The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (also known as Billy & Mandy) is an American animated television series created by Maxwell Atoms for Cartoon Network, and is the 14th of the network's Cartoon Cartoons (albeit on when it was part of Grim & Evil). It follows two children: Billy, a slow-witted happy-go-lucky boy, and Mandy, his dark and cynical best friend, who, after winning a limbo game to save Billy's pet hamster, gain the mighty Grim Reaper as their best friend in eternal servitude and slavery. In India, the show is known as Billy, Mandy aur life mein Haddi (Billy, Mandy and Haddi in life) and Haddi mera Buddy (Haddi my Buddy).
Billy & Mandy began as a series of segments on Grim & Evil, from which it was spun-off, along with Evil Con Carne, on August 24, 2001. Although the 2003 episodes were produced for Grim & Evil, the show ran as a separate series from June 13, 2003, to November 9, 2007. Underfist: Halloween Bash, a made-for-TV movie intended to serve as a pilot for a new spin-off series, aired on October 12, 2008. In addition to the episodes, three movies, two special episodes, and nineteen shorts were made. During its run, the series won two Emmy Awards and one Annie Award, with nominations for one Daytime Emmy Award, three Golden Reel Awards, and two other Annie Awards. Billy & Mandy has also been made into a video game as well as various licensed merchandise.
Premise[]
- Main article(s): List of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy characters
The show's main characters. From left to right: Billy, Mandy, and Grim.
Graffiti of Grim Reaper in Aretxabaleta (Spain)
The series is centered around the exploits of Grim (voiced by Greg Eagles), a Jamaican-accented Reaper and Billy (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz), a completely idiotic and happy-go-lucky boy. They are constantly assisted by Mandy (Grey DeLisle), a cynical, intelligent and merciless girl. After Billy and Mandy cheated at a limbo match against Grim (in retaliation for putting the limbo rod too low for them to go under), he is enslaved in a permanently unwanted friendship with the children.[2] Grim is miserable in the first days of his servitude, and even fantasizes about killing them multiple times. However, as the time passes, he gradually adapts to the new life, and even grows to care for Billy and Mandy, if only somewhat. Despite this, he retains a love–hate relationship with the two and desires to eventually break free from his servitude.
Billy and Mandy use Grim's supernatural abilities and powers to venture into supernatural locations or environments, such as the Underworld, or the Netherworld, inhabited by an assortment of grotesque monstrous beasts. The pair also use Grim's enormously strong supernatural abilities or ties with a number of beastly characters to achieve goals or desires for themselves, often with twisted results. Famed fictional monsters including Dracula, the Wolfman, and the bogeyman are also comically depicted in the series.
Supporting characters include Irwin (Vanessa Marshall), a nerdy awkward boy who has a crush on Mandy; Harold (Richard Steven Horvitz), Billy's father who is even dumber than his son; Gladys (Jennifer Hale), Billy's loving yet mentally unstable mother; Mindy (Rachael MacFarlane), the snobby, stuck-up, and spoiled queen bee of Billy and Mandy's school; Sperg (Greg Eagles), the local bully who has a sensitive side; Fred Fredburger (C. H. Greenblatt), a simple-minded, irritating underworld creature who loves frozen yogurt and nachos; Dracula (Phil LaMarr), a selfish elderly vampire who is revealed to be Irwin's paternal grandfather in the final season of the show.
The show lacks continuity for the most part, as many episodes end with characters killed, exiled, or stuck in a situation. Characters sometimes display an awareness of some events from previous episodes, but there are no clear character arcs or coherent plot lines tying the show together.
Episodes[]
- Main article(s): List of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | ||||
| 1 | 18 | August 24, 2001 | October 22, 2004 | ||
| 2 | 8 | June 11, 2004 | July 30, 2004 | ||
| 3 | 13 | October 1, 2004 | June 10, 2005 | ||
| 4 | 14 | June 17, 2005 | December 2, 2005 | ||
| 5 | 13 | January 6, 2006 | August 9, 2006 | ||
| 6 | 11 | October 6, 2006 | November 9, 2007 | ||
| M&S | 4 | March 30, 2007 | October 12, 2008 | ||
Production history[]
The series had its genesis in 1995, when Maxwell Atoms, while he was a junior at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, made a two-minute short film for his thesis project. Titled Billy and Mandy in: The Trepanation of the Skull and You, it centers around Billy and Mandy (prototype versions) discussing trepanning with each other. In the end, Mandy drills Billy's head, causing him to pass out after too much blood loss even though he says he feels great. The short had never been shown publicly until April 30, 2016, during the first annual TromAnimation Film Festival.[3] After the screening, Atoms uploaded the film, albeit in a deteriorating state after years of storage, on his YouTube channel.
