Review of The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! (2010) by Laura O — 23 Apr 2010

Crude, rude, and lewd.

Yes, when I saw down to watch the 'Drawn Together Movie', I already knew what to expect. It's South Park times a thousand, throw in a monster that sh*ts in its own mouth, and lose the preachy messages (and sadly, the publicity and mainstream audience).

Having watched all the episodes, I had high expectations of what I wanted to see from this film. My first disappointment is when it only loaded to show seventy-odd minutes worth of film, which amounts to just over three episodes- which, if the Family Guy and Futurama 'movies' are anything to go by, it will be broken down to once it has its TV release. I know animated films are notriously short (in comparison to live action films) but I couldn't help but to worry about this length of time.

The film had a strong start. There were lots of 'in' jokes and a lot of witty one liners which really supported the film, and the art animation was flawless- if you ignore the content and diaglouge and simply watch the art, you'll see a return to cartoon-y actions from old cartoons; in a way, the characters seem MORE animated than they were during their episodes! I did like the use of Bedrock as a backdrop, but I think this was something else that wasn't explored much- though it may have gone off in a different tangent, I think it would have been nice to wrap everything up by going back to all the characters' home towns (even if they were fake doubles) and explored other cartoon worlds- there's a lot of cartoons out there and it would have been interesting to see the writers take advantage of this, as they have done in previous episodes.

However, that is just a personal opinion on where the film should have gone- it's not really a critisim of where the film did go. I think it was interesting in the house, seeing the characters react to being cancelled, to see the Jew Producer (uh, maybe a bit too much of him in the entire film though, he didn't really HAVE to help I.S.R.E.A.L) and to see the conversations they all have with each other struck a cord; just like the episodes. The plot was strong and it was definetely well considered with good interactions and dialouge. Having said that, even though it stayed on target, it seemed to get more sloppy and pointless/time filing as it went along- I believe from the point where Clara gets her arms cut off. In a film that I am aware is all about 'not having a message', you still have to question what is the point of Clara (and later, Waldor) dying in this way, given the (lame) conclusion of the film. Why did Foxxy have to take the lead? Why was Xander SO clingy to Hero when in previous episodes, he seems to yo-yo between hate and lust, not stalker love? Why were Spanky and Ling Ling effectively ignored? This is another reason why I believe they should have taken advantage of the chance to explore other worlds/characters' hometowns- it would have given each individual character one last time to shine. Hero and his corpse? A funny addition as far as the story went about how he found her, and a few bits were funny (such as the montage where Molly 'sleeps' with a lot of other superheros); but it got old quickly as it always did during the actual episodes. As it stands, some of the characters faded into the background and seemed to be given space to new 'villians' (like I.S.R.E.A.L and Suck My Taint girl) which weren't really needed (I know, I know- they were key to the film, in regards to the film without a message having a message! But they were still clunky, forced, and unneeded).

All in all, I hoped to see something different from a film that is concluding a very funny series. I know it's not very publically known, but it seems to me like the writers were especially sloppy. They'd drop an 'in' joke here, a new funny gag there, things along those lines- but the plot was overbearing and clumsy and bared no relevence to the actual episodes it was supporting. The art, in my opinion, was flawless and interesting; it's a shame the writing wasn't more tangiable. The end was particularly disappointing- it seemed taped on as if they were never sure about how it was going to end, clumsily trying to tie everything up before killing everyone. Killing animated characters is akin to making a live action character wake up and discovering it was a dream- it's a cop out and pointless. I think the end could have been a lot more neatly taken care of, rather than just more pointless jokes and then everyone dying. The show is designed for adults; what would the harm have been in just making the characters go back to their home towns or settling down in Make a Point land- we understand once a program is cancelled, it's unlikely (if not impossible) that it will restart again. Killing animated characters is just moot- or maybe that was just the 'point'.

All in all, it pains me to give this film such a low score. When I heard about this film, I would have given it 100% without seeing it; now I have seen it, it really hurts to only give it this rating. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, and I'm sure I will watch it again and laugh- but in regards to what it could have been, and what the episodes were, it didn't live up to itself. So it's not really that in comparsion to other films (animated or otherwise) it scores so low, but compared to itself. I would give the overall series (what the heck, including the film) 90%- the film just lets itself down, which is sad.