Does Warren United Warrant Your Attention?
There’s a new animated sitcom making its way to TV screens this April and it is British!
Traditionally, British animated sitcoms don’t fare very well, with many not even making it past their first season (to which fingers of blame can be pointed in many directions), but one thing that overshadows almost all productions is that they will almost always be compared to The Simpsons.
In most cases, this is done during promotion; how many times have you seen the promise of “The British Simpsons” made, or a character being compared to Homer Simpson? Most recently, Full English (though produced in America with only a handful of Brits involved) promised just that, as well as a misguided aim to be as vulgar and offensive as possible. Not only did the shows foolhardy brand of celebrity bashing, drug taking and explicit jokes end up leaving a sour taste in the mouths of viewers, but it didn’t do British shows such as the forthcoming Warren United any favours either.
The shadow cast by The Simpson’s and the string of failures that have tried emulating it seems all prevailing, so you may be forgiven for casting judgement when at first you see a promo image from the show featuring an overweight, dimwitted father sat on the couch with his mismatched attractive wife, cast alongside the usual kids and embarrassing older relations.
However, Warren United has a lot more to offer than that and is certainly worthy of your time.
The team lineup, L-R Charlie (Morgana Robinson), Warren’s Mum (Georgie Glen), Reggie (Tony Law), Harrison (Morwenna Banks), Warren (Darren Boyd), Ingrid (Eleanor Lawrence)
Apart from the obvious comparison that the world of Warren United features a family, there is a great deal of originality to the production. The show centres around a football obsessed father Warren Kingsley (Voiced by Darren Boyd) and his efforts to balance his fanatical devotion to Brainsford United and his homelife. The conflict between the two parts of Warrens life are brought to life by writer Simon Nye (best known for Men Behaving Badly).
I will be upfront in admitting that I loathe football. It’s quite the handicap in my social life; I can’t talk to other men at social gatherings without being questioned about which team I follow, and when I relent and tell them that my Dad once took me to a Leeds United game, I get an in depth, unsolicited lecture about how terrible they are and how he should support another team. So a show about a football obsessive shouldn’t be my cup of tea, but I know from experience there certainly are enough Warrens out there to appreciate what the show is about.
To me, and hopefully to other non-football fans (or weirdos, as I think we’re known) it doesn’t matter that Warren is football based, because the show is about his obsession and everything that comes with it, not necessarily limited to the game. Much the same can be said for Ross Hogg’s Spectators; a short film that turns the camera on the crowd at the football match. As a one time Rugby League fan, it is easy to identify the match day atmosphere that will be familiar to many, as Spectators isn’t a film about football, it just happens to have football in it. The same goes for Warren; it is a sitcom with football in it. There are, however easy to enjoy jokes about Brazilian team captains, overpriced burgers and the highs and lows of supporting a mostly terrible team that don’t overpower the script and which you don’t need a degree in football to find amusing. The balance here is great and makes the show all the more enjoyable.
The only criticism from the episodes I have seen is directed towards Warren’s wife Ingrid, played by Eleanor Lawrence. Her distain towards her husband’s hobby is rather downplayed, and lacks the enthusiasm her role clearly requires. Nye’s female characters are usually so well written and acted; take Deb and Dorothy from Men Behaving Badly, easily the strongest characters in that sitcom. There seems to have been a bit of a missed opportunity here – Ingrid could have been something a little more than the standard sitcom wife and the animation world could have gained a strong female character. As it stands her tutting and rolling her eyes doesn’t affect the show (which is centred around Warren) too badly but there is plenty of room to develop her character. There is room to develop the kids and other relationships in the show too but most of these don’t seem in urgent need of repair. It is a shame the UK format for sitcoms only fits six episodes into a series, as the overall feeling I got from the show isn’t disappointment and dismissal at the lack of development but a desire to see more.
Warren United is designed and brought to life by BabyCow animation and directed by Tim Searle; the guy behind 2DTV, I Am Not An Animal and The Cow that Almost Missed Christmas. Although the characters seem 2D puppet, based in the style of 2DTV, there is a great fluidity of movement that emulates full animation to the characters which other animated sitcoms often disregard (I’m looking at you Family Guy). Thankfully this is avoided in Warren, creating something a little more enjoyable than what Chuck Jones once termed “illustrated radio”. BabyCow worked with Toronto based Smiley Guy Studios to deliver the bulk of the animation.
The shows we have seen mix the live action requirements of a sitcom whilst dipping a toe into the realm of animated possibilities. There are moments of extreme slapstick and sections where Warren goes to see a Frankenstein’s Monster style therapist, or meet his evil boss in a pool filled limo, that fit in with the otherwise grounded reality the show is structured around. Regular characters include a couple of talking police horses that remain somewhat distant from the rest of the cast, like Dmitri and Sviatoslav, the joke telling clockwork bats in Duckula. The show is well rooted in British comic tradition.
With a pedigree of writers, producers, animators and stars, it is difficult to see why such an easy to enjoy show has been buried in the television schedules on ITV4 sat alongside old repeats of television shows and obscure sports events nobody cares about, Warren is a show that is worth so much more than that, so hopefully if it gets recommissioned we will see it promoted to a channel where people can actually find it. As it stands, the promotion for the show revolves around a website you can check out here, which includes a history of football and extra treats included amongst the usual character and cast bios. You can see Warren United on the 22nd April at 10pm on ITV4.
Perhaps it was a little cruel to begin this article comparing this show to failed animated sitcoms of the past, but this show ventures out bravely onto well trodden ground, with its head held high. It is a well put together, enjoyable sitcom, which will hopefully set things straight for the future of UK animated sitcom development and give commissioners the confidence to back more shows akin to this one. In short Warren United could be the mouthwash that will get rid of that awful taste of Full English.
Warren United airs 22nd April at 10pm on ITV4