The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, created by Maxwell Atoms, is an American animated television series that currently airs on Cartoon Network. The two main characters, Billy and Mandy, have obliged the Grim Reaper, usually called Grim, to be their best friend forever after having won a bet over a sick hamster.

The show's existence is largely the result of a viewer poll. An Internet and call-in event, called the Big Pick, was held from August 24 to August 25 in 2000. The three final choices were The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?, and Longhair and Doubledome. Out of the three, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy won. The first season appeared on Cartoon Network in 2001. Robot Jones would later be made into a full series despite losing; Longhair and Doubledome would reappear with another pilot episode in another Big Pick-style show later on, only to fall short once again.

Originally labelled Grim and Evil, the series was a combination of two shows in one. In each show, a segment of Evil Con Carne was put between two Grim cartoons. In 2003, the network decided to give each short its own full length show. Evil Con Carne was subsequently cancelled. It re-aired in a late-night slot in the United States on Friday, August 5 2005 with the newly-created intro and end credits. Characters from Evil Con Carne are still appearing on The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, even realizing that they're not supposed to be there. For example, when the whole town is in jail due to an evil duck, Hector Con Carne is there and yells, "I'm not even in this stupid show anymore!"

Plot

Billy and Mandy are two children from Endsville, a typical "Anytown, USA". One day, while they were celebrating the birthday of Billy's old pet hamster, Mr. Snuggles, the Grim Reaper appeared. He came to take away the hamster, but, to his surprise, Billy and Mandy weren't afraid of him at all. Mandy refused to give Grim the hamster and offered to play a game for it - if he wins, he will get the hamster; if he loses, they can keep it. Grim was sure in his victory, saying that, if they win, he would be their best friend "forever and ever". Grim took Billy and Mandy to Limbo, where they would compete in Grim's favorite game -- limbo.

On the verge of victory, Grim asked Mandy for "any final words", to which she called out "kiss kiss", triggering Mr. Snuggles into a spasmodic fit that quickly threw the undefeated limbo champ off. Now, Grim is doomed into being the "best friend" of these two children, a task he suffers with no small amount of disdain and mockery from other supernatural creatures. Grim was very depressed in the first days of his servitude, but as the time passed, he gradually adapted to the new life. Now, he can behave like any normal man, watching television, films, using Internet and playing video games, eating fast food and ice cream, and doing many other "normal" things. On the rare occasions, Grim can even behave effeminately, wearing a dress in pink, sniffing and picking flowers. Although he is fairly adapted to the new life and has some kind of love-hate relationship with the children, he despises Billy and Mandy, hoping that he will eventually break free from his servitude.

Setting

Most of the show is set in Billy and Mandy's hometown of Endsville. Endsville is in an indeterminate location, but in Sickly Sweet, a salesman who was advertising a house said that it's "the most peaceful neighborhood on the West Side". The age of the town is also indeterminate, as it has appeared in flashbacks of Billy's dad's youth (The Taking Tree), the early 1900s (Who Killed Who?), and medieval times (Billy and Mandy's Jacked Up Halloween).

Grim ostensibly comes from the Underworld, so the show makes frequent forays onto his turf. Grim's scythe is able to produce cosmic rifts through which the characters can visit different planes of existence, including afterlife variations like nirvana, Asgard and Lower Heck. Billy and Mandy have traveled with Grim to places like the Halls of Time (where they accidentally flip over their hourglasses and age backwards and eventually disappear), the Circus of Fear (where real human children are considered part of the freak show), and even the Underworld's lunch room (which is open to "staph" only). Grim's scythe can also summon monsters, supernatural creatures, and various Underworld inhabitants to Endsville. Grim also can use his scythe to reap people of their souls, even though Mandy specifically told him in one episode, "No Grim Reaping!"

The show universe, in addition to frequently violating the laws of physics, also contains a number of historical variations. Abraham Lincoln is President and a personal friend of Billy. The world police organization is not the United Nations, but the League of Nations (disbanded in 1946 in reality). The presence of a what appears to be a Communist leader in the League of Nations may also suggest that the Soviet Union has not dissolved in this universe. In this and many other ways (such as the anti-romance between the characters, and bizarro beliefs in race and sex) it resembles George Herriman's poetic and ground-breaking Krazy Kat.

