The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy | |
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Also known as | Billy & Mandy |
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Created by | Maxwell Atoms |
Based on | Grim & Evil by Maxwell Atoms |
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Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 6 |
No. of episodes | 84 (162 segments; 84 airings) (list of episodes) |
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Distributor | Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution |
Release | |
Original network | Cartoon Network |
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Original release | August 24, 2001 – November 9, 2007 |
Chronology | |
Preceded by | Grim & Evil (2001–2003) |
Followed by | Underfist: Halloween Bash (2008) |
Related | Evil Con Carne |
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy [lower-alpha 1] is an American animated television series created by Maxwell Atoms for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. It follows Billy, an extremely dimwitted, happy-go-lucky boy, and Mandy, a cynical, remorseless girl, who, after winning a limbo game to save Billy's pet hamster, gain Grim, the mighty Grim Reaper, as their "best friend forever". Grim, who is reluctant to serve the two children, has access to supernatural items, spells, and other abilities that often lead Billy and Mandy to interact with otherworldly environments, characters, or situations.
Billy & Mandy began as a series of segments on Grim & Evil , from which it was a spin-off, along with sister series Evil Con Carne , on August 24, 2001. Although the 2003-2004 episodes were produced for Grim & Evil, the show ran as a separate series from June 13, 2003, to November 9, 2007, on Cartoon Network. Two made-for-TV movies were also produced, Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure , which aired on March 30, 2007, and Billy & Mandy: Wrath of the Spider Queen, which aired on July 6, 2007. A crossover special with fellow Cartoon Network series, Codename: Kids Next Door , entitled "The Grim Adventures of the KND", aired on November 11, 2007. One more made-for-TV movie, Underfist: Halloween Bash , intended to serve as a pilot for a new spin-off series, aired on October 12, 2008.
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.
The series is centered around the exploits of Billy (Richard Steven Horvitz), an idiotic and happy-go-lucky boy; Mandy (Grey DeLisle), a cynical and cold-hearted girl; and Grim (Greg Eagles), a Jamaican-accented Reaper. 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. [1] 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), Billy's nerdy best friend who has a crush on Mandy; Harold (Richard Steven Horvitz), Billy's father who shares his son's stupidity; 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; Hoss Delgado (Diedrich Bader), an overly-intense "spectral exterminator" who hunts supernatural creatures; Nergal (David Warner/Martin Jarvis), a friendship-seeking demon who later marries Billy's aunt and bears a son, Nergal Jr. (Debi Derryberry); General Skarr (Armin Shimerman), Billy's ill-tempered next door neighbor who originated in the Evil Con Carne animated series; and Jeff (Maxwell Atoms), a giant spider constantly trying to win the approval of the arachnophobic Billy, whom he sees as his father.
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.
Season | Episodes | Series | Originally aired | ||
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First aired | Last aired | ||||
1 | 24 | 13 | Grim & Evil | August 24, 2001 | October 18, 2002 |
11 | Grim & Evil(U.K.) / The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy(U.S.) | June 13, 2003 | October 22, 2004 | ||
2 | 15 | The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy | June 11, 2004 | November 26, 2004 | |
3 | 13 | February 25, 2005 | June 30, 2005 | ||
4 | 8 | July 29, 2005 | December 16, 2005 | ||
5 | 13 | January 6, 2006 | July 21, 2006 | ||
6 | 11 | October 6, 2006 | November 9, 2007 |
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. [2] After the screening, Atoms uploaded the film to his YouTube channel, albeit in a deteriorating state after years of storage.
While working on the first season of Cow and Chicken , Atoms was approached by Hanna-Barbera executives for ideas for new short films. Among the ideas he presented to Hanna-Barbera was "Milkman", centering on an anthropomorphic, superhero milk carton who saves the missing children depicted on his back. Though the idea was rejected, executives were interested in Billy and Mandy, two characters that were to be featured in the project. [3] Atoms was prompted to devise a series centering on the two children. Feeling that the characters Billy and Mandy would not be enough to carry a show, he began devising a third character to round out the main cast. He was always fascinated by the idea of a little girl befriending the Devil or the grim reaper, but eventually settled on the latter, as Cartoon Network did not approve of depictions of the devil after Cow and Chicken. Atoms pitched the Billy & Mandy concept to Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, to which Cartoon Network approved the production of a short film 6 months later (which would become the short/pilot Meet the Reaper). [3]
The show was put into full production after 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] [5] The three final choices were The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? , and Longhair and Doubledome. [4] Out of the three, Billy & Mandy attained the most votes with 57%; Robot Jones came in second place at 23% while Longhair and Doubledome received 20% of the vote. [4]
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. [5] An original Evil Con Carne short was produced in 2000 after Meet the Reaper, but Cartoon Network wanted to combine the series, to have a "B cartoon" as a middle segment (similar to the Dial M For Monkey and The Justice Friends shorts in Dexter's Laboratory , or the I Am Weasel segment on Cow and Chicken). [3] 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 half-hour program. The split came as a result of Cartoon Network wanting to move away from the old 7 minute segment format, and focus on two 11 minute segments per half hour instead. [3] After both series aired their respective new seasons, the network gave Atoms a decision to continue one series, while the other would be dropped from production. Atoms opted to continue Billy & Mandy and accepted the network's decision, as he considered running both shows stressful. [3] Evil Con Carne characters occasionally appear on The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. General Skarr was introduced into the show as a recurring character beginning in Season 2's "Skarred for Life", where he became Billy's new next-door neighbor. [6] In "Company Halt", the ninth episode of the final season which also functions as the true series finale for Evil Con Carne, Ghastly, Hector, Boskov, and Stomach restart their evil organization and convince Skarr to rejoin them, but their plans are ultimately foiled by Billy and Mandy, and Skarr goes back to living his life as a normal person. [7]
On March 20, 2022, Craig McCracken revealed that years ago on Cartoon Network there were plans for a spinoff series titled Cheeseburger featuring Fred Fredburger and Cheese from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends , but the idea never gained traction. [8]
Atoms confirmed in 2021 that the three main characters of the show are on the autism spectrum, having been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome late in life. He likened Mandy to "the cold, rational way [he] learned to view the world in order to survive", Billy to "the fun and joyous inner-world where [Atoms likes] to spend [his] time" and Grim to "the moral mediator between the two." [9]
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. [10]
The series has won one Annie Award and two Emmy Awards and has been nominated nine times for various awards.
Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
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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 | Best Sound Editing in Television Animation – Music | Glenn Oyabe (for "Little Rock of Horror"/"The Pie Who Loved Me"/"Dream a Little Dream") | Nominated | |
2005 | 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") [11] | Nominated | |
Shaun Cashman and Phil Cummings (for "Attack of the Clowns") [11] | Won | |||
2006 | Shaun Cashman (for "Hill Billy") [12] | Nominated | ||
Emmy Awards | Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation | Michael Diederich [13] | Won | |
2007 | Phil Rynda (for Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure ) [14] | Won | ||
Daytime Emmy Awards | Broadband-Children's | The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy [15] | Nominated |
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. [16]
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. [17]
On October 12, 2008, a third and final spin-off movie, titled Underfist: Halloween Bash, premiered on Cartoon Network. 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. [18]
The score composers for the series are Gregory Hinde, Drew Neumann and Guy Moon. [19] [20] [21] 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!" [22] [23] and, in Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure , the song "Land of the Dead" is played in the opening credits. [24] Both songs are a part of the album Spooky Songs For Creepy Kids. [22] The season two episode "Battle of the Bands" also featured the song "Darkness" by gothic industrial rock band SPF-1000. The end credits music of "Billy & Mandy Save Christmas" is the song "Round and Round" by glam metal band Ratt.
Midway Games published two video games based on the series in 2006, each featuring the same plot but different gameplay. The first, a 3D fighting game, was developed by High Voltage Studios and released on September 25, 2006, for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube, and on November 19, 2006, in North America for the Wii. The second, a sidescrolling beat 'em up, was developed by Full Fat and released on October 31, 2006, for the Game Boy Advance. [25] Characters from the series have also appeared in Cartoon Network crossover video games, such as FusionFall and Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion .
The first season was first released on DVD by Warner Home Video on September 18, 2007. Collection 2 released February 11, 2010, in Australia and New Zealand and contains the next 13 episodes in the series.
The entire series is available on iTunes and Amazon Prime in six volumes, with the exceptions of Billy & Mandy Save Christmas, Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure and Underfist: Halloween Bash.
On January 1, 2021, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy was added to HBO Max. [26]
Frederic Charles Willard was an American actor, comedian, and writer. He was best known for his work with Christopher Guest in This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006), and Mascots (2016), and for playing Ed Harken in the Anchorman films. He also appeared in films like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, American Wedding and WALL-E. He won two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for playing Frank Dunphy on the sitcom Modern Family.
Craig Michael Bartlett is an American animator. He wrote, directed, created, and produced the Nickelodeon television series Hey Arnold! and the PBS Kids television series Dinosaur Train and Ready Jet Go!.
Carl Harvey Greenblatt is an American animator, storyboard artist, voice actor, writer, producer and director. He has worked on Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants and on Cartoon Network's The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne. He is the creator of Cartoon Network's Chowder, Nickelodeon's Harvey Beaks, and creator and executive producer of Jellystone!, a Hanna-Barbera animated series for HBO Max produced by Warner Bros. Animation.
Adam Maxwell Burton, known professionally as Maxwell Atoms, is an American animator, screenwriter, storyboard artist, and voice actor. He is the creator of the Cartoon Network series Grim & Evil and its subsequent spin-offs, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne. He was born in San Antonio, Texas but he was raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Richard Steven Horvitz is an American actor and comedian, best known for his voice work in animation and video games. His voice credits include the original Alpha 5 on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo and Power Rangers Turbo, Razputin in Psychonauts, Kaos in Skylanders, Billy and his father Harold in Grim & Evil and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Grey Matter in Ben 10, Rodney in Squirrel Boy, Daggett in The Angry Beavers, Zim in Invader Zim, Orthopox in Destroy All Humans!, the Zoni in Ratchet & Clank, Bumble in Kinectimals, the Space Weaver in Broken Age, Kanchomé in Zatch Bell!, and Moxxie in Helluva Boss.
