Drawn Together: The Complete Series – Party In Your Box (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

November 11, 2009 by Dennis Amith 

Obnoxious, offensive, controversial… But If you can look past all that, ‘Drawn Together: The Complete Series – Party In Your Box” uncensored is absolutely fun and hilarious!  Packed with a board game, drinking game and more, this box set is definitely one of the wildest and craziest DVD box sets to come from Comedy Central.

Image courtesy of © 2009 Comedy Partners. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Drawn Together: The Complete Series – Party In Your Box

DURATION: 36 Episodes (790 Minutes)

DVD INFORMATION: Full Screen, Dolby Digital

COMPANY: Comedy Central/Paramount

RATED: NOT RATED (Explicit Content, Warning: This Program is Recommended for Mature Audiences Only.  It Contains Adult Language and Situations)

RELEASED: November 17, 2009

Created by Dave Jeser and Matthew Silverstein

Directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill, Frank Marino, Peter Avanzino, Rich Moore, Stephen Sandoval, Ray Claffey, James Purdum

Written by Dave Jeser, Matthew Silverstein, Jordan Young, Erik Sommers, Elijah Aron, Reed Agnew, Bill Freiberger

Executive Producer: Dave Jeser, Matthew Silverstein, Bill Freiberger

Produced by Jonathan Kimmel, Claudia Katz, J. Michael Mendel, Kara Vallow

Co-Produced: Erik Sommers, David Lewman, Craig DiGregorio, Joe Liss

Associate Producer: Elise Belknap, Jeff Goldstein, Joe Goyette

Animation Producer: Dina Benadon

Music by Eban Schletter

Edited by Damon P. Yoches, Jim Miley

Casting by Dawn Hershey

Featuring the voices of:

Adam Carolla as Spanky Ham

Jess Harnell as Captain Hero

Abbey McBride as Ling-Ling

Jack Plotnick as Xandir P. Whifflebottom

Tara Strong as Toot Braunstein/Princess Clara

Cree Summer as Foxxy Love

James Arnold Taylor as Wooldor Sockbat

Jason Huber as Gash

Jimmy Kimmel as Mrs. Ham

The Drawn Together gang is back and this time they’re bringing the party home with them. In addition to reliving your favorite episodes from all three seasons of basic cable’s most-offensive animated reality show, you and your friends can now play as each of the characters in The Drawn Together Board Game!, partake in the Get the DT’s Drinking Game, or show your inner wild child by participating in the Drawn Together Truth or Dare Game. Once you own this collection, you won’t even have to leave your basement to have a kickass party!

In 2004, Comedy Central unveiled their new animated show that would be as controversial as the network’s flagship animation “South Park” and feature adult dialogue, violence and things that were typically seen as taboo on television was featured on the series.  The series ran for three seasons long and a total of 36 episodes completed before its cancellation in 2007 (supposedly due to the show’s controversial nature and production cost).  But no worries for fans as there is a trailer in the set which advertises a theatrical version of “Drawn Together” and is planned for release on April 2010.

Despite the cancellation from TV, for many fans of the series, the long awaited extended and uncensored complete series of “Drawn Together” is now available on DVD.  And let’s just say that fans who have never purchased the individual seasons will find this DVD box set quite wild with his hilarious and wild special features but it also comes with a “Drawn Together: The Board Game”, “Get the DTS Drinking Game” and “Drawn Together: Truth Or Dare”.  Inside the slip case is a fold out board game (two kinds) for “Drawn Together”, cardboard cutouts for the board game, dice and Q&A cards.

Comedy Central’s “Drawn Together” parodies VH1′s “Surreal Life” where animated characters are put together in a single home and must live together for a certain amount of time while millions of cameras are viewing their every move.

The main characters of “Drawn Together” are:

Princess Clara: Loosely based on popular Disney-like princesses who love to sing, Princess Clara is a racist (even though she doesn’t know it).

Wooldoor Sockbat: Loosely based on Spongebob Squarepants, Wooldor is an extremely annoying character.

