Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Perfect cast and a good story

Crappy film

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A lot of the humor comes from cleverly picking on Christianity and that's obviously going to garner backlash toward the show. Then toward the end of season 2, things get DARK. The show starts off joining Orel and friends, as Orel hilariously struggles to understand the Christian lessons the church or his drunken father try to pass onto him. For example; Orel gets caught doing #3 in the school bathroom (masturbating), and learns he shouldn't waste his seed. So, "logically", he starts using a pastry bag to impregnate the women on his block after he's finished with his deed, setting off a plague of "virgin births". Hilarious, right? (No?, Then steer clear) After his father inevitably learns of Orel's misinterpretation of the many lessons forced onto him, he's in for a stern talking to/belting in his father's *gulp* study.The first season, and much of the second, are filled with these side-splitting misadventures, but the show truly starts to shine when Orel and his father go hunting, setting off a chain of events that explore the dark reality of being trapped in a loveless marriage neither participant is brave enough to walk away from, lest they be judged by their peers or fail their children. Enjoying the show as it was before it took this direction, I never expected to have so much emotion stirred up by a claymation feature.Outside of the Puppington Family is a strong cast of zealots ranging from the sexually frustrated Reverend Putty, to the book burning Miss Censordoll. Yeah, a lot of punny names.All of this makes for what I'd consider one of the strongest shows Adult Swim has aired since it's Glory days (or were they just nostalgia?).

This is an amazing show. The Williams Street (southern corporate bods zieg heil ted turner) bods canceled it after 3 seasons, but it was amazing. Not only did it walk a fine line between criticizing a putative deity and criticizing the morons who choose to speak in the deity's name, but it also showed us how actual adults (inevitably marginalized in Moralton) do adult things like move on and call a halt to unproductive relationships. (Stephanie and Danielle respectively). The ending is unexpected and unbelievably sweet - it makes me cry every time. I can't wait to see what DS does next!If you get the chance to see this on DVD, be sure to check the extras. I'm an auditory learner but DS's commentary made me go back and look at the visuals and they were amazing!

The duplicity, hypocrisy and sexual aberrance of the fanatically religious makes them fodder for gargantuan quantities of side splitting hilarity. Is this show splitting hilarity? No. Is it funny? That's a tough call... Clever. In parts. Very few parts. Moral Orel clocks in around 10% on my clever meter.As far as the other 90% goes, it's slow, sad and a little depressing. I can watch a Mooninite centered episode of ATHF, laugh my ass off and walk away from the television feeling pretty good about myself. On the other hand, if I watch something like South Park, I'll laugh quite a bit, but after it's over, it leaves me feeling a tiny bit blah. It's not like a want to put a gun to my head, but it's also not like I get an urge to frolic outdoors.This show has 1/4 the laughs of South Park but 4 times the dirty feeling you get after watching it. I can be as nihilistic as the next GenXer, but this is a little too depressing for my taste.Other than the show being so sad... the writing is not that great either. Other than the same jokes being repeated show after show after show, the plot is pretty much being driven by Orel's stupidity. 10% clever premise filled in with 90% filler.The one thing I will say is consistently good about the show is the animation. The animation shows quite a bit of creative flair, especially the end credits.The negatives, though, far outweigh the positives.

Minor spoiler.In one of the early episodes (maybe the first episode), Oral and his family are on their way to church, listening to some kind of supposedly Christian radio station. They're kind of singing along to some song that goes something like "Reason is the enemy of faith, my friends."But, that's not really the Christian position. At least, it wasn't G.K. Chesterton's position, and he was a Christian. (Well, okay, he was an adult convert to Catholicism.)"When first I became one of the New Anarchists I tried all kinds of respectable disguises. I dressed up as a bishop. I read up all about bishops in our anarchist pamphlets, in Superstition the Vampire and Priests of Prey. I certainly understood from them that bishops are strange and terrible old men keeping a cruel secret from mankind. I was misinformed. When on my first appearing in episcopal gaiters in a drawing-room I cried out in a voice of thunder, 'Down! down! presumptuous human reason!' they found out in some way that I was not a bishop at all. I was nabbed at once." -- G.K. Chesterton, _The Man Who Was Thursday_, Chapter IISee also:Chesterton fans will probably remember when Chesterton's priest-detective, Father Brown, first interacts with the great criminal Flambeau, who was disguised as a priest. After he's been unmasked, he asked Father Brown how he penetrated his disguise. How did Father Brown know that the criminal wasn't really a priest? "You attacked reason," Father Brown answers. "It's bad theology." Ozy