Evil Con Carne
Evil Con Carne is an American animated television series created by Maxwell Atoms for Cartoon Network.[1] The series centers on wealthy crime lord Hector Con Carne, who is reduced to his brain and stomach after an assassination attempt and subsequently implanted onto Boskov, a purple circus bear. Aided by his scientist Major Dr. Ghastly and military leader General Skarr, Hector now oversees criminal organization Evil Con Carne, continuing his quest for world domination.
| Evil Con Carne | |
|---|---|
| Genre | |
| Created by | Maxwell Atoms |
| Based on | Grim & Evil by Maxwell Atoms |
| Story by |
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| Voices of |
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| Composers | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 22 (32 segments) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Producer | Louis J. Cuck (line) |
| Running time |
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| Production company | Cartoon Network Studios |
| Release | |
| Original network | Cartoon Network |
| Original release | August 24, 2001 – October 22, 2004 |
| Related | |
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The series first appeared on Cartoon Network during the show Grim & Evil, along with sister series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. Thirteen more half-hour episodes of Grim & Evil were produced in 2003 and 2004; the two series became separate programs later that year. Though The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy aired for six seasons, Evil Con Carne aired only 13 full episodes (22 airings) until October 22, 2004.[2] After the show's end, its characters would frequently make cameo appearances in Billy & Mandy, with General Skarr becoming a recurring character. An official series finale, titled "Company Halt" (which was also a crossover with Billy & Mandy), aired on March 16, 2007.
Premise
Once upon a time, there was a jillionaire playboy who was blown up in a tremendous explosion. His brain survived... (Stomach, too!) ...and was attached to the body of a stupid circus bear. I am that brain. My name is Hector Con Carne, and I will one day rule the world! (He laughs maniacally.)
— Hector Con Carne's brain (and stomach), in the opening title sequence
Hector Con Carne (Phil LaMarr), a wealthy crime lord and evil genius bent on taking over the world and the League of Nations, was caught in an explosion initiated by his nemesis, Cod Commando (Maxwell Atoms), a soldier for the Secret Paramilitary Organized Response Kommand (S.P.O.R.K.). The explosion scattered most of his body across the world. He was rescued by the scientist Major Dr. Ghastly (Grey DeLisle), who placed his living remains into two containment units: one for his brain, and the other for his stomach. These two units were later installed into Boskov (Frank Welker), a purple Russian circus bear, giving Con Carne's brain control over (almost) all the bear's actions and movements.
Hector, Dr. Ghastly and his military leader, General Skarr (Armin Shimerman), then created a secret laboratory on an island with a bunny-shaped mountain known as "Bunny Island" (a parody of Ernst Stavro Blofeld's lair in the James Bond movies). Gathering an army, Con Carne resumed his quest for world domination and made a new goal: to find his missing body parts. The group's schemes typically end in failure, often due to the behavior and conflicts within the trio: Skarr is tired of being directed by Hector and wishes to overthrow him; Ghastly cares more about her unrequited love for her boss than world domination; while Hector is narcissistic, megalomaniacal, and generally abusive towards his henchmen.
