he Boondocks is an American animated series created by Aaron McGruder for the Adult Swim programming block of Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network, based upon McGruder's comic strip of the same name. The Boondocks is a social satire of American culture and race relations, revolving around the lives of the Freeman family ? ten-year-old Huey, his younger brother, eight-year-old Riley, and their grandfather, Robert. The series is produced by Rebel Base in association with Sony Pictures Television and is currently airing its second season on Adult Swim.

The Boondocks takes place in the same place and time frame as its comic counterpart. The Freeman family, having recently transplanted themselves from the South Side of Chicago to the peaceful, fictional suburb of Woodcrest, find different ways to cope with this acute change in setting as well as the drastically different suburban cultures and lifestyles to which they are exposed. The perspective offered by this mixture of cultures, lifestyles, and races provides for much of the comedy on which the series plays.

The TV-MA-rated satire premiered on November 6, 2005. The 15-episode first season ended on March 19, 2006. The second season premiered on October 8, 2007 and was, according to McGruder's MySpace page, pared to 13 episodes.
Contents
[hide]

    * 1 Origins
    * 2 Characters
    * 3 Animation
    * 4 Reception
    * 5 Soundtrack
    * 6 DVD release
    * 7 See also
    * 8 References
    * 9 External links

[edit] Origins

The Boondocks began its life as a comic strip in The Diamondback, the student newspaper at McGruder's alma mater, University of Maryland, College Park. The strip later found its way into The Source magazine. Following these runs, McGruder began simultaneously pitching The Boondocks both as a syndicated comic strip and as an animated television series. [1] The former goal was met first, and The Boondocks debuted in newspapers in April 1999.

In the meantime, development on a Boondocks TV series continued. Aaron McGruder and film producer/director Reginald Hudlin created a Boondocks pilot for the Fox Network, but found great difficulty in making the series acceptable for network television. Hudlin left the project after the Fox deal fell through, although McGruder and Sony Television are contractually bound to continue to credit him as an executive producer.[2]

The opening theme song used in the series (slightly remixed for the second season) is performed by hip hop artist Asheru.

The series has a loose connection with the continuity of the comic strip, though during the final year of the comic strip McGruder made a point to try and synchronize both. He introduced Ruckus into the strip, and also had the comic strip version of Riley grow cornrows to match the character's design in the series.

During the series' first season, McGruder put the strip on a six-month hiatus beginning in March 2006. He did not return to the strip the following November, and the strip's syndicate, Universal Press Syndicate, announced that it had been canceled. [3]

[edit] Characters

    Main article: List of The Boondocks characters

Huey Freeman is the series' narrator (with rare exceptions). He is a ten-year-old intellectual who is portrayed as the voice of reason and a spokesperson for contemporary Afrocentrism. However, he is constantly being verbally browbeaten and generally mocked by his grandfather and his younger brother Riley, neither of whom share his beliefs.

Riley Freeman, Huey's trouble-making eight-year-old brother, is heavily influenced by gangsta rap and is a general representation of misguided black youth. The bulk of the episodes of the series focus on Riley's misadventures (most of which are fueled by his love for gangsta rap and desire to emulate other street characters in the media) or his various wild schemes involving his grandfather.

Robert Freeman aka Grandad, is the grandfather and legal guardian of Huey and Riley. While he loves his two grandsons, he sometimes gets bent out of shape in response to the constant schemes, misadventures and commentary the two provide on life. Robert himself is no stranger to weirdness, as he has an affinity for women, but usually ends up biting off more than he can chew in that department.

[edit] Animation

    Main article: List of The Boondocks episodes

Like the comic strip, the show is influenced by McGruder's love of anime.[4] He cites Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo as sources of inspiration for fight scenes.[5] The second season features segments animated by Japanese animation studio Madhouse.[6] As a result, the second season of the series has more detailed animation as well as minor updates for most of the character designs, but the lip synch remains the same.


