"Home Movies" (1999) TV series 1999-2004

User Rating:

9.0/10   

Creators:

Loren Bouchard
Brendon Small

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Release Date:

26 April 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy

Plot:

TV series about the life of Brendon Small, an eight-year-old visionary who, using his friends Jason and Melissa as actors...

Plot Keywords:

Friend | Soccer | Actor | Coach | School

US TV Schedule:

Tue. July 14	1:30 AM	TOON	Stow Away	#3.12
Tue. July 14	5:30 AM	TOON	Stow Away	#3.12

Cast

Brendon Small	...	Brendon Small / ... (52 episodes, 1999-2004)
H. Jon Benjamin	...	Jason Penopolis / ... (52 episodes, 1999-2004)
Melissa Bardin Galsky	...	Melissa Robbins (52 episodes, 1999-2004)
Ron Lynch	...	Ronald Lynch (50 episodes, 1999-2004)
Janine Ditullio	...	Paula Small (47 episodes, 2001-2004)

Runtime:

30 min | Germany:22 min (13 episodes) | USA:22 min (52 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | Canada:16+ (TV rating) | Canada:18+ (TV re-rating) | Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:PG (some episodes) | USA:TV-PG (some episodes)

Filming Locations:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Soup2Nuts

Trivia:

Only aired six episodes in its original UPN/ABC's Saturdays morning run (depending on your region). When it was picked up by Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in 2001, seven more "squigglevision" episodes from the original season were aired before transferring to Flash for the new seasons.

Goofs:

Continuity: In "Shore Leave", Coach McGuirk takes Melissa's wings while at the mall, puts them on his back, and walks away with them, but later when Melissa is back in the Fairy Princess boss's office, she has them on again.

Quotes:

Clarice: Why is he calling you Coach McGuirk?
Coach McGuirk: I don't know. He's probably *retarded*.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Sealab 2021: Dearly Beloved Seed (#4.3)" (2004)

"And now, it's time to pay the price."

'Home Movies' has an interesting history. First given a brief run on UPN, it later found a new home on Cartoon Network's then-new "Adult Swim" block. The first season was animated in a jittery, amateurish style called "Squigglevision" (think "Dr. Katz"); subsequent seasons were rendered using Macromedia's popular Flash software. And yet it never gained much more than a small, loyal cult following. (Fortunately, the complete series has been released on DVD.)

Brendon Small (loosely based on the show's creator, also named Brendon Small) is a 4th-grade kid living with his divorced mom Paula and bespectacled baby sister Josie. And he has an interesting hobby: creating shoestring-budget home movies on his camcorder with his friends Melissa and Jason. These movies often run parallel to his day-to-day misadventures, including those involving school, rabid pets, bullies, road safety, and even little Josie's curious tendency to shove marbles into her nostrils.

Other acquaintances include angsty rocker kid Duane, Melissa's father Erik, the hyperactive pals Walter and Perry, a spoiled brat named Fenton, and the dorky cat-loving teacher Mr. Lynch. On top of that, Brendon has a rather unwanted mentor and adult figure in the form of his soccer coach, Jon McGuirk, a beer-bellied, obnoxious, loud, money-squandering oaf.

The episode which introduced me to 'Home Movies' was, in fact, the one in which Josie is sticking marbles in her nose; Brendon makes a film instructing kids about the dangers of doing such and also has Duane's band perform a metal-rock song about not putting marbles in your nose. (As it turns out, Brendon's production unintentionally encourages children to do just that.) It's situations like these and the show's brand of sarcastic, off-the-wall humor that made me fall in love with it.

On the other hand, the first season was the most enjoyable to me because, behind the scenes, the show was somewhat improvised in that the actors were given the general idea for a scene and basically just ad-libbed it from there. The spontaneity of it all made the show funny, while the squiggling animation gave it the look of something a child such as Brendon would make. That said, while the show remained funny (the gross-out humor was largely phased out, thankfully) and the transition to Flash made the animation easier on the eyes, the later seasons lost some of the first season's humanity, so to speak.

In the end, although Brendon and his pals give the impression that they act like miniature adults, this is a goofy look at childhood that aims more toward high-brow humor than 'South Park', and I think it's worth it to check out at least the first season.