Atoms originally pitched the Billy and Mandy concept to Nickelodeon, but it was only rejected once. The show's existence is the result of a viewer poll event by way of telephone and the Internet called Cartoon Network's Big Pick which was held from June 16 to August 25, 2000.[4] The three final choices were Grim and Evil (later splitting into two separate series: The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne), Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?, and Longhair and Doubledome.[4] Out of the three, Grim and Evil attained the most votes with 57%; Robot Jones came in second place at 23% while Longhair and Doubledome received 20% of the vote.[4][5]
Originally part of Grim & Evil, Billy & Mandy served as the main show. In each episode, an Evil Con Carne short was put between two Grim shorts.[4] On occasion, it was the other way around, with two Evil shorts and one Grim short. The series premiered on August 24, 2001, during the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays Big Pick Weekend.
Another batch of 13 half-hour episodes were produced for Grim & Evil, but on June 13, 2003, the network separated the two segments and gave each their own full-length program. The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy ran for 6 seasons (with the first season containing 18 half-hour episodes, consisting of 49 Grim & Evil shorts, and one bonus short "Five-O-Clock Shadows"), while the short-lived Evil Con Carne show was cancelled once the already-produced season had aired. Some characters from Evil Con Carne occasionally appeared on The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. General Skarr became an official character on the show in the episode "Skarred for Life", where he becomes Billy's new next-door neighbor, and in "Company Halt", the ninth episode of the final season which functions as the true series finale for Evil Con Carne, Ghastly, Hector, Boskov, and Stomach restart their evil organization and convince Skarr to join them, but their plans are ultimately foiled by Billy and Mandy, and Skarr goes back to living his life as a normal person.
Reception[]
Critical response and ratings[]
Common Sense Media gave the show a 3/5 star rating and stated that it has "goofy punchlines and obscure cultural references" and recommends the viewer age be at least 8 years old.[6] New episodes were broadcast on Cartoon Network's Fridays at 7:30pm to over 1 million viewers an episode.[citation needed]
Awards and nominations[]
The series has won one Annie Award, two Emmy Awards and has been nominated nine times for various awards.
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Golden Reel Awards | Best Sound Editing in Television Animation | Glenn Oyabe, Jesse Aruda, and Rob Desales for "The Smell of Vengeance: Pt. 1 & 2/Fiend is Like Friend Without the "R"" |
Nominated | |
| 2003 | Golden Reel Awards | Best Sound Editing in Television Animation – Music | Glenn Oyabe for "Little Rock of Horror/The Pie Who Loved Me/Dream a Little Dream/Billy and Mandy's Jacked-Up Halloween" |
Nominated | |
| 2005 | Golden Reel Awards | Best Sound Editing in Television Animation | Glenn Oyabe, Jesse Aruda, Erik Sequeira, and Cecil Broughton for "Super Zero/Sickly Sweet" |
Nominated | |
| Annie Awards | Directing in an Animated Television Production | Brian Sheesley for "Nursery Crimes" |
Nominated | [7] | |
| Shaun Cashman and Phil Cummings for "Attack of the Clowns" |
Won | [7] | |||
| 2006 | Annie Awards | Directing in an Animated Television Production | Shaun Cashman for "Hill Billy" |
Nominated | [8] |
| Emmy Awards | Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation | Michael Diederich | Won | [9] | |
| 2007 | Emmy Award | Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation | Phil Rynda for Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure |
Won | [10] |
| Daytime Emmy Awards | Broadband-Children's | The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy | Nominated | [11] |
TV movies[]
- Main article(s): Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, Billy & Mandy: Wrath of the Spider Queen, and Underfist: Halloween Bash
Three TV movies were made for the series. The first one was called Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure and was released on DVD in April, 2007.[12] Common Sense Media gave the movie 2/5 stars and is meant for kids over the age of 8 calling it "undeniably gross and just as undeniably funny".[13] DVDverdict.com gave the movie a good review as well.[14]
A second movie, Wrath of the Spider Queen, was also released in 2007. It was based on a spider queen from Grim's distant past, who tries to take revenge on him because she was meant to be the reaper. Meanwhile, keeping up with the spider theme, Billy learns to love his spider son Jeff.[15]
On October 12, 2008, a third and final spin-off movie, titled Underfist: Halloween Bash, premiered. The movie's primary focus is on Irwin, Jeff the Spider, Hoss Delgado, General Skarr, and Fred Fredburger accidentally coming together to defeat an invasion of chocolate bar monsters, led by an evil marshmallow bunny, on Halloween night.[16]
Media[]
Music[]
The score composers for the series are Gregory Hinde, Drew Neumann and Guy Moon.[17][18][19] In addition, two songs were made for the show by Aurelio Voltaire, the episode "Little Rock of Horrors", which parodies the musical Little Shop of Horrors, features a song titled "BRAINS!"[20][21] and, in Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, the song "Land of the Dead" is played in the opening credits.[22] Both songs are a part of the album Spooky Songs For Creepy Kids.[20] The season two episode "Battle of the Bands" also featured the song "Darkness" by metal band SPF 1000. There was also an instance at the end of the Christmas special entitled "Billy & Mandy Save Christmas", where the end credits music is the song "Round and Round" by heavy metal band Ratt.