Voice cast
Main
- Phil LaMarr as Hector Con Carne
- Grey DeLisle as Major Dr. Ghastly
- Armin Shimerman as General Skarr, Hector's Stomach
- Frank Welker as Boskov the Bear
Recurring voices
- Maxwell Atoms as Cod Commando
- Maurice LaMarche as Estroy
- Peter Renaday as Abraham Lincoln
- Rino Romano as Destructicus Con Carne
Production
A viewer's poll to decide a new Cartoon Network animated series, titled Big Pick, was held on the Internet from June 16 to August 25, 2000.[3] The three choices for short films to become animated series were The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?, and Longhair and Doubledome. After the event, the Meet the Reaper short film won with 57% of the vote.[4] While Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? became an animated series in 2002, Longhair and Doubledome appeared at another Big Pick event, but lost once again. Another original short/pilot titled Evil Con Carne had been produced in 2000, shortly after the Billy & Mandy short. The two ideas were ultimately combined into a single show, as Cartoon Network desired a show that had a "middle cartoon" as an in-between segment (a format found in the Dial M for Monkey and The Justice Friends shorts in Dexter's Laboratory, and the I Am Weasel segment on Cow and Chicken).[5]
The resulting show, Grim & Evil, premiered on August 24, 2001, and was put on hiatus on October 18, 2002.[6] In 2003, 13 more half-hour episodes of Grim & Evil were made, but aired when Cartoon Network separated the two series, and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne earned their own full-length series later that year. After production wrapped on both series' new seasons, the network gave Maxwell Atoms a decision to choose one show to continue, while the other would be dropped from production. Atoms ultimately went with Billy & Mandy, and the final season of Evil Con Carne subsequently aired in 2004. He embraced the network's decision to drop one of the two series, as he considered being in charge of producing both shows difficult.[5]
After Evil Con Carne was cancelled, its characters appeared in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. The first cameo was in the episode "Chicken Ball Z" which ended with Mandy purchasing Hector's Bunny Island. General Skarr moved to Billy's neighborhood in the episode "Skarred for Life" after Bunny Island was bought out by an "entertainment corporation that didn't want competition in world domination". Since then, General Skarr went on to become a recurring character in Billy & Mandy. In the episode "Company Halt", Con Carne and Ghastly appear in Endsville, in order to recruit Skarr and revive Evil Con Carne (the organization, not the show) in another attempt to take over the world; naturally, like most of their other schemes and misadventures, it ends in failure when Skarr turns against Hector once he tries to destroy his garden in an attempt to kill Billy, and crushes him with a giant catapult (which they were to use to destroy the neighborhood), causing Ghastly and the rest of the army run away. According to Tom Warburton, characters from Evil Con Carne were originally set to appear in the television special "The Grim Adventures of the KND".[7] Hector, General Skarr, and Dr. Ghastly (strangely, they're "costumed" by Lazlo, Raj, and Clam) did briefly appear in the crossover's end credits in a crossover with Camp Lazlo titled "Evil Camp Carne".
On July 29, 2016, the series aired re-runs for a single day on Cartoon Network's sister channel, Boomerang, in the United States, despite the schedule for Boomerang saying that The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy was airing in its timeslot.[8]
Censorship
When the show was running as a segment on Grim & Evil, the two part episode "The Smell of Vengeance" was subject to censorship in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The episode centered on Hector and his army using an oversized stink gun on New York City, unleashing a stench that sends its citizens into a frenzy. A particular scene featured people jumping off of the World Trade Center prompted the decision. "There are the twin towers, and you see tiny, little people hopping off the roof of the towers into the water", said Linda Simensky, then senior vice president of animation for Cartoon Network. "I mean, two weeks ago, you wouldn't have thought about it. What were the chances of anyone jumping out of the World Trade Center?" In response, Atoms reworked the episode, so it took place in rural Kansas instead; despite these changes, the episode was still suspended from broadcast rotation.[9]
