De La Pena Exposes Those Pesky Code Monkeys
Over at the Kevin Smith-funded pop culture site Quick Stop Entertainment, I spotted a fun interview with Adam De La Pena discussing his G4 animated series Code Monkeys, as previously discussed on GSW.
Actually, that last GameSetWatch post even provoked a comment from Schadenfreude Interactive's Karsden, who insisted: "Note to Hollywood: We at Schadenfreude Interactive would like to get our own television show. I would like to be played by Rutger Hauer, although he is perhaps a little old." Which is possibly funnier than the interview, but not to derail things too badly...
Anyhow, I haven't watched Code Monkeys, and the Gamasutra piece on it saw our own Jane Pinckard highly not impressed with the promotion blurb, but De La Pena does at least seem like a game geek in the piece, which is endearing:
"Dave Jaffe couldn’t have been nicer. Dave literally said, “Oh, I think I have time on Saturday…I don’t know if I can do it Saturday…” The last e-mail he sent me was, “I think I’ll be in town on Saturday.” I was just working on Saturday with my friend and he just shows up and says, “Want to record now?” Uh, yeah, great, thanks for coming…Steve Wozniak was relatively easy, the Red Vs. Blue guys…they’ve been great. I mean, we’re going to have a lot of other guest stars but those are the real guest stars for us. We’re more about going after the video game designers than we are going after Molly Ringwald." Can anyone report on the quality of the show?
Comments
i couldnt even finish the pilot.
its pretty bad.
also, as a pixel nerd i must say that their pixel art sucks.
Posted by: fish | July 24, 2007 8:42 AM
I love it. And I didn't necessarily expect to.
It's wierd, slapstick, crazed, and lowbrow, but still hilarious.
It's like South Park without the suck, and a crap ton of video game and 80's pop culture references, both blatant (like last weeks thinly veiled Tony Montana parody), and subtle.
The only real frustration is just that it's on G4, a network so bad that I've stopped even bothering to check the TV Guide listings in it's vicinity on the channel space, so I had to download last weeks episode because I missed it entirely.
Posted by: J Arcane | July 24, 2007 10:48 AM
unwatchable.
Posted by: Corey Holcomb-Hockin | July 24, 2007 11:05 AM
i just came to a realization recently; and although it's obvious, I never have really heard anyone bring this up before:
the "sprites" on the show (and oftentimes other modern media trying to get "hip" with pixelated characters) are extremely low resolution, but there is no accounting for either palette or color depth restrictions.
in other words, it's cute, but it's trying too hard. the same could be said about the writing. the frequent cultural references rarely do more than, well, reference. it isn't comically insightful or bitingly satirical.
G4 does make up for it by playing Arrested Development 14-something times a day, however.
Posted by: mercatfat | July 24, 2007 11:14 AM
Subtle? J, I don't think that word means what you think it means.
I watched the pilot. It had a lot of references that tugged at my game nerd sensibilities, but the references were just there to make us say "Hey, I remember when games used to have a Say No to Drugs message during their attract mode!" rather than for the point of a joke.
The premise is good, but the writing and acting really lacks. I wish I had something nice to say about it (good choice of theme song?) but I really don't.
Posted by: Zack | July 25, 2007 7:57 AM
I'm almost ashamed to admit that i like the show.
don't get me wrong. it's not very good. i think it's something along the lines of "the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts."
there are lots a great references to make a geek chuckle. the little "point and health" system the show uses is a pretty cleaver bit of eye candy.
i was a closet fan of minoriteam, so i kinda knew what to expect going into the pilot. which those expectations set appropriately low, it's a fun a little show.
Posted by: turbopunk | July 25, 2007 10:10 AM