds in Corn a new best friend. But as Black Dynamite soon discovers, Michael is far from the cute bundle of talent the world adores: he’s a merciless alien force who leaves his brothers and father Joe in constant fear of a ***** slapping! And when Cream Corn too has finally had enough, Dynamite and crew step in to slap the black off Mike’s face, changing music and Michael forever.

Spoilers Below

Think about it, has there ever been an adaptation of a film to an animated series that actually went right? Animated comedies based on their feature film cousins like Friday, Clerks, and the most recent Napoleon Dynamite never seem to nail it, and the answer has to be why?? Welp, if I am an exec producer I am stuck in a rut…should the show be a faithful adaptation of the film like the previously mentioned or should it be more like an animated series INSPIRED by the film??

For fans of the film of Black Dynamite you may or may not be disappointed by the new series depending on the reason why you liked the film in the first place. So, for fans of the martial arts, goofy characters, and endless amounts of women that were all over the film starring Michael Jai White as the titled-character….this is for you. For the fans who enjoyed more of the spoof aspect of Black Dynamite this may not be your thing, as a lot of the subtle jokes of making a low-budget blaxploitation film (like clearly poor choreography, shoddy camera work, and purposely bad audio/video production) are largely unused in the animated series in favor of more of a ‘what if?” scenario featuring Black Dynamite. Also for those who care, the animation studio of whom did the credits for the Black Dynamite movie(6 Points Harness) is not the same studio that did the animation for the Black Dynamite animated series( Titmouse, Inc).

This week’s plot wondered about Michael Jackson’s early years as teen singing sensation that captivated the world, but really shed light on what Michael was like back stage. Turns out, Michael was an abusive son of a bitch that used to beat the shit out of his fellow band mates but the consequences would go largely ignored as everyone was captivated by his star power…including Black Dynamite cohort Cream Corn. At first, Black is all too busy with his own shit fending off Fiendish Dr. Wu, but soon after Cream joins Michael’s posse, he too starts getting beat up like there was no tomorrow.

We soon learn from a plot device CLEARLY inspired by the film Men In Black II, that Michael Jackson is indeed an alien from outer space. He was sent here by a ray of light in the sky shining down onto Katherine Scruse’s vag thereby giving us the pop icon with no actual intercourse required. As he’s grown up, Michael needed to disguise himself as a normal looking kid so as to not to ruin his fandom by revealing the gross features that would take over his body in his later years. Thankfully, Black and Wu’s ninjas team up to ward off any out of space invaders and come to a truce with Michael Jackson that surely ended when the child-molesting douche choked on his own vomit.

As mentioned, Black Dynamite is a great animated series and I am certainly glad for it to be back. The entire cast from the film is here including Michael Jai White(Black Dynamite), Cream Corn(Tommy Davidson),  Bullhorn(Byron Minns)  and the others giving us a lineup that should surely appease the skeptical casual fans of the film. However, for the hardcore crowd looking for a soup-to-nuts animated outing of Black Dynamite you might need to wait for the film’s sequel.

(8.0 out of 10)