Episodes
Note: Most of the episodes did not air in production code order.
| Season | Episodes | Series | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | ||||
| 1 | 13 | Grim & Evil | August 24, 2001 | October 18, 2002 | |
| 2 | 5 | Grim & Evil (U.K.) / Evil Con Carne (U.S.) | July 11, 2003 | October 22, 2004 | |
| 3 | 4 | Evil Con Carne | October 1, 2004 | October 22, 2004 | |
Season 1a (2001–02)
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Storyboard by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Evil Con Carne" | Maxwell Atoms | Maxwell Atoms | TBA | August 24, 2001 |
| 2 | "Emotional Skarr" | Brian Hogan | Maxwell Atoms | Bob Camp & Joe Orrantia | August 31, 2001 |
| 3 | "Evil Goes Wild" | Dave Brain | Gord Zajac | Greg Miller | September 7, 2001 |
| 4 | "The Smell of Vengeance"[nb 1] | Dave Brain | Maxwell Atoms | Greg Miller Maxwell Atoms | October 5, 2001 |
| 5 | "Devolver"[nb 2] | Brian Hogan | Maxwell Atoms | Mike Stern Bob Camp | October 12, 2001 |
| 6 | "Tiptoe Through the Tulips"[nb 3] | Brian Hogan Dave Brain | Vincent Davis | Bob Camp | October 19, 2001 |
| 7 | "Bring Me the Face of Hector Con Carne" | Dave Brain | Story by : Gord Zajac | Matt Sullivan | July 19, 2002 |
| 8 | "Search & Estroy" | Dave Brain | Story by : Gord Zajac | Alex Almaguer | July 26, 2002 |
| 9 | "Everyone Loves Uncle Bob" | John McIntyre & Brian Hogan | Story by : Gord Zajac | Trevor Wall | August 2, 2002 |
| 10 | "Evil on Trial" | Robert Alvarez & John McIntyre | Story by : Gord Zajac | David Mucci Fassett | August 9, 2002 |
| 11 | "The Time Hole Incident" | Dave Brain | Story by : Gord Zajac | Nora Johnson | October 4, 2002 |
| 12 | "Christmas Con Carne" | Robert Alvarez & John McIntyre | Story by : Gord Zajac | Alex Almaguer | October 11, 2002 |
| 13 | "The Pie Who Loved Me" | John McIntyre | Story by : Gord Zajac | Alex Almaguer | October 18, 2002 |
Season 1b (2003–04)
| No. | Title | Directed by | Story by | Storyboard by | Original air date (U.S.) | U.K. air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14a | "Gutless!" | Juli Hashiguchi | Gord Zajac | David Mucci Fassett | July 11, 2003 | October 25, 2003 |
| 14b | "Day of the Dreadbot" | Juli Hashiguchi | Gord Zajac | Brian Kindregan | July 11, 2003 | October 24, 2003 |
| 14c | "League of Destruction" | Patty Shinagawa | Gord Zajac | Alex Almaguer | July 11, 2003 | October 23, 2003 |
| 15a | "Son of Evil" | Juli Hashiguchi | Gord Zajac | David Mucci Fassett | July 18, 2003 | October 28, 2003 |
| 15b | "The Right to Bear Arms" | Randy Myers | Gord Zajac | Michael Diederich | July 18, 2003 | October 29, 2003 |
| 15c | "The Trouble with Skarrina" | Robert Alvarez & John McIntyre | Gord Zajac | Matt Sullivan | July 18, 2003 | October 21, 2003 |
| 16a | "Go Spork" | Robert Alvarez & John McIntyre | Gord Zajac | Trevor Wall | August 1, 2003 | October 22, 2003 |
| 16b | "Boskov's Day Out" | Juli Hashiguchi | Gord Zajac | Alex Almaguer | August 1, 2003 | October 20, 2003 |
| 16c | "Cod vs. Hector" | John McIntyre & Randy Myers | Gord Zajac | Alex Almaguer | August 1, 2003 | October 30, 2003 |
| 17 | "Max Courage!" | Robert Alvarez & John McIntyre | Written by: Gord Zajac | Alex Almaguer | August 15, 2003 | October 26, 2003 |
| 18 | "Ultimate Evil" | Shaun Cashman | Maxwell Atoms & Alex Almaguer | Alex Almaguer | October 22, 2004 | October 31, 2004 |
Season 2 (2004)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Story by | Storyboard by | Original air date | Prod. code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19a | 1a | "No No Nanook" | Juli Hashiguchi & Phil Cummings | Michael Diederich | Michael Diederich | October 1, 2004 | 10a |
| Hector tries to freeze the Earth, but accidentally disrupts the planet's gravity in the process. | |||||||
| 19b | 1b | "Teenage Idol" | Juli Hashiguchi & Robert F. Hughes | Maxwell Atoms | Maxwell Atoms & Octavio E. Rodriguez | October 1, 2004 | 10b |
| Hector requires the aid of a legendary living stone idol to rule the world. However, the idol is immature and only agrees to help Hector if he can date Major Doctor Ghastly. | |||||||
| 20a | 2a | "The Mother of All Evils" | Juli Hashiguchi & Robert F. Hughes | Maxwell Atoms & Alex Almaguer | Alex Almaguer | October 8, 2004 | 11a |
| Hector is nervous because his blind mother visits him and does not know that he is only a brain and a stomach. | |||||||
| 20b | 2b | "The HCCBDD" | Shaun Cashman & Phil Cummings | Maxwell Atoms & Brett Varon | Brett Varon | October 8, 2004 | 11b |
