Rocko's modern life
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| German title | Rocko's modern life |
| Original title | Rocko's Modern Life |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | 1993-1996 |
| length | 22 minutes |
| Episodes | 52 in 4 seasons |
| genre | Comedy |
| Theme music | In the English version: Rocko's Modern Life by The B-52’s |
| idea | Joe Murray |
| production | Joe Murray |
| music | Steven Belfer, Nicolas Carr, Bradley Carrow, Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield |
| First broadcast | September 18, 1993 - November 24, 1996 on Nickelodeon |
| German-language first broadcast |
July 1995 on Nickelodeon Germany |
Rocko's Modern Life ( ger .: Rocko's Modern Life ) is an American animated series from 1993. It was created by Joe Murray devised. The series is about the life of the wallaby Rocko in a typical small American town called O-Town.
On August 9, 2019, a follow-up film was released on Netflix with the title Rocko's Modern Life: Everything Stays Different .
Origins
Initially, the main character appeared in an unpublished comic called Travis. Murray tried to sell this in the late 1980s but was unsuccessful. Other characters appeared in sketchbooks at the time. In the 1990s, Murray went to Nickelodeon and wanted his My Dog Zero project to be funded there. He presented a pencil sketch to Nickelodeon. As a result, Nickelodeon was interested in a purchase and financed the project. Murray, who had never worked for television before, wanted to "shake up" the situation a little back then.
Linda Simensky, responsible for animation and development at Nickelodeon, created the line-up and concept for Murray at the time.
Murray developed the character Brock after he discovered a wallaby while visiting the zoo in the Bay Area , which did not seem to notice the chaos surrounding him. He then went through all of his sketches again and developed the concept of Rocko's modern life. At the time, he assumed that Nickelodeon would reject this concept. Murray thought the station would n't like the pilot and was working on My Dog Zero when Simensky informed him three to four months later that Nickelodeon had expressed interest in a pilot episode.
Murray said she was positive that Nickelodeon provided funding for My Dog Zero . On his website Murray described My Dog Zero as “that film that Linda Simensky saw which led me to Rocko”, in German: this film that Linda Simensky saw, which brought me to Rocko.
Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic was originally planned as a pilot , but Nickelodeon's management found that the character Heffer Wolfe was too crazy for the test audience. This is how Trash-O-Madness became a pilot. In the pilot himself, Brock's skin was yellow. A toy company that wanted to sell figures for the series, however, did not think this was good, since the figures from another series were already yellow at that time. So Brock's skin color was changed to beige.
When the series was still in the planning stages, it was called The Rocko Show .
Characters
- Rocko is the protagonist of the series, a shy and friendly twenty-year-old wallaby who was driven into American exile from Australia . In most of the episodes his place of work is “Kind of a Lot o 'Comics”, a comic book store where he works as a salesman. He lives in his own house and practices “jackhammer” as a hobby, which means chiseling figures into the concrete with a jackhammer. He is rather cowardly, often, almost once per episode (when he is in danger) he says: "... day is a very dangerous day", whereby he breaks the fourth wall e.g. B. "Washing day is a very dangerous day".
- Spunky is Brock's dog. It eats everything it can find and is inhabited by two parasites that occasionally get their own episode.
- Heffer Wolfe is Brock's best friend. He is a bull adopted and devoured by wolves. In most of the episodes he appears to be unemployed and lives with his parents, the Wolfe wolf family .
- Another friend of Brock's, Filburt is a neurotic turtle with thick glasses who lives in a trailer. He seems to make a living collecting cans. He is married to Doctor Hutchison in later episodes and has children with her.
- Ed and Bev Bighead , a toad couple, are Brock's two neighbors. Both have a monotonous office job at the dominant mega- corporation Conglom-O ( company motto We own you , “We own you”). Ed is not very good at Brock , while his wife Bev, who oppresses her husband, would like to have the "cute" wallaby as her own child, and often hugs and pampers him against his will. They have a son named Ralph who lives in Holl-O-wood and who draws an animated series called Meet the Fatheads , but who later wants to gain a foothold as an artist.
Production and publication
The children's television channel Nickelodeon produced a total of 52 episodes in four seasons, the first of which was broadcast in the USA on September 18, 1993, the last on November 24, 1996. In 1995 the series was released on VHS in the USA , and some episodes were also released in Germany on VHS. Best-Ofs have been released since 2008, and the individual seasons in the USA since 2011 on DVD. For 2013, Turbine announced that the series will also be released on DVD in Germany. The series was also broadcast in Japan, Australia and the UK, among others.
