RJ Writing Ink

Jay’s Month of Screams, Day 30- The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

For my penultimate pick for my first ever month of screams, I chose a show that’s perfect for Halloween. It’s Cartoon Network’s 2000’s classic, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. If you didn’t know, its about two kids, the idiotic Billy and the cynically terrifying Mandy, who win the friendship of the Grim Reaper in a game. The show followed the trio’s supernatural misadventures, and it was a mega-hit for the channel. Of course, it helped that Richard Horvitz and Grey DeLisle voiced the main characters. As a result of its themes, this show’s perfect for Halloween, and Billy and Mandy’s Jacked Up Halloween delivered! In fact, it’s one of the funniest Halloween episodes of the decade.

Jacked Up Halloween

When Billy, Mandy, and Grim are out trick-or-treating on Halloween, Billy asks why people pull pranks on Halloween. As it turns out, it all started centuries ago with Endsville’s resident prankster, Jack. The man got so obsessed with tricks, the townspeople got fed up and arranged for his execution. Unfortunately, Jack cheated death by forcing Grim to give him immortality. However, Grim still cut his head, leaving him with a pumpkin for a head. Now he comes out every Halloween to play pranks on Endsville.

In the present day, Billy makes the mistake of knocking on Jack’s door, and loses Grim’s scythe to the pumpkin-headed prankster. As a result, Jack frees the souls of the Underworld to destroy Endsville, get revenge on Grim, and have Halloween reign forever. In other words, Billy doomed the world for the umpteenth time.

Fear the Jack-O-Lantern

Billy and Mandy was no stranger to scary things like monsters and aliens and witches, so Halloween was a perfect fit. The scares come in the form of Jack’s army of pumpkin’s. Using the scythe and the souls of the dead, he creates an army of possessed pumpkin monsters, and they’re genuinely scary to look at. If you saw an army of grotesque, pumpkin shaped creatures tearing up your neighborhood, you’d be scared too.

Furthermore, despite his reputation as a trickster who plays otherwise harmless pranks, Jack’s a good villain. Having been deprived of a normal life, the immortal prankster’s become bitter towards Endsville and the Grim Reaper. He still likes playing pranks and telling jokes, but you can feel the malice behind them. Once he gets Grim’s scythe once more, he’s a dangerous threat.

So Funny, You’ll Die of Laughter

Like the show, though, Billy and Mandy’s Jacked up Halloween plays on its humor. Richard Horvitz delivers a lot of it, too, simply by being the biggest ham he can possibly be in every scene. More to the point, Billy’s extremely delayed to how badly he screws up is a hilarious payoff. Then we get to see Billy do this:

Another big source of the special’s humor is a running gag involving Billy’s best friend, Irwin. He keeps trying to impress Mandy with his costumes. However, he can’t seem to get it into his head that he’s supposed to be scary. Instead, we get this:

And this

And these two:

Ironically, Irwin ends up being what saves the day. In a scene that would make master slapstick artists proud, Irwin inadvertedly sets off all the traps Mandy set to fight Jack’s army. As a result, the spirits laugh themselves to death, and it gets so contagious, I couldn’t but laugh along with them.

A Gut-Busting Good Time

Overall, this special’s as hilarious as the show itself. While mostly comedic in nature, it does know how to bring the scares with the pumpkin monsters and Jack’s evil schemes. If you’re interested, I reccommend going on YouTube and watching it for yourself. Fans of the show will love the nostalgia and humor, just in time for Halloween. Happy Halloween!

Click here to see the FANDOM Article I did for Halloween last year. Click here to see my other animation stuff.

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Sword Art Online: Alicization- War of Underworld Episode 27 Review/Recap

Given what I know about the latter half of Alicization, I hoped that the anime would turn itself around. That it would give more of the action that I wanted to see. While the last episode gave us more of the action, it’s back to the exposition here. Pacing problems have been a recurring problem with this season, but I’m still holding out hope for Alicization.

LINK START!

Recap

In a flashback, we learn the identity of the man leading the assault on the Ocean Turtle. His name is Gabriel Miller, and he got hired by the US Government to steal the AI Rath’s developing. They want to weaponize it so they can maintain their dominance in war. The team that Kirito fought in GGO in the first episode was them; they were practicing for the attack.

However, in the present day, Gabriel’s team is locked out of the area where the Fluctlight cubes are. Thus, they devise of an alternative way to seize their target (Alice). Soon, Underworld will go through “The Final Load Test”, where the barriers between the human empire and the Dark Territory will collapse. Finding two god level accounts in the Dark Territory, Gabriel and his lieutenant use them to log in and use the Dark Territory for themselves.

Meanwhile, Asuna decides to take matters into her own hands. She prepares to log into Underworld herself in order to find Kirito and protect Alice.

Review

I get that exposition and flashbacks are important to moving the plot along, but when you use them too much, a show suffers. Pacing problems have been a big problem of Alicization, and I’m worried it will ruin the war to come. I want to see something as big as the final battle in Avengers: Endgame. Instead, we may get something “The Long Night” from Game of Thrones.

That said, this episode tries to fulfill its purpose, but it misses a few key details about Gabriel. In Tokyo, Sinon has a nightmare of when she fought him in the final round of GGO 4; he strangled her to death with his bare hands. Yet I think the show fails to show how much of a sociopath Gabriel truly is. The web and light novels talk about how he’s obssessed with the soul, and with Alice herself. I hope they show more about it, but if not, click here.

With Gabriel about to seize control of the Dark Territory, all out war is now inevitable. Fortunately, Asuna’s coming to rescue her boyfriend/husbando. Fans should know by now that nothing will stand between an angry Asuna and her goals. Pacing problems or not, I look forward to the war.

I Give “The Final Load Test” a 2.75/5

By the way, pay attention to Gabriel’s lieutenant, Vassago. We’ve seen him before, but I’m not giving any hints.

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