Spoilers Below! Pow! Zoom! Biff!
With all of the personal hype and anticipation I had built for this special I’ve gotta admit it was a bit underwhelming. Were the skits funny? Yes. Have we seen better? Absolutely. Robot Chicken always has a way of making lesser-known or underappreciated characters bigger stars in their special and this was more than apparent with Gorilla Grodd. A Flash villain had a sizable amount of speaking lines and jokes? But to his credit most of the jokes were really funny and were an obvious shining moment for this special. On the opposite side of that coin was the Joker. One of the most recognizable villains in DC’s arsenal and he only gets one speaking bit (executed piss-poorly, might I add)?
The love dynamic between SuperBoy and Lena Luthor was an interesting dynamic and a great way to bring the story to the beach. It was also an ingenious way to introduce another song into the special. As a matter of fact, everything that happened in this special seemed to tie together in some way or another. Bizarro says “No!” to Girl Scout cookies in the beginning and shows signs of depression as she walks away from the door. Skip ahead to the twist ending and there’s Bizarro saying a thousand times yes to Gorilla Grodd’s marriage proposal. Staro gets flushed down the toilet leading to an obvious alligators of NYC/Killer Croc cameo. Bring it on down to the beach and Staro becomes this massive super villain that both the Justice League and the Legion Of Doom must team up to defeat. The way he is defeated is hilarious and totally ties in with another, more blatant skit from earlier in the show. Also, it may not play a huge part in the overall special, but I thought the dynamic between Sinestro and Mr. Freeze might have been close to stealing the show! The scene where Sinestro is explaining that his skin color red and he isn’t sunburnt is decent until Mr. Freeze blows on his helmet’s visor and draws a smiley face into the frost he creates and then it becomes hilarious!
Skits/Clips/Ideas Of Note:
- Batman singing is always funny.
- Bane and Batman as SuperPets: Meh.
- Green Arrow flying the Invisible Jet was a great way to tie in super hero deaths and revivals.
- Addressing variant covers was a brilliant choice.
- The seahorses going into battle for Aquaman and their demise stole the entire show in my opinion. Beautifully animated and had just the right level of silly to counterbalance the seriousness of the battle ahead.
- Swamp Thing references should come back.
- Even though it was voiced terribly, the exchange between The Joker and Weather Wizard was great!
- Clayface can’t catch a break when it comes to the ladies. Ever.
- Sexx Luthor will be the skit this special is known for, sadly. I felt that should have been expanded on a little more. If it had been it would have been the cornerstone of the special and might have helped bring up the overall appeal. The little bit that we did have just wasn’t enough for me to feel strongly about it either way.
Overall, the special was worth he watch. It might not have been the best offering we’ve seen come from the Robot Chicken camp but it certainly left a little to be desired. Thankfully we don’t have to wait long for that desire to be filled because the new season of Robot Chicken starts next Sunday night at 11:30pm (check local listings!) and from what I saw from the promo that aired after last nights special, this show isn’t going to skip a beat!