Over a period of years, director David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive) wrote and drew all eight episodes of what is known as Dumbland. It chronicles the story of a father, his wife, and his son. Despite the total length of the series being only 33 minutes, I was glad that it was over. Dumbland is crude and surprisingly not very funny, unless you find random — and I mean random — farts and vomiting funny. And I’m not even sure fans of The Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim would like this.
The father, who is nameless, resembles a pre-Neanderthal - if pre-Neanderthals were careless, unloving and stupid. What makes the show so unlikeable is the lack of almost any redeemable qualities in the dad. He beats his son, he beats his wife, and he beats random strangers. The one time that the dad remotely resembles a human being is in episode four (“A Friend Visits”), when he befriends someone who is exactly like him. I guess God does exist if there is someone else in the world that likes to “beat and kill things” other than the dad.
In episode five (“Get The Stick”), someone accidentally falls through the family’s fence, getting a stick caught in his mouth. The son repeatedly tells his dad to “get the stick” to which the dad tries every method possible to get the stick out, except cutting it in half. Gruesome violence ensues, which results in the man losing both eyes and getting run over by a truck. I’m more surprised that the dad actually tried to help the man, despite almost failing miserably and causing the man excruciating pain. The dad even had the audacity to complain that the man didn’t even thank him for getting the stick out.
The father lacks two things to make him a memorable character: any sense of humanity and motivation. He’s an abusive father and husband. He’s crude, but there isn’t any real motivation for him to be crude or cruel to his family. In episode six (“My Teeth Are Bleeding”), the father sits in his chair watching TV. A wrestling show is on and a wrestler repeatedly bashes his opponent’s head into the mat. His son repeatedly jumps on a trampoline. His wife repeatedly screams and shakes. Cars repeatedly drive by through a window. The father looks stressed from all of the repeated eye and noise pollution. The father is so desensitized by the world around him, he can’t help his son whose mouth starts bleeding or his wife who can’t stop moving uncontrollably. All he notices is a fly buzzing around him. The dad is used to his family being this dysfunctional and manic. He must see his son bleeding all the time (and he probably causes most of those bleeds too). I kept asking myself, how does this guy have a son, let alone a wife?
Article comments
1 - Nick
hilarios
2 - jared bowditch
the whole point of the show is to be macabre and crude hence the name dumbland. the thing that makes it hilarious is the voice acting and the sound effects and though the animation is crude it demonstrates principles of perspective and emotion suprisingly well. you are reading waaaaaaaaaaay too much into this if youre looking for a deep plot and 3d characters. dumbland is hilarious and recommended for david lynch fans.