Popetown

I remember that 2000s French-British adult animated comedy TV programme. Back in October 2007, I only watched one episode of it while going on a holiday in Paris, France. I was seventeen in that year. It was dubbed in French. Wish I could understand French. It's not very good as the other adult cartoons such as The Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy. It appears to be offensive towards Christians (especially Catholics) like making fun of them. That's just not very nice, is it?

I'm sure it has already been banned in the UK and my home country Ireland except the DVD version.

As a Roman Catholic, I thought I found that French-British adult cartoon was offensive and insulting.

If you're reading this, avoid it as you would an arrow.

Forget the offence taken by soft-lad Catholics, what about the offence to people who like comedy and animation. Not funny, not clever, not witty and not interesting. The character of The Pope is SOOOOO annoying that just thinking about Ruby Wax's voicing of it wants to make me slap her - hard. The other characters are bordering on boring and none are remotely unique or eliciting laughs. Do yourself a favour and spend the time watching other things.

I am not sure how they got the go ahead for this. Even on paper it must have come across as rubbish, although the lure of some of UK's better comics must have helped it over the line. It's not in the league of your better known animated series, and in fact is not even close.

before we start off i luv animation. Simpson's to the tick, I'm not to by est but this show really disappointed me. it actually was a gr8 idea a cartoon about the pope, the word pope is funny by itself. but after i saw the first three episodes i was gravely mistaken. this was a painful show to watch. the creators kept trying to be funny so hard yet trying not to offend anyone at the same time. it is so smooth my Irish grandmother who thinks noughts and crosses is sacrilegious wouldn't find the show offensive. i have to compare this show to south park, which tho offensive often raise important issue while being edgy or funny. popetown offers none of this. and apart from story character designs are horrible, and ruby wax may have a face for voice over but she doesn't have the talent. spend this half an hour at a fun areal u'll laugh a lot harder

Popetown is extremely clear to get people talking. Firstly most of the show is a mix of 3D rendered environments of a town, maybe because it would have been a pain to hand drawn them and the actual 2D animation of the characters, which are quickly drawn and animated. Maybe trying to pioneer a mix between the two rendering styles, which looks tacked on, sloppy and don't match, so it doesn't impress anyways. What does anyone do? Make the show really reach the idea that the media are talking about it, saying how controversial it is, get it banned and have such a tagline anyways, maybe to make more sales and this is what exactly Popetown does..It really reaches to a height that it just begs to get noticed considering the animation and rendering techniques are all tackled on together.

Story wise, all the characters are there. Does tell a story, a predictable story and gives episodes to justify its point and it is interesting in a way that the cartoon does try to prove a point. The characters at least are something to make Popetown worth the watch. Nice to know as there's been animations of this quality that have been fall out awful but I think you'll find that the lawd presentation helps the character stand out a bit and gets away with trying to fight the production value anyone would expect to a set of characters who people expect to have loads of value but with the media sometimes giving them the value many feel they don't live up too.

Considering the furore that surrounded BBC3's decision not to broadcast this flagship animated series, after protests from Catholic groups, two main issues arise:

1) Is it offensive? 2) Is it entertaining?

In response to the first, I suppose that depends on whether you regard religion as a suitable target for satire. In the case of Popetown, the satire is marginally less scathing than "Father Ted" (1995). Bob Mortimer plays Father Nicholas, the long-suffering back office clerk whose main duty involves satisfying the whim of the infantile, childish Pope, played by Ruby Wax. To help him out, he can depend on the dotty Irish nun Sister Marie (a sort of Mrs Doyle type housekeeper), and to hinder his best efforts he has the evil machinations of the three money obsessed Cardinals. Minor characters, such as the svelte, vixen-like TV presenter Sister Penelope, and the creepy, animal-mad Father Bosch, provide additional plot twists and side jokes.

It is quite evident from the series that Popetown is not based on the real Vatican, but is a parody of it; characters and places do not match up directly with real life, and, in the one episode where Father Nicholas leaves the familiar walls of 'Popetown', he appears to be in a crime and drug ridden New York, not Rome. Furthermore, the Pope is clearly not John Paul 2.0, or Benedict XVI for that matter - he has the maturity of a 7 year old, likes bouncing on his pogo-stick, and prefers horror movies to sermons. This is not real!

If I had to pick one genuinely offensive characteristic, it is the stereotyping of all the Popetown tourists as Japanese camera-flashing stick characters, speaking a faux 'oriental' language. This I found a little uncomfortable.

So, we come to the second question: Is Popetown actually any good? Well... it's not bad. As an animated comedy, it's nowhere near the comedy calibre of The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, or any of the benchmarks. As a religious satirical comedy, it doesn't hit the level of Father Ted. The jokes are amusing, but not laugh-out-loud. Animation quality is fine, with some scenes being in 3D; but occasionally, roughness shows. Voice-over quality is excellent, as you'd expect from the all-star cast, though Ruby Wax's Pope voice is intentionally irritating. Overall, therefore, Popetown is definitely worth seeing, but be prepared to be mildly disappointed; and, considering this is a DVD-only release in the UK, it might be worth waiting for someone else to shell out their money and borrowing theirs.