Video game[]
- Main article(s): The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (video game)
A video game inspired by the series was developed by Midway Games, and released on October 2, 2006.[23] It is a 3D fighting game. The video game received fair to good reviews: GameSpot gave it a 6.6/10 by Greg Mueller, he goes on to say that while it is fun for the "first few hours" and has "Fast-paced gameplay" the game action "gets old quickly" and has a very short story mode.[24] IGN gave the game a good score of 7.2/10 highlighting its presentation and appeal.[25] Metacritic gave the game a rating of 61/100 based on 10 critic reviews.[26]
See also[]
Template:Wikipedia books
References[]
- ↑ "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy - Metacritic.com". http://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-grim-adventures-of-billy-and-mandy.
- ↑ "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Characters". http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/billymandy/characters/index.html.
- ↑ Amidi, Amid. "Maxwell Atoms Reveals Lost Student Film That Inspired 'Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy'", Cartoon Brew, May 1, 2016. (in en-US)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Billy, Mandy and Grim Head to the Movies". http://www.awn.com/articles/billy-mandy-and-grim-head-movies.
- ↑ Dempsey, John. "'Billy & Mandy' beats out 'Robot,' 'Longhair' to get greenlight", Variety, August 29, 2000.
- ↑ "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy". 22 March 2007. http://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/grim-adventures-billy-and-mandy.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "32nd Annual Annie Nominations and Awards Recipients". ASIFA-Hollywood. http://annieawards.org/32nd-annie-awards.
- ↑ "34th Annual Annie Nominations and Awards Recipients". ASIFA-Hollywood. http://annieawards.org/34th-annie-awards.
- ↑ "List of Creative Arts Emmy winners", USA Today, August 20, 2006.
- ↑ "Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announces Emmy® Award Winners in Costumes for Variety or Music Program and Individual Achievement in Animation". http://www.emmys.com/sites/default/files/d6tv/CTA59themmywinners_0.pdf.
- ↑ "Children's Emmy Award noms make history at the KidScreen Summit". http://kidscreen.com/2007/02/08/emmys-20070208/.
- ↑ "Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure DVD". http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7361167.
- ↑ "Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure". 15 September 2009. http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/billy-and-mandys-big-boogey-adventure.
- ↑ "Billy And Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure (Review)". http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/billyandmandy.php.
- ↑ "Wrath of the Spider Queen". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1075544/combined.
- ↑ "Underfist: Halloween Bash". http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/107731-Underfist_Halloween_Bash.html.
- ↑ "Gregoryhinde resume". http://www.gregoryhinde.com/.
- ↑ "Drew Neumann Credits". http://www.drewneumann.com/DN_Credits.php.
- ↑ "Guy-Moon", The New York Times.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Brains! (From The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy), ASIN B004F9RE9M
- ↑ "Little Rock of Horror". http://www.cartoonnetworkasia.com/video/grim_billy_mandy/little-rock-of-horror.
- ↑ "New Voltaire Album!". http://www.aq.com/gamedesignnotes/tag/grim-adventures-of-billy-and-mandy.
- ↑ "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (Video game)". http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ADM231785/.
- ↑ "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Review". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/the-grim-adventures-of-billy-and-mandy/reviews/the-grim-adventures-of-billy-and-mandy-review-6162195/.
- ↑ "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (Video game review)". IGN. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/739/739790p1.html.
- ↑ "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Wii". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/game/wii/the-grim-adventures-of-billy-mandy.
External links[]
 |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy |
- Template:Bcdb
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy at the Internet Movie Database
- Template:TV.com show
- Template:Toonopedia Archived from the original on September 1, 2016.
