Underfist: Halloween Bash

Underfist: Halloween Bash
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Maxwell Atoms
Written by	Maxwell Atoms
Directed by	Shaun Cashman
Starring	Voices of: Diedrich Bader Vanessa Marshall Maxwell Atoms C. H. Greenblatt Armin Shimerman Grey DeLisle Richard Steven Horvitz Greg Eagles Dave Wittenberg Rachael MacFarlane Phil LaMarr Greg Ellis Dan Gilvezan Jess Harnell Martin Jarvis
Theme music composer	Drew Neumann
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Release
Original network	Cartoon Network
Original release	October 12, 2008
Chronology
Preceded by	The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

Underfist: Halloween Bash (otherwise known as Underfist) is an animated spin-off special of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. It aired on October 12, 2008. The special was going to be the setup for a new series spin-off of Grim & Evil, but the contract of Maxwell Atoms with Cartoon Network expired before moving to Disney Channel for the TV series Fish Hooks and the special was ultimately the finale of the Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy franchise.

Plot

On Halloween night, Irwin, Billy, Mandy and Grim are trick-or-treating, Billy is a witch, Mandy and Grim are the Spanish Inquisition who burn witches and vampires and Irwin is Dracula, king of the vampires. Billy, Mandy and Grim decide to go home after having no success with Dracula (Irwin's Grandfather). Irwin realizes that his life is passing him by. Mindy (secretly turned into a witch by an evil marshmallow bunny named Bun Bun) fools Irwin into opening an Underworld portal releasing an army of evil candy warriors and Bun Bun, where they start terrorizing the neighborhood. Irwin gets attacked and contacts Hoss Delgado, who helps him with the battle. The warriors take down Hoss with soda-candy guns, which if Hoss gets sticky, he gets a rash. When they kill Skarr's winning purple pansies, he comes out of his garage with a robot (spoof of the film, Aliens), joining the battle. Soon it is an all out war. Mindy again tricks Irwin, but this time, pretending she is being kidnapped by Bun Bun, taking her into the Underworld.

When the candy level gets too high, Hoss clicks his car unlock system, which causes a giant saw car (spoof of the Gotengo from Godzilla: Final Wars) to drill out of the ground. They escape and devise a plan to attack the Underworld.

Soon they find a portal to the Underworld in the rain, Hoss and Irwin jump in first but the portal turns off, because it is controlled by a diamond, which Mindy (in her witch form) smashes. The candy warriors try to sacrifice Hoss, by pushing him into hot coco, but they want to leave Irwin alive. This is because he has the powers of a mummy, which they need to keep the balance of the Underworld in place, and to become stronger warriors to eat the trick-or-treaters.

Mindy creates a potion which turns all the warriors into candy monsters, and all she needs now is Irwin's powers to create the candy warriors ultimate monster form. But Irwin refuses.

Soon Jeff The Spider, Fred Fredburger, and Skarr find a way to get to the Underworld by using Hoss' car to drill into the Underworld, where they rescue Irwin and Hoss.

The army of candy monsters has not given up yet. They head to the city and attack. Irwin and Hoss get into an argument, leading into a battle, turning on each other. While the battle is going on, the monsters suck up Irwin's power (but not all of it) and transform into one giant candy monster. Jeff and Fred try to escape, but they fail. Soon Hoss and Irwin see the monster and start to fight it, beating it. Irwin discovers that Hoss is scared of monsters, because he was haunted as a kid.

Soon Bun Bun admits his history. He cut off Fred's tusks, he made Billy afraid of spiders, he haunted Hoss' childhood, and turned Mindy into a witch. Skarr joins Bun Bun's team (but not really) and kicks Bun Bun into hot coco, melting the marshmallow bunny.

Soon Underfist gets an award for saving Halloween that year, but they hear something outside and decide to investigate. It's soon revealed that there is an army of squid warriors who have found their way to the surface world that the team made while trying to escape from the Underworld.

Production

Maxwell Atoms started production on Underfist a little bit after he finished with The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. The special was finished several months before it aired, but as it was a Halloween special it was delayed until October. Cartoon Network did not pay for a permanent crew for a single film, so much of the work was done freelance or by Atoms himself. The film also used a different overseas animation crew at Digital eMation.^[1]

Reception

Underfist tied for first in ratings for the week it was aired and has been nominated for Best Animated Television Production for Children in the 36th Annie Awards.^[2] Jacob Paschal of Toon Zone gave the film a negative review, saying "Overall, Underfist is your typical annual Halloween film fluff designed to fill the airwaves and get younger folk hyped on something other than candy. Maybe you'll find that enough".^[3]

References

1. http://www.newsarama.com/tv/100809-Ani-Shorts-Underfist.html
2. Big Cartoon Database
3. http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=26534

External links

• Underfist: Halloween Bash at the Internet Movie Database