Evil Con Carne is an American animated television series created by Maxwell Atoms for Cartoon Network. The series centers on wealthy crime lord Hector Con Carne, who is reduced to his brain and stomach after an assassination attempt and subsequently implanted onto Boskov, a purple circus bear. Aided by scientist Major Dr. Ghastly and military leader General Skarr, Hector now oversees criminal organization Evil Con Carne, continuing his quest for world domination.
Camp Lazlo is an American animated television series created by Joe Murray for Cartoon Network. The series follows Lazlo, an anthropomorphic spider monkey that goes to a camp called "Camp Kidney", a Boy Scout-like summer camp in Pimpleback Mountains. Lazlo resides in the "Jelly Bean" cabin with his fellow Bean Scouts; Raj, an Indian elephant, and Clam, a pygmy rhinoceros. Lazlo is often at odds with his pessimistic camp leader, Scoutmaster Lumpus, but usually gets along well with the second-in-command, Slinkman and other campers. Camp Kidney sits just across the lake from Acorn Flats, which is home to the campsite of the all-female Squirrel Scouts. Camp Lazlo was one of the first Cartoon Network Studios series produced in a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, despite originally being broadcast in the full screen aspect ratio of 4:3.
Greg Eagles is an American actor. He voiced the Grim Reaper in Cartoon Network's Grim & Evil and its spin-off The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. He also voiced Captain Bob and Sketch Pad on HBO's Canadian-American children's television series Crashbox, Brother 6 and Rokutaro in Afro Samurai, Aku Aku in the Crash Bandicoot video game franchise, and several characters in the Metal Gear Solid games.
Kris Zimmerman Salter is an American voice and casting director in the animation and video game industry. Her major works include the Metal Gear Solid series. In the cartoons, she has directed episodes for Ben 10, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Regular Show and Fish Hooks.
Grim & Evil is an American animated television series created by Maxwell Atoms for Cartoon Network. It consists of two segments which were eventually spun off into their own series, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne.
Challenger Middle School
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy is a fighting video game published by Midway Games based on the Cartoon Network animated television series of the same name. The game pits characters from the series against one another in 3D arena battles using various attacks, items, and environmental hazards to eliminate opponents and be the last one standing. The game was developed by High Voltage Software and released in North America on September 25, 2006, for the GameCube and PlayStation 2, and on November 19, 2006, for the Wii as a launch title. A companion game for the Game Boy Advance, featuring sidescrolling beat 'em up gameplay, was developed by Full Fat and released on October 31, 2006. The Wii version was released in Australia on March 15, 2007, and in Europe on March 16, 2007.
Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure is a 2007 made-for-television animated adventure fantasy comedy film produced by Cartoon Network Studios, and is the first made-for-television film based on the animated series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, the second being Billy & Mandy: Wrath of the Spider Queen. Big Boogey Adventure premiered in the United States on March 30, 2007, and in the UK on February 14, 2007, and was released on DVD in the U.S. on April 3, 2007.
Cow and Chicken is an American animated comedy television series created by David Feiss for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. It is the third of the network's Cartoon Cartoons. It follows the surreal adventures of two talking animal siblings, Cow and Chicken. They are often antagonized by the Red Guy, a cartoon version of the Devil who poses as various characters to scam them.
Underfist: Halloween Bash is an American animated spin-off special of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. It originally aired on Cartoon Network on October 12, 2008. The special was going to be the setup for a new series spin-off of Grim & Evil, but the contract of Maxwell Atoms with Cartoon Network expired before moving to Disney Channel for the TV series Fish Hooks, and the special was ultimately the finale of the Grim & Evil franchise.
Huckleberry "Huck" Hound is a fictional cartoon character, a blue anthropomorphic coonhound that speaks with a Southern drawl. He first appeared in the series The Huckleberry Hound Show. The cartoon was one of six TV shows to win an Emmy Award in 1960 as an "Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Children's Programming"; the first animated series to receive such an award.
The first season of the American animated television series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy originally aired on Cartoon Network in the United States from August 24, 2001, to October 22, 2004. It consisted of 18 episodes, including the 49 Grim & Evil episodes, one exclusive episode, and the half-hour Halloween special, in which Billy, Mandy, and Grim face against Jack O'Lantern. The 2003 episodes were also produced originally for Grim & Evil, but were only aired as part of the series, due to Cartoon Network and Maxwell Atoms having a decision to split Grim & Evil into two separate shows in 2003.
Digital eMation, Inc. is an animation studio located in Seoul, South Korea and founded in 1993. They specialize in traditional animation and digital animation.
So yeah. Mandy's probably on the spectrum. As are Billy & Grim. Mandy is the cold, rational way I learned to view the world in order to survive. Billy is the fun and joyous inner-world where I like to spend my time. And Grim is the moral mediator between the two. It's really Id, Ego, and Superego to some degree. I haven't thought about that in a long time, but that was purposeful.