“Ugly Americans: Volume One” is one of the craziest, hilarious and lewd animated series on television. If you have watched “South Park” and “Drawn Together” and are familiar with the mature comedy, then you will definitely enjoy “Ugly Americans”!
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DVD TITLE: Ugly Americans: Volume One
DURATION: 7 episodes (154 minutes)
DVD INFORMATION: Widescreen, Closed Captions
COMPANY: Comedy Central/Paramount
RATED: Parental Advisory: Explicit Content. Warning: This program is recommended for mature audiences only. It contains adult language and situations.
RELEASE DATE: October 5, 2010
Created by Devin Clark
Directed by Devin Clark, Lucy Snyder
Written by Aaron Blitzstein, Devin Clark, Kevin Shinick, David M. Stern, Greg White, Mick Kelly, Jeffrey Poliquin
Executive Producer:Â David M. Stern, Daniel Powell, Adam Shaheen
Produced by Devin Clark, Craig DiGregorio, Colin A.B.V. Lewis, Nick Kroll, John Mulaney
Supervising Producer: Aaron Augenblick, Lalitha Poonasamy, Lisa Thomas
Associate Producer: Dan Morse
Music by Andrew Landry, Bradford Reed
Edited by Nick Mougis
Casting by Anne Harris
Featuring the voices of:
Matt Oberg as Mark Lilly
Natasha Leggero as Callie Maggotbone (Mark’s demon boss and girlfriend)
Kurt Metzger as Randall Skeffington (Marc’s zombie roommate)
Larry Murphy as Lt. Grimes (the law enforcement officer)
Randy Pearlstein as Leonard Powers (the wizard)
Michael-Leon Wooley as Twayne Boneraper (the demonic bureaucrat)
Take the Big Apple, add every horrifying beast, science-fiction freak and fantasy faerie, shake thoroughly and you’ve got Comedy Central’s new hit animated series, “Ugly Americans.” The series follows Mark Lilly, a social worker at the “Department of Integration,†as he helps new citizens, both human and “other,” adapt to hectic life in New York City. Sure, there are easier tasks than weaning vampires off blood, socializing land-whales and housebreaking werewolves, but Mark is up to the challenge.
“Ugly Americans” is an animated series on Comedy Central developed by David M. Stern (“The Simpsons”, “Monk”) and created by Devin Clark (“Atom TV”) and the look of the series is a homage to 50’s horror comic books.  Pre-production is done by Augenblick Studios and the animation is produced in Flash courtesy of Cuppa Coffee Studio in Toronto.  The first seven episodes aired back in March 2010 and are now being made available on DVD via “Ugly Americans: Volume One”.
The seven episode series takes place during a time where monsters, demons and zombies (aka non-humans) and human kind are living together in New York City. The series revolves around a human, a social worker named Mark Lilly who is new to Manhattan and works for the Dept. of Integration. Each story revolves around Mark and various characters that he works or lives.
Main characters of “Ugly Americans” are:
Mark Lilly – A social worker who works for the Dept. of Integration. When he first moved to Manhattan, he didn’t realize that the roommate he would be moving in with, Randall Skeffington, would be a zombie. He also didn’t know that his boss Callie Maggotbone would be a half-human and half succubus (female demon) who is going through major PMS and needs sexual gratification to help number her pain.
Randall Skeffington – Mark’s flesh eating zombie roommate. Randall was formerly a human until he tried to impress a girl with zombie fixation. So, Randall became a zombie to impress her but was unable to get the girl. Now he is horny, always wants sex or to eat people and worst of all, his penis has a monster mind of its own.
Callie Maggotbone – A half human and half succubus who is the daughter of the devil and the boss of Mark at the Dept. of Integration.  She happens to be half human and half demon and goes through human and demonic mood swings. Callie is going through Painful Mortal Shedding (PMS) and to suppress that pain, the only thing that can help her numb it is sex and thus, she is always wanting sex from Mark. But because she is a demon, her way of having sex is a bit painful and sometimes more than Mark can stand.
Leonard Powers – A 500-year-old wizard who works at the New York Department of Integration. Â He is quite lazy and doesn’t do much work and his rival is his older brother Christ Angel who is a magician and looks much more younger than him.
Twayne Boneraper – A demon who works at mid-level government that oversees the New York Department of Integration. Â He despises social services, dislikes Mark and wants to have sex with Calllie Maggotbone. Â His involvement in the government may be part of a bigger plan that he is involved in.
Francis “Frank” Grimes – The head of the Department of Integration’s Law Enforcement Division who despises the monsters and what they done to humans. Â He blames his missing kneecap and his broken marriage on the non-humans who he calls “illegals”.
“Ugly Americans – Volume One” features a total of seven episodes on one DVD. Â Here is a spoilerless summary for each episode:
- EPISODE 1: Pilot – Mark tries to adapt to his new life living in New York City, living with a flesh eating zombie named Randall and have a half-human/half-succubus girlfriend named Callie.
