The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, created by Maxwell Atoms, is an American animated television series and comedy that currently airs on Cartoon Network. The two main characters, Billy and Mandy, have obliged the Grim Reaper to be their best friend forever after having won a bet over a sick hamster.
| The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy | |
|---|---|
| File:Grimy.jpg The main characters, from left to right: Billy, Grim, and Mandy. | |
| Created by | Maxwell Atoms |
| Starring | Richard Steven Horvitz Grey DeLisle Greg Eagles Vanessa Marshall Jane Carr Rachael MacFarlane Jennifer Hale Dee Bradley Baker Phil LaMarr Maxwell Atoms Diedrich Bader |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 59 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes approx |
| Original release | |
| Network | Cartoon Network |
| Release | August 24, 2001 – Present |
The show's existence is largely the result of a viewer poll. An Internet and call-in event, called the Big Pick was held from August 24 to August 25 in 2000. The three final choices were The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?, and Longhair and Doubledome. Out of the three, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy won. The first season appeared on Cartoon Network in 2001. Robot Jones would later be made into a full series despite losing; Longhair and Doubledome would reappear with another pilot episode in another Big Pick-style show later on, only to fall short again.
Originally labelled Grim and Evil, the series was a combination of two shows in one. In each show, a segment of Evil Con Carne was put between two Grim cartoons. In 2003, the network decided to give each short its own full length show. Evil Con Carne was subsequently cancelled. It re-aired in a late-night slot in the United States on Friday, August 5 2005 with the newly-created intro and end credits. Characters from Evil Con Carne have still appeared on The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, realizing that they're not supposed to be there. For example, when the town is complaining about an evil duck, Hector Con Carne from Evil Con Carne is there and yells, "I'm not even supposed to be on this stupid show anymore!"
The fictional universe of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
Most of the show is set in Billy and Mandy's hometown of Endsville, a typical "Anytown, USA" in an indeterminate ___location. The age of the town is also indeterminate, as it has appeared in flashbacks of Billy's dad's youth ("The Taking Tree"), the early 1900s ("Who Killed Who?"), and medieval times ("Billy and Mandy's Jacked Up Halloween"). Grim ostensibly comes from the Underworld, so the show makes frequent forays onto his turf. Grim's scythe is able to produce cosmic rifts through which the characters can visit different planes of existence, including afterlife variations like nirvana, Asgard and Lower Heck. Billy and Mandy have traveled with Grim to places like the Halls of Time (where they accidentally flip over their hourglasses and age backwards), the Circus of Fear (where real human children are considered part of the freak show), and even the Underworld's lunch room (which is open to "staph" only). Grim's scythe can also summon monsters, supernatural creatures, and various Underworld inhabitants to Endsville. Grim also uses his scythe to reap people of their souls, even though Mandy specifically told him in one episode, "No Grim Reaping!"
The show universe, in addition to frequently violating the laws of physics, also contains a number of historical variations. Abraham Lincoln is President and a personal friend of Billy. Also, the world police organization is not the United Nations, but the League of Nations (disbanded in 1946 in reality). The presence of a what appears to be a Communist leader in the League of Nations may also suggest that the Soviet Union has not dissolved in this universe. In this and many other ways (such as the anti-romance between the characters, and bizarro beliefs in race and sex) it resembles George Herriman's poetic and ground-breaking Krazy Kat.
An unusual aspect of the show is that episodes often end with the destruction or alteration of the world, or with the disappearance or horrific transformation of the main characters. These changes do not carry over to the next episode, however. Often the episode will end with no resolution at all. For example, in "Halls of Time", Billy, Mandy, Grim and Irwin all disappear forever when their hourglasses in the halls of time are turned upside down. In "Chocolate Sailor", Billy is turned into a large quantity of chocolate syrup, and in "Sickly Sweet", Mandy is turned into a giant monster by an evil mask. Because the producers can compromise the safety of the characters in each episode, the show can avoid the cliché that good always triumphs over evil.
The universe is also in the Evil Con Carne universe: the characters meet, briefly, in the episodes "Chicken Ball Z" (a parody of Dragon Ball Z) and "Duck!" In the third season episode "Skarred For Life", General Skarr meets the characters in what could be seen as a full crossover. Skarr is actually now a main character in the show, who struggles with fighting his addiction to war. He usually overcomes his desire for power by making cornbread or gardening.
