Home Movies (TV series)

Did You Know?

• The soundtrack for Home Movies was released May 16, 2006, and includes fifty-two songs featured throughout the series; it comes packaged with the fourth season DVD box set.
• In 2009, IGN included Home Movies on their list of the top 100 animated series of all time.

Season plot summaries

The first five episodes, animated in Squigglevision and heavily using retroscripting, aired on UPN in 1999. They introduced the main characters and revolved around Brendon's movies, with loose, improvised writing. The season ends with Brendon speaking to his absent father on the phone. The second season, commissioned by Cartoon Network after mixed ratings of season one reruns, is more heavily scripted but grants greater creative freedom.

It introduces new characters such as Fenton Mulley and the Adelbergs, and includes a multiple-story arc: Brendon meets his father Andrew and fiancée Linda, leading to therapy and a wedding; Brendon develops a crush on Scäb choreographer Cynthia; Paula loses her job and searches for a new one. Episodes share an underlying theme, and Brendon's movies become key, with their subtext discussed. The third season is looser, loses the seasonal arc, and airs episodes out of order.

It becomes racier with more sexual themes and cursing, gives secondary characters like Fenton and Duane more screen time, and begins parodying actual movies more heavily. The season ends with Brendon's stepmother Linda having a child, after which she and Andrew no longer appear.

Style

The first season of Home Movies used Squigglevision, but the show later switched to the less expensive and more adaptable Macromedia Flash. This change was driven by some negative feedback from critics and viewers, the difficulty of creating fluid motion with Squigglevision, and the producers’ wish to give the series its own identity apart from Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. The show’s dialogue was initially built on retroscripting, a method where actors improvised from vague plot outlines and the animation was matched to the final audio. The very first episode was fully improvised. While retroscripting was only officially used in season one, the next three seasons still relied heavily on improvisation, with written scripts serving as a fallback for jokes. Brendon Small wrote and performed all of the series’ music.

Home releases

Shout! Factory partnered with Sony BMG Music Entertainment to put out each season of Home Movies on three-disc DVD box sets packed with bonus features and hidden extras. Later, the same company made every episode available through Amazon Video on Demand. In the United States, seasons two through four can be streamed at no cost using a public library card on the Hoopla platform. Scholastic Corporation owns the series rights, and a rotating selection of episodes appears on the Adult Swim website and app. The show became available on HBO Max starting May 27, 2020.