Foxxy Love: A mystery solving musician who loves being a tease and being sexy to her castmates.  Likes to be topless and naked at times.

Toot Braunstein: Loosely based on the classic animated character Betty Boop, Toot is fat, has low self-esteem and likes to cut herself with blades.  She wants attention but never gets it because she’s quite disgusting.

Ling-Ling: Loosely based on Pokemon’s Pikachu.  Ling-Ling is an Asia battle card fighting monster and tends to be the feisty one of the housemates.

Xandir: A totally gay video game character and adventurer.  Discovering himself through his new friends.

Spanky Ham: A prankster pig who likes to fart, pee and defecate anywhere he wants.

Captain Hero: Loosely based on Superman.  A not-very-smart hero who underestimates his own strength and powers (like spying on the female housemates while they take a shower and not knowing what the negative health effects of his x-ray vision has on them).

The following episodes are featured in “Drawn Together” Seasons 1-3.  The following are spoiler-less summaries:

SEASON 1:

DISC 1:

• EPISODE 1 – HOT TUB – The eight characters for “Drawn Together” meet each other for the first time.  But Clara and Foxxy don’t get along because of Clara’s racist comments.
• EPISODE 2 – CLARA’S DIRTY SECRET – After Clara and Foxxy engage in a kiss, Toot convinces Clara that she may be pregnant but we learn that Clara has been cursed.
• EPISODE 3 – GAY BASH – Xandir comes out of the closet.
• EPISODE 4: REQUIEM FOR A REALITY SHOW – The producers of “Drawn Together” challenge the housemates to win food.
• EPISODE 5: THE OTHER COUSIN – Captain Hero dates Clara’s mentally retarded cousin.  Meanwhile, Toot, Xandir and Wooldoor learn how pleasuring it is to lick Ling-Ling.

DISC 2:

• EPISODE 6: DIRTY PRANKING NUMBER 2 – Clara asks for Spanky’s help in pranking the pizza delivery guy and that is learning how to make a giant poop on a pizza.
• EPISODE 7: THE ONE WHEREIN THERE IS A BIG TWIST, PART 1 – The housemates are ticked off for being exploited on “Drawn Together” and now they go on strike.

SEASON 2:

DISC 1:

• EPISODE 8: The One WhereIn There Is a Big Twist (2) – The housemates crash in a deserted island and are greeted by “Survivor” host Jeff Probst.
• EPISODE 9: Foxxy Vs. the Board of Education – Foxxy gets in trouble for not having a Mystery-Solving license and so, she must go back to school for it.
• EPISODE 10: Little Orphan Hero – Captain Hero discovers that his parents aren’t really dead and that his home planet didn’t explode.
• EPISODE 11: Captain Hero’s Marriage Pact – Captain Hero receives a vist from his ex-girlfriend UFG (Unusually Flexible Girl) who reminds him of their pact that when she turns 30, they would get married.
• EPISODE 11: Clum Babies – Wooldor has hit puberty, problem is that he can’t stop playing with himself which leads to him having “clum babies”.
• EPISODE 12: Ghostesses In the Slot Machine – Is there a poltergeist in the house?

DISC 2:

• EPISODE 13: Super Nanny – Captain Hero despises the word “Super” and when he sees a woman on TV called “Super Nanny”, he challenges her.
• EPISODE 14: Terms of Endearment – Captain Hero keeps using his x-ray vision to spy on the ladies in the shower but the effects of his x-ray vision has given Foxxy a brain tumor.
• EPISODE 15: Captain Girl – Wooldoor becomes Captain Hero’s sidekick, Captain Girl.
• EPISODE 16: A Tale of Two Cows – Toot gets invited to her Fat Camp reunion but because her housemates can’t stand her, they don’t want to go with her.
• EPISODE 17: Xandir and Tim, Sitting In a Tree – Reporter Tim Tommerson comes to visit the house and gets close to Xandir.
• EPISODE 18: The Lemon-Aids Walk – Captain Hero is not very good at sports but he wants to prove he can do it, so he takes part in an AIDS walk.
• EPISODE 19: A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special – Xandir wants his housemates to roleplay in order to try out ways he can tell his parents that he is gay.
• EPISODE 20: Alzheimer’s That Ends Well – Clara gets a makeover on her “octopussoir”.  Meanwhile, housemates think that Toot is too old and try to put her into an old folks home.
• EPISODE 21: The Drawn Together Clip Show – The best of “Drawn Together”.

