Moral Orel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Moral Orel | |
|---|---|
 The opening title for the show, showing Orel waving at God/the viewer. |
|
| Format | Clay animation comedy |
| Created by | Dino Stamatopoulos |
| Starring | Scott Adsit Jay Johnston Carolyn Lawrence Britta Phillips William Salyers Tigger Stamatopoulos Dino Stamatopoulos |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 30 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | ShadowMachine Films |
| Running time | 11 minutes approx. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Adult Swim |
| Original run | December 13, 2005 – present |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Moral Orel is an American stop-motion animated television show currently airing on Adult Swim. The show is rated TV-MA due to its sexual and provocative scenes.
It has been described as "Davey and Goliath...meets South Park".[1] Despite advertising for the show, which portrays it as being in the vein of the Davey and Goliath cartoons that it is stylistically similar to, Dino Stamatopoulos, the creator, has stated that it is less a direct parody of that, and more a parody of 1950s and 1960s style sitcoms.[2]
At Adult Swim 2007 Upfront it was confirmed that Moral Orel will return for a third season.[3] Adult Swim has confirmed in an advertisement bump that it will begin on August 17, 2008 at 12:45AM Pacific time.
Contents |
[edit] General overview
The program takes place in the fictional city of Moralton, in the fictional U.S. state "Statesota", which is made up of parts of Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. According to the globe shown in the opening credits, Moralton is in the exact center of the United States with the town's church (presumably) at the exact center of the country. The globe also has the United States as its own continent on its own hemisphere. The rest of the North American continent and South America are present, but on the other side of the globe. The main character is Orel, a student at Alfred G Diorama Elementary School, who constantly tries to live by the moral code of his Christian faith. It seems, however, that most of the citizens of Moralton do not live the way a Christian is supposed to. Instead of loving your neighbor, they mock homosexuals, disavow rational scientific explanations of the universe's origins as fiction and heresy, and dehumanize non-Christian faiths, as well as Catholicism. The Christianity presented in the show is a jaded view of how Christians act today as opposed to how they are supposed to be setting an example of how to live. Most episodes of the first season had a similar formula: Orel would hear a sermon in church on Sunday, then proceed to have some sort of misadventure based around his (often misguided) attempts to live by that lesson.
Following the series premiere, The Best Christmas Ever, the Adult Swim message boards received numerous posts (later reproduced on promotional bumps) from viewers believing that the show was too ludicrous to be an actual program and that it was aired as a joke.[citation needed] Although The Best Christmas Ever aired first, it was produced to be the season finale. It aired out of order to coincide with the Christmas season.
Three episodes of the first season were held back because Cartoon Network's Standards & Practices found them to be too dark and over the top sexually crude even for Adult Swim (one episode centered on Orel drinking alcohol in order to be more adult, the second centered on Orel and his new friend beating up two boys who are presumably homosexual, and the last was centered around Orel using his sperm to impregnate the women in town after being reprimanded for masturbating and letting his sperm go to waste, which, according to Moralton, was a sin). Two were approved for air in May 2006, with the last "banned" episode airing July 31, 2006.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Episode guide
[edit] Lost commandments
The lost commandments are the extra, fictional Commandments that are used to impart a moral to Orel that does not come up in the Bible. Characters use these in order to teach Orel the wrong lesson or to end a conversation quickly to get back to their lives.
| Number | Commandment |
|---|---|
| 11 | Thou shalt be ashamed of thy natural anatomy. |
| 12 | Thou shalt only have sex face-to-face, man on top. |
| 13 | Thou shalt not bastardize the American language. |
| 14 | Thou shalt always clean thy plate and not waste anything, whether thy stomach is full or not. |
| 18 | Thou shalt be loyal to all thy friends at the same time. |
| 19 | Thou shall not masturbate. |
| 21 | Get it right! |
| 29 | Everything's fine! (Followed by a measure of sheet music to the tune of a non-chalant whistle.) |
| (no number) | God works in mysterious ways. |
| (no number) | Spare the rod and spoil the child. (Although this proverb is actually derived from the Bible, it is not listed among the Commandments in the Book of Exodus.) |
[edit] Texts of church sign display
| Episode | Text |
|---|---|
| 1.1 | Yes kids, we lied about Santa, but Jesus is for real. |
| 1.2 | This week's sermon: Heaven or Hell — which would Jesus choose? |
| 1.4 | Reminder: Ant poison on grass — 23rd Church picnic — 24th Picnic at your own risk. |
| 1.5 | "All Aboard the Censorship" ― Admiral God |
| 1.6 | Jesus died for your sins and had long hair so that you wouldn't. |
| 1.7 | The Holy Ghost: spooky or just a third wheel? |
| 1.9 | "Sinfully Good" is not always that bad. |
| 1.10 | Latin — and why it's the Devil's language. |
| 2.5 | Remember, Jesus loves you more than he loves anyone else |
| 2.7 | Angel Food Cake and Devil's Food Cake: Good and Evil Fight It Out Deliciously. |
| 2.17 | If it weren't for Jesus, you'd be reading this backwards. |
[edit] DVD releases
Volume releases
| DVD Name | Release Date | Ep # | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume One | April 24, 2007 | 15 | This 2 disc boxset contains the first 15 episodes of the series, uncensored, and in production order (The Lord's Greatest Gift through Offensiveness). Special features include a director's cut version of Gods Chef, deleted scenes, a "behind the scenes" featurette, and an edited for content (to remove footage from other Adult Swim shows) video of the Adult Swim 2006 Comic-Con panel.[4] |
[edit] Music
Most original music for the show is created by musician Mark Rivers. A number of the songs heard throughout the show have been posted to the official Adult Swim download site. In the second season episode Satan, the song "Saturday" by IO Perry from the album Greybay was used. The only other episode as of yet to have music other than Mark Rivers is the 25th episode Courtship which featured "You" by Peter Blood from the album Osama's Daughter.
[edit] References
- ^ Bozell, L. Brent. Shower after 'Adult Swim'. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.
- ^ Adult Swim interview with Dino Stamatopoulos. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.
- ^ Adult Swim Announces 2007 Programming Slate at New York Upfront
- ^ Warner Brothers DVD shop. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.
[edit] External links
- Moral Orel - TV.com Guide
- Panel from Comic-Con 2006
- AdultSwim.co.uk - Watch Moral Orel on Adult Swim UK
- Moral Orel at the Voice Chasers Database.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
