As a community, UPN took probabilities of their programming to try to stand out, however some efforts seemed much more like chasing tendencies, so it was no shock that they’d need to reap the benefits of the rising reputation video video games have been seeing on the time. As a substitute of simply speaking concerning the video games business or upcoming merchandise, nonetheless, why not do an animated sitcom with cutting-edge graphics and a few grownup humor? However that’s the kind of pondering that provides audiences forgotten reveals like Sport Over.
Like TRON and ReBoot earlier than it, Sport Over explores the intriguing idea of what occurs to the online game characters after the console is turned off. Particularly, we comply with the Smashenburns, a middle-class suburban household of online game characters making an attempt to make it, however there’s little or no that’s perfect about their dynamic. They’re all fairly horrible in relation to their private relationships, there’s no communication, as a unit they’re fairly harmful, and the group virtually leaves their new household pet to die by the hands of monsters. I don’t assume we have to say extra, however as people, they worsen.
There’s Ripley “Rip” Smashenburn (Patrick Warburton), the good-looking father who drives racecars when he isn’t struggling to attach along with his kids or frightened about how his spouse makes more cash than him and is definitely efficient at her job. It appears Rip’s allure is larger than his driving capability, as he’s always crashing on the monitor and along with his household, however at the very least he’s making an attempt. Raquel (Lucy Liu), his spouse, has gone again to work full-time as a generic undercover agent with quite a lot of Lara Croft vibes, which implies she has no time for her duties as a mom. She’s involved about her children however extra frightened about discovering treasures and displaying up one of many different native mothers. It’s exhausting to narrate to your mom when she’s picked up for work in an assault helicopter and cooking the turkey with a laser cannon.
The youngsters aren’t doing significantly better. Alice (Rachel Dratch) is an angst-ridden teenage lady who protests for what she feels are nice causes, often pitting her towards her mother and father, as she tries to determine what she desires to be on this loopy online game world. Rounding out the people is Billy (E.G. Each day), a typical younger boy in his place who’s frightened about his style, becoming in, and utilizing his ardour for Hip Hop to put in writing songs to serenade his crushes. Lastly, it’s Turbo (Artie Lange), a purple dog-like mascot that comes throughout as a 40-year-old cigar-smoking con artist who blackmails the household into maintaining him.
Most parts of the characters are strong. It’s exhausting to place any of the blame on the voice actors, as they’re all enjoying their roles to the letter. Warburton is the standout, with Liu additionally shining in lots of scenes, and a few of Lange’s deliveries killing it, however that doesn’t imply it was working. Turbo might be a part of the issue. Generally I ponder if the fabric simply isn’t humorous or if it’s him, and that’s a troublesome name as a result of, once more, I don’t imply Lange, however the character. Turbo feels misplaced, just like the household pet has his personal present he’s making an attempt to spin off, or he’s from one other world we by no means see. The writers simply didn’t do rather a lot with him or his online game connections, being a Sonic-like mascot. Billy must take some blame additionally, as his stereotypical suburban white child wannabe rapper gimmick makes sure scenes fall flat.
One among Sport Over’s best weaknesses was its basis in gaming. This was round when video video games started taking the blame for pulling youthful viewers away from conventional tv, so why not attempt to give them the very best of each worlds? Sport Over didn’t really feel prefer it actually leaned into that side, although; it was a comedy with a little bit little bit of lewd humor and themes that might have in all probability been executed higher as an everyday sitcom. Many of the plots and jokes have been tried and true staples of the style, the place the online game parts might have simply been changed, and the joke nonetheless labored tremendous. The scripts didn’t go for something new, even when the idea and animation have been making an attempt to be. They obtained near this, with the stuff about Raquel’s job as a online game heroine being the crux of her issues at residence, however extra was wanted.
That’s to not say they didn’t attempt to put in gaming parts, references, and even a number of characters, however they largely really feel like afterthoughts. We see icons like Crash Bandicoot, monsters from Oddworld, nods to Frogger and Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater, whereas Donkey Kong, Grand Theft Auto: Vice Metropolis, and Pitfall are all paid transient lip service. We additionally see some PlayStation-like controllers, hear iconic sport sound results, and there may be imagery clearly impressed by standard franchises with out risking any lawsuits, however a lot of that feels gentle and beauty, not like ReBoot’s residing pc world.
The place the present excelled was the visuals, particularly in the event that they have been taking pictures for that Sims and PS2 period look that will have been extra frequent on the time, however a lot much less spectacular now. Sport Over was the primary totally CG-animated collection to take a primetime tv spot. The pc graphics have been executed by DKP Studios, who had created new tech to assist them struggle towards the rigorous manufacturing schedule the present would require. With a workforce of 80 animators to hammer out the episodes, this cutting-edge presentation helped Sport Over stand out, even when just for a second.
There have been another enjoyable names behind the scenes as visitor stars. Marisa Tomei (Spider-Man: No Method Dwelling, My Cousin Vinny) was initially the voice of Raquel for the unaired 12-minute pilot, however scheduling points prompted the necessity for her to get replaced. Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Improvement) voiced Dr. Zed, Raquel’s boss. On the identical time, Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie, A Mighty Wind), Danica McKellar (The Marvel Years, Younger Justice), and Tom Kenny (fucking SpongeBob SquarePants) all made small contributions.
The 2004 present was created by David Sacks, a reputation that grew to become extra well-known afterward because the president of Nickelodeon Animation Studios. Sport Over was completely different from what he’d grow to be recognized for, because it tried to push the vulgar household humor as a lot as they may in primetime whereas nonetheless vaguely having the characters study classes. There was a considerable amount of sexual exploitation – largely with the mother – themes of rising up as a girl, and the community even made the studio reduce out two seconds of a feminine character’s naked ass, so the boundaries didn’t get pushed too far. Even the drug episode used ‘magic cookies’ as a metaphor for what appeared like a little bit little bit of weed. Many of the humor that feels out of contact isn’t, “You may’t do this at the moment,” as a lot as that the dialog round these topics is just completely different now and there are completely different jokes to be made.
Sport Over is six episodes lengthy and solely 5 of these made it on tv, because the present flopped fairly exhausting. This isn’t utterly stunning as a result of UPN usually struggled as a community and wasn’t large on giving underperforming reveals a lot time until the viewers actually got here out in power for them. Sport Over was sufficiently praised and given a push from the community main as much as its debut, however supposedly, the advertising suffered after that, and the restricted variety of episodes aired over so few weeks possible didn’t assist both. There was even a playable PC sport to assist promote the present, sponsored by GameFly and constructed on the Quake III engine.
It’s type of a disgrace, because the present discovering its voice extra with the final two episodes, and DKP sounded pleased with what they have been studying to do with the character animations. I’d prefer to assume six extra episodes might have made a distinction, however that is likely to be the fervour from the creators shining by way of greater than something.
For anybody desirous to see Sport Over for themselves, it isn’t exhausting to search out on YouTube, but when somebody is on the lookout for bodily media, the collection hasn’t gotten too costly but, regardless that it’s now not being printed. The DVD does have a number of fascinating bonus options and a trivia sport, that if the viewer wins they will see the alternate credit sequence. Okay, it’s not that thrilling, I admit, however it’s nonetheless neat. You bought me, this present isn’t that good, however I wished extra folks to comprehend it existed. Now if everybody will excuse me, I believe I’ll go play a online game as a substitute of watching this one once more.