SEASON 3:

DISC 1:

• EPISODE 22: Greeks & Freaks – Captain Hero thinks the Greek family next door is a Greek fraternity.
• EPISODE 23: Wooldoor Sockbat’s Giggle-Wiggle Funny Tickle Non-Traditional Progressive Multicultural Roundtable – Clara is worried that Wooldoor’s children show will breed nothing but homosexuality.
• EPISODE 24: Spelling Applebee’s – Foxxy decides to enter a house spelling bee and Captain Hero discovers Clara’s secret sexual fetish.
• EPISODE 25: Unrestrainable Trainable – Captain Hero discovers the identity of the giant attacking the city.
• EPISODE 26: N.R.A. y Ray – The house is robbed and Captain Hero decides to get a gun but the thief happens to be a relative of Foxxy.
• EPISODE 27: Mexican’t Buy Me Love – Captain Hero wants to be cool members of the house.
• EPISODE 28: Lost in Parking Space, Part I – Clara tries to preach about the upcoming rapture to her housemates and alienates them.

DISC 2:

• EPISODE 29: Lost in Parking Space, Part II – Can Foxxy escape the Hot Topic dungeon of torture.
• EPISODE 30: Drawn Together Babies – The Drawn Together babies kill their babysitter and try to cover it up.
• EPISODE 31: Nipple Ring-Ring Goes to Foster Care – Ling-Ling is put in foster care when it is revealed he is three years old.
• EPISODE 32: Foxxy and the Gang Bang – Foxxy has memories of being gang-raped and now she wants revenge.
• EPISODE 33:  Breakfast Food Killer – Wooldoor is selected as a new cereal mascot after the previous beloved mascot is murdered.
• EPISODE 34: Charlotte’s Web of Lies – Spanky Ham tries to seduce Charlotte the stalker and Captain Hero tries to love his archnemesis.
• EPISODE 35: The Elimination Special, Part II: The Elimination – Briank Dunkleman hosts a musical special to decide who will be banished from the house forever.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Drawn Together” is presented in full screen and one of the interesting aspects of the show is that each character is featured in various animation styles such as some characters using a visual style similar to older animation, Clara sports a Disney-style of animation and soft edges, Spanky Ham has a bolder stroke around his character, while Ling-Ling looks similar to Pikachu of the “Pokemon” series and Wooldor’s character design looking similar to Spongebob Squarepants.  Toot has that Betty Boop style of grayscale animation and for the most part, it’s the unique differences of each character design and their behavior that makes “Drawn Together” such a fun show to watch.   Animation is colorful and vibrant and this series is something that you don’t typically see in today’s television, let alone on “Comedy Central”.

Audio is featured in Dolby Digital and English stereo.  Scene is front channel driven and for the most part, audio is clear and understandable.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Drawn Together: The Complete Series – Party In Your Box” comes with the following special features:

SEASON 1:

DISC 1:

• Audio Commentary for “Hot Tub” - Audio Commentary by Matt Silverstein, Dave Jeser, Cree Summer (voice of Foxxy Love), Tara Strong (who plays Toot), Jess Sarnell (who plays Captain Hero).
• Audio Commentary for “Clara’s Dirty Secret” - Audio Commentary by Matt Silverstein, Dave Jeser, Abbey McBride (voice of Ling-Ling), Jack Plotnick (voice of Xandir) and director Dwayne Carey-Hill.
• Audio Commentary for “The Other Cousin” – Audio Commentary by Cree Summer (voice of Foxxy Love), Jess Sarnell (who plays Captain Hero) and director Pete Avanzino.
• Drawn Together: The Board Game – Let’s Watch!
• Truth or Dare – “Gay Bash”
• Get the DT’s Drinking Game – “Requiem for a Reality Show” – A drinking game featuring two modes – Trainable Version and Expert Version
  

