Steven Spielberg is riding high once again with "Lincoln." His decade and a half in the wilderness of trying to recapture that second career peak of the mid-1990s has finally come about with the most brilliant film about American politics ever made. "Lincoln" is a bona fide masterpiece that places Spielberg on top once again. That kind of power should result in just one thing.
A Freakazoid movie.
The time period since the two amazingly funny seasons granted "Freakazoid!" is even longer than Spielberg's time spent searching for the Promised Land that led him to the Civil War. Spielberg was an executive producer of the show and even appeared as an animated character (voiced by someone else) in some episodes. If anyone has the power to bring Freakazoid back into the public consciousness on the grand scale of a theatrical production.
"Freakazoid!" was part of the pretty good storm (I mean, you know, I wouldn't say it was a perfect storm) of the animation renaissance of the early 1990s that include "Pinky and the Brain" and "Earthworm Jim." "Freakazoid!" was Saturday morning cartoon offering that had much more in common with episodes of "The Simpsons" than anything else that was airing on Saturday mornings.
Surreal, offbeat, metafictional humor is the name of the game here. Irony. Postmodernism in the guise of a Saturday cartoon. Ever seen "The Regular Show" on the Cartoon Network? The absurdity of that cartoon probably would not exist today without the adventures of Freakazoid. Here was your standard mild-mannered guy who lives a secret life as a superhero endowed with great power. While standard superhero cartoons are all about the crimefighting with intricate plots, a typical episode of "Freakazoid!" might end with our red-suited hero merely talking the villain out of his plan for world domination by pointing out how incredibly stupid it would be to base your plan for world domination on the love that people have for clowns.
That should give you an idea of what a "Freakazoid!" movie might be like. And that is why the single most important thing that Spielberg can do with the power in his hands courtesy of that long, tall drink of water known as Abraham Lincoln would be to bring Freakazoid back big time on the big screen.
Starring Weena Mercator as the Hopping Woman and with at least seven appearances by Emmett Nervend.
