Regular Show vs. Beavis and Butt-head

What's up everyone, today I will be critiquing Regular Show (2010) and Beavis and Butt-head (1993) . Regular Show is an animated cartoon series about two best friends that live and work together, Mordecai and Rigby. The show revolves around them getting in and out of trouble. They live in a boarding house at a park, where they work as groundskeepers. Mordecai is a 23 year-old Blue Jay, who is the more mature and sensible one out of the two friends. Rigby is a 23 year-old Racoon who is always lazy, compulsive and irresponsible. When the two friends are together, work never gets done and they're always messing things up. As a result of their mess-ups, the consequences that follow are always extreme or supernatural. Their roommates always seem to get tangled in their dilemmas, but they work together to help one another. Pops is a British Lollipop man who is sweet, innocent and very naive; Skips is a beefed-up Yeti who loves to work out and is the "muscle" around the park; Benson is a gum-ball machine who is the boss and makes sure everything in the park is in order; Muscle Man (a.k.a. Mitch) is an overly macho, obnoxious who is commonly making "My Mom" jokes—which is suppose to be a spin-off of "Yo Momma" jokes and High Five Ghost is his best friend, who is always there to give Muscle Man a high five after all of his "My Mom" jokes. 

Beavis and Butt-head is a cartoon show about two teenage boys who are always getting into some kind of trouble. They love rock music, watching music videos and they love bashing on other people. The similarities between the cartoon are as follow:

• Two best friends that get into trouble when they're together and unsupervised. Difference is, Regular Show is more watered-down with their adult humor.
• One of the friends, tends to be a little bit more mature than the other (Regular Show: Mordecai and Beavis and Butt-head: Butt-head).
• They end up getting themselves into weird, unrealistic situations. Difference is, in Regular Show, the situation is more often supernatural, and in Beavis and Butt-head  the situation is just stupid. 
• The best friends share their signature confirmation laughs with one another. (Regular Show: the "Hm-hmhm-hm-hmm" laugh and Beavis and Butt-head: just their usual awkward laughs).

The more I think about the two cartoons as a comparison, the more I consider them to be parallel from each other. 

Regular Show

This cartoon definitely has a style of its own. It's is so different from all the other cartoons that are currently on Cartoon Network. The environment is very clean and has a realistic feel to it, almost like it we could go to that location ourselves. What adds to the uniqueness of this cartoon, are the random supernatural consequences that follow Mordecai and Rigby's actions. It adds the, "What the @#$%!" factor and makes a new genera of humor. If the viewers are not open-minded about the humor in this cartoon, it will come off as slow and boring. If you pay attention to the hidden adult jokes, visual puns, innuendoes and mild vulgarity, you will really enjoy this cartoon. The character styles incorporate a wide variety, from animals to inanimate objects talking to real human beings. The creativity level for this cartoon is off the charts and stands out from the crowd. 

The aesthetics of the characters are similar to the classic 20s and 30s "noodling". Sometimes the joints will completely bend or they'll just curl around. This play between smooth and sharp edges and corners, creates an appealing look that is easy on the eyes. I personally love this aspect of character design, because I also play with these details in my designs. The animation is paralleled to the look of the cartoon. The smooth and sharp play is also displayed in the animation and creates a unique style. The color scheme of the show, is also classic to the vintage cartoons. Again, it's very appealing, easy on the eyes and adds to the humor of the cartoon. For example, Muscle Man's skin is green. The green color, along with his deep voice, makes him seem sickly. He's suppose to be a macho character, yet he has an unappealing gut and barley any noticeable muscle. Color also comes into play with Benson. We all familiarize a gum-ball machine to me red, right? Well, the red color not only helps the viewer make a visual connection, but to express his overall personality. He is very quick-tempered, so we see him mad and frustrated often. The red expresses that element of his personality. When he really gets upset, the class casing, that holds the gum-balls, also turns red. 

The only down-side to this cartoon, is the lack of character depth. It does give some brief information in certain episodes, on certain characters, but shortened air time prevents that. On the other hand, the general audience honestly doesn't care how deep the cartoon goes. It's cohesive and makes sense, so it doesn't matter.  

This cartoon is definitely different, in a fantastic way. When I saw the first few episodes, I was a little turned off by the humor, but I new there was potential. I'm very open-minded when it comes to cartoons, so I warmed up to it. Once I understood the humor, I was hooked. [1]

Beavis and Butt-head

This cartoon is definitely, one of the pioneers for the adult cartoons we have to day. There's really not much to critique about this cartoon, except to say that it's simple. It's meant for a mature audience, so it really doesn't need all that "la-de-da" to communicate the theme. In a sense, the simpleness of it, is what makes the show. As chaotic as Beavis and Butt-head are, I see no need for any fancy animation, color scheme or depth. The humor speaks for itself and the expressiveness of the lines in the characters' design, communicates clearly. This cartoon was simply made  to watch, enjoy and rot the brains of countless children. And if your a 90s baby, you now exactly what I'm talking about. [2]

My Opinion

It's uncanny how alike and different theses two cartoons are. I enjoy watching both of them, just for sheer entertainment, but I would pick Regular Show over Beavis and Butt-head. 

[1] Regular Show. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2012 from 
         http://www.tv.com/shows/regular-show/

[2] Beavis and Butt-head. (2012). Retrieved December 6, 2012 from  
         http://www.mtv.com/shows/beavis_and_butthead/series.jhtml