DISC 2:

• Audio commentary for “The One Wherein There is a Big Twist, Pt. 1″ – Featuring commentary by writer Bill Freiberger, Supervising Producer Jordan Young, a stranger named Carlos that they found at Home Depot and Abbey McBride (voice of Ling-Ling).  A very interesting commentary as the guys find a stranger to watch the show and give commentary.
• Audio commentary for “Super Nanny” – Featuring commentary by series creator Matt Silverstein, Abby McBride (voice of Ling-Ling), Jess Harnell (voice of Captain Hero) and director Peter Avenzeno and creator Dave Jeser.
• Deleted Scenes – (5:11) Featuring deleted scenes from the series which feature scenes that are a bit raunchy.
  
• Censored/Uncensored Game – A “Drawn Together” trivia game
  
• Four Never-Before-Seen “Last Week on Drawn Together” Segments – (1:19) Four never-before-seen “Last Week on Drawn Together” (note: These have nothing to do with previous episode’s but nevertheless are quite hilarious/insensitive and more than likely controversial – example: The housemates go to Toot while she’s sleeping and beat her with socks filled with soap).
  
• Karaoke Sing-Along – Featuring karaoke sing-along-mode for “Black Chick’s Tongue”, “Ling-Ling Lament”, “Ling-Ling Battle Song” and “La La Labia”.

SEASON 2:

DISC 1:

• Audio Commentary for “Clum Babies” - Audio Commentary by series creator Matt Silverstein, Abbey McBride (voice of Ling-Ling), writer Elijah Aron, Kurt Vanzo (sound editor)
• Karaoke Sing-Along – Featuring karaoke sing-along-mode for “Shit Sandwich”, “Sunshine”, “School House Rock”, “God is Watching” and “Crashy Smashy”.
• Get the DT’s Drinking Game – “Clum Babies” – A drinking game featuring two modes – Trainable Version and Expert Version
• Behind-the-Scene Interviews: Featuring four interviews which include:
  

- Creator’s Confessional – (4:53) Featuring “Drawn Together” creators Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein.

- Captain Hero – (2:37) Featuring voice actor Jess Harnell.

- Foxxy Love – (3:17) Featuring voice actress Cree Summer.

- Ling-Ling – (3:36) Featuring voice actress Abey McBride.

DISC 2:

• Audio Commentary for “Terms of Endearment” - Audio Commentary by series executive producer Matt Silverstein, Tara Strong (voice actress of Toot and Clara), executive producer Bill Freiberger, producer Mike Mendel, executive producer Dave Jeser  and Jess Harnell (voice actor for Captain Hero).
• Potential Annoying Commentary for the audio commentary for “Terms of Endearment” - Audio Commentary by series executive producer Matt Silverstein, Jordan Young (Supervising Producer), Ian (Writing Assistant), Abbey McBride (voice of Ling-Ling), Dave Jeser (executive producer)
• Audio Commentary for “A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special” - Audio Commentary by series creator Matt Silverstein, Abbey McBride (voice of Ling-Ling), writer Elijah Aron, Kurt Vanzo (sound editor)
• Behind-the-Scene Interviews: Featuring four interviews which include:
  

- Princess Clara – (3:19) Featuring voice actress Tara Strong.

- Toot Braunstein – (3:45) Featuring voice actress Tara Strong who also does the voice of Toot.

- Wooldor Sockbat – (4:22) Featuring voice actor James Arnold Taylor.

- Xandir P. Wifflebottom – (4:22) Featuring voice actor Jack Plotnick.

