mindlostagogo

[mindlostagogo]

041921

I love cartoons, a lot. Over the pandemic, I’ve spent my sudden surplus of free time reacquainting myself with old loves and pastimes I’d otherwise abandoned. One of those loves being My Chemical Romance, and one of those pastimes being, well, learning about everything that inspires Gerard Way (no point in hiding it, lol).

I finally got around to revisiting the Breakfast Monkey animatic earlier this month; the last time I saw it would’ve been about a decade ago now. Something that stood out was, separating my love of MCR and strictly as a lover of cartoons, the strength of the creativity and humour jumped out at me. I’ve re-watched it dozens of times now, I can’t get “Cruising for Crazy” out of my head, and it always makes me laugh. There are times where I laugh because, admittedly, I’m projecting on certain moments (ie. being a fangirl). But there are times where I laugh and I completely forget this has anything to do with Gerard (and Joe—I’m sorry, I don’t forget Joe Boyle, but I can’t help how I found the show).

I don’t know anything about the industry, but I do know it took Cartoon Network another half-decade before it started putting out the types of weird cartoons (now very much CN’s bread and butter) Nickelodeon would jump onto without question around the same time (late 90s/early 00s).

I know the original pitch was meant for Adult Swim—which was definitely more stoner-friendly humour at the time, especially in the simplicity shared by many of the shows (I love 12 oz. Mouse so much more than I probably should); Comedy Central and MTV’s animated output at the time was similar. All that to say, Nickelodeon, the channel that was bold enough to take on Invader Zim as an ‘all-ages’ nightmare, probably would’ve been a better home for the Breakfast Monkey as far as dealing with producers goes.

Breakfast Monkey, even now, doesn’t exactly scream AS. There’s an underlying ominousness that you get hints of—the moment with the dude telling Lucha to “Do as the Monkey says” says a lot—even more so when you see the production art of the Warp Maggot. And who knows where Gerard and Joe would’ve gone with storylines (I’m also aware it was meant to be short-form, but given the standard, you’d still probably be looking at 11-minute run times).

When it comes to Adult Swim’s output, the most prevalent things you notice (depending on the show) are: sex, gore, swearing, and simplicity—with an emphasis on simplicity. That’s not a negative reflection of the creators in any way, I’m just pointing out what AS is drawn to—it’s partly why Rick and Morty stands out so much. They did, after all, pull the plug on Morel Orel for getting too existential; dark is not the problem, heavy is, and MO definitely got heavier than was initially pitched. (That said, the braver thing to do would’ve been to ride out Dino’s inventiveness at the time.)

I know the reason stated for the show not getting picked up was because Aqua Teen Hunger force had just gotten picked up, and AS “already had a food show.”  Even still, without hitting more, for lack of a better term, ‘edgy’ marks, I don’t know if Breakfast Monkey would’ve been at home on AS. If anything, Breakfast Monkey makes me think more Spongebob-meets-Zim, something I think would’ve blown up, especially around that time. Zim got the plug pulled pretty quickly, despite having an extremely dedicated following; Breakfast Monkey would’ve scratched the edgy itch while also being palpable given Monkey is absolutely adorable.

Where my mind goes, I guess I would describe Chowder as diet Breakfast Monkey. I love Chowder, I love all the different ways they explored art; the moving pallets under the linework on certain characters’ clothes sometimes is burned into my mind, no doubt in part due to the sometimes aspect of not knowing when I’ll get to see them again. But, again, given that Gerard’s mind seems to know no bounds, I can’t help but call Chowder hypothetical diet Breakfast Monkey.

Suffice to say, for CN to look at Breakfast Monkey and not see a potential Spongebob-level success—WITHOUT interfering with the creative intent—says everything you need to know. It comes down to how edgy Gerard and Joe planned on taking the series. Worst case scenario, you’d get the majority of Canada’s adult animated output. Every show Teletoon picked up for their adult animated selection between the early 2000s and the 2010s was so forced in making sure every show had sex and/or just the most low-hanging comedic crass fruit wherever possible. (Side rant: I genuinely liked some of those shows, but they are not what I would objectively call ‘good.’ What do I mean by good? I mean I don’t think anyone at any step of the creative process—writers, animators, producers—could comprehend how milquetoast even their most inventive ideas were. I don’t put that on minds of the creatives, I think they exceeded brilliance as far as Canada’s restrictive original content output is considered. There’s a reason most of our best either go into teaching or move to the States.)

Breakfast Monkey, at the time, could not be shown to CN or AS and not expect to be manipulated with—and that’s really sad, because that animatic is extremely strong.