Frisky Dingo
Frisky Dingo | |
---|---|
Created by | Adam Reed Matt Thompson |
Starring | Mike Bell Christian Danley Neal Holman Kate Miller Adam Reed |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 16 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Running time | 11 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | Cartoon Network |
Release | October 16, 2006 – present |
Frisky Dingo is an animated comedy television series from Matt Thompson and Adam Reed, co-creators of Sealab 2021. It debuted October 16, 2006 at 12:30 AM on Adult Swim and ended its first season on January 22, 2007. The second season premiered on August 26, 2007.[1]
Characters
Origins
The show was created by 70/30 Productions, the same animators who worked on Sealab 2021. The show's name during development was "Whiskey Tango". There was already a band using the name, so to prevent legal action, the show's name was changed to "Whiskey Tango Six". This name, however, was determined not to be sufficiently distinct to avoid infringement suits, so the creators jokingly said they would call the show "Frisky Dingo", and the name stuck.
According to an article in Atlanta Magazine, Whiskey Tango Six was going to be the name of the super hero group that the show focused on, a group of 6 armor wearing super heroes, headed up by husband and wife Jack and Grace Taggart. The team flew around in a spaceship called the Glennis. Killface was going to be the main villain but not a major character. During revisions of the show's scripts, Killface became the focus of the show. It is not known when Whiskey Tango Six was replaced with Xander Crews/Awesome X and the Xtacles.[2]
Plot
This section's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (September 2007) |
When Frisky Dingo begins, the skull-faced deathly-white Killface is trying to strike fear into humankind by unveiling his Annihilatrix, a large rocket that will propel the Earth into the Sun—unfortunately, he lacks the funding to advertise it, so he searches for more cost-effective ways to advertise the Annihilatrix. Meanwhile, Awesome-X, the secret superhero identity of multi-billionaire Xander Crews, has just defeated the last known super-villain. Xander receives a piece of Killface's advertising, and he decides the two could conspire to create an artificial feud and thereby generate sales of Awesome-X and Killface dolls.
Killface is not interested in Xander's plan. After an unproductive trip to Las Vegas, Xander is kidnapped by Killface's son Simon. Killface, Simon, Xander, and Xander's girlfriend Grace Ryan all meet at a platform high atop the Annihilatrix, just as Xander's intern Arthur Watley arrives at the parking lot below with a pick-up truck full of super-intelligent radioactive-waste-covered ants. Grace plummets off the platform and into the waste, eventually granting her the ability to transform into Antagone, who wields an array of ant-related powers. Xander is then kidnapped by his own crew of crime-fighting robot-suited Xtacles (who have not been told that he is Awesome X) due to Xander not having recently paid their salaries. When Xander tells them his identity in hopes that they'll let him go, he suggests using the DNA analyzer that they had from a paternity suit. They then leave Xander with Ronnie, an Xtacle that wishes to have his ways with him once all the others have left the room. Ronnie then takes off Xander Crews's clothes, glues a blond wig to his head and writes words like "boy-toy" all over his body. When Ronnie takes off the pants of his armor Crews kicks him in the crotch, steals his "robot pants" and escapes on its jet boots. (Up until episode 7 when Xander was kidnapped the tuxedo was Xander's signature look, episodes 9 through 12 have him completely nude with the blond wig). Soon after leaving the Xtacle's H.Q. the jet boots run out of fuel and he falls through the sky onto a gazebo full of three grown men dressed as a knight, a "Halfling" and a wizard. He uses and later steals their car to take back his place as head of his company and home.
Xander finds that his house and company have been taken over by his previously second-in-command, Stan. Killface discovers that his Annihilatrix has been repossessed due to his lack of funds. Killface happens to meet Antagone while she is robbing a bank, and she blinds him with her acid spray. Xander literally runs into Killface with a car he has commandeered, and Killface, not realizing he is talking to Xander Crews, is convinced by Xander that his name is Barnaby Jones. Killface believes that Xander has actually saved his life and agrees to go with Xander to Killface's apartment.
Back at Killface's apartment, Killface discovers that his son Simon has taken a pair of Xtacles robot pants and started his own rabbit fighting arena. Xander and Killface go out to look for Simon and meet a homeless man (Nearl) and attempt to steal his eyes, but Xander is blinded when Killface tries to shoot the homeless man and grazes Xander's eyes instead. Xander and Killface hitch a ride on what they think is the bus, but it is actually a delivery van filled with downtrodden-looking Asians that takes them to a doll factory. There, they take already-manufactured Awesome-X dolls and replace the heads with heads that resemble Stan's.
