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 following an assassination attempt and subsequently implanted onto Boskov, a bear from a Russian circus. Aided by his assistant, mad 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 began as a segment on Grim & Evil, in which it and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy aired together. The series aired separately beginning July 11, 2003 and ended its run on October 22, 2004.^[2] Twenty-two episode segments were produced.

Following the series' 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! (Maniacal laughter)

— Hector Con Carne's brain (and stomach), in the opening title sequence

Hector Con Carne (voiced by Phil LaMarr), a wealthy crime lord and evil genius bent on world domination and the League of Nations, was caught in an explosion instigated 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 his assistant, mad scientist Major Dr. Ghastly (Grey DeLisle), who placed his only two surviving organs, his brain and stomach, into a pair of containment units. These were later installed into Boskov (Frank Welker), a bear from a Russian circus, giving Hector's brain partial control over Boskov's own will.

Hector, 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 group: 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; Hector himself is narcissistic, megalomaniacal and generally abusive towards his henchmen; and Boskov often gets distracted by his natural bear instincts, which frequently impedes or delays Hector’s global domination schemes.

Voice cast

Main

• Phil LaMarr as Hector Con Carne
• Grey DeLisle as Major Dr. Ghastly
• Armin Shimerman as General Skarr and Hector's stomach
• Frank Welker as Boskov

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 segments 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 & 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 minor roles in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and General Skarr became a recurring character. 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 briefly appear in the end credits as character costumes for Lazlo, Raj, and Clam in a Camp Lazlo crossover titled "Evil Camp Carne".

Censorship

During its Grim & Evil run, "The Smell of Vengeance" was subject to censorship in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The episode's plot involves Hector and his army using a weapon that produces foul-smelling odors on New York City, sending its citizens into a frenzy. "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 temporarily suspended from broadcast rotation.^[8]

Episodes

Note: Most of the episodes did not air in production code order.

Season 1 (2001–04)

Season 1c (2003–04)

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.

See also

• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
• Grim & Evil

Notes

1. ^ Includes 32 segments

References

1. ^ "New 'Toons for Network". The Robesonian. Associated Press. February 25, 2001. pp. 7C. Archived 2015-09-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2011-05-15. – via Google News
2. ^ Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Company. p. 52. ISBN 9781476672939.
3. ^ Forkan, Jim (February 21, 2001). "Cartoon Adds Four New Shows". NextTV.com. Multichannel News. Archived 2024-09-15 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
4. ^ Dempsey, John (August 29, 2000). "'Billy & Mandy' Beats Out 'Robot', 'Longhair' to Get Greenlight". Variety. Archived 2013-10-03 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
5. ^ Hester, Julian (January 14, 2022). "What's in My Head Podcast - Maxwell Atoms: The Creator of Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy!" (podcast). RSS.com. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
6. ^ Macmillan, Alissa (February 22, 2001). "'Toon Net Sets 2 New Series". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on 2012-05-09. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
7. ^ Warburton, Tom (March 29, 2010). "WarburtonLabs: Grim Adventures of the KND!". WarburtonLabs. Archived 2018-12-12 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
8. ^ Calvo, Dana (September 22, 2001). "Cartoon World Is Playing It Safe". Los Angeles Times. Archived 2024-09-21 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-07-22.

External links

• Official website June 3, 2004 at the Wayback Machine