Oggy & die Kakerlaken

To me "Oggy" is the best thing that happened since "Tom and Jerry" (the old ones).

German TV is now showing "Oggy" at the children's hour, which to me is quite strange as I think the often cruel, violent as well as anarchistic and also surrealistic humour is not exactly child-conform. To really enjoy the show you should accept its sheer nonsense world where natural laws no longer exert their power and everything is possible.

You should also love the extremely kitsch coloured conformistic suburban dwelling of Oggy and his fellows with its highly imaginative wall-papers and pictures on the walls. And hospitals with super-sized syringes on their roofs serving as "guide-signs" and never ending staircases and a tour into outer space every now and then and and and... ....maybe it's no mistake either to like a certain New York based punk-band with DeeDee and Joey being two of the cockroaches.

I am of course very fond of Oggy and his antagonists, they are so human. Another thing I enjoy is that the whole of them are so malicious and still, from time to time, every one of them gets his.

So my hope is that this show will run on for ever.

I hate cartoons. But thanks to the Swedish channel, Kanal 5 mistakingly regarding this as a cartoon for kids, I became devout Oggy-lover. Its brilliant and funny, and you never know what will happen, which is an enormous plus, predictability being the mortal enemy of any film. The stories have at least two or three twists and the tags that make you giggle even if your world is falling to pieces. Here you can watch a cartoon-cat reading while doing number one (and two too, I suppose), three annoying cockroaches with different personalities making his life hell, as well as that of his friend Jack, the breezy green macho-cat, who's into gadgets and motors of all sorts. It's also subtle and verges sometimes on a dream-like state more akin to the surreal. My personal favourite is the story when the cockroaches redneck cousin come for a visit, bringing a strange, reeking cheese, that..no I won't tell. Watch it if you can. You'll be a happier person.

Don't you hate cockroaches? Don't you feel they can ruin your evening when they get out to terrify you? Oggy feels the same. But Oggy, a modern cat with a pop-freak culture, wants to deal with them in many different ways at every episode of ''Oggy and the Cockroaches". Pleasant humor that is more adult than childish and lots of irony.

The cockroaches are 3 little ''bad boys" with no respect for Oggy or whoever gets into their way. They usually pay for their bad habits, sometimes in a sadistic for them way. They have the chance to revenge and Oggy pays too:( The spectator isn't sympathetic with Oggy or the cockroaches, both characters are messing around with each other, resulting in a non-clear justice.

I normally never watch children's programmes, but whenever I see that "Oggy" is on, I always take the time to watch it. To me it doesn't seem like a cartoon for children, it is very adult like. With it's strange futuristic buildings, and weird animals it is quite political. And of course it is great fun.

It has been a long time since a cartoon of this merit has been seen. Clearly the influences are such animation greats as Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Hannah Barbera, and ironically Jerry Lewis. Oggy and the Cockroaches has some brilliant scores in it. I love how they do not say a word in the cartoon but rather use music to make all their expressions. Musically the show is amazing. The show also incorporates a good use of computer animation. Another added bonus is how the cockroaches are named after 3 Ramon's members (Joey, Dee Dee, Marky) I do not know if this is a coincidence or not but it is still amusing. Overall a great cartoon that s not afraid to BE A CARTOON!