From time to time, the main characters surprise with aphorisms unusual for quick-draw (even semi-adult) type animation, such as: "Evolution takes no prisoners" (Mandy), "Money is the root of all evil" (Mandy), "Hope is wasted on the hopeless" (Mandy), "Romance is for the weak-minded" (Mandy), "Mind control doesn't work on people who think" (Eris), and "Man's loneliness is but his fear of life" (Grim).
The series is noted for its parodies, notably Harry Potter, and for quote references, like Scooby-Doo and The Wizard of Oz. Another frequent subject of parody is the Dune series by Frank Herbert, from entire episodes like "Mandy the Merciless" to off-hand references to the Gom Jobbar during the beauty pageant in "My Fair Mandy", and Lord Byron saying "You must not fear. Fear is the death that brings total obliteration" in "Ecto Cooler". In "Big Trouble in Billy's Basement", the "Bad Book" recalls the Necronomicon of H.P. Lovecraft, with Billy needing Grim's scythe to summon "Yogg Sawhaw" (Yog-Sothoth). The horror film The Ring was fully parodied in "Are you Chupacabra to See Me" and the Disney film Fantasia was parodied in "Dream A Little Dream". Parodies of Stephen King have also appeared in the show; in the episode "Tricycle of Terror", Billy is given a possessed tricycle, a plotline similar to King's novel "Christine", in which a teenage boy buys a possessed antique car. Another example of a horror movie take-off would be the episode "Tickle Me Mandy", which was a mimic of the Child's Play movie series, about an evil killer doll that no one believes is truly evil except for the dolls owner, a young boy. Pop culture references abound in both the visuals and the dialogue, with everything from the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings films, to the game show Press Your Luck and the Keebler Elves from television, to literary references from Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare making appearances in the various episodes. It also mentions the name of celebrities, such as Molly Ringwald, Kelly Clarkson, and Jennifer Lopez.
Controversy
Probably the most controversial aspect of the show is its somewhat frequent use of crude or gross humor. Examples of this include Billy blowing green mucus out of his nose onto his cat, Mandy magically transfoming Billy into a "horse butt", which then passes gas, Billy talking about how a person at his school sneezed mucus onto a wall, and how the rest of the students ate it and got sick, but how he did not, despite "going back for seconds", and Billy digging through his cat's litterbox and claiming that he "found another piece of candy", which is implied to be fecal matter.
One other controversial premise is the baseless sexism of some of the boys (a premise found in many other shows). Billy and Irwin tell Mandy that she cannot do something with them because she is a girl, they then demonstrate their own ineptitude or she shows her superiority. Other sexual related controversy includes the mentioning of necrophillia, which was mentioned in an episode when Irwin's dad revealed that he is married to a mummy, and that she is Irwin's biological mother. He claims that the situation "leaves a whole lot of questions that don't need to be answered."
Another controversy is the extreme fantasy violence that this show uses, even to the point of showing gore. There was also a scene in an episode in which a police officer shoots an alien meteorite with his handgun, although is ricochets off of it, rather than shooting holes through it.
Main characters
For biographies, see List of Characters in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
Episode Summaries for Upcoming Episodes
- The Black Pearl / The Day Off with the Jury: Mindy needs Billy and Irwin to get the Black Pearl from under the sea for her pearl collection. / Fred Fredburger, Vampire Zombie and The other Underworld Court jury is taking a break so Billy makes friends.
- Supermodel Mindy / Billy's Moving House: Mindy needs money so she become a supermodel. / Billy needs Grim to transform his house into Big Moving House Castle and Billy's parents is inside of the Locked Cage.
- Billy vs. Pinocchio / The Kraken: Billy and Harold (Billy's Dad) found Pinocchio for the Puppet Show, but he has become a real Pinocchio. Can Mandy and Grim stop Pinocchio from trying to eat Billy's flesh yet again? / Captain Deadwood tells Billy, Mandy, Irwin, Pud'n, Sperg and Grim about the Kraken so they can go hunt for it.
- Billriot Games: Harold loses all of his Sports Years trophies, putting him in last place. Billy and Harold now have to win a trophy.
