Judging from the high quality and distinctive style of helmer Tim Burton’s brilliant new animated series “Stainboy,” which bowed on Shockwave.com in early October, animation on the Web is finally graduating from the let’s-put-a-weasel-in-a-blender school of comedy.
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Based on Burton’s book “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories,” the new Web series centers on a sad-eyed boy superhero, whose big supernatural power is leaving stains on objects. In the opener, he is sent by his boss Sgt. Glen Dale — a nasty piece of work who barks his orders at our hero — to get rid of Staregirl, a little lady who, well, stares all the time. The set-up is pretty simple: In each episode, our hero has to fight one of the many oddball villains that could have only been conceived by the strange mind of Tim Burton. New Webisodes are scheduled to bow every two weeks.
The simplicity of the ink and water-color drawings, the odd details in each frame (in the opener a grape-shaped lamp hangs from a ceiling), and the skillful way Burton uses colors against the black-and-white backgrounds are quite impressive. When a character bleeds, the haunting color of blood almost jumps out of the monitor, because of the way the red contrasts with the gray that envelopes it. Fans of the ink drawings of the late illustrator Edward Gorey should especially be impressed with what they see here.
Also effective is Burton’s frequent music collaborator Danny Elfman, who offers a grandiose, orchestral score to the Stainboy’s adventures.
Among the show’s other addictive bells and whistles are its trading card sections, where browsers can learn details about the superhero and his adversaries. For example, on the Stainboy card, we learn the important facts that he’s 3’2″, is frightened by bats and that his motto is “I came, I saw, I stained.” Or that Toxicboy is mean, green and drinks Mr. Clean.”
‘Net surfers may also be tempted to check out the cool links that will take them to places where they can learn about stain removers, the city of Burbank (that’s where our hero is based), the superhero database, and Tim Burton’s fan site.
In addition to Burton, Shockwave also has projects in the pipeline with James L. Brooks, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, David Lynch, Chris Kattan, Jim Belushi, Ben Stein and Harland Williams. However, the L.A. and San Francisco-based outfit recently announced that it will be refocusing its efforts on interactive gaming instead of developing content with H’wood creatives. It’s too bad, because the ‘Net could use more splashes of originality and creativity a la “Stainboy,” as expensive as the top talent may be.