An unusual aspect of the show is that episodes often end with the destruction or alteration of the world, or with the disappearance or horrific transformation of the main characters. These changes do not carry over to the next episode, however. Often the episode will end with no resolution at all. For example, in the episode Halls of Time, Billy, Mandy, Grim and Irwin all disappeared forever after their life hourglasses were turned upside down. In the episode Chocolate Sailor, Billy was turned into a large quantity of chocolate syrup,then trapped in the picture on a bottle of chocolate syrup for the end shot, and in the episode Sickly Sweet, Mandy was turned into a giant monster by the "Mask of the Beast". Because the producers compromise the safety of the characters in each episode, the show avoids the cliché that good always triumphs over evil.

The universe is also Evil Con Carne's universe: the characters meet, briefly, in the episodes Chicken Ball Z (a parody of Dragon Ball Z) and Duck!. In the third season episode Skarred For Life, General Skarr meets the characters in what could be seen as a full crossover. Skarr is now a recurring character in the show, and he struggles with fighting his addiction to war. He usually overcomes his desire for power by making cornbread or gardening. From time to time, the main characters surprise with aphorisms unusual for quick-draw (even semi-adult) type animation, such as: "Evolution takes no prisoners" (Mandy), "Money is the root of all evil" (Mandy), "Hope is wasted on the hopeless" (Mandy), "Romance is for the weak-minded" (Mandy), "Mind control doesn't work on people who think" (Eris), and "Man's loneliness is but his fear of life" (Grim).

Billy and Mandy also appear to attend an elementary school, as Billy, Mandy and the other students wear uniforms to school.

Mandy's introductory comments

At the beginning of each episode, after the introductory theme, Mandy walks onto an entirely black screen and delivers an introductory comment, talking to the audience in her usual acerbic tone. While her very first comment was a simple "shut up" on the Grim and Evil show, her comment is usually an aphorism, such as "It's not enough to succeed; others must fail," and "Evolution takes no prisoners." She might also say a line of dialogue directed to the audience, like "When you change the channel, we start talking about you behind your back," and "You can change the outcome of this cartoon by the power of your mind." The comments are often a reference to famous or infamous sources. On one occasion Mandy declared, "Do as thou wilt' shall be the whole of the law!" This is a reference to the notorious Aleister Crowley's The Book of the Law. Mandy has also quoted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles: "As you value your life and your reason, keep away from the moor." In another opening, she said "Evil. Pure and simple from the Eighth Dimension.", a line from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. She then pulls off her face to reveal a thin, pinkish-purple skull and lashes her tongue at the audience.

Sometimes other characters appear on the introductory comments. The Crawling Niceness / Smarten Up / The Grim Show is the first episode which Mandy didn't comment - this time Billy walked onto the screen, and said "Where am I? Who are you people?". In the episode Wild Parts / The Problem With Billy, after Mandy asks "Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of a man?", Grim suddenly appears, shouting "I do! I do!" (parodying the opening line of the radio serial The Shadow).

Characters

Billy

Billy is an extremely happy-go-lucky child, with an IQ of -5, which is almost impossibly hard to get down to, and far below the upper limit of being mentally retarded. He has a pink, oversized nose, wears a blue and white striped shirt, and has red hair covered by a red hat. Like his father, he has a number of unpleasant habits, including nose-picking, flatulence, male chauvinism and unapologetic idiocy. Prone to surprising (if nonsensical) fits of rage, he is extremely hyperactive, with a knack for causing all kinds of disasters and ending in various parallel dimensions, usually by experimenting with Grim's supernatural items. Billy is voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz.

Mandy

Mandy is Billy's closest friend, although completely contrast character: a blond, noseless girl with an acerbic attitude, evil personality ("I believe in abusing and exploiting the stupid"), and often surprising intellect and knowledge of the supernatural. She is rude to practically everybody, even her parents. Originally created as somewhat of a downer, she has since become completely sadistic and dark; her role with Billy has also changed from a good friend to ruling over Billy, constantly bossing him around. She is a fearless fighter who will stand up to schoolyard bullies (Billy and the Bully) and monsters from the underworld (Irwin Gets a Clue) without flinching (a fawning Irwin has aptly described her as a "tiny Valkyrie"). Mandy is voiced by Grey DeLisle.

