SuperMansion
Created by Matthew Senreich & Zeb Wells
Starring:
Bryan Cranston as Titanium Rex
Keegan-Michael Key as American Ranger, Sgt. Agony
Heidi Gardner as Cooch
Tucker Gilmore as Black Saturn
Zeb Wells as Jewbot/Robobot, Groaner
Jillian Bell as Titanium Lex/Lex Lightning
Tom Root as Brad
Chris Pine as Dr. Devizo, Robo-Dino
Breckin Meyer as Courtney/Ringler
Yvette Nicole Brown as Zenith/Portia Jones
Executive producers Zeb Wells, Matthew Senreich, Seth Green, John Harvatine IV, Eric Towner, Bryan Cranston, James Degus,
Production companies Stoopid Monkey
Stoopid Buddy Stoodios
Moon Shot Entertainment
Distributor Sony Pictures Television
A lot of the so-called ‘adult animation’ on the various streaming services is best described as utterly witless. Most of the humor is sophomoric, and middle-school sophomoric at that. The characters are usually…unappealing.
There are some huge exceptions. Rick and Morty springs to mind, along with The Great North, Archer and Bojack Horseman. There are others, of course. But generally speaking, the best animation to be found is either anime, or kids’ fare.
One adult animation series that can be happily added to the list of shows worth watching for grown-ups with three digit IQs is Supermansion. It’s a series about a group of utterly dysfunctional superheroes; not exactly an original concept, but Matthew Senreich & Zeb Wells took the subgenre and ran with it.
While most of the characters are correlates of the DC pantheon (Superman, Batman, Joker, Supergirl, Catwoman and Wonder Woman may or may not be represented here) there’s a couple based on Marvel’s Sgt. Fury and Captain America. The characters are twisted, not only to avoid copyright infringement, but to create very clever parodies of the well-known supes. Black Saturn is a moody loner who perches on gargoyles brooding over a dark city. He’s parents are both quite alive, but consider him a dimwitted wastrel and withhold the attention and love he so desperately craves. He is, in fact, a dimwitted wastrel. He is battling stirrings he feels toward his arch-enemy, The Groaner, who has a grinning human skull for a head. They finally do consummate, only to discover they really aren’t right for each other. Cooch is a humanoid feline, easily distracted by a laser pointer and with the empathy and generosity of the average house cat. In her origin story, she actually began as a regular house cat. Her owner named her ‘Cooch’ because she thought ‘Pussy’ was too suggestive. American Ranger is a hero lost out of time, coming to grips with the fact that this is no longer the America of 1944 that he remembers. Unfortunately, he is neither very bright nor particularly adaptable. Titanium Rex is getting on, apparently in his seventies, and beginning to suspect he isn’t the man he was when he was thirty. He is stunned to discover he has a daughter, Titanium Lex, who, it turns out, hates him.
The writing is excellent, and often sly and sophisticated. This is backed by an absolutely stellar voice cast of some of the funniest people in America today. It’s stop action animation, and well done at all levels.
It ran for three seasons (2016-19), 39 episodes and 4 specials. The Christmas special has the funniest—and darkest—portrayal of Santa Claus I’ve ever seen.
Now on Amazon Prime.