| Hector is depressed that he has not been able to take over the world yet, and feels he is missing something. Then Major Doctor Ghastly creates the HCCBDD, which she intends to show Hector the following day. Even though he does not know what it is, Estroy tries to steal the HCCBDD, only to figure out it is Hector's surprise birthday party. | |||||||
| 21a | 3a | "Gridlocked and Loaded" | Juli Hashiguchi & Steve Socki | C. H. Greenblatt | C. H. Greenblatt | October 15, 2004 | 12a |
| Evil Con Carne plans to steal gold from a ship, but ends up getting stuck in traffic for hours. | |||||||
| 21b | 3b | "Fool's Paradise" | Phil Cummings & Juli Hashiguchi | C. H. Greenblatt | Mary Hanley & Maxwell Atoms | October 15, 2004 | 12b |
| Evil Con Carne goes on vacation, where Hector has a good time, Major Doctor Ghastly is bothered by Estroy, and General Skarr has a bad time. | |||||||
| 22a | 4a | "Jealousy, Jealous Do" | Robert F. Hughes & Juli Hashiguchi | C. H. Greenblatt & Maxwell Atoms | Mike Bell & Maxwell Atoms | October 22, 2004 | 13a |
| Hector gets a new secretary who turns out to be a Swedish spy that Major Doctor Ghastly is jealous of. The secretary flirts with Boskov, not knowing that only Hector knows the plans she is trying to obtain. | |||||||
| 22b | 4b | "Hector, King of the Britons" | Brian Sheesley | Maxwell Atoms, Vincent Waller, Grey DeLisle, Phil LaMarr, Armin Shimerman, Rosalind Ayres & Greg Ellis | Vincent Waller | October 22, 2004 | 13b |
| Hector wants to rule Britain, so he goes to Great Britain to find Excalibur, but the Lady of the Lake may not give it to him even after he does things to prove himself worthy. | |||||||
Crossover episode (2007)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Story by | Storyboard by | Original air date | Prod. code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 78a | 5a | "Company Halt" | Kris Sherwood | Maxwell Atoms & Alex Almaguer | Alex Almaguer | March 30, 2007 | 6-05 |
| As General Skarr is once again annoyed by Billy, Hector Con Carne and Major Dr. Ghastly arrive in his house with the intention of luring him back to the recently relaunched Evil Con Carne world domination organization. Although initially refusing to rejoin, Skarr later accepts with the condition that Billy and the other neighbors be destroyed. After weeks of living together and preparations, Evil Con Carne's ultimate weapon is revealed to be an army of tanks that shoot giant rubber bands. In the end, their all-out attack over the neighborhood is foiled when Billy tricks Hector into shooting Skarr's garden and they get into a fight, causing Hector to get crushed by the one of the tanks. Note: This episode aired as a segment of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. | |||||||
Home media
Five episodes are included as bonus features in the Season 1 DVD set for The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. On August 16, 2018, the entire series was added to the iTunes Store under a single volume.
| Product | Season(s) | Episodes | Format | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: Season 1 | 1–2 | 5 (1–4, 10) | DVD | September 18, 2007 | |
| Evil Con Carne: The Complete Series | 1–3 | 22 | Digital purchase | August 16, 2018 | |
See also
References
- ^ "New 'Toons for Network". The Robesonian. February 25, 2001. from the original on September 27, 2015. Retrieved May 15, 2011 – via Google News.
- ^ Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 52. ISBN 9781476672939.
- ^ Forkan, Jim (February 25, 2001). "Cartoon Network Shows Off Four New Series". Multichannel News. Retrieved May 15, 2011.
- ^ Dempsey, John (August 29, 2000). "'Billy & Mandy' beats out 'Robot,' 'Longhair' to get greenlight". Variety. from the original on October 3, 2013. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- ^ a b "What's In My Head Podcast - Maxwell Atoms: The creator of Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy! | RSS Podcasting". RSS.com. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
- ^ Macmillan, Alissa (February 22, 2001). "'Toon Net Sets 2 New Series". NY Daily News. from the original on May 9, 2012. Retrieved May 15, 2011.
- ^ Warburton, Mr (2010-03-29). "warburtonlabs: GRIM ADVENTURES OF THE KND!". warburtonlabs. from the original on 2018-12-12. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
- ^ "Evil Con Carne on Boomerang". YouTube. July 29, 2016. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
- ^ "Cartoon World Is Playing It Safe". Los Angeles Times. 2001-09-22. Retrieved 2022-07-22.
External links
- (archive)
- Evil Con Carne at The Big Cartoon DataBase
- Evil Con Carne at IMDb