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Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling

                                        review by Bobby Blakey

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I love a great cartoon and while there are a ton out there few really stand out anymore. Back in 1993 Nickelodeon debuted the animated series Rocko’s Modern Life that offered up great animation, some wacky