Shorts Review: “Munroe” “Save The Scientist, Munroe”

So, as the year draws to a close, I sit back in my recliner and ponder all the good and bad that have happened to me over the course of this year. What lessons have I learned? What mistakes have I made? Have I fixed those issues? Then I snap out of it, realize that I live in the best country in the world and that I write about cartoons for a living. Life: It ain’t that bad.

One thing I do often ponder is Apollo Gauntlet. Every man has “the one that got away,” and I feel as if AG might be mine. What, you thought it might be a girl or a fish? Nope, because I know there’s plenty of both at the bottom of a lake. I never really gave that show a fair shake, and it took reading Achille$ review of the show to finally see the error in my ways. I let something truly wonderful slip through my fingers and I’ll be damn sure if I’ll let that happen again.

::A knock at the door:: Who’s this? Munroe? Redemption…

Having learned the identifiers, I can now make an accurate review of what I like to describe as “avant comedy.” It’s these types of shows that reach back to the childhood of the actor, take all the fond memories of animation, and try to recreate them with a real-world spin. Venture Bros reached back to Johnny Quest, Apollo Gauntlet reached back to something that may or may not have been drug-induced, and now Munroe has met them somewhere in the middle. Munroe has a bit of the JQ feel to it, but stiffly mixed with SeaLab 2021. Not the comedy end of SeaLab, just the animation end. Sprinkle on a little bit of “spy adventure” and you’ve got yourself roughly four minutes of ShutUP! quality material. The are is a little funky, the people don’t have much by the way of definition or features, but it’s still bright and fun to look at. The comedy is also a bit touch and go. When the jokes are on, they’re red-hot, but some miss the mark.

I’m looking forward to checking out more episodes as they become available. Let’s hope that with a little tweaking, this show can be hailed as one of the greatest ShutUp! stories ever told.

(@chefrichBB) misses 80s cartoons, but every time he watches them he gets upset over how shitty they are.