Xavier: Renegade Angel
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| Xavier: Renegade Angel | |
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| Format | Animation / Comedy |
|---|---|
| Created by | John Lee Vernon Chatman Alyson Levy Jim Tozzi |
| Starring | John Lee Vernon Chatman Alyson Levy Jim Tozzi |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 20 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | John Lee Vernon Chatman Alyson Levy Jim Tozzi |
| Producer(s) | PFFR, Cinematico |
| Running time | approx. 11 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Adult Swim |
| Original run | November 4, 2007 – present |
Xavier: Renegade Angel is a computer animated, fantasy-comedy television series created by John Lee, Vernon Chatman, Alyson Levy and Jim Tozzi. Lee and Chatman are also the creators of Wonder Showzen. The show is produced by PFFR, with animation by Cinematico. It premiered at midnight on November 4, 2007 on Adult Swim, and November 1, 2007 on adultswim.com.
The show features a style characterized by a very loosely formed, noncontinuous plot and the ubiquitous use of surrealist, absurdist humor through a pseudo-shamanistic/new age lens. The second season premiered on February 12[1] and ended on April 16, 2009. The show is also normally rated either TV-MA or TV-MA V because of the occasional intense violence.
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[edit] Recurring characters
Xavier: A self-absorbed and oblivious wanderer with delusions of grandeur, Xavier is the titular main character of the program, often shown to be a deeply insecure and child-like individual who can quickly turn against others if interactions with them lead to negative feelings about himself. His left hand is a snake from the elbow downwards. It usually acts like an ordinary hand, but in the episodes "The 6th Teat of Good Intentions" and "El Tornadador", it appeared to have a life of its own and spoke to Xavier directly. His knees bend at the joints backwards, he is covered in brown fur and has ocular heterochromia, having one brown eye and one blue. Instead of a nose, Xavier has a raptor-like beak, though he also has a mouth. He has six nipples and a giant eye in place of his genitalia. He typically wears tennis shoes and a loin cloth.
Xavier's purpose seems to change slightly with each episode, with the initial plot setting him as a wandering philosopher, or aspiring "wise man" or sage of sorts, searching for the answer to the abstract question, "What doth life?" This can broadly be interpreted as an existential inquiry, such as "What is the meaning of life?"
Later on in the series, Xavier announces his reasons for roaming the world as the means to which he can help others, his purpose being to improve the quality of human existence and generally speaking, do good. Several episodes focus on his search for his mother and the person who killed his father, as well.
Chief Master Guru: This supposedly Native American shaman took Xavier in after he became orphaned, and taught him mystical and spiritual practices (one such teaching being the power to heal others with the use of a fictional instrument called a "shakashuri"). The Shaman features frequently in flashbacks, and—despite Xavier's adulation—is shown to be abusive, bullying and cruel. He eventually fakes his own death in order to get rid of Xavier,but its later revealed that he gave Xavier the loin cloth and the inspiration to help people in order to get rid of him.
Xavier's father: Being dead, Xavier's father only appears in flashbacks and visions. Xavier says he wants to avenge his father's death, but in one such flashback his father insists that Xavier himself killed him.
Xavier's father seems to have been just as neglectful as his mother. In a flashback, for instance, (one which Xavier later denies as being true), his father takes Xavier to a remote location and abandons him as a child, only leaving him with a bicycle as a means of compensation.
Xavier's mother: Xavier's mother is generally seen in flashbacks as constantly either drunk, drug-addled, or having sex with other men or animals. In "Haunted Tonk", it is revealed that Xavier went back in time and told his younger self to give his mother only apple juice and sugar pills instead of alcohol and medication. Xavier's mother seems to have hated him for his appearances, calling him a "demon child", among other names. In "Braingeas Final Cranny", it is revealed that Xavier's mother tried to abort Xavier, though she found out that she was too far along into the pregnancy in order to do so. She instead allowed the abortionist doctor to torture her child while inside her womb.
In several episodes, Xavier is shown searching the world for his lost mother.
Computer: Computer is a sentient computer used by Xavier for analysis and information. He appears as a jerkily-edited live-action actor set in front of a jarring black and white background. Played by John Flansburgh.
[edit] Style and content
The computer-generated animation of Xavier: Renegade Angel resembles that of video games such as Second Life and The Sims[citation needed]. The show features ribald wordplay, nonchalant violence and transgressive sexuality, in deeply-nested, often recursive plots. These plots are often very nonlinear in their chronology; however, each episode seems to contain similar themes and motifs, as well as a single opening scene that has reccured in every episode of Xavier: A depiction of the titular character wandering through a desert, likely a reference to the 1970's show Kung Fu (TV series), as he rambles on about a semi-random, humor-tinged philosophical thought that many times connects with the episode at hand. An opening theme presumed to be played by Xavier on his "shakasuri" is present during these openings.
Co-creator Vernon Chatman called the show "a warning to children and adults about the dangers of spirituality."[2] The show has been known to mock Christianity, Middle America, redneck stereotypes, and anarcho-punk subcultures.
Xavier often incorporates underlying themes and concepts based outside of, though interconnected with the plot of each episode. Philosophical or political concepts are often juxtaposed with the surrealistic and alleatory nature of the show. Society and cultural psychology and phenomena, the meaning of life, the existence of sentience and the nature of reality have been examined in one form or another throughout the program's several seasons.
Jokes and humor tend to be oriented towards Xavier's own philosophical inquiry and the "deep", "zen-like" diction of wisdom quotes from various spiritual systems (particularly Native American and Hindu or Eastern spirituality) that Xavier seemingly attempts to mimic. These are many times lightly mocked with Xavier's misuse of the phrases, reflecting on contemporary humor and taking the often circular logic of such statements far out of context.
"Taboo" topics such as necrophilia, homophobia, abortion, and racism may be hinted at, with Xavier ignorantly making light of such situations when trying to carry on conversation or simply speak to others. As well, racial and other epithets are frequently used by Xavier in a spontaneous and often non-meaningful way. In these aspects of Xavier: Renegade Angel, the program could be seen as containing a substantial amount of black comedy.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] DVD Release
[adult swim], Cartoon Network and Warner Home Video have announced that Seasons 1 and 2 will be released to DVD on November 10.Bonus material include "Xaviercise!", Fan Commentary and Contest Submissions.[3]
