Only if you were a fan of the Freakazoid! animated series back when it aired on TV in the mid-'90s would I recommend a purchase of Freakazoid! Season 1 on DVD. And even then, you might want to rent it first just to witness the overarching uneveness you probably don't remember it possessing. Newcomers to the sometimes-amusing wackiness of the series would do well to save their cash and leave the renting to the ultra-curious.
Any kid (or even young adult) growing up in the mid-'90s was surely aware of shows like Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs, and those who avidly watched the shows knew just how uneven they could be. Tuning in on any given weekday afternoon could yield a comedic gem of an episode, such as when a young Plucky Duck went miniature golfing with his dad or when Wakko Warner ran frantically around having a "potty emergency," or the viewer could be faced with a--shudder--Rita and Runt or Buttons and Mindy episode instead.
Freakazoid! was an animated superhero spoof from the same creators as Tiny Toons and Animaniacs and proved to be the most uneven of of them all. At least with Animaniacs one could tell from the get-go that if it was a Warners or Pinky and the Brain episode, it would be worth sticking around for, but with Freakazoid! even the main character's adventures can occasionally fall into the "why the Hell am I watching this?" category. At his worst, the main character of the show comes across as a rip-off of the Genie from Aladdin who's constantly channeling Jerry Lewis.
All too often Freakazoid will "go off" on a mindless streak of yelling for no apparent reason. Apparently someone high up in the crew thought that mere yelling spelled comedic gold. When in doubt, just yell jibberish. That's what the kids want to see.
Mind you, there can be some truly hilarious material to be found in Freakazoid! too; it's just not frequent enough for me to be able to whole-heartedly recommend the show. At its best, Freakazoid! manages to serve as a Saturday morning cartoon equivalent of Monty Python's Flying Circus. The conventions of a superhero animated series are always being toyed with in the most meta of ways. One episode hilariously opens with the President congratulating the titular superhero for another job well done saving the entire free world once again, with Freakazoid turning to the camera to say, "Hey kids, sorry you missed it but I got started early today." Often Freakazoid will stop the story cold mid-way through to comment on the script itself or mention how much he enjoys working with his fellow characters on the show or their voice actors. Freakazoid's "Freakmobile" is a hilarious send-up of how children's cartoons are frequently used as commercials themselves, featuring "toyetic" items.
Article comments
1 - Sterfish
Great review. I'm really enjoying watching this show again (as one of the people who watched this show when it initially came on). One of the things I'm noticing as I watch it is how much this show influenced and anticipated the type of humor we'd later see on Adult Swim and Family Guy. This is probably why it stayed in reruns on Cartoon Network for years after its run ended.
2 - Film-Book dot Com
This show was funny. I always made time for it when it initially aired. The episode with Deadpan was great as was the episode where all the action is censored and they cut to peaceful animal sequences and nature scenes.
Freakazoid! was uneven but it was also smile-inducing.