AUSXIP Lucy Lawless Files - Articles - 2004 Magazines
NZ Listener Magazine
Fat Albert and the South Park kids
16-22 October 2004
Article about the animated series 'bro Town
... Sione's mum is a Pacific Island Livia Soprano. When Sione sneaks out to the school ball, she goes after him with a jandal and a thirst for Old Testament vengeance. Entreated by Michael Jones and Lucy Lawless (is any local celeb not in this?) not to hit the boy in front of everyone, she hisses, "Thanks for the tip. I'll wait till I get home, away from the prying eyes of the police and other relevant government departments."
and
Not that this will do kids any harm. If anything, bro'Town is a bit heavy on that sure-fire comedy killer, the message. There's no excuse for the scene in which cartoon Lucy Lawless announces, "The best way to stop unplanned pregnancies is to give kids the information they need so they can make informed choices." The Seinfeld manifesto – "No hugs and no learning" – should be rigorously enforced after 8.00pm.
Complete Article
Fat Albert and the South Park kids
by Diana Wichtel
TV3's bro'Town leaves no celebrity or stereotype untouched in its affectionate look at life in Morningside.
Well, it couldn't have been made anywhere else. That seems to be TV3's mantra this year, as it gives over chunks of the evening to such appealing, lovingly indigenous fare as A Queen's Tour and the channel's new adult cartoon bro'Town. If these shows have a mission in common, it's to demonstrate that you don't need bad singing (well, not much bad singing), celebrities encased in cow dung or Charlotte Dawson to make good local television. They also conspire to provide a meaningful outlet for John Campbell's incorrigible bonhomie, which, judging by the way it's busting out all over, has been constrained by news reading for too long.
In bro'Town, Campbell, animated to within an inch of his scarily overgroomed life, hurls himself into the jaw-dislocating task of caricaturing his already startling persona. Actually, he does that in A Queen's Tour, too. But in bro'Town, he manages to fit a couple of extra vowels and at least one new consonant into his trademark "Mwa-ha-haaarvellous!".
His bits with fellow newsreader Carol Hirschfeld have been little highlights of the series so far. "In local news," intones cartoon Carol, "a young man is giving hope to a local school where previously there were only dumb-ass P heads and no-hopers." The story involved our boys – brothers Vale and Valea and their mates Sione, Mack, and Jeff da Maori – entering a televised interschool quiz show. Or trying to. Brother Ken, the differently gendered principal of St Sylvester's, doesn't want a repeat of last year's appalling display of dumb-ass no-hopery. "The fat fa'afafine is singing! The answer is no!"
Valea, hit by a bus, is transformed into a genius and his team makes the final. Cartoon John: "St Sylvester's is now poised to make history as the first really dumb school to win this event."
Valea's new brain power is only temporary, which is a pity. It's not often you get to hear the word "ergo" in a local comedy, let alone "Descartes".
Still, there are plenty of cultural references to be going on with, from Erebus to Holmes ("cheeky darkie" never gets old) and Al Pacino in Scarface. When someone accuses the newly smart Valea of cheating, he replies, "No, it's an orchestrated litany of lies!"
The pistol-brandishing dairy owner is not impressed with Valea's new IQ: "If him and his little gang of smartasses get smart to me again, they can be saying hello to my little friend." He's Indian and his name is Maadkraaklikka, which sounds like another John Campbell exclamation. Until you say it slowly.
Yes, plenty of irreverence, as you'd expect from a show that has its genesis in Naked Samoans Talk about Their Knives. The show's Reverend Minister combines the hellfire and brimstone egomania and sartorial flair of Brian Tamaki with the commercial instincts of the Mad Butcher. When he isn't bonking Sione's mum.
Offensive stereotyping is even-handedly embraced. One of the bros' blonder tormentors gets lines like, "Let me tell you some more stories about how we treated the blacks back in Seth Efrica …"
Sione's mum is a Pacific Island Livia Soprano. When Sione sneaks out to the school ball, she goes after him with a jandal and a thirst for Old Testament vengeance. Entreated by Michael Jones and Lucy Lawless (is any local celeb not in this?) not to hit the boy in front of everyone, she hisses, "Thanks for the tip. I'll wait till I get home, away from the prying eyes of the police and other relevant government departments."
My favourite: Sione's pal Mack, the chubby one who, as a child, liked to dress up as a girl and watch The Sound of Music with his dolly.
It's all pretty juvenile – the boys are, after all, trapped in that evolutionary cul-de-sac the fourth form. The most adult thing about the show is the language, which they would never get away with on The Simpsons. Complaints are no doubt rolling in.
Not that this will do kids any harm. If anything, bro'Town is a bit heavy on that sure-fire comedy killer, the message. There's no excuse for the scene in which cartoon Lucy Lawless announces, "The best way to stop unplanned pregnancies is to give kids the information they need so they can make informed choices." The Seinfeld manifesto – "No hugs and no learning" – should be rigorously enforced after 8.00pm.
Though, as with The Insiders Guide to Happiness, there's something charming about bro'Town's eccentric spirituality in the normally deity-free zone of local television. Most of the improving messages come direct from God, a toned and tattooed individual who inhabits a pleasant, PI version of heaven. There He plays Trivial Pursuit with the likes of Bob Marley and Sir Ernest Rutherford, takes advice from Princess Diana and says things like "Oh, for My sake!"
Good fun. Though you can't help but reflect that it takes a non-threatening cartoon to get non-mainstream subject matter into primetime. Last year's entertaining Pacific Island netball series Lima Lelei – Good Hands was thrown away in a Saturday 5.30pm timeslot.
If bro'Town is to truly live up to its adult cartoon aspirations in more than just the cussing department, it could use a little less Fat Albert and a little more South Park in the mix. But the presence of good sports from John and Carol to Robbie Rakete, Scribe and the PM gives the enterprise a nice feeling of whanau – no bad thing as we head into the inevitable race-card-playing nonsense of the coming election campaign. All indications so far are that bro'Town is rating well. It deserves to.
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