The Xtacles are given orders by Stan/Awesome X to find Xander immediately or every hour one of their helmets will explode. They capture Nearl, clean him up, and give him a 'brain chemical', a la Flowers for Algernon, to buff up his intelligence in the hopes of making him appear to be Xander. In doing so, they discover that he looks virtually identical to Xander - indeed, the now-fixed DNA analyzer identifies him as Xander. After Nearl launches into a long story about how he was Xander's abandoned twin brother, Ronnie shoots him in the head because, frankly, the story was too confusing as it was, a sentiment with which the rest of the Xtacles agree.
Back at the factory, Killface and Xander escape with the help of an old man who also works there. After escaping, the old man gives them new, fully functional eyes. When they navigate the sewers in an attempt to free Simon from Torpedo Vegas, the manager of the rabbit fighting arena, they are quickly caught by Torpedo's henchmen.
Once captured, Torpedo forces Xander and Killface to fight to the death. Killface, still believing that Xander is Barnaby Jones, does not try to kill Xander, though he does bite off Xander's ear. Seeing that Killface is exhibiting compassion, Torpedo Vegas takes pity on the duo and ends the match. Torpedo Vegas releases Simon from his service, but Xander interrupts Killface's celebration by revealing his true identity to Killface, then runs away while making "Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo!" sounds similar to Curly from the Three Stooges.
Xander regains control of the Crews Company from Stan, and Xander further disgraces Stan by forcing him to dance at gunpoint while wearing nothing but a strategically placed beer can, while yelling "Master Cylinder!" through a bullhorn (this "torture," was inspired by a bet Xander made with the X-tacles). Killface is depressed by everyone "betraying" him, and he becomes angry when he learns that Phil has sold the Annihilatrix for 20 billion dollars (in the form of a check made out to "cash"). While showing off the check, Phil is shot through the head by Val, a former lackey, who has set up a sniper rifle on a nearby rooftop - though she was aiming for Killface. Killface seizes the day and takes the check. Val then kills one of the nerds who helped Xander earlier.
Meanwhile, Xander learns that Stan has spent the entire Crews fortune buying the Annihilatrix from Phil, via an army of Stan clones posing as Arab investors. Xander, now a pauper, takes the Annihilatrix activation key from Stan. He calls Killface, and the bitter rivals arrange to meet at the Annihilatrix and swap the key for the check. At the exchange on the gusty platform atop the Annihilatrix, Xander orders Killface to throw him the check, while Xander says he will simultaneously throw Killface the key. Killface throws the check, which blows away in a gust of wind, but Xander keeps the key. Xander sticks the key into the Annihilatrix and activates the arming mechanism because he would, in his own words "rather be dead than poor". Killface tries to stop the activation by entering a disarming code ("Frisky Dingo"). Simon, standing conveniently close to the firing button, laughs similarly to Torpedo Vegas, mumbles one final "boosh!", and presses it. In a bright flash of white light, season 1 ends.
The first episode of season 2 picks up one year after the firing of the Annihilatrix. As it turns out, the couplings melted, resulting in the Annihilatrix pushing the Earth 3 feet further away from the Sun and effectively stopping global warming. Killface is widely regarded as a hero and decides to run for President of the United States. He easily wins the Democratic nomination and names Taqu'il his running mate. In so doing, Killface hopes to take the black vote - though at the expense of the Jewish vote, due to rather anti-Semitic artwork on the cover of one of Taqui'il's albums, entitled "Ballacaust." Wendell Stamps is named Killface's security chief after several failed assassination attempts.
We also find that "ex-billionaire tycoon" Xander Crews has been living on the streets for the past year after being kicked out of the X-caliber due to his "dismantling" of one of the Xtacles, after which Xander framed Ronnie for the death in order to get revenge for the Xtacle's sexual advances towards him. Xander states that if he were to return and fess up he would be literally smothered to death, as per the charter. He also cannot return to Grace's house because he fears a more metaphorical smothering, and he cannot return to his mansion because Old Spice (the Asian gentleman who gave Xander replacement eyes) and the Hooker, now romantically involved, are living there. Despite still having the check for all of his billions (after Crews stepped off the Annihilatrix, the check blew into his face), Xander has been supporting himself by acting in porn and running a community outreach center that cleans needles for addicts and rents out used condoms - although the center is a larger cardboard box next to the cardboard box in which he currently lives. His ear is still bandaged and he has yet to wash off Ronnie's writing from Season 1. Wendell Stamps makes an appearance as a former drug addict. When a film crew making a documentary about Killface tells Crews that Killface is taking credit for stopping global warming, Crews decides to run for President because he believes HE was in fact the one who "cured" global warming.
See also
References
- ^ Adult Swim Schedule
- ^ Justin Heckert (2006). "The Making of Frisky Dingo". Retrieved 2006-12-24.
External links
- Official Sites
- Frisky Dingo's Official site
- Killface speaks on adultswim.com
- Frisky Dingo on Adult Swim UK
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- Other sites