Rocco's modern life Like any other activity, the entertainment industry is obliged to bring the necessary profit to the creators revolving in its bosom, otherwise there is no point in making new films, putting music videos or drawing cartoons. Over the years of the transformation of popular culture of the era of the 20th century, a powerful studio system almost crushed all talented creators, requiring them to follow the techniques and rules that must bring good money and at the same time exclude the possibility of box office failure. In other words, producers who studied the consumption market began to increasingly abandon the freethinking of hired employees, trying to average their bold ideas and bring ideas to a common denominator. In such conditions, it is very difficult to promote a fresh, extraordinary vision and release genuine masterpieces of art that will linger in history much longer than financially profitable, but at the same time absolutely mediocre crafts. This situation covered almost the entire spectrum of entertainment represented by the industry, but some producers were not afraid to go against the rigid ideas of doing business and allowed their employees to go on, not to look around and not be afraid to conduct creative experiments, because they can have really long prospects. Most of these rare dreamers come from high offices entrenched themselves on the American television channel Nickelodeon, where they always knew how to surprise the audience and replenish the company’s bank account with non-standard solutions.
One of the inspired creators who want to show the world his unconventional creative vision was Joe Murray, a skilled cartoonist, who in the 80s invented a completely new hero for printed comics, known as the Rocky Kangaroo. Trying to attract the attention of publishers with radical humor and satire, Murray nevertheless failed to convince possible employers of the success of his ideas, from which the artist again had to switch to third-party projects and only wait for worthy producers to pay attention to his work. After drawing many more comics and charming cartoons for newspapers and magazines, in the early 90s, Joe Murray finally made contact with the guys from Nickelodeon, which was a turning point in his career. Presenting at the creative meeting sketches of the story about Rocco, the artist seriously interested in them producers who put Murray as the director, screenwriter and creative director of the upcoming series, designated in the air grid "Rocko's Modern Life", or "Modern Life of Rocco". Without worrying about the studio’s brutal creative control, Murray was able to get things done the way he wanted them to. And most importantly, the team of animators located under his wing picked up the unique eccentricity of the animated series, from which he did not slow down until the very last part.
So, the plot of “Kangaren Rocky”, which appeared on blue screens on September 18, 1993, took us from the fictional town of O Town. As it is not difficult to guess, the main character is Rocco himself, a guest from distant Australia, studying the customs and customs of American society, which he very much likes. Despite the fact that O-Town can not be called a native city for the kangurenka, he still managed to find happiness in a foreign land. Our hero lives in a vast mansion, cares about his beloved dog and even made several loyal friends who do not mind staying at Rocco’s for at least a whole day or a week. One of the companions of the kangurenka is not the most reasonable, but quite charming and shkodny gobby named Heffer, because of which Rocco has most troubles. In addition, the friends of the Australian guest walks and Philbert, a complexed turtle, pretty shabby life due to pathological insecurity in their own abilities. Well, how to do in the suburbs without annoying neighbors who have a frankly bad and nasty character. Such in O Town are the Zadiraines, a family of vile toads who completely refuse to respect Rocco and his loved ones. And although the environment of the main character leaves much to be desired, they still cannot change the benevolent character of Rocco, who under no circumstances will not abandon those in need of trouble and will be able to forgive those who all these years did him all sorts of nasty things.
Unlike most family cartoons released on Nickelodeon, "Kangaroo Rocky" boasts that watching it can often catch not only children, but also adults. It is even possible that this animated series is worth watching for the most part for the older audience, since it contains a lot of ambiguous, hard jokes. In addition, the creators are not afraid to show the camera close-up torn limbs, injuries and even death. In "Kangurenka Rocco" such things happen systematically and can cause serious surprise to someone who hoped to watch a light, unencumbering animated series with bright pictures and airy jokes. However, such a radical approach goes the history of the Australian kangarenka only in proc, since against the background of faceless genre brethren, "Kangaren Rocco" looks unusual, it has the necessary sharpness and courage. Joe Murray has never been afraid to cross the line, and it is sometimes surprising that some of his endeavors were not stopped in time by Nickelodeon. However, if the producers chose a line of absolute trust, then they followed it until the very end. And this once again makes a bow of respect to those who are not afraid to take risks and create art not only for money, but also for extraordinary creative achievements, one of which was “Kangaren Rocco”.
It is noteworthy that a couple with Joe Murray on the animated series about O-Town worked and another famous animator, Stephen Hillenburg, who later became famous as the creator of SpongeBob, Square pants. Having no less intriguing ideas than Murray, Hillenburg brought a lot of eccentricity into history, and when he undividedly takes power over this or that series, there is no doubt that the degree of absurdity is guaranteed to increase significantly, but at the same time the story will cause a crazy laugh, continuing until the very last minute of timekeeping. Together, Joe Murray and Stephen Hillenburg tried to do everything necessary so that all the series of “Kangurenka Rocco” looked like a single coherent narrative and did not stand out from each other with changed stylistic and semantic features. Therefore, it is worth sighing with relief and enjoy watching this series from the first to the last series. The level of insanity and charming oddities will always be high and sometimes you can even feel a sense of slight anxiety, because "Kangaroo Rocky" is not only fun, but in places quite scary.
In the end, I want to say that Nickelodeon producers took the right step when they put Joe Murray’s idea into development. "Kangaroo Rocky" came out bright and crazy, fun and frightening. Of course, in some scenes, the amount of eccentricity crossed all acceptable lines, but still sometimes it is better to take risks than to do the same thing without a fervent spark in your eyes. And I wish you only the most unusual and at the same time memorable viewing!
8 out of 10