On German television, the series initially ran from July 1995 to May 1998 on the German Nickelodeon offshoot , after which it was discontinued from November 7, 1998 to November 1, 2003 on RTL and from August 19, 2002 to March 31, 2003 on Super RTL . When NICK started in autumn 2005 , the series was broadcast there from September 17, 2005 to December 14, 2008. In the pay-TV beamed Junior the show from 2001 until 23 January 2002 Nicktoons from 1 December 2007 to April 4, 2012.. In Austria Rocko can occasionally be seen on ORF one , in Switzerland the series ran from 1998 to 2002 in the Nickelodeon program block of SF 2 . As part of the Xmas Classic Battle , Nicknight showed the episodes The giant vacuum cleaner / Looking for a job and The big shopping / The cold on December 23, 2014. For some time now, Rocko's modern life has been broadcast regularly on Nicknight.
An episode usually consists of two eleven-minute episodes, occasionally an episode of around twenty minutes. After the first season, The B-52’s recorded a new theme song for the English version of the series.
A one-hour TV special called Rocko's modern life: Everything stays different (OT: Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling ) was announced for 2018 . However, the broadcast was postponed for a year and was released on August 9, 2019 on Netflix . The running time is 45 minutes.
synchronization
| figure | Original speaker | German speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Rocko | Carlos Alazraqui | Sascha Draeger |
| Heffer | Tom Kenny | Walter Wigand |
| Filburt | Doug Lawrence | Oliver Reinhard |
| Ed Bighead | Charles Adler | Utz Richter |
| Bev Bighead | Ursula Vogel |
reception
The series received largely positive reviews, but it was emphasized several times that the revealing humor of the series is not suitable for children. While some reviews have raised similar concerns about sexual innuendo, they have also suggested that the series can be a family-friendly topic for teenagers and young adults to enjoy. Correspondingly, a fifth of the viewers were adults during the evening broadcast times. The series was also praised for its satirical and consumer-critical undertones. Occasionally, Rocko's modern life has been accused of being a copy of Ren and Stimpy .
The sound design of the series won a Daytime Emmy Award and was nominated for the Golden Reel Award . The episode O-Town cleans up ("Zanzibar"), which addresses environmental protection, received the 1996 Environmental Media Award .
Home theater publication
At the end of 2012, the media company Turbine Medien announced that they would publish a DVD box with all 52 episodes of Rocko's modern life in German on October 4, 2013 . After the release date had been postponed several times (October 4, 2013 to November 8, 2013, then to November 29, 2013), the limited box set appeared in stores on November 29, 2013. Due to the great demand, the series was released on October 24, 2014 in a regular DVD edition. Another publication in volume boxes, Volume 1 with the title Höhenflug was released on May 23, 2014. On March 26, 2016 Turbine Medien released the entire series on 2 Blu-ray Discs , the video resolution being DVD quality ( SDTV ) corresponds.
Comic
The publisher Marvel Comics published a seven-part series of comic books for the television series in 1994. The stories were written by John "Lewie" Lewandowski for Joey Cavalieri .
Games
The company Viacom New Media brought in April 1994 in the US a video game for the series entitled Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day for the Super NES out. The broadcaster Nick released two browser games with Rocko in 1999, Match Master and Slider .
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Rocko's Modern Life": Nickelodeon produces Special ; on wunschliste.de, accessed on August 12, 2016
- ↑ Anthony Scibelli: The 6 Creepiest Things Ever Slipped Into Children's Cartoons ( en ) cracked.com. August 6, 2010. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
- ↑ Television Review: Rocko's Modern Life ( en ) Disney Family.com. 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
- ↑ Scott Moore: Cartoon Kingdom - Tv Executives See Another Animation Revival In The Early Success Of Fox's King Of The Hill. ( en ) Sun Sentinel. March 27, 1997. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
- ^ "Rocko's Modern Life": A Really Funny Kid's Cartoon about Capitalism ( en ) Slate. July 2, 2011. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
- ↑ Patrick Marlborough: 'Rocko's Modern Life' Was Nickelodeon's Last Great Show ( en ) Vice. August 1, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
- ^ Charles Solomon: TV REVIEWS New Cartoon Series Mostly Copycats ( en ) Los Angeles Times . September 18, 1993. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
- ↑ Turbine Media: DVD release . Retrieved October 18, 2013.
Web links
- Rocko's Modern Life in the Internet Movie Database (English)
