Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling

Director(s) - Joe Murray (Camp Lazlo: Where's Lazlo?, Rocko's Modern Life) and Cosmo Segurson (Pig Goat Banana Cricket, The Green Sheik)
Starring - Carlos Alazraqui (The Fairly OddParents, Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Tom Kenny (SpongeBob Squarepants, Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon), and Charlie Adler (Transformers, Cars)
Release Date - 2019
Genre - Comedy
Format - Streaming (Netflix)

Rating (out of 5):

 

 

     I was born in the middle of the 80s so I grew up in the later part of the decade and all of through the 90s.  A lot of my friends were Disney fans and were obsessed with WWF but I was a huge Nickelodeon fan that loved WCW and ECW.  Shows like Ren and Stimpy, Rugrats, AAAHH Real Monsters, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and Rocko's Modern Life were some of my favorite shows.  Hell, I still watch these on DVD that I've picked up from Shout Factory several years ago.  When Netflix announced their Rocko's Modern Life reboot I was shitting my pants.  As it got closer to the release date it was announced that it was not a new show but a special for Netflix.  When it was released last week I didn't have time to check it out until now.  I was a bit upset that the film is only 45 minutes log but I still fucking loved it.  It was amazing and definitely catered to fans of the original show and not reimage it for the younger crowd.

     The special picks up 20 years after Rocko, Heffer, and Filbert has been shot into space when a Conglom-O rocket went through Rocko's home.  While looking out the window they discover that the rocket's control is stuck to Heffer's butt and they are able to use it to return to O-Town.  However, their town is not the way they left it and an accounting error caused by Ed Bighead has caused Conglom-O to go bankrupt which financially cripples the town.  Rocko is fearful of all the change and wants to bring back his favorite show The Fatheads but needs their creator and Ed Bighead's son Ralph to do that.  The revenue from the show would be enough to stop Conglom-O from going under.  His journey takes him all over the world where he witnesses all the changes the world has went through in the last 20 years and how change is a good thing in some aspects.  He is able to find Ralph, who is now Rachel, and convinces her to bring the show back and save O-Town.

     I couldn't hold my excitement when I turned on Netflix and hit play on Static Cling.  I honestly despise Netflix aside from their originals.  I much prefer Hulu but Netflix was worth it's weight in gold when I finished the special.  It was just as clever, funny, and raunchy as the show was with a more modern look.  The voice acting in this is one takes me right back to the mid-90s.  The special pulls together the talent from the original run to reprise many of the characters that made the film so much fun.  These voices are iconic and Netflix did the right thing by bringing on the original cast.  The story for this one works for a 45 minute special.  It brings Rocko's Modern Life into 2019 and the humor that was there in the original run is applied to the modern setting.  The humor is spot on and the delivery is extremely effective.  I was laughing harder at the satire in this than I do at most modern comedies and that's really saying something.  Finally, the animation is the same style as the show.  Instead of opting for a newer approach, they went back to the drawing the storyboard by hand.  This does give the viewer that classic 90s cartoon look and sets it out from other animated films and shows currently under the New Releases tab on Netflix.  Overall, Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling is a trip back to my childhood when bills didn't matter and I could really enjoy the shows on television without life consuming every thought.  It was fun with the short running time being my only complaint.  Check it out.