Londoners Magazine

So. You’re at the cinema. You’re weighing up what to watch, and it’s proving to be a toss-up. Do you go for the New York-based rom-com where a group of smug, self-obsessed yuppie chicks try to convince the audience they’re all really hard done by? No? Well, maybe you could try the Las Vegas-based rom-com where a smug, inexplicably irritating couple get married by accident, even though they hate each other! That sounds like a rich recipe for laughs, right? Okay, what about that other New York-based rom-com where this guy has to be the maid of honour to the girl he loves to prove that he is, in fact, made of honour?

Well, if none of those classy movies appeal, you must be one picky viewer. But just in case any of you aren’t instantly drawn in by the life-affirming prospect of watching four women sit in a café slurping cocktails and discussing their vaginas, this is my recommendation.

Go home and sit down on your favourite chair in front of the TV. Now take a deep breath to dispel the thought of that awful film you almost paid seven Great British Pounds to watch, and tune into some cartoons.

Everybody’s heard of Family Guy, South Park and Futurama. Those shows are all great, but you don’t need me to tell you that. Here are three examples of less well known cartoons and animations that will make love to your eyes and gently massage your brain.

Samurai Jack

This is one for action fans. It’s also a great way to start this list, as it’s a perfect example of a show that simply could not exist as anything else but a cartoon. It’s just so much prettier than real life. Creator Genndy Tartakovsky (who was also the brain and drawing hand behind Dexter’s Lab, if that means anything to you) had an idea to create a hyper-stylised animation, which would be full of colour, movement and homages to action film tradition and Japanese anime techniques. It tells the story of a samurai who gets transported to the future by an evil wizard and has to find a way to get back to the past. But beyond that, the story doesn’t really matter. Each episode is a self-contained little bubble of bold, beautiful cartoon genius. It’s poetry in motion.

You can catch Samurai Jack on Cartoon Network at 11pm.

The Venture Bros.

When a show lists its creators as Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, you know you’re probably on to a winner. True enough, The Venture Bros. is one of the funniest shows (cartoon or otherwise) that I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot. The series follows the misadventures of two bumbling teenagers, Hank and Dean Venture, their neurotic scientist father and the family bodyguard, Brock Samson.

Along the way, pop culture icons are pastiched, unlikely arch villains are encountered (my personal favourite being the incompetent Monarch, a butterfly obsessive who has a baritone-voiced lover called Doctor Girlfriend), and countless hapless henchmen are painfully manhandled by Samson. It’s hard to pinpoint when I fell in love with this show, but it may have been when it referenced Shakespeare by describing a troublesome bowel movement as being “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.

There was a time when shows like this were played on Cartoon Network late at night in the UK, but alas, those days are long gone. Sniff. To get hold of Venture Bros. now, you’ll have to order it on DVD from America, as no one in Britain is cool enough to release it over here yet.

Belleville Rendez-Vous

Released in 2003, this film has become a benchmark for innovative animation. The story loosely follows Madame Souza, who must rescue her beloved grandson Champion when he is kidnapped while racing in the Tour de France and taken to the city of Belleville. It’s primarily a French production, but the animation style is a vibrant melange of international influences. From the swingin’ 20s jazz stylings of the musical opening sequence to the city of Belleville’s parody of 1950s New York, there’s a sense that the film’s makers have a real knowledge of the atmosphere of a bygone era (if not the exact details – the film always sways towards the absurd).

They’re clearly in love with that era’s music too, as jazz and blues are the film’s lifeblood. Musical scenes seem to spring out of nowhere. When there aren’t instruments to hand, characters make use of vacuum cleaners, bike spokes, radiators, and anything else within arm’s reach.

In the end, Belleville Rendez-Vous is a triumph for visual storytelling. Despite the fact that there’s almost no dialogue, the plot zips along with an undeniable joie de vivre. Watch it and you won’t stop smiling for a week.