‘Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie’ Review
Stars (the voices of): Jason Mewes, Eliza Dushku, Marc Bernardin, Ming Chen, Kevin Conroy, Matt Cohen, Brian Faraldo, Walter Flanagan, James Franco Jr., Neil Gaiman, Ralph Garman, Ben Gleib, Bryan Johnson | Written by Kevin Smith | Directed by Steve Stark
Anti-heroes Jay and Silent Bob are back in a new animated feature that sees chaos commence when the duo win big on the lottery and use their money to do what anyone would do… become superheroes.
Based on the Bluntman and Chronic comics which themselves were inspired by Smith’s two stoner anti-heroes Jay and Silent Bob, Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie is one of Kevin Smith’s SMODCast productions – you know, those that Smith and his cronies have total control over. And it shows here. With no one to reign in Smith and co. the jokes hit – and miss – every target under the sun; some aimed at Smith and his characters, and some aimed at Hollywood (and celebrities) at large – a number of which are, even now, already dated.
As a fan of Kevin Smith and his Clerks “universe” I was eagerly awaiting the UK release of Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie. Having seen the original Clerks animated series (which was criminally axed way before its prime) I had high hopes for another round of animated fun. Sadly there’s not much fun to be had here. The animation borders on the amateur and the script feels like it was written by a Smith wannabe, not Smith himself.
The low-brow humour of the main characters extends far beyond just Jay and Silent Bob, infusing the entire script with a very same childish sense of humour that the duo have in Smith’s live action films. But whereas the likes of Clerks and its sequel have a more “adult” set of foils for Jay and Silent Bob to play against, here they have free reign to act like total idiots. And it’s painful to watch.
In it’s favour, the animation has a strange Roger Crumb/Fritz the Cat vibe, with the same air of sleaziness that makes those 70s adult “cartoons” so freakishly appealing – which given the fact that Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie is essentially an hour-long dick joke (thankfully this “feature” keeps it under an hour – although this is one of those films that makes time seemingly standstill) is quite apt.
If you want to see Jay and Silent Bob in a quality animated “adventure” then check out Clerks: The Animated Series, which is a hell of a lot funnier and much better animated… Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie is for hardcore Kevin Smith fans only (and I say that as a Kevin Smith fan).
Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movieis available now on iTunes and will be released on limited edition DVD (a Zavvi Exclusive), courtesy of Signature Entertainment, on July 21st.
