Harvey Birdman - Seasons 1 to3 DVD Box Set

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Remaking and recycling seem to go hand in hand with entertainment these days and Harvey Birdman is no different, using characters from the Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 60s and 70s. But where yet another reboot of Knight Rider is tired and pointless, Harvey Birdman is clever and, most importantly, fresh.  Its 15 minute episodes are vignettes of surreal comedy, subverting nostalgia into hilarious adult humour and modern satire.

Birdman himself first appeared as a more generic cartoon superhero in 1967.  Michael Ouweleen and Erik Richter decided to rework the character in 2000 as a slick lawyer (voiced by Gary Cole) who works for Phil Ken Sebben’s (Stephen Colbert) cutthroat law firm. The show’s 3 seasons comprised of only 39 episodes but became one of the highlights of the Cartoon Network’s late-night Adult Swim line-up as Birdman represented increasingly desperate Hanna-Barbera favourites who’d found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Anyone who’s read Alan Moore’s Top Ten comics will have some sense of the world that Ouweleen and Richter have created. Theirs is a much more realistic portrayal of superheroes, heroes who have jobs, drink coffee and have to deal with the nuances of day to day life.  In the case of Birdman, a viewer’s enjoyment of it will be heavily linked to their knowledge of old and obscure Hanna-Barbera characters but there’s plenty of comedy to be had just from the more satirical elements – like Sebben’s war on terror by raising the alert level to ‘Blackwatch Plaid’ and Birdman’s case to overturn a ban on guitars which parodies Charlton Heston’s NRA speeches.

Earlier episodes are more accessible, using better known characters as plot devices – The Flinstones are reworked as The Sopranos while Shaggy and Scooby-Doo face inevitable drug charges – but you get so caught up in Birdman’s crazed world that later shows focusing on Grape Ape and Yakky Doodle are still fantastic. With Family Guy dominating the adult cartoon market, Birdman is something of a hidden gem and a genuinely original slice of comedy that’s just for grown-ups.

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