- EPISODE 2: An American Werewolf in America – Mark tries to teach a Werewolf a lesson, meanwhile Randall plans to find ways to eat his roommate.
- EPISODE 3: Demon Baby – Callie is going through emotional issues and starts wanting a baby after Mark starts taking care of a demon baby.
- EPISODE 4: Blob Gets Job – Mark stays with Randall’s parents in New Jersey and his parents are unaware Randall is a zombie.
- EPISODE 5: Treegasm – It’s the public mating ritual between a female and male tree but when Mark puts thoughts of freedom in the male tree’s head, the male tree wants to have fun like Mark and not take part in the mating ritual with the female tree.
- EPISODE 6: So, You Want to Be a Vampire – Mark meets a woman who wants to be a vampire like her boyfriend. Â Meanwhile, people are becoming afflicted with “Mad Larry” disease.
- EPISODE 7: Kong of Queens – Budget cuts may close down the Dept. of Integration and Mark looks for another job. Â Meanwhile, Randall’s penis is gone and is not sure where it went.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Ugly Americans: Volume One” is presented in Widescreen and in color.  The illustration of the characters are very much like older EC horror comic books or even some independent style of comic books. Despite the series being created in Flash, there is no glitchiness or stuttered movements. Granted, the animation and backgrounds are not super-detailed but for the most part, its an animation style that works well with “Ugly Americans”. Good use of blacks and solid line art.   As for picture quality, it’s on DVD and so you’re going to see edge enhancement and a few jaggies.
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital Stereo 5.1 and Stereo 2.0.  The series is dialogue driven and for the most part, audio is clear and understandable.
As for subtitles, there are no English subtitles but the series is provided with closed captions.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Ugly Americans: Volume One” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentary – If you click on the audio setup of the DVD, you can switch on commentary for all episodes. Audio commentary is by producer David M. Stern, creator Devin Clark and executive producer Dan Powell.
- 5-ON-SHORTS – Featuring the following “Ugly Monsters” web shorts: Robots on Immigration (3:29), Demons on the Environment (3:01), Zombies on the Presidential Candidates (2:41), Monsters on Celebutantes (3:05), Wizards on Hip Hop Obscenity (3:08).
- Art Gallery – “Ugly Monsters” art gallery which people can cycle through images via remote.
- Facebook Photos – Featuring photos on Mark’s Facebook page which people can cycle through images via remote.
- Sneak Peak Clip – (5:17) A rough B&W clip of “Ugly Americans” featuring Mark and Randall watching “Abscess Hollywood”
- Sneak Peek Art – Using your remote, you can access the character art via remote.
EXTRAS:
“Ugly Americans: Volume One” comes with an eight page booklet which is a field guide to “Ugly Americans” designed to be an official publication from the department of integration.
“Ugly Americans” is a unique and hilarious animated comedy series that will definitely be enjoyed by those who are familiar with the humor and comedy of shows likes “South Park” and past animated hits like “Drawn Together”.  You can expect lewd and mature jokes and in this case, plenty of sexual comedy.
And more than likely, you are either going to be a person who enjoys it or dislikes it. Personally for me, I’ve found “Ugly Americans” to be quite refreshing and because the characters are adults and many are non-human, writers can literally have a field day. For example, since Callie Maggotbone is half human and half succubus, it’s interesting to see how the writers come up with ways for her to get sexual with Mark (and showing him panicking because her sexual style is quite destructive and painful).
Mark on the other hand is your usual guy who likes to have fun and despite him thinking his girlfriend is hot, he knows that her demonside is very tough on him and he doesn’t know how he even survives being with her. But sometimes when you think that Mark is the sane one of the series, he’ll often behave idiotic at times. And it’s even funnier to watch him around other characters especially his zombie roommate Randall who just wants to eat Mark so badly and the wizard Leonard who is someone of a creepy old man but is a character that is quite unpredictable. Also, unpredictable is the character Lt. Grimes, you just don’t know what state of mind this man is in…loneliness or just a bent-up cop. Who knows?And as for Twayne, it’s going to be interesting to see where writers take this character for season two.
My favorite episode of the series has to be “Baby Demon” in which Mark fosters a baby demon and somehow Callie boobs starts growing and somehow she starts lactating fire after touching the baby and she starts releasing pheromones that suddenly gives Twayne a protruding boner (that comes out of his sternum). It’s a hilarious episode but truthfully, all episodes of “Ugly Americans” are fun to watch but once again, I enjoy lewd humor, so it’s refreshing to watch a series like this.
As for the DVD, although you get seven episodes, you get audio commentary for every episode and also a few web episodes, a sneak peak, artwork and more!
Overall, “Ugly Americans: Volume One” is one of the craziest, hilarious and lewd animated series on television. If you have watched “South Park” and “Drawn Together” and are familiar with the mature comedy, then you will definitely enjoy “Ugly Americans”!