[edit] Reception

Aaron has defended the show's heavy and at times gratuitous use of the word "nigga", by arguing that the large-scale usage of the word provides the show with a level of realism, due to the fact that the word is commonly used in the everyday conversations of many African Americans.[7]

In 2006, Reverend Al Sharpton protested Martin Luther King's use of the word in the episode "Return of the King". Sharpton felt it defaced the name of Martin Luther King, and sought an apology from the series producers. The controversy was later referenced in the cartoon strip five times and in the TV episode "The Block is Hot" in the form of a morning radio announcement. According to an article in The Washington Post, references to Rosa Parks were removed from one of the series' completed episodes within a week of her death.[8] In the second episode, "The Trial of Robert Kelly", Parks was originally outside the courtroom protesting Kelly when she was hit with a large piece of fried chicken. The scene appears as a deleted scene in the season one DVD set. She is also seen in the episode as a regular pedestrian at the end.

In spite of this controversy, the show has garnered praise from critics. Critic Jeffrey M. Anderson of the San Francisco Examiner said "Each episode is beautifully crafted, with an eye on lush, shadowy visuals and a pulsing, jazz-like rhythm... the show is almost consistently funny, consistently brilliant, and, best of all, compulsively watchable." [9]

On January 2006, The Boondocks was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 37th NAACP Image Awards, alongside The Bernie Mac Show, winner Everybody Hates Chris, Girlfriends, and Half & Half. For the episode "Return of the King," the show won a Peabody Award from the Peabody Institute in 2006. As of November 18, 2007, The Boondocks has a 72% rating on MetaCritic, based on 21 reviews.[10]

[edit] Soundtrack

    Main article: Hip-Hop Docktrine

While there is no official soundtrack for the series, there are official mixtapes, Hip-Hop Docktrine and Hip-Hop Docktrine 2 , that has been released for season one and two which feature popular hip-hop artists like Asheru, Madvillain, Little Brother, Justus League, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Dead Prez, Lauryn Hill, Method Man, Rakim, Ghostface Killah, Gnarls Barkley, Common, A Tribe Called Quest and Styles P.

The tracks feature various cuts from the series and even creator Aaron McGruder. The mixtape's tone has a mixture of socially conscious and mainstream hip-hop. The series has been critically acclaimed by both review sites and fans of the series, and has been made available for free on MySpace.

[edit] DVD release

The first DVD was released on July 25, 2006 with special features include audio and video commentaries by creator Aaron McGruder and The Boondocks crew. It also featured audio commentaries by Uncle Ruckus, behind-the-scenes features, delete scenes, un-aired adult swim promos, and printable story boards. The second season was released June 10, 2008, and includes "Behind the Boondocks", and two episodes ("The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show") that did not air in America.

[edit] See also

    * The Boondocks (comic strip)

[edit] References

   1. ^ Hutchens, Bill ( ). "Aaron McGruder interview: Complete transcript". The News Tribune.
   2. ^ McGruder, Aaron. Interview. The A. V. Club. 2005-11-23.
   3. ^ "Return of 'Boondocks' comic strip delayed", CNN (September 25, 2006). 
   4. ^ McGruder, Aaron. Interview with Bill Hutchens. thenewstribune.com. 2005-11-06.
   5. ^ "Aaron McGruder - The Boondocks Interview". Troy Rogers. UnderGroundOnline. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
   6. ^ "Madhouse in the Mix for Boondocks Season 2". Anime News Network (2006-07-14). Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
   7. ^ "Aaron McGruder defends use of N-word; L. A. community group to launch protest today". EURweb.com (2005-11-07). Retrieved on 2005-11-12.
   8. ^ Tucker, Neely (2005-10-26). "Like It or Not, 'Boondocks' Will Finally Hit the Airwaves". The Washington Post. Retrieved on [[2005-10-28eardlkgjben['oignr'ognronf'n]].
   9. ^ Combustible Celluloid film review - The Boondocks: The Complete First Season (2005), Aaron McGruder, Regina King, John Witherspoon, dvd review
  10. ^ MetaCritic - The Boondocks