I have a confession to make. I don’t really get Adventure Time. It’s immensely popular at the moment but I just don’t click with it. I was feeling a bit left out but I’ve discovered somewhere else I can get my animation fix. And that place is Rick and Morty.
During his enforced downtime from his brainchild Community Dan Harmon was busy. He was working with voice actor Justin Roiland to bring the latter’s ideas to the screen, the end result being Rick and Morty. Taking it’s cues from the dynamic between the Doctor and his companions in Doctor Who with a dash of Back to the Future, the show revolves around the nervous and slightly dim school kid Morty and his adventures with his super-genius scientist grandfather Rick.
At this point it should be mentioned that Rick is dangerously alcoholic and mentally unstable.
Thus far we have only had six episodes, but take a look at the run downs to get the gist of things. In the first episode Rick takes Morty to another dimension to collect seeds for his experiments, but Morty has to smuggle them through inter-dimensional customs by putting them up his butt. Next Rick and Morty get all Inception on Morty’s math teacher to get him better grades only to find themselves in a certain boiler room, meanwhile Morty’s dog uses the higher intelligence (via a helmet built by Rick) to enslave humanity. In the third episode Rick is shrunk down and injected in to a homeless man to save ‘Anatomy Park’, a theme park build inside a human body, but it turns out that the exhibits have gotten loose.
It’s certifiably insane, and riffs of pop culture like nobodies business. You’ll be quoting the characters in no time at all. Rick is already a fantastic character, the perfect anti-thesis to the wacky scientist trope. Justin Roiland voices both Morty and Rick, and the way he has recorded both sides of overlapping dialog in an argument is brilliant. The comedic timing is spot on. Rounding out the cast is Chris Parnell and Sarah Chalke as Morty’s parents, and they are fantastic. Parnell is especially funny when he plays a larger role in some episodes, like when he’s unknowingly living inside a simulation.
There’s not a great deal more to say as we’ve only had six episodes except this: go and watch it. Be warned though…it gets dark, and Roiland has promised more darkness.
