Review: Royal Crackers “Bidai”

Overview

When a King from half a world away invites the remaining members of TainT to perform for him, Theo, Stebe and Moey D, end up getting ensnared in a spy mission that tests their allegiances to Nu-Metal and puts all of their lives at risk.

Our Take

Jesus fucking Christ this show is fantastic. I already gave out one perfect score this week, do I have the gall to give out another? Let’s break it down and see!

Admittedly, I’m a nineties kid and I would say a good 90% of my discography (you kids know what that is?) from those days was in fact metal. Not JUST nu-metal as I had a fair share of industrial, death, New American, in there as well, but boy I was at the Ozzfests, the summer tours, in uniform, waiting on lines for autographs. I totally understand how a fan falls in love with a band.

To this day I listen to Sirius XM 40 on an almost constant so when I heard that this week’s episode of Royal Crackers was going to feature a bevy of rockstars from my youth, I really didn’t know what to expect. Fortunately, Jason Ruiz and co. have completely melted whatever expectations I had and did so with a stellar guest cast featuring the likes of System of a Down’s Daron Malakian, Matt Pinfield(what up, Matt! 106.3 FM NJ reppin’!), and Henry Rollins. Oh yeah, and friggin T-1000 Robert Patrick thrown in there for good measure. But, you know who might be the biggest rockstar of the bunch now? Friggin’ Andrew Santino, the voice of “Theo”. This dude is literally slinging nu-metal jams and doing so in key like he’s been doing this for thirty friggin’ years. THEN Daron Malakian sounds like HE’S the one who has been acting for all these years instead of touring the country with the likes of System of a Down and Scars on Broadway (listen to that band, first record is incredible).

The show loves it’s homages to different eras of pop culture, and there are movie references that are both subtle and not so subtle strewn throughout the 22-minute episode. But, the plot, the premise, the dialogue, were all so good that the show wasn’t reliant on the homages for all of the jokes, and instead, helps springboard to the real funny stuff. Stebe’s road rage incident, Moe’s past with his former flame, Theo standing up for the one thing that’s most important to him, and a Bouncing Souls (a SECOND New Jersey homage?) end credits sequence that helped me brighten up a rather dull week.

By far Royal Crackers is the best animated comedy on Adult Swim now. With Justin Roiland’s immeasurable influence on Rick and Morty unjustly removed, Royal Crackers is sliding in quite nicely as the new focal point of Adult Swim.