Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles (2003) (TV)

Directors:

Burnie Burns
Matt Hullum

Writers:

Burnie Burns (writer)
Matt Hullum (writer)

Release Date:

25 November 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | War

Tagline:

War is hell

Plot:

In between Halo and Halo 2 there followed a brief period of civil war of Red Vs. Blue.

Plot Keywords:

Ghost | Color In Title | Halo 2 | Online Cartoon | Betrayal

Cast

Burnie Burns	...	Pvt. Leonard L. Church / Lopez The Heavy / Vic / Vic Jr. / The Warthog / Leonard / Red Zealot / Phil (voice)
Dan Godwin	...	Pvt. Franklin Delano Donut (voice)
Geoff Fink	...	Pvt. Dexter Grif (voice)
Gustavo Sorola	...	Pvt. Dick Simmons (voice)
Jason Saldaña	...	Pvt. Lavernius Tucker (voice)
Joel Heyman	...	Pvt. Michael J. Caboose / O'Malley (Omega) (voice)
John Ferrell	...	Pvt. Jimmy (voice)
Kathleen Zuelch	...	Freelancer Tex (Alison) (voice)
Lance McKee	...	Pvt. Mickey (voice)
Matt Hullum	...	Sarge / Medical Officer Frank 'Doc' DuFresne / Wyoming / O'Malley (voice)
Randall Glass	...	Vic (Season 1) (voice)
Yomary Cruz	...	Sheila the Tank (voice)
Jordan Burns	...	Lady Donut (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rebecca Frasier	...	Sister (voice)
Gavin Free	...	Red Guard
Ed Robertson	...	Capt. Butch Flowers (voice)
Nathan Zellner	...	Andy The Bomb / The Alien (voice)

Also Known As:

Red vs. Blue (USA) (short title)
Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles - Season One (USA) (DVD box title)
Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles - Season Three (USA) (DVD box title)
Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles - Season Two (USA) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

96 min | New Zealand:6 min (approx.) | 73 min (DVD edition)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

3.15 : 1

Certification:

New Zealand:R13 (DVD rating) | USA:Not Rated

Company:

Rooster Teeth Productions

Trivia:

When the character of Donut is introduced, Grif is arguing with Simmons over a time when Simmons refused to go to ?Vegas Quadrant?, and fled in an escape pod. This references a situation the Red Vs Blue team experienced once before the series was made. As half the group of friends were from Austin, Texas, and the other half were in Los Angeles, California, some would occasionally travel to visit the others. One time, when most of the Austin group visited the LA group, they decided to go to Las Vegas, as the Austin group rarely got the chance. All was going fine until Gustavo Sorola, intoxicated, refused to go to Vegas with the rest of the team. He opened the door to the van they were in, running all the way back to the hotel they were staying at. There, he left a note saying, "See you in Austin, Gus" and was found the next morning still in LA.

Goofs:

Continuity: Junior's size constantly changes back and forth. This is particularly obvious when Tucker walks into Blue base during Sister's physical (Junior is suddenly adult sized in that scene, yet is small again in the remainder of the series).

Quotes:

Church: [watching red team through a sniper scope] Okay, so the red guy is Sarge, their leader, which is lucky for us, because he's not a very good leader.
Simmons: Yeah.
Church: And that's Donut. I like Donut. He's pretty harmless, I don't think he'd hurt a fly.
Simmons: Plus he's kinda...
Church: What?
Simmons: Well... y' know...
Church: Actually, I don't know.
Simmons: Well, he's kinda into girly things. Like, feelings, and...
Church: I think you're projecting.
Simmons: I'm not projecting, I'm just stating an observation.
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

Soundtrack:

Vale Deah

A hilarious and creative piece of art

I'm not fond of the XBox/PC game Halo by any means. I consider it a very average and unremarkable shooter, save for its use of vehicles. But even with that said, the satirical machinima series Red vs. Blue will always occupy a place in my heart.

The show is shot entirely using the XBox version of Halo, albeit with the game's HUD cropped out. (The aiming reticule is still there, and although it can be a bit distracting at first, you get used to it, and it's part of RVB's "independent film" appeal.) Other than some visual touch-ups, everything there is real and can be duplicated. Also, all of the characters look alike, so they are differentiated via the colors of their armor.

So what's it about? The series lampoons numerous things, including shooters, military life, sci-fi culture, and Halo itself (Church: "These arms aren't that flexible!"). It's set in the rather plain box canyon known as Blood Gulch (a multiplayer map in Halo) during the period between Halo and Halo 2. At one end is the base of the Blue Team; at the other, the Red Team base. Both sides are caught in a fierce deadlock during a capture-the-flag game. In reality, both teams are incredibly inept and would rather spend their time bickering, finding ways to kill time (such as tossing rocks through a teleporter), or just sort of spying on the other team.

On the Blue Team is Church, the sarcastic, impatient leader; Tucker, his somewhat serious-minded partner; and Caboose, the scatterbrained rookie who is often the origin of RVB's many famous quotes.

The Red Team is not much better, though. There's Sarge, a sergeant (duh) with an outlandish Southern American accent; Grif, the soldier who is the butt of most of Sarge's criticism; Simmons, a soldier who gets respect from Sarge and is accused by Grif of being a kiss-ass; Donut, a weird newbie in pink/lightish red armor (even though he's a guy); and Lopez, a robot whose speech unit shorts out later in the series, allowing him to only speak Spanish.

The teams don't stay put, though, and before long, all sorts of weird things happen. The Reds receive a Warthog-class jeep, leaving the Blues to compare it with their own tank in terms of attracting girls. Caboose inadvertently kills Church by blasting him with the tank. Church, now a ghost, possesses Sarge's body and makes him spit inside his own helmet. And that's just the first 19-episode season. But what really makes RVB shine is its great writing, scripting, and voice work.