Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law

Premise

The show features ex-superhero Harvey Birdman as an attorney working for a prestigious law firm, along with other cartoon stars such as Blue Falcon and Peter Potamus. Although he is most often portrayed as a defense attorney, Harvey also serves as a civil litigator, depending on the plot of a particular episode.

Related Topics:
Superhero - Attorney - Blue Falcon - Peter Potamus

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Harvey's clients are primarily composed of characters taken from Hanna-Barbera cartoon series of the 1960s and '70s; this roster includes some of the studio's most popular stars, including Fred Flintstone, the Super Friends, and Scooby-Doo, as well as lesser-known characters such as Ding-a-Ling (sidekick of Hokey Wolf) and daredevil Ernie Devlin (from the short-lived series Devlin). Ironically, many of Birdman's nemeses featured in his former cartoon series have also become attorneys, and often represent the opposing side of a given case.

Related Topics:
Hanna-Barbera - 1960s - '70s - Fred Flintstone - Super Friends - Scooby-Doo - Hokey Wolf

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While the series remains faithful to its premise, it also uses an absurdist style of comedy, featuring characters, objects, and jokes that are briefly introduced and rarely (if ever) referenced thereafter. Also, because the series also relies heavily on pop culture references to classic television animation, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law constantly delves into parody, even featuring clips of these series, or specially-created scenes which mimic the distinctive style of the animation being referenced.

Related Topics:
Absurdist - Pop culture - Parody

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Because of this approach, continuity is largely disregarded, though occasionally hinted: it is strongly implied that Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law serves as a sequel to Birdman and the Galaxy Trio (this antecedent is expressly acknowledged in the third season episode Turner Classic Birdman). Instead of rigid plot structure, much of the humor is derived from the fact that superheroes and supervillains are given more realistic and human qualities; for example, Birdman's former nemesis Reducto, a mad scientist who carries a shrink ray, becomes "Myron Reducto," an obsessive-compulsive and paranoid attorney who carries a shrink ray.

Related Topics:
Continuity - Sequel - Birdman and the Galaxy Trio - Superhero - Supervillain - Mad scientist - Obsessive-compulsive - Paranoid

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It is interesting to note that although the first season was animated using traditional cel animation, starting with the second season, the show is currently produced using Macromedia Flash. The reason for the switch was because the Korean animation studio was having a hard time getting the fast pace of the show correct, and thus the production of episodes slowed down due to constant re-takes. By animating the series in the U.S. with Flash, not only are problems corrected faster, but production costs are much lower.

Related Topics:
Cel animation - Macromedia Flash

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