|
|
Post by number-1-scarer on May 4, 2013 9:48:54 GMT -5
So after seeing some people compare the show to MI and being bored at home i decided to watch the first episode, ive never seen it before for some reason, and OMG!
I might be just immature but it is actually hilarious. and you are right pbl the little red guy is just like Randall its so funny!
|
|
|
|
Post by pitbulllady on May 4, 2013 11:49:25 GMT -5
So after seeing some people compare the show to MI and being bored at home i decided to watch the first episode, ive never seen it before for some reason, and OMG! I might be just immature but it is actually hilarious. and you are right pbl the little red guy is just like Randall its so funny! I was a faithful fan of A!RM! for as long as it aired on Nick, original runs and re-runs, until they took it off completely. This is a really funny and sharp-witted satire on American culture and politics, as well as having genuine heart at times, and flawed characters we can all relate to. Their "Monster World" lies within our own, with the monsters living out-of-sight in our landfills, sewers, subway tunnels, etc., living off of our own refuse and toxic spills, etc. The show, for those who have never watched it, focuses on three young monsters of approximately Jr. High age, who attend and live at a Monster Academy, where they learn the fine art of Scaring, of course. Only these monsters do not get energy from human Screams, nor do they limit their scaring ability to just children, either. They scare humans to maintain a "balance of power' between us and them, with the understanding that we will destroy ourselves and the world we live in, thus taking the monsters out, too, if allowed to go about our business unchecked. They see the whole notion of scaring humans as a sort of symbiosis, that WE depend on THEM to keep us evolving and save us from ourselves, while WE provide THEM with food(garbage, oil spills, etc.) and places to live(the tunnels underneath NYC, for instance). They do not lose sight of the fact that humans are very dangerous, though, prone to killing things they don't understand or don't like or fear, so there is always that element of risk of a monster being killed or captured by humans, thus officially exposing their existence, as well as of humans no longer being afraid of monsters, becoming desensitized to fear, as we saw in MI. When MI came out in theaters, I actually got ticked off at Pixar because the trailers I saw on tv made it appear like a rip-off of A!TM!, which Nick had just taken off-air. In the Nicktoon, the monsters accessed human homes and businesses via the sewers, in other words, they came up through our toilets and escaped the same way! In the MI trailer, they showed the scene in which Mike and Sulley are leaving the restroom after hearing of "Randall's" plot, with the toilet paper stuck to Mike's obviously-wet foot, so I assumed that those monsters did the same thing, size notwithstanding. MI actually turned out quite different, but there are still a lot of parallels. The main protagonist of A!RM! was a little reddish-purple(he actually describes himself as "magenta") monster named Ickis, who looks superficially like a gremlin, with huge ears, sharp teeth and claws and large eyes, BUT, if you look at the shape of Ickis' head, and imagine those ears gone(which would probably please HIM a bit...more on that later) and replaced by three fronds on top of his head, you will see a definite resemblance to someone else! To say that Ickis has "issues" is a gross understatement, as Ickis defines Compensatory Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and borders on being Bi-Polar. Like Randall in MU, he's a pipsqueak, and a nerd. He even wears those big, round Coke-bottle glasses in the first couple of episodes but ditches them later, presumably because they aren't scary and interfere with his particular scaring skill. He's nervous and high-strung, and a chronic worrier. Ickis is a firm believer in Murphy's Law, and then some! He prefers to avoid risks and trouble at all costs, but he's also got a strong rebellious streak and is another one of those extreme right-brained, outside-the-box thinkers who constantly challenges accepted conventions. He's very inventive and creative, with enormous capacity for designing and building new(and unacceptable to monsters) technology, and a very quick thinker. He's also very athletic and agile...most of the time. Ickis has a profound fascination with humans and our culture and actually empathizes with humans a lot, something absolutely forbidden, and during the course of the series, he befriends several humans, including a nerdy, picked-on kid named Bradley and an old, blind Delta Bluesman, Ellis Robinson, who was voiced by the very real Blues musician Taj Mahal. Like I said, Ickis DOES have major issues, though, and here is where the comparison of him and Randall gets interesting. Ickis has a very famous father, the "Great" Slickis, who has the wonderful New Orleans accent and is a really nice, humble guy, but he's seldom present in his son's life(we hear absolutely nothing of Ickis' mom, so most fans assume she's dead) due to traveling around signing books, etc., as he is pretty much the Monster World version of Michael Jordon. Ickis is constantly compared-unfavorably-to his famous dad, the most-esteemed graduate of that same Monster Academy, all-around terrifying Scarer, athlete, etc., and he's developed a severe inferiority complex because of it, using his CNPD to cover for that. Now, we know that people with CNPD's usually do develop those due to what CD calls "daddy issue", which is most certainly the case with Ickis, and probably with Randall, too, given that the ROR description mentions them all having famous Scarers in their families,too. Also, like Randall, Ickis has a particular scaring skill that sets him apart, one that at first he cannot control, which "takes over" when he's angry. Whereas Randall can "blend"(we actually do see that Slickis, Ickis' father, can blend also, even though he's furry), Ickis can "loom", that is, he can suddenly grow from a two-foot tall little furry cute thing into a humongous fanged beast with glowing, blood-red eyes and dagger-like fangs and claws. At first, in the series, Ickis is the target of many a bully, and experiences many traumatic events, some of which he honestly brought upon himself, but as the series progressed, Ickis started to develop more of an attitude, especially as he learned to control his looming, and even without looming, he got to the point where the bullies seriously thought twice before messing with him, so we could see a bit of that "MI Randall" personality starting to manifest itself. Another major problem for Ickis in the scary dept. was his looks. With his furry body, big feet and large ears, he often got mistaken by humans for a rabbit! Rabbits, of course, aren't scary, unless you've watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail one time too many and left your Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch over at your mama's house when you went to visit for Christmas, so this presents a challenge for Ickis to overcome. As a result, he HATES rabbits, and one of the things most likely to trigger his wrath is to call him a "bunny rabbit" or "Rabbit Boy"; I can imagine Randall would probably feel the same way about lizards, actually! In the potential threat department, though, Ickis' looming trumps Randall's blending any day, so if I could travel back to the '90's and visit THAT Monster World, I'd show them MI and advise those monsters who enjoy tormenting Ickis about his looks or lack of scariness to seriously back the frick off, because they are creating their own "Randall", who will probably at some point make them regret doing so. pitbulllady |
|
|
|
Post by mintygreen on May 4, 2013 12:51:39 GMT -5
So after seeing some people compare the show to MI and being bored at home i decided to watch the first episode, ive never seen it before for some reason, and OMG! I might be just immature but it is actually hilarious. and you are right pbl the little red guy is just like Randall its so funny! You know I had a crush on the red character back when I was about 13 or so when the show was on TV. So it's funny that people compare him to Randall. XD I should really watch it again if it's uploaded online since I haven't seen it since it was shown on TV. |
|
