Billy et Mandy, aventuriers de l'au-delà

I love this TV show. Its dark theme is such a nice alternative from all the other cartoons on Cartoon Network. The series follows Billy and Mandy as they torment the Grim Reaper after coming to 'own' him after he attempted to take away Billy's pet hamster.

The idea of taking something as harrowing as death itself and turning it into a kids cartoon is a really good one and works extremely well. The fact that this show could so easily have been chilling really benefits it. If the theme was taken the other way and told darker this show would make a great film.

The character of Mandy in particular is so refreshing. In comparison to Billy who is basically an identikit of every single other cartoon character on the channel; stupid, clumsy etc, Mandy is a sinister little girl and so entertaining to watch. She is the perfect match for the Grim Reaper. You can always can count on her to do one horribly twisted little thing each episode is hysterical.

I strongly recommend this cartoon, if only to see the deadpan little Mandy. Shes so evil.

The first title, "The Grimm Adventures of Grimm and Mandy", is a great humorous Fantasy, and I love it because I love that genre. Some folks just don't get Fantasy, and they'll hate this. If you saw "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey", and didn't laugh out load every time you heard Death speak with an Italian accent, then a grim reaper ("Grimm", for short) with a Jamaican accent probably won't be your cup of tea -- move along. If you're not already comfortable with the ideas of alternate dimensions, brain sucking aliens, jumping into other peoples bodies, and stopping time, you'll be too busy asking stupid questions to get any of the jokes! If, on the other hand, the very mention of the evil and terrible Yog Sothoth still makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, your disappointment at finding that he's merely a crashing bore will be tempered by the discovery that there is, indeed, still ONE thing that makes the Grimm Reaper himself tremble in fear -- his mom!!!

The second title "Evil...", is a pastiche of the 1960's superhero cartoons (such as "Underdog"). The villains were always the best part, and this has only villains, including the outrageous anti-hero, Hector Con Carne. Phil LaMarr's Hector is the funniest voice I've ever heard in a cartoon, yet the character's back-story, that comes though episode by episode, is well thought out, fascinating, and tragic.

This is all great stuff, that works great as a cartoon.

Ya know, I'm watching an episode of Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy right now where Billy has turned himself into chocolate. And now i realize how much I like this show. It's funny, weird, and good.

In my last review i did something very stupid and kept comparing this to another show. While I still think Billy and Mandy could use a darker, more twisted edge, the shows sweet weird edge is more than enough to make it better than most other cartoons. I repent! I really like this show! Forgive me!

Anyway, why do I like the show more now? Well I stopped trying to compare it to Invader zim. Zim's a great show, but it's not Billy and Mandy, and neither is Billy and Mandy Zim. I realized i needed to respect the show on it's own merits. I still may not love it as much as Zim, but man do i see the error of my ways and like the show for what it is: crazy, cool and funny!

Grim adventures is one of my all time favourite cartoons. The plot is basically 2 kids, a dim witted boy named Billy and his creepy, scary friend? named Mandy who trick the Grim reaper himself to spend eternity playing with them. They get up to insane and hilarious antics featuring dangerous creatures and items from the underworld. There are many entertaining characters featuring the nerd and Billy's best friend Irwin, Billy's idiot father and his strange mother, Mindy the spoiled rival to Mandy, the former villain general Starr, supposed son of billy Jeff the spider and exterminator Hoss Delgado. Oh yeah lets not forget the creepy scene after the intro consisting of Mandy saying something threatening. It is not enough to succeed, others must fail.

I am only commenting on the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. I have not seen Evil Con Carne.

I try to watch this show as often as I can. I watch it in the morning just before work to get me in a good mood. I can think of nothing like it. It's hilarious, gross, interesting, extremely clever, etc etc. I don't think little kids will get the humor, some of it is somewhat suggestive, but a lot of it is very slapstick. This show has some subtle humor masked by lots of physical humor and some GREAT sound effects, the essence of cartoons IMO.

I has some excellent guest characters, like Hoss Delgado, Eris the Goddess of Chaos, and Irwin. Many of the episodes have a theme based on a myth, either ancient or modern (the coming of Cthulu for one). These episodes take such serious topics and twists them into something absurd and absolutely hilarious. I particularly enjoyed the episode where they looked into the future and Mandy was a caterpillar-like entity who was immortal and ruled the universe, using cinnamon as her source of power. This was a parody of Dune, more specifically the fourth book of the series, God Emperor of Dune. That's just one of the examples of the show parodying somewhat obscure themes or stories.

One of my favorite episodes was when Voltaire was a guest and he sang his "Brains!" song on it. Very entertaining.

Some people might not like it at first. I agree it can take some getting used to. Just watch an entire episode or two; if you have any sense of humor you should find it very entertaining.