La famiglia Paloni: speciale Halloween

It's an anthology halloween special. There were some really good segments. I'm a big fan of Joel Haver and David Firth, and seeing them in something this mainstream is neat for sure.

A lot of the segments unfortunately fall into pretty cliche slasher tropes. Seeing the different animation styles is cool and all, but at least 3 of the segments, and the overarching narrative of the Paloni Show are all the same plot wise. Justin Roiland, as always, plays the same character as he always does. He has like 2 voices that he chooses from. Same with Zach Hadel, although in my opinion his voice is a little more tolerable.

But the standout segments were great. Some very creative uses of animation throughout. Joel Haver and David Firth, of couse, were my favourites. I love Joel Haver's sense of humor, and David Firth continues his creepy satirical sensibilities. There was also Rafillo, who created a crazy animation called Killer Bathtub. He seems to be most famous on TikTok but he's mostly Spanish language so I haven't heard of him before.

Lee Hardcastle also did a great claymation segment, really showing off his talent. And Jaime Rodriguez also made a horrifically well animated short.

Overall I say it's worth watching, if only to see some exclusive animation from some of the best indie animators working today.

The only reason I heard about this was from following Joel Haver and I made an account to tell you about it. You'll see a lot of familiar art styles and might recognize a lot of the people who put work into this collection of mostly animated shorts. It's pure fun. IDK what the haters are jabbering about. This is the type of media where you probably know what you're getting into, and it delivers. A legend from beyond the grave even voices a character. In the age of awful pandering BS, Hulu delivered a collection of talented people who just wanted to make something you can grab a bowl of teeth rotting candy and sit down to enjoy. Anybody complaining about this needs to eat a Snickers.

The opening mirrors "Solar Opposites" and foreshadows the disaster that accompanies any project giving Justin Roiland full creative control. This special proves to be a forest fire of weird sketches and over-the-top body horror that seem way too familiar to "Rick and Morty" fans. The show recycles jokes and it quickly evolves into a tv show aimed at entertaining morons.

Remember Detective Baby Legs, who was paired with Detective Regular Legs? Now we have Long Legs in "The Paloni Show," isn't that funny?! Remember the "Personal Space" guy on Interdimensional cable that needed space so he ripped his skin off, well now we have the same idea in this special, but the people are literally bananas! Hahahah get it?!

I hate this. I hate all of this.

Arguably the "last" Roiland vehicle before all the nasty stuff came out for proper and pleasingly it's only fragments of his sweaty existential foolishness wrapped around this loose anthology/showcase format. It's a huge shame for the other creators involved that this was (and will continue to be) fairly overlooked because there's some real diamonds here. Cult flash folk like David Firth & gory claymaster Lee Hardcastle are on strong form but I was introduced to the slack brilliance of Michael Cusack and whatever Rafillo or Jaime Rodriguez are. Utterly transcendent bits of animation, and consistently funny.

If you're a fan of Rick n Morty or Solar Opposites, this is the Halloween Special for you. Justin Roiland teams up with a bunch of undiscovered animators who create their own 3-5 minutes Halloween shorts in a chance to impress both Hulu and the viewers over the next hour. The A or Main story involves 3 humanoids (one voiced by Roiland himself) hosting the special in order to stay on Hulu's good grace, only for it delove quickly as they must take their cousin Trick-R-Treating. The A story definitely has some strong Solar Opposite vibes, from the animation style to the intentional 4th-wall breaking Hulu references, even down to the perosnalities of the host and various side characters. While there are some laughs and the A story gets better as it goes on, it's the shorts that really steal the show (which is the point).

Each short is uniquely different and memorable, yet still equally creepy and hilarious. Some shorts genuinely made me say "oh my god" or wtf, but all of them had me laughing by the end. All in all, this show was a very fun take on Halloween and gave me a lot of laughs. If you enjoy Justin Roiland's work and love Halloween, definitely give this show a watch!