Advance Review: Moonbeam City “Mall Hath No Fury”

 

Spoilers Below

What happens when Dazzle Novak isn’t the #1 Cop anymore? He makes his gun holster a place to store Skittles. Along the way we are introduced to the whole crew. Police Station head Pizzaz, hot shot rookie Rad Cunningham, and new temp Chrysalis. Dazzle gets punished for discharging his firearm for no reason, so he decides to go undercover at the local mall to stop famed drug Lord El Diablo. Once there, he is introduced to a food court singer named AiAiAiAi. Taken aback by both her beauty, and singing talents Dazzle convinces the singer to become her manager.

Dazzle decides to form a band around his new acquisition and book her at various malls all over the place. We soon find out that the shows being performed also happens to be where El Diablo distributes his drugs. Unfortunately, Dazzle won’t be able to make the grab anytime soon because Rad shows up with a singer of his own and handcuffs both Dazzle and his singer to a radiator.

Chrysalis shows up with the save, and leads Dazzle to the final stop on his tour where Rad’s lady is just about to perform. A huge rumble ensues, and El Diablo is discovered to be one of the backing band members and subsequently impaled in front of everyone. Dazzle cracks the case, watches as his lady gets deported and Rad is sent to jail for having a special hand powder.

Our Take

For anyone thinking this is just another Archer….stop right there. Comparing Archer to Moonbeam City is like comparing Family Guy to Bob’s Burgers. Yes, at the end of the day, both FOX shows are about families, but they are presented in wildly different ways with completely different types of joke telling.

As a matter of fact, if you really want to draw comparisons of Moonbeam City to any series, Metalocalypse is probably closer in terms of look and feel. The character designs, and certainly the direction on the first episode with the premise being all about cracking the music business certainly hearkens back to the Adult Swim series, which makes sense being that the show is produced by Titmouse and yea, you can see Mark Brooks’ DNA all over this one. He’s also the one who helped co-write the music score, and fans of soundtracks derived from Drive or Depeche Mode’s ilk will be happy to hear that.

In terms of a cast, Archer’s cast is twice the size of Moonbeam, with this show concentrating on principal characters Dazzle, Rad, Chrysalis, and Pizzaz. Dazzle definitely has a Quagmire charm about him that goos out from Rob Lowe’s sensual delivery. I wouldn’t say he has the one-liners like the aforementioned character, but Dazzle is just as committed at making sure he gets to bury his beak. Chrysalis really does remind you of Kate Mara’s stature and personality, a goody-two-shoes that does her best to try and make a name for herself in this department. Pizzaz is given a more serious and grounded performance by Elizabeth Banks, fans of Ace Ventura may remember the role of Lois Einhorn, and that would be a fair comparison. Last but not least, possibly my favorite character, Rad Cunningham. Voiced by the sure-thing Emmy winner at this year’s awards, Rad is probably closer to Will’s role as MacGruber than he is Phil Lord as he features way more of the feature film star’s attributes. Whiny, usually coming up with precocious concepts, and definitely featuring a relationship similar to Mac and Piper’s relationship in the movie, Will Forte is a tour-de-force comedy tornado in the already fertile ground laid out by Lowe’s Novak.

If you were a fan of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City or appreciated the 80s cop shows a little too much, Moonbeam City will surely delight. The premises for future episodes need to be a bit more creative, and I think Dazzle would be better served with a bit more pep in Rob Lowe’s step. But, overall, Moonbeam City stands on its own, and may help stave off fans’ starvation of Western-produced action animated comedy.