Episode List
Season One
The first season first aired in August 2001 and ended in October 2002.
Season Two
The second season first aired in June 2003 and ended in March 2004.
Halloween Special
The Halloween special first aired in October 2003.
| Episode Number | Episode Title |
|---|---|
| 23 | "Billy and Mandy's Jacked Up Halloween" |
Season Three
The third season first aired in June 2004 and ended in July 2004.
Season Four
The fourth season first aired in October 2004 and ended in April 2005.
Season Five
The fifth season first aired in June 2005 and ended in December 2005.
| Episode Number | Episode Title |
|---|---|
| 45 | "Wishbones" |
| 46 | "Dream Mutt / Scythe for Sale" |
| 47 | "Jeffy's Web / Irwin Get's A Clue" |
| 48 | "Duck! / Aren't You Chupacabra To See Me?" |
| 49 | "Zip Your Fly / Puddle Jumping" |
| 50 | "Runaway Pants / Scythe 2.0." |
| 51 | "The Firebird Sweet / The Bubble With Bully" |
| 52 | "Billy Idiot / House of the Ancients" |
| 53 | "My Fair Mandy" |
| 54 | "One Crazy Summoner / Guess What's Coming to Dinner" |
| 55 | "Mommy Fiercest / The Taking Tree" |
| 56 | "Reap Walking / The Loser From the Earth's Core" |
| 57 | "Ecto Cooler / Schlubs" |
| 58 | "Prank Call of Cthulu" |
Christmas Special
The Christmas special first aired in December 2005.
| Episode Number | Episode Title |
|---|---|
| 59 | "Billy and Mandy Save Christmas" |
Season Six
The sixth season first aired in January 2006, It is still airing.
| Episode Number | Episode Title |
|---|---|
| 60 | "Billy Ocean / Hill Billy" |
| 61 | "Keeper of the Reaper" |
| 62 | "The Love That Dare to Speak Its Name / Major Cheese" |
| 63 | "Modern Primatives / Giant Billy and Mandy All-Out Attack" |
| 64 | "Sticky Notes / Mystical Herbs" (premiering March 3, 2006) |
| 65 | "The Black Pearl / The Day Off with the Jury" (premiering March 10, 2006) |
| 66 | "Supermodel Mindy / Billy's Moving House" (premiering March 17, 2006) |
| 67 | "Billy vs. Pinocchio / The Kraken" (premiering March 24, 2006) |
| 68 | "Billriot Games" (premiering March 31, 2006) |
Trivia
- There have been two episodes in which Mandy rides a red futuristic motorcycle; the design is a reference to Kaneda's bike from Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira.
- Multiple episodes as well as the Christmas special were written by Nina Bargiel. She is the girlfriend of Mr. Atoms and has a website of her own called the slack.
- "The Bad News Ghouls" (43a of Season Four) and "The Keeper of the Reaper" (61 of Season Six) were written by Richard Steven Horvitz, the voice actor for Billy and his father, Harold.
- "Educating Grim" (14b of Season Two) was written by Rachael MacFarlane, voice of Mindy/Eris and sister of Seth MacFarlane.
- This show often uses dark humor and extreme violence. For example, one episode has a rabbit getting caught in the middle of an explosion. When he emerges, his organs are shown. In that same episode, Pud'n is thrown out of a seven-story window and lands in a cactus farm, getting a large cactus stuck in his eye. Often times, Billy will have his entire removed. In one instance, Billy falls off his bike and lands face-first on the sidewalk and slides ten yards. When he looks up, most of the skin on his face has been removed, showing his skull. In a similar instance, Nergal throws a Lawn Mower Billy's face and removes it. Similar occurances have happened throughout the series. In The Day Off with the Jury after Billy takes Vampire Zombie to the Haunted House but Billy put Vampire Zombie in the Cart to go the Haunted House but his Nose is take off by a Monster Hand his Hat is sliced in two by the pendulum and hes been melted by Lava but you could see his Skeleton.
- In "Crawling Niceness", when Billy is hunting through Grim's trunk, he tosses out (among other things) the Eye of Vecna, a supremely powerful Dungeons and Dragons artifact.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is the title of a song by Voltaire concerning a brain-eating meteor from the sky that lands on Earth and meets Billy (as seen in the episode "Little Rock of Horrors"). The song is alternatively titled Brains.
