Freaknik: The Musical

I saw Adult Swim's advertising blitz for Freaknik and was so annoyed by it I watched the show out of spite. I actually hoped that it was bad I could keep complaining about the direction they are taking on some of their animated shows. I was pleasantly surprised.

If Freaknik is any indication to what Adult Swim is going to put out in the future, I'm excited. I grew up in Atlanta and I remember Freaknik coming through the city. I had no idea how they would make this into an animated TV show and honestly thought they were going to screw up.

The show had a rather silly plot with a lot of small jokes scattered throughout it. I had to watch it again because I giggled at things characters said (or just Lil John going "WHAT?!" in the background) and missed some dialog. The music in it is pretty good and it's really amazing to see so many artists collaborate on something and have it turn out pretty well. Very entertaining and easily re-watchable.

What can i say ? After watching it i was throughly impressed with the production values, the cast, and even the way it was animated.

The story was told at a nice pace, and our main group of characters all had their own personalities, each one had an original feel to them.

The music produced by T-pain, and co-produced by Tha bizness, was just fantastic. I mean seriously the scores were first class. i honestly wanted the justice league to be in on the sound scape, but alas this was produced very well without them. T-pain and tha Bizness did what they do best.

After watching it felt like it went by so fast i had to rewind and watch it all over again, and when i did i found myself not being fatigued by the music. It was just as refreshing as when i heard it the first time.

If you have any love for hip-hop music or great music scores, then this would definitely be you cup of tea.

My score originally was a 8 out of 10 but i figure i'd bump it to 9 seeing as how those that hate it, don't quite fully understand it, thus i'll pickup some of their slack.

Adult Swim has been making cartoons whatever they are great, good, or bad and Freaknik: The Musical is one of those great Adults Swim cartoons! It has so much humor in it, the animation is rather decent and characters are funny! The rap songs are super catchy for me to listen to, they easily get stuck in my head. And I literally love how cartoony this looks! Freaknik: The Musical is without one of the best Adults Swim cartoons I have ever watched! Go and watch it! I give Freaknik: The Musical a 9.5/10

I'm not really sure where to start with this. I know that Adult Swim tends to play towards the lowest common denominator, but this is ridiculous; never has the bar been set lower. Take some gangsta stylings, add in a rap battle that ends in a Dragon Ball Z power-up, make sure that the n-word gets dropped on a regular basis, and throw in "weed=good" and "all we want is bling and bitches" messages, and that pretty much sums up the movie. You see committee movies in Hollywood all the time; this was a movie produced by a gangsta-wannabes.

It's mildly homophobic (you have a group of ostensibly gay rappers that provide the counterpoint to the show's group of up-and-comers), and women are relegated to pure sex objects; with the exception of the leader of the 10%-ers, the only women in the show are literally nothing but sex objects; heck, one of the rewards for winning the contest is a lifetime of ho's, and one of the numbers shows Freaknik going around transforming women into big-busted bra and Daisy Duke-wearing ho's. The sole intelligent woman was portrayed as a hungry shrew that wanted nothing but control.

The portrayal of the men wasn't much better. Cops are evil, drugs and alcohol are good, and gang credos rule. All that matters for them is getting drunk, laid, and high. I know that young men see fame as a way to getting sex and drugs, but they usually learn something about whats important on the way up; in this show, it wasn't about how the music was important, but how it was a way to money and getting laid. There was nothing solid about any of the male characters; sort of fitting that that a ghost was the lead, I think...

I know that this was supposed to be "light-hearted" and in the vein of the House Party movies, but it just came off as offensive. I think if you wanted proof that the civil rights movement is dead, and not in a good way, this show would be it...

Freaknik is the Adult Swim 1 hour program that stars rapper T-pain, the rapper notoriously known for his use of Auto Tune throughout his albums.

I can't say I'm a follower in the legion of T-pain fans (I'm classic rock, I have to say) but I do watch a lot of Adult Swim, and unlike most of the shows, I couldn't get myself to miss this.

The story starts when the major character, Freaknik, an Atlanta rapper who was at the top of his game, was arrested and eventually killed (A obvious reference to many famous rappers, who die so mysteriously) but a cool little summoning brings back the spirit of Freaknik, and thus, the voice that is the Auto-Tune sound of T-Pain arises.

The story kind of moves into a rag to riches story that plays by the numbers. It may be an entire hour, but to be honest, it is not the story I was watching it for, because I have seen better; it's the actors, the music and the character, Freaknik.

Again, I am not a rap music enthusiast; In fact, if I had to advocate any rap music, it was everything in the 90s and that was the end of it, and I do not enjoy T-Pain's music, and yet, I was intrigued by it all. T-Pain sounds like a character when he "Raps", so in said case, the Auto Tune voice makes the character seem a little bit more lively.

The actors in the movie are probably the reason I wanted to see this for the most part: You have Snoop Dog, Andy Samberg and Bill Hader, Charlie Murphy, many great celebrity personalities to hear, but most are so underused in this project, Samberg and Hader used for about 3 minutes, Charlie Murphy for about a few seconds, and Snoop Dog for about a minute, all to bring us back to a few characters whose are dull as dishwater, actually.

So, all that leaves to judge is Freaknik, the character, who was actually the best part. The character, a spirit, is actually real lively in speech, and The songs Freaknik does range from the over-excesses of Women, Drinks and Money, to helping strippers getting out of their awful jobs and getting them into college.

This is where the movie excels, and unfortunately, that's as good as it gets. You get a handful of songs and a few chuckles here and there but that's it. It is a picture of little redeemable value.

I think the problem was so much of the ideas were based on T-Pain that everything was given a backseat, so in order to make the movie watchable, it was just up to hiring a few well known rappers to give most a movie part in something.

But, if this were a full length motion picture, I'm sure the story would be better than it is, and honestly, I'd like to see that. Freaknik is interesting character, perhaps in another longer project, just recreate the entire story to make characters who are interesting, not cardboard cutout ghetto characters with no passion or drive, you lose interest too quickly and it shows when the writers really create nothing more than an an overly long party sequence and a troupe of Flying Malcolm X's to wrap up the movie.

So in conclusion, If the character comes back, make it more interesting, let T-Pain do what he does best, and come back with more interesting characters.

A disappointing but brutal 4 out of 10.