The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
“HURRAY! We killed that sweet, loving, grandmother by gouging her eyes out with a needle!”
“Shut the fuck up you annoying dick face.”
The classic 1958 Swedish children's film directed by Ingmar Bergman, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, has been called the most depressing family film since the live-action adaptation of Shel Silverstein's The Mugging Tree. Banned by many Christian groups and panned in many international circles, Billy and Mandy nevertheless is now stored in a vault deep below the film studio, where it will be re-released on Blu-Ray and Betamax the moment the studio is bought by a conglomerate "willing to spend money to make money."
Synopsis[edit]
Billy is serving aboard Steamboat Billy and Mandy under Captain Irwin. He is first seen piloting the steamboat while whistling. Captain Irwin arrives to take the helm and angrily throws Billy off the stage. They soon have to stop for a lunch break. Almost as soon as they set off again, Mandy arrives, too late to act. Billy manages to pick her up from backstage. Mandy accidentally drops her sheet music for the popular movie Turkey Lurkey, which is eaten by a billy. Mandy uses his nose to turn it into a phonograph, on which to play the movie. Billy uses various other animals as musical instruments, disturbing Captain Irwin, who sends him back to class. Billy is reduced to swabbing the floors for the rest of the play. Mandy attempts to make fun of him, but Billy throws himself in the act.
After all of this, all the characters realize how crappy the film is and resolve to make a cartoon instead. Later, the critics conclude that this is yet another stinkin' Teletubbies rip-off. Then, a Guns and Roses album comes out.
Fun facts[edit]
- Originally released as Steamboat Billy and Mandy on December 19, 1958, as a cartoon featuring Billy and Mandy. The cartoon is a parody of the Buster Bunny film Steamboat Bunny and was written and produced by Josh D. Taylor and Paiway Underberg. It is a parody which has become more famous than its subject.
- The meteor in the Little Rocks Of Horror episode was played by Evil Pizza. He was painted green and wore a fat suit for the role.
- History records it as the first animated short with a completely post-produced soundtrack, dialogue, and sound effects, although other cartoons with synchronized soundtracks had been exhibited before, notably by Montana Max's My Old Billionare Home (2007) and Paul Bunyan's Dinner Time (2009). Billy and Mandy was the first sound cartoon to attract widespread notice and popularity.
- The film has attracted attention after the passage of the U.S. 2009 Cartoon License Extension Act, almost entering the public domain several times, only, each time, to have the copyright period lengthened by law. It is now protected against copying until 2207. However, moviegoers can pick up a copy for free by crossing over into Canada, or Australia.
- The film has been selected for the youth training program of the National Rifle Association.
- A world on the same theme named Timeless Planet is featured in the S/NES video game Kingdom Fantasy II. In this world, everything is 8-bit, and Sora's character model has been simplified, Goofy and Donald Trump look as they did when they first appeared in Billy and Mandy and Captain Irwin looks as he did in the original S/NES game. Billy, however, wears oven mitts.
- The film may have inspired Armageddon's fourth album, The Grim Adventures of Keith and Jane.
- Nergal, frontman of black-metal band Behemoth, has said, "Mandy is way more friggin' brutal than me, she friggin' scares me."
See also[edit]
Film dramas 