The Freak Brothers

The Freak Brothers is an American adult animated television series based on the 1960s underground comic series created by Gilbert Shelton called The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Produced by Pure Imagination Studios, Starburns Industries, and WTG Enterprises, distributed by Lionsgate Television, and animated by Philippines's Xentrix Toons. It was released on Tubi on November 14, 2021.

Plot
Back in 1969 when the Freaks weren’t hanging out at Woodstock, they were dodging the draft, dodging the Narcs, and dodging steady employment. But after smoking a magic strain of weed, laid-back Freewheelin’ Franklin Freek, paranoid Phineas T. Phreakears, man-child Fat Freddy Freekowtski, and his sardonic cat are Rip-Van-Winkled into the future. They wake up 50 years later in their renovated house, which is now owned by the Switzers a family of ethnically diverse “trippin’ squares.” While the tech-savvy Switzers help guide the Freaks through the rat race of a strange new world, the Freaks – who are unburdened by the baggage of modern life – help the family embrace the values of a simpler time.

Why Isn't Fabulous

 * 1) Troubled production history: The series was originally supposed to be released in 2020, as well as some shorts based on the series is released at the same year. But it was delayed one year later as well with one of the shorts "Kentucky Fried Freaks" giving some spoilers over the series.
 * 2) While the idea of the Freak Brothers traveling through the 21st century is fine. It delivers a typical "Family Guy-style comedy" formula that already results in making the series predictable and clichéd in the first place.
 * 3) Anachronism: Despise the series being set in the year 2020. There're no social commentaries over events that happened in that year like the COVID-19 Pandemic for example, and it ends up delivering the same things that happened in the 2010s (like excess use of phones) and it doesn't help either that here Donald Trump is the president, when in real life. He left the presidency that year to Joe Biden, sure that the series was made before the pandemic, but at least put some effort to not make modern times in the series look like a generic technological future.
 * 4) It cuts some elements from the original comics, the Freak Brothers has been flanderized from charismatic, smart and iconic characters that accurately represent the hippies in the 60's to lazy, disgusting and perverted characters. As well it features the cat talking when he didn't speak in the original comics.
 * 5) * This also can go to the Switzer family, who acts like a very generic cartoon family composed of Noah the dumb father, Harper the stressed mother, Camille the rebellious teenage daughter, Chomsky the talking dog, and Gretchen the smart older sister.
 * 6) Although the characters designs for the titular characters and the cat remains the same as the original comics, the designs for the minor characters (including the Switzer family) look unconvincing, as they look like WordGirl rejects.
 * 7) The flash animation looks rather cheap for 2021 standards, and it doesn't translate well Gilbert Shelton's art style into animation by making the characters look a little bit uncanny with their facial expressions. Not to mention, but it looks more like a Brazilian cartoon-like Boris e Rufus and Newbie and the Disasternauts due to its issues with the character animation, with sometimes the characters move in a very choppy way.
 * 8) The comedy is pretty dull here as there are many immature attempts to humor like a running gag of Phineas pooping and references to outdated trends or even one of the episodes that feature a Stephen Hawking-like character that feels disrespectful towards Stephent Hawking and people with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
 * 9) While the voice acting is decent, John Goodman's performance as Fat Freddy is mediocre. As he sounds completely bored while recording lines as well having a shrill voice that can be very annoying to listen to.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The idea of making The Freak Brothers travel through the 21st century is good, despise the bad execution.
 * 2) Despise not translating well into animation, Gilbert Shelton's art style remains the same on the titular characters as said before, even though it has some small modifications.
 * 3) The soundtrack is great, as well the first episode feature some of Jimi Hendrix's songs. Not to mention, but the theme song is pretty catchy.
 * 4) Decent voice acting (except John Goodman) on Fat Freddy.
 * 5) The background designs look passable and re-create pretty well the city of San Francisco.

Reception
The Freak Brothers received mixed reviews from both critics, audiences, and fans of the original comics. Some praised the voice acting, soundtrack, and writing, with the biggest criticism being the lack of faithfulness of the comics, animation, and humor. It currently holds a 5.7/10 on IMDb.

Trivia
This was the second time to make an animated adaptation of The Fabulous Freak Brothers, with the first one being a canceled stop-motion film made by the British independent studio bolexbrothers called "Grass Roots".

Videos
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