- Many episodes of of the show have had cameos of different cartoon characters from Hanna-Barbara shows, including Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, Fred Flintstone and Huckleberry Hound.
- In the end credits of the show a voice can be heard speaking backwards at the end of the credits. Played backwards, the voice states "No, no, this is the END of the show. You're watching it backwards!"
- In "A Grim Surprise", Grim says(after being complimented by Billy), "And then my little heart grew three sizes that day" and shows an x-ray being broken by Grim's growing heart, which were both taken straight from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
- In Billy vs. Pinocchio, is a final battle of Mandy & Grim and Pinocchio, and Pinocchio is finally destroyed.
- In one episode, Mandy, Grim and Billy ended up as The Powerpuff Girls, with Professor Utonium coming in to tell them to save the day.
- Throughout the series Billy, Mandy or Grim, will say lines which are slight parodies of famous lines from Star Trek or Star Wars. One example is found in the episode My Fair Mandy, in which Mandy wants to beat Mindy in a beauty contest. In response to being asked if he can help make Mandy beautiful, Grim replies "Darn it I'm not a miracle worker!". This is an obvious allusion to the original Star Trek and a line by Doctor McCoy of "Darn it, I'm a doctor not a miracle worker". Similar moments have occured for famous quotes from Star Wars.
- In The Black Pearl Billy wears a Blue swim shorts from No Body Loves Grim, and Irwin wears a Purple swim shorts to get the Black Pearl from under the sea, Mandy wears a Pink swimsuit from No Body Loves Grim and she Snorkels underwater with Swimfins, Snorkel and a Diving mask to find Billy and Irwin.
- The Episode Title Billy's Moving House is looks like a Movie title Howl's Moving Castle (film) & In Billy's Moving House after Grim transform Billy's House into Big Moving House Castle and is filled with Frogs, Japanese Womens with Robes, Yellow Chickens, Monsters with Robes and Nofaces with Robes from Spirited Away.
DVD
Though Cartoon Network and Warner Home Video have no plans for season or volume sets of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, certain episodes have been featured on various other Cartoon Network DVDs.
- Cartoon Network Halloween - 9 Creepy Capers (August 10, 2004) — Billy and Mandy's Jacked Up Halloween
- Cartoon Network Christmas - Yuletide Follies (October 5, 2004) — Son of Nergal
- Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy, Volume 1 - Edifying Edventures (May 10, 2005) — Nursery Crimes
- Cartoon Network Halloween 2 - Grossest Halloween Ever (August 9, 2005) — Night of the Living Grim
- Cartoon Network - Christmas Rocks (October 5, 2005) — Battle of the Bands
Titles in Other Languages
- Dutch: Billy & Mandy (also De grimmige avonturen van Billy en Mandy)
- French:
- Grim and Evil: Malices et Menaces. (Misbehavior and threats)
- The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Billy et Mandy, Aventuriers de l'Au-Delà (Billy and Mandy, Adventurers of (from) Beyond)
- Hebrew: הרפתקאותיהם של בילי ומנדי (The Adventures of Billy and Mandy)
- Hungarian: Billy és Mandy Kalandjai a Kaszással
- Irish:
- Grim and Evil: Bás agus Olcas. (Death and Evil)
- The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: (Unknown)
- Italian: Le tenebrose avventure di Billy e Mandy
- Macedonian: Страшните авантури на Били и Менди
- Norwegian: Skumle Eventyr med Billy og Mandy (Scary Adventures with Billy and Mandy)
- Polish: Mroczne przygody Billy'ego i Mandy (Dark adventures of Billy and Mandy)
- Portuguese: As Terríveis Aventuras de Billy e Mandy (The Terrible Adventures of Billy and Mandy)
- Spanish:
- Spain: Las macabras aventuras de Billy y Mandy (The Macabre Adventures of Billy and Mandy)
- Latin America: Las sombrías aventuras de Billy y Mandy (The Gloomy Adventures of Billy and Mandy)
External links
- Official site at Cartoon Network (USA).
- Grim & Evil at IMDb.