Moral Orel: Adult Swim’s Forgotten Masterpiece
When I like something I don't just like it a little bit, it has to be all-consuming. That's all I'll think about. This has been a trend since I was a baby; from the age of two to ten all I wanted to talk about was Spongebob who I lovingly referred to as my "Bobby” because we were tight like that. I've gone through a lot of obsessions like this, British YouTubers Dan and Phil were big a one, Panic! at the Disco, Doctor Who, and the list just keeps going.
The one I would argue was the most influential though, is the Adult Swim show Moral Orel. My friend Rachel pretty casually mentioned I should watch it when we were about sixteen, and it all went downhill from there. This obsession didn't stop at fan art (which you can view on my Instagram), rewatching the same episodes a million times, or writing multiple essays about it throughout my high school career thanks to my impressive ability to find loopholes in every assignment so I could relate it to something I actually found interesting. I went as far as to let it decide my college major and future career. My entire life practically revolves around this silly cartoon show.
Moral Orel is a stop motion animated dark comedy first airing on Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim in December 2005. The network sort of screwed the show over from the start and aired the last episode of the first season as the show's big premiere due to the episode being Christmas themed. They figured it would be good for ratings with festive people tuning in being overjoyed and filled with Christmas spirit. In reality, everyone was just confused by these fully developed characters and plot points that they didn't get to see become developed. Why am I supposed to care what's happening to these people? This is my first time meeting them. And why is this episode depressing? This pretty heavily affected the show’s viewership and ratings, but thankfully it found a way to pull through and found its dedicated fanbase.
After finding its footing, the show ultimately got three seasons and one special episode (currently there are talks of there being a movie which is too much for my little animator heart to handle). The show's first two seasons are mostly episodic and satirical except for the Christmas episode from season one and the nature two-part episode that closes out season two. Mostly, the show pokes fun at Middle America, Anglo-Saxon Christian culture, and religious fundamentalism. It's nihilistic and bleak even at its lighter moments.
Through the first two seasons, most episodes follow Orel Puppington, a light-hearted and naive twelve-year-old boy living in Moralton, a fictional town right in the middle of America’s bible belt. Moralton is filled with pious and egocentric people trying to lead Orel down the right path, even though they have strayed pretty far from this path themselves. Orel attends a sermon with his parents, Clay and Bloberta (haha stop motion names) and his brother Shapey (haha get it) every week. The Comedy of the show is found when Orel dangerously misinterprets these sermons, and chaos ensues. One of my favorite examples of this is when Orel learns that all good Christians should help the poor, he ends up befriending a crack dealer eventually leading to Orel gaining a crack addiction.
In the background of these lighter seasons, we see how truly tortured and unhappy the people of Moralton are. Orel’s father is a deeply closeted gay man with drinking problems, an Oedipus complex, and an affinity for beating Orel with his belt. Orel’s mother has obsessive-compulsive tendencies and is severely emotionally distant. Moralton’s reverend, Rod Putty is probably the most likable and forgivable of the bunch: he's soft-spoken, pretty laid back, and cares for Orel, but he's frustrated with his bachelor life and is shown to be a bit self-absorbed. The only person in the show who is ever genuinely nice to Orel is Stephanie, a punk, lesbian, atheist woman stuck in Moralton who is very obviously the town's outsider. But she is warm and honest about herself and her views (unlike every other person in the town).
The third season is when things change. Adult Swim saw how good the dark ending to season two went so they told the showrunners to go even darker! Make it sting a little bit! Make us cry!! So, we go from dark comedy to just straight-up dark. Depressing. Sad. The structure of the show completely changes, it’s now an interchanging storyline following the days leading up to, during, and after a fateful camping trip Orel and his dad take at the end of season two. We get a deeper look at the people of Moralton and why they act the way they do, we look into Clay and Bloberta’s upbringing, showing the generational trauma that is very clearly taking place in the Puppington household. We see Orel have a crisis of faith after he is grounded from going to church. We get a flashback to when Clay and Bloberta met and how unhealthy their relationship has been from the start. And when the season closes, we see if Orel is capable of breaking out of the endless cycle of familial trauma he was placed in. Ultimately, this third season is what killed the show. Yes, the network wanted the show to get darker, but not THAT dark. Ratings for the show fell off and it was not renewed for a fourth season. Viewers were simply just not ready for a show like that, it was ahead of its time. It now thankfully found a cult following that keeps the fanbase alive.
Though I’ve made the show sound grim and probably unenjoyable, it's very smart, heartfelt, and it makes you think. I've watched the entire show through at least 10 times and it never gets old. It still makes me feel the same emotions I felt watching it for the first time whenever I feel brave enough to dive back into it. Please, if you enjoy adult swim shows, dark comedy, beautiful animation, or you just need a day to kill, watch Moral Orel!!
Just one more closing note, if you'd all allow me to nerd out about stop motion for a moment, I want to add that with the subject matter of the show, if it was done in any other style (such as live-action, traditional animation, etc) I don't think it would have played nearly as well. You can tell how much heart went into every part of this show from the writing to the sets, to the puppets, to the messages it's putting out, and the time-consuming medium that stops motion only emphasizes all that. You have to really care about something to be willing to move silly little puppets around for hours and hours at a time, but it pays off! Fun fact, Orel is even a stop-motion animator himself!! Here is an example of some of his “work” that got cut from season three.
