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STUDIO: Cartoon Network
MSRP: $69.98
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 1200 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Commentaries
Featurettes
The Pitch
Orel wants you to be good with God.
The Humans
Carolyn Lawrence, Britta Phillips, Scott Adsit, Jay Johnston and William Salyers
The Nutshell
Orel is an 11 year old boy that just wants to do the Lord’s work. It’s just a shame that everyone in Moralton is so fucked up. Authority figures constantly try to each Orel lessons about life, but the little guy reminds confused. Reverend Putty and Orel’s father both try to combat the stimuli that fills Orel’s life, which results in hilarity. Semen, censorship and outright murder all play into the first couple of episodes.
The Lowdown
Series creator Dino Stamatopoulos made his bones with Robert Smigel on TV Funhouse and other ventures. When he first bowed Moral Orel on Adult Swim, it was a little predictable. Two months passed and the audience realized that they were in for something darker. Taking cues from Lutheran claymation ventures of old, Dino found amazing material to be mined. Mainly, a young child’s views of the most screwed portions of the Judeo-Christian faith.
Moral Orel proved its worth with God’s Chef. This episode was delayed upon its submission to the network. Its graphic depiction of a young child practically raping women with stolen semen was a bit much. Hell, if you want to see the original cut…it’s available in the special features. Let me repeat that for the people that weren’t paying attention. It’s a cartoon about a middle school aged child using his semen to impregnate local women.
What works so well with this series is the sincere mockery. Using the episode mentioned above, you see that Orel is painted as some sort of Jesus freak. He’s an honest kid that takes what he learns in Church and tries to apply it to his life. What he doesn’t have is that strong filter that lets him know when things are absolutely nuts. The later seasons would dwell in this material. Unfortunately, the third season lost the focus and tried to go way too dark with what Orel was meant to learn.
The last chunk of the first season was made up of the three episodes that Standards and Practices delayed. The first episode featured Orel learning about maturity and when it’s appropriate to drink your problems away. The second of the delayed episodes focused on Orel and his new best friend. They discovered what it means to be loyal, as they team up to gay bash some kids. I can’t think of any other Adult Swim show that was so willing to push the envelope.
The Package
The
DVD set comes with promos, commentaries and basic featurettes. The selling point in terms of supplementals has to be the Comic-Con panel footage. Dino Stamatopoulos showed up to the Adult Swim panel expecting that the Convention folk hated his show. He’s a little drunk and disorderly, which leads to some lulz with the Robot Chicken and Venture Brothers crews. It’s awkward and it’s a scene that I still believe was staged.