Insurmountable difficulties in translation – Weekend
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Kinopoisk is releasing The Explainers, a series that was supposed to be a sophisticated parody of educational talk shows, taking into account all the achievements of modern Western animation, but turned out to be a story about one of the main Russian curses. A story not devoid of even a kind of tragedy: I feel sorry for the authors.
The disclaimer font refers to The Simpsons, the very first frames refer to everything at once. The same “The Simpsons”, “Rick and Morty”, even, perhaps, “Gravity Falls”. Everything is familiar, and that sets the bar. This swing requires a serious hit. With a friendly pat on the shoulder – “Well, you understand everything, bro!” – there’s no way around it. Precisely because I understand everything.
Brave people, it turns out, are director Evgeny Blinnikov, together with screenwriters Egor Loskutov, Ilya Shabelnikov and Ilya Muzyko, who launched the animated series “Explainers.” OK let’s see. For reference, the premiere took a long time to prepare, and in general it is a spin-off of the series “I’ve already seen it,” an anthology on which various directors and artists worked and which included a parody of an educational television show for children.
We are immediately allowed into the kitchen. To the studio kitchen. The series is about the life of a family (that’s refreshing, have we ever seen families drawn before?! – this has never happened, no one has thought of this), who are starring in a series about the life of a family. Or rather, in a moderately creative show, where the baby son goes to his father and asks questions, and his older comrades – father, mother, grandfather and grandmother – answer the questions.
But this is for adults and in an adult way! The show is rubbish, the father is an overweight loser, whom his mother, who has retained her beauty, openly despises. The grandfather is an idiot, the paralyzed grandmother is permanently passed out. The scoundrel producer, literally swimming in gold, turned the Explainkins into slaves, they were fed up with their own lives, but freedom from serial slavery is the freedom to clean toilets, you don’t want that kind of freedom.
The idiot grandfather, by the way, dies all the time, but the contract stipulates immortality. And we have already seen this. They killed Kenny, you bastards!
One of the characters in South Park, where the bastards kill Kenny all the time, once remarked sadly: “This already happened in The Simpsons.” So, in one of the episodes of The Simpsons, Homer flips through a police report with portraits of the most dangerous criminals. Peter Griffin from Family Guy, Stan Smith from American Dad… Plagiarism, Plagiarism squared…
“Explained”, of course, is not plagiarism. In one of the episodes of the new series, the characters, having found out that there are a million shows on TV that are not much different from their shows, quite sensibly explain what plagiarism is and how copyright works. Drawing Quentin Tarantino and Vincent Van Gogh into account. The ghost of Van Gogh also has a ghostly ear that falls off during the explanation, and this is perhaps the only truly funny joke in all the episodes that have already been released.
— What is plagiarism? – asks the inquisitive little son.
“This is when a mediocre cheapskate tries to imitate a genius,” answers Father Explaining. And somewhere in the sky or in Oregon (I think he has an estate in Oregon) Matt Groening smiles compassionately.
So, let’s repeat, “Explainers” is not plagiarism. Here, perhaps, it is worth talking only (only!) about the blatant secondary nature of the work. The authors will probably be offended: this is not secondary, this is a subtle postmodern game with contexts! But no, it’s not subtle or a game. You know, as a child I once tried to cook the most delicious dish in the world. Just collecting all the products that I liked. I crushed chocolate candies, mixed the resulting paste in a glass of soda, added marshmallows, nuts and doctor’s sausage (yes, I liked doctor’s sausage). However, I still did not dare to try the cloudy liquid that had formed in the glass. And I don’t regret it.
Here, too, everything was carefully copied. The frame – a modern family with its difficult relationships – is copied. The techniques (simple, to be honest) adopted in Western animation for adults have been recreated. There are a lot of Easter eggs, sometimes, admittedly, really designed for real experts. Explained, Father, for example, nostalgic for the times when his show was a thrill for him, watches old recordings. And these old recordings were drawn using the same technique in which the first episodes of The Simpsons were made. Those that were released back in the Tracey Ullman Show, if you know what I mean. And which their creators sometimes recall in the classic seasons of The Simpsons.
There is tough humor. Although also – how is it? The word “fucking” is responsible for the harsh humor, which all the characters willingly repeat, except for the child and grandmother (because the grandmother is senile and paralyzed, that is, without speeches). And when the viewer gets tired of laughing until he bursts into tears at this brilliant discovery, the word “pissed” comes into play. No one can stand here.
By the way, it’s also worth mentioning about my grandmother. At the end of each episode, grandma is forgotten somewhere, and then each other asks in horror: “Where is grandma?” That is, she is another Kenny, and this secondary nature of “The Explainers” is cubed. Two cubed is eight, and the output is octal, which should be flattering to the creators.
There is some kind of special Russian curse here. Western animation, all of whose antics are diligently translated into the language of their native aspens by the authors of “The Explainers,” has taught us that real success lies in a dosed combination of the absurd and the funny. And it would be nice to add a little more scary as a seasoning. What is it that we don’t have? Absurd? Yes, we can pipe absurdity through pipes for export, if only there were buyers. There’s plenty of funny stuff too. We don’t talk about scary things, so as not to get scared.
But I can’t remember a single Russian animated series for adults that claims to have “really tough humor” that would be at least not embarrassing to watch. Although attempts are being made. “The Explainers” is not the first such attempt and, unfortunately, certainly not the last. Maybe it’s because truly tough humor doesn’t grow in captivity. Yes, let’s be honest, there is a moderately funny joke about self-censorship in the series. In a series about slavery, which is probably typical.
And at the end of the long review – an unexpected recommendation: go and watch! The sweet shame you feel for someone else is an interesting emotion with a powerful therapeutic effect.
Look: “Kinopoisk”
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