Review

Adult Swim favorite "Robot Chicken" is a prime example of a simple concept that begs the question “Why didn’t I think of that?”. Co-creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich use stop-motion animation to bring their action figure collections to life in hilarious acts of pop culture sacrilege. Episodes are eight to 12 minutes in length and always start off with a string of hit-or-miss one-liners followed by a main feature that allows imaginary characters from all eras to collide. For instance: four members of N-Sync are gunned down by Yakuza during a recording session. The surviving member trains with the Karate Kid’s Mr. Miyagi who pits him up against Mortal Kombat characters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and even Hello Kitty. The skit ends with a face-off between the hero and a cadre of female pop stars that includes Britney Spears and “Jessica Simpson’s sister”. A large part of the fun of these skits is the surprising number of celebrities that lend their talent to the show, a notable example being the Wacky Races/Smokey and the Bandit parody hosted by Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise.

This two disc DVD set features the first 20 episodes of the series plus a great selection of bonus features including nonchalant interviews with the crew, unaired segments from the show’s early years, and a host of visual insights into the animation process.

 -- Eric Bresler