Over the past several years, 2009’s Black Dynamite – a loving send-up, and immaculate recreation, of
1970s blaxploitation films – has become a comedy near and dear to my
heart. This under-appreciated hidden gem
stars actor/martial artist Michael Jai White – whom you may know best from the hellaciously
awful feature film adaptation of Spawn,
or the “pencil trick” scene of The Dark
Knight – as Black Dynamite, a Vietnam vet/ ex-CIA agent/sex machine who
seeks vengeance for the death of his brother Jimmy, while working to keep a new
type of heroin from hitting the local orphanages.
My first encounter with Black Dynamite was this creative
fake trailer, which combined clips from actual 1970s blaxploitation films with newly-shot
footage of Michael Jai White (the latter featuring a fair amount of dialogue
from the final film):
Keep in mind that the above trailer was filmed prior to the
film itself, as White and director Scott Sanders put it together as a
proof-of-concept to sell investors on the movie… and oh, did it work: in late
2008, the actual film’s trailer was released, which astonished movie fans with
its priceless recreation of 1970s filmmaking. Check it out below:
Black Dynamite
went on to receive high praise from film festival audiences, culminating in
Sony’s purchase of the film at Sundance for $2 million dollars. Unfortunately, Sony botched the film’s
theatrical release, limiting it to a 2-week run in 70 theaters nationwide,
which took in less than $250,000 at the box office. Fortunately, the film’s DVD and Blu-ray
release helped create a fervent and passionate fan base, which led to a
surprising announcement in 2010, when our favorite late-night comedy block,
[adult swim], announced that a Black
Dynamite animated series was going into production.
If you close your eyes and listen to the soundtrack, the Black
Dynamite premiere sounds exactly like the film: not only did Michael Jai
White and his fellow cast members (including Byron Minns as Bullhorn, Kym Whitley as Honey
Bee, and Tommy Davidson as Cream Corn) return for this series, but composer Adrian
Younge reprised much of his awesome music cues from the original film. However, the visuals… are a different
story. You see, the animation team
behind The Boondocks were hired to
bring Black Dynamite to animated life, and as a result, the low-rent visuals of
the movie have given way to an over-stylized, anime-like experience for the TV
series… much like The Boondocks. For those of you who are used to the style of
the original movie, the visual switch is quite jarring, and it may take several
episodes for the look to sink in.
Fortunately, despite the visual differences, the franchise’s sense of humor is still mostly intact… and that’s a good thing. As the premiere episode opens, Fiendish Dr. Wu’s army of ninjas have taken over the city streets, flagrantly disobeying “No Ninja Loitering” signs and making sure that pimpin’ ain’t easy for Chocolate Giddy-Up and the city’s other pimps. Hired by the pimps to take Dr. Wu out, Black Dynamite and his team put together a massive explosion (which invokes the series’ first use of the classic “Dy-no-mite! Dy-no-mite!” music cue)… but the getaway effort fails miserably when it’s revealed that Cream Corn abandoned his getaway driver duties to head on over to Soul Train… where he sees the Jackson 5 perform, and becomes enamored with a young Michael Jackson.
“Jackson Five Across Yo’ Eyes” was the third episode of the series that was produced, yet it was slotted as the series premiere. Usually, TV comedies are apt to position their best episodes first in order to gain viewers. However, I wonder if the premise of a Michael Jackson episode just seemed more accessible to new viewers (especially those who aren’t familiar with the Black Dynamite film). If it’s accessibility that’s the case, it doesn’t work well, as the episode quickly falls into the requisite spate of Michael Jackson pedophile/creepy person jokes. Things start promisingly, as Michael, not Joe Jackson, is portrayed as the abusive controller of the Jackson 5… but the episode soon turns into a reversed version of the South Park episode “The Jeffersons”, with Cream Corn idolizing little Michael much in the same way that Cartman fell for “Mr. Jefferson” in that classic episode, and Michael himself devolving into a creepy monster for the big finale of both episodes. The show fares best when it wrings jokes out of the early days of the Jackson family, such as Michael professing his love for Cream Corn via a twisted version of his song “Ben”, or the flashback to Joe Jackson’s days as a reproducing machine. (The episode’s most uproarious moment may have been the birth of La Toya Jackson, which I won’t spoil for you here.) (Although I did like how Michael sang a warped version of “Ben” to profess his adoration for Cream Corn.)
But what hurts the most about this premiere is how much of
the episode is tied to Michael Jackson and Cream Corn, and not Black Dynamite
himself. Black Dynamite’s attempts
throughout the episode to interrogate a ninja is amusing, albeit way too brief
(“Dammit, who’s interrupting my headlocking?”), and we get a classic moment
involving Black Dynamite’s nearly-endless string of sexual partners (“Dammit, I
already told the second bitch ‘No!’”).
But sadly, there’s little else time spent with the main man during the
show’s 23 minutes, which is sad because Black Dynamite is an epic character in
and of himself, and can easily generate a lot of laughs. At the very least, Michael Jai White infuses
most of his dialogue with a delicious sense of comedic anger over the Michael
Jackson situation, which helps sell such lines as “Michael Jackson, will you
stop the goddamn singing, shut the FUCK up, and let a grown man find his GRAPPLING HOOKS?!?!?”
All told, the premiere episode isn’t entirely a success, but I’m willing to wait this out as we proceed further into the season. Regardless of the premiere’s quality, it’s still absolutely amazing that we have more adventures of Black Dynamite and his crew to indulge in, and for that alone, I’m still very optimistic. But, it seems that we may run into the same trap next week, with a Bullhorn-centric adventure into the world of porn. Let’s hope things turn out better… right? Right?
Random notes:
- If you missed Sunday night's viewing, you can watch the episode via this link, which takes you to adultswim.com. However, you will need to be a subscriber of a major cable or satellite company, as you will need to authenticate in order to view the video.
- Below, you'll find the Black
Dynamite animated pilot, which premiered on adultswim.com last year, and which
features JB Smoove as a villainous Kermit the Frog clone. It’s uncertain if this will air on TV,
primarily because the pilot was created as a 15-minute episode. (After the pilot was finished, the series was
expanded to 30-minute episodes… which, in the world of Adult Swim, is a vote of
confidence.)
- For some reason, we don't have a review of the original Black Dynamite movie on the parent site... you'll have to beg the Powers That Be to cover it. :-)
- Ironically, my newly-acquired Blu-ray of Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker landed in my mailbox today from the UK. I haven't seen it yet, but if the Nostalgia Critic has taught me anything, this movie is weird as heck.
- "The Whorephanage is a place for whores and orphans, not Michael Jacksons!"
- "Ninja, please!"
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