Grim

Grim is the Grim Reaper, the personification of Death, here portrayed as a scythe-wielding skeleton in a black hooded robe. He is thousands of years old, as he was a child at the time of the Neanderthals. His accent and use of patois suggest that he is Jamaican. He enjoys all kinds of chaos, despair, and torture (except his own), martial arts activities (he attends a children's kung-fu class), and many other dark things.

By losing a limbo contest to Billy and Mandy, he is fated to be their "best friend" forever. He needed some time to adapt to the new life, but now he watches television, films, he can use internet and play video games, eat fast food and ice cream, and many other "normal" things. Although he is fairly adapted, he despises Billy and Mandy, hoping that he will eventually break free from his servitude. Grim is voiced by Greg Eagles.

Cultural references

The series often parodies horror - the horror film The Ring is parodied in Aren't you Chupacabra to See Me?, The Little Shop of Horrors is parodied in Little Rock of Horror, and the Disney film Fantasia was parodied in Dream A Little Dream. In the episode Tricycle of Terror, Billy is given a possessed tricycle, a plotline similar to Stephen King's novel Christine, in which a teenage boy buys a possessed antique car. Another example of a horror movie take-off would be the episode Tickle Me Mandy, which was a mimic of the Child's Play movie series, about an evil killer doll that no one believes is truly evil except for the doll's owner, a young boy.

The series parodied many famous scenes from popular movies, such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Akira, and Kill Bill. Harry Potter is a recurring theme - several episodes are based on "Nigel Planter" (Harry Potter) and "Toadblatt's School of Sorcery". For example, in the episode Toadblatt's School of Sorcery, the Sorting Hat was parodied as a "singing squid".In the episode Secret Decoder Ring, Billy's "decoder ring" translated text from back of the cereal box as a picture of a woman asking for help. This is a homage to Princess Leia Organa's plea for help broadcast from R2D2, the famous scene from A New Hope. Also, in the episode Hurter Monkey, the scene in which Grim and Dickie the monkey face off in a cleaning duel is a parody of The Matrix.

Other frequent subjects of parody are Frank Herbert's Dune series and H. P. Lovecraft. Dune is parodied in entire episodes like Mandy the Merciless, and off-hand references to the Gom Jabbar during the beauty pageant in the episode My Fair Mandy, and Lord Byron saying "You must not fear. Fear is the death that brings total obliteration" in the episode Ecto Cooler. H.P. Lovecraft's work is parodied in the episode Big Trouble in Billy's Basement. The "Bad Book" recalls the Necronomicon, with Billy needing Grim's scythe to summon Yog-Sothoth. Another example of H. P. Lovecraft's work parody is the episode Prank Call of Cthulhu, a parody of The Call of Cthulhu.

Music

Several episodes feature music performances. The episode Little Rock of Horror, which parodies the musical version of The Little Shop of Horrors, features a song by Voltaire, titled 'BRAINS!'. In the episode Battle of the Bands the song 'Into The Darkness' by SPF 1000, composed by David Ivy, who sold the rights to the song to the show. In the show, the song was performed by Grim and a garage band "Purple Filth" for the Battle of the Bands contest.

Critical reaction

Gross humor

The show frequently use crude or gross humor. For example, Billy blowing green mucus out of his nose onto his cat; Mandy magically transforming Billy into a "horse butt", which then passes gas; Billy talking about how a person at his school sneezed mucus onto a wall, and how the rest of the students ate it and got sick, but how he did not, despite "going back for seconds"; and Billy digging through his cat's litter-box and claiming that he "found another piece of candy", which is implied to be fecal matter. Another fecal matter happens in Billy uses dog excrement as his shampoo. In the episode Keeper of the Reaper, the character Fred Fredburger uses the restroom, and makes a lot of stress noises, and comments later that "the nachos made his poopoo really stinky".