SEASON 3:

DISC 1:

• Audio Commentary for “Greeks and Freaks” - Audio Commentary by series creators Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein, composer Eban Schletter, writer Jordan Young, writer Elijah Aron and writer Reed Agnew.
• Audio Commentary for “Lost in Parking Space, Part I” - Audio Commentary by David Jeser and wife Lisa Jeser, writer Jordan Young and producer Mike Mendel.
• The DT Movie: Red Band Trailer – A red band (mature) trailer for the “Drawn Together” film coming out in April 2010.
• Karaoke Sing-Along – Featuring karaoke sing-along-mode for “Pledging Days”, “No Easy Way Out”, “Scumma Bumma”, “Drawn Together Babies”, “Face the Balls” and “Fire the Load”.
• Get the DT’s Drinking Game – “Wooldoor Sockbat’s Giggle-Wiggle Funny Tickle Non-Traditional Progressive Multicultural Roundtable” – A drinking game featuring two modes – Trainable Version and Expert Version

DISC 2:

• Audio Commentary for “Drawn Together Babies” - Audio Commentary by series creators Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein, James Arnold Taylor (voice of Wooldor), Peter Avanzino  (supervising director) and Director Frank Marino.
• Audio Commentary for “Breakfast Food Killer” - Audio Commentary by series creators David Jeser and Matt Silverstein, James Arnold Taylor (voice of Wooldor), Abbey McBride (voice of Ling-Ling), Peter Avanzino (supervising director).
• Promos – “Drawn Together” promos for season one through three.
• Comedy Central Quickies – Shorts for South Park’s “Leprechaun” and The Sarah Silverman Program’s “Date With God”.

When it comes to “shocking” films or television, I’m pretty much open to watching most things and willing to give it a try.  Especially moreso if it revolves around comedy.   I watched the season premiere of “Drawn Together” and personally I was shocked to see how crazy and so not-politically correct this series was.  But you know, despite the controversial topics from incest, rape, masturbation, sex, homosexuality, obesity, suicide, racism and just so many other things happening on this series, it’s easy for one to say that this is just one “f’d up” animated series.

It’s one thing for “South Park” to be so controversial back in the 90′s but creators Dave Jeser and Matthew Silverstein pulled no punches with “Drawn Together” but it’s because they handle topics that people are sensitive too but twist it with humor with these animated characters and quite literally take it to an unprecedented level for a television show is what I find quite intriguing.  When I caught the first episode of “Drawn Together”, I was hooked because it was so out of left field, you never know where the creators are going with the series.

For example, with Clara and Foxxy.  I figured, OK…they will be focusing on race relations between a white woman and an African-American.  But sure enough, things went even farther when the two started making out.  Even going further when we see Clara and her father smooching together.  Because of that inbred family, she has a cousin that is mentally retarded and sure enough, we see Captain Hero attracted to her sexually.   Those who see this and take it so seriously, will just say…”This is wrong!”.  We know it’s wrong, everything about the show can be seen as “wrong”. But with Comedy Central and many comedians, they take what’s wrong in their society, some comedians take things from their own ethnicity and try to make it humorous.  “Drawn Together” takes a lot of things in reality that are not funny but use these odd animated characters to make it funny.

But the show is not meant for children, it’s meant for adults and it all comes down to the viewer…is this animated series for you?   Because if you are easily offended, “Drawn Together” is not for you.  But if you are wanting a series that is so different, so wrong but yet is so hilarious, then “Drawn Together: The Complete Series – Party In Your Box” is definitely for you.

The series is packed with audio commentary, games, karaoke and more!  I thought that it was so hilarious to see the creator’s try something different with their audio commentary such as finding a guy named Carlos from Home Depot and made him take part in a commentary of a series he has never seen before.  Never expected that to happen.  And the humor within the creators and the cast, you can tell “Drawn Together”, despite the controversy, it was a series that they were passionate about.

I personally enjoyed this series when it aired on Comedy Central and now watching this set, I can easily say that fans will enjoy “Drawn Together: The Complete Series – Party In Your Box” because outside of the 36 episodes, the amount of special features and the kind of special features included is totally insane.  Seriously, the commentary and special features included is absolutely wild and crazy.  Also, the board game included is pretty well-thought out and also a drinking game and truth or dare game is also included.

Overall, “Drawn Together: The Complete Series – Party In Your Box” is definitely a fun and highly recommended set for fans of the series.