Template:The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
v - e - d | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Current | 1990s debuts | ToonHeads (since 1992) • The Moxy Show (since 1993) • Space Ghost Coast to Coast (since 1994) • What a Cartoon! (since 1995) • Cartoon Planet (since 1995; since 2012) • Dexter's Laboratory (since 1996) • Big Bag (since 1996) • The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (since 1996) • The Tex Avery Show (since 1996) • The Fantastic Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor (since 1996) • Johnny Bravo (since 1997) • Cow and Chicken (since 1997) • I Am Weasel (since 1997) • The Powerpuff Girls (since 1998) • Ed, Edd n Eddy (since 1999) • Courage the Cowardly Dog (since 1999) • Mike, Lu & Og (since 1999) | |
| 2000s debuts | JBVO (since 2000) • The Bob Clampett Show (since 2000) • Sheep in the Big City (since 2000) • Time Squad (since 2001) • Samurai Jack (since 2001) • Grim & Evil (since 2001) • Justice League (since 2001) • The Popeye Show (since 2001) • Baby Looney Tunes (since 2002) • Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? (since 2002) • Codename: Kids Next Door (since 2002) • What's New, Scooby-Doo? (since 2002) • The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (since 2003) • Evil Con Carne (since 2003) • Teen Titans (since 2003) • Duck Dodgers (since 2003) • Star Wars: Clone Wars (since 2003) • Megas XLR (since 2004) • Justice League Unlimited (since 2004) • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (since 2004) • The Batman (since 2004) • Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi (since 2004) • Krypto the Superdog (since 2005) • The Life and Times of Juniper Lee (since 2005) • Camp Lazlo (since 2005) • Firehouse Tales (since 2005) • My Gym Partner's a Monkey (since 2005) • Ben 10 (since 2005) • Squirrel Boy (since 2006) • Ellen's Acres (since 2006) • Class of 3000 (since 2006) • The Land Before Time (since 2007) • Out of Jimmy's Head (since 2007) • Chowder (since 2007) • Transformers: Animated (since 2007) • Chop Socky Chooks (since 2008) • Ben 10: Alien Force (since 2008) • The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack (since 2008) • The Secret Saturdays (since 2008) • Batman: The Brave and the Bold (since 2008) • The Othersiders (since 2009) • BrainRush (since 2009) • Destroy Build Destroy (since 2009) • Bobb'e Says (since 2009) • Dude, What Would Happen (since 2009) | ||
| 2010s debuts | Adventure Time (since 2010) • Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (since 2010) • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (since 2010) • Generator Rex (since 2010) • Unnatural History (since 2010) • Mad (since 2010) • Regular Show (since 2010) • Sym-Bionic Titan (since 2010) • Tower Prep (since 2010) • Robotomy (since 2010) • Young Justice (since 2010) • The Problem Solverz (since 2011) • The Amazing World of Gumball (since 2011) • The Looney Tunes Show (since 2011) • ThunderCats (since 2011) • Secret Mountain Fort Awesome (since 2011) • Level Up (since 2012) • Green Lantern: The Animated Series (since 2012) • Dragons (since 2012) • Ben 10: Omniverse (since 2012) • Teen Titans Go! (since 2013) • Incredible Crew (since 2013) • Teen Titans Go! (since 2013) • Beware the Batman (since 2013) • Uncle Grandpa (since 2013) • Steven Universe (since 2013) • Mixels (since 2014) • The Tom and Jerry Show (since 2014) • Clarence (since 2014) • Over the Garden Wall (since 2014) • We Bare Bears (since 2015) • New Looney Tunes (since 2015) • Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! (since 2015) • Long Live the Royals (since 2015) • Bunnicula (since 2016) • The Powerpuff Girls (since 2016) • Mighty Magiswords (since 2016) • Justice League Action (since 2016) • Ben 10 (since 2017) • OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes (since 2017) • Unikitty! (since 2017) • Apple & Onion (since 2018) • Summer Camp Island (since 2018) • DC Super Hero Girls (since 2019) • Victor and Valentino (since 2019) • Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart (since 2019) • Infinity Train (since 2019) • Steven Universe Future (since 2019) | ||
| 2020s debuts | ThunderCats Roar (since 2020) • Elliott from Earth (since 2021) • The Fungies! (since 2021) • Looney Tunes Cartoons (since 2021) • Tig n' Seek (since 2021) • Jellystone! (since 2021) • We Baby Bears (since 2022) • Tiny Toons Looniversity (since 2023) • Jessica's Big Little World (since 2023) • The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe (since 2023) | ||
| See also | Current original series • Cartoon Network Studios (co-productions, films) • Warner Bros. Animation | ||
Catsgory:Cartoon Network original programming