Adult humor

Sometimes the show features more adult-oriented content, unusual given its kid-friendly rating. This is very similar to the show Rocko's Modern Life, which also got away with adult content despite it's kid rating. In That's My Mummy, necrophilia was implied. Irwin's father revealed that Irwin's mother is actually a mummy. He said that they "have managed to make it work all these years, leaving a whole lot of questions that don't need to be answered." Before Billy could finish his question "But how did you and Irwin's mom--", Irwin's father interrupts, repeating "leaving a whole lot of questions that don't need to be answered". Also, in Toadblatt's School of Sorcery, zoophilia was implied. Nigel Planter, while explaining what he did to sabotage Dean Toadblatt and Gunderstank house, said, "Then I made out with his dog". Billy accuses Grim of watching a pornographic movie in Sickly Sweet, when he tells Mandy that Grim "watched Mom and Dad's special DVD." In Mommy Fiercest, menopause was mentioned. When Billy's mother turned into a child and told Billy that she is actually his mother, Billy answered: "No, you are not. My mom is ancient and grappling with the onset of menopause." In the episode Hill Billy, Chokey Farms, Uncle Chokey, and everything else including Chokey's chickens are since a slang term for masturbating is "choking the chicken." Another innuendo occours in Dream Mutt, when the announcer, in response to one of the dogs performances, exclaimes "now that's what I call doggy style", referring to the sexual term. Another joke in the episode Modern Primitives relates to erectile disfunction - "His name was Captain Deadwood, but don't let the name fool you..." There are many similiar occurences throughout the series. The series has even gotten to the point of showing homosexuality. In the episode, One Crazy Summoner/Guess What's Coming To Dinner, Nigel Planter wanted to give some chocolate to Herfeffine Pfefferfeffer that would make her fall in love with the first person she sees. Dean Toadblatt eats the chocolate, not knowing its effects, and falls in love with Squidhat, who apparently was already in love with Toadblatt. The two kiss each other and fly away.

Fantasy Violence

The show sometimes uses an extreme fantasy violence, even to the point of showing gore. For example, In the episode Brown Evil, there is a scene in which Hoss Delgado battles hordes of zombies, using chainsaws, guns, and his other gadgets. The remaining zombies combine into a giant decomposing monster, and the episode ends with the monster blowing up, causing a rain of the body parts. In the episode Tastes like Chicken, Mandy was suspeccted for being a cannibal, and in the end, it was implied that she has eaten Irwin. The episode Little Rock of Horror involves a giant alien asteroid eating brains of everyone in the town, while singing the song BRAINS!. In the episode Tricycle of Terror, Billy falls from the bike, and when he looks up his entire face had been shredded, although he says "One lemonade please!" Pinocchio, who appeared in episodes Nursery Crimes and Billy Ocean, believes that the only way to become a real boy is to devour Billy's flesh and is willing to do this to the point of insanity. Because of the many similar occurencies, the show is rated as "TV-Y7-FV", where "FV" means a higher degree of the fantasy violence.

Stereotypical humor

During the first few seasons, Afro-American character Irwin spoke with a dialect exactly the same as the white characters on the show. However, as the series went on, Irwin started to use slang such as "yo", "homey", and "dogg" that the other characters sometimes couldn't decipher. Irwin's vocabular continued to be infiltrated with slang that no one else on the show used. It is now rare to hear Irwin not end his sentence with the word "yo". It seems that everyone in Irwin's family share his quirkily stereotypical accent.

DVD release

Though Cartoon Network and Warner Home Video have no plans for season or volume sets of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, certain episodes have been featured on various other Cartoon Network DVDs.

Cartoon Network Halloween - 9 Creepy Capers (August 10, 2004) — Billy and Mandy's Jacked Up Halloween ^*
Cartoon Network Christmas - Yuletide Follies (October 5, 2004) — Son of Nergal ^*
Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy, Volume 1 - Edifying Ed-Ventures (May 10, 2005) — Nursery Crimes
Cartoon Network Halloween 2 - Grossest Halloween Ever (August 9, 2005) — Night of the Living Grim ^*
Cartoon Network - Christmas Rocks (October 5, 2005) — Battle of the Bands ^*

References

External links

2000s TV shows in the United States | Animated television series | Billy and Mandy | Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Studios series | Shows on Cartoon Cartoons

Las sombrías aventuras de Billy y Mandy | De Grimmige Avonturen van Billy en Mandy | Mroczne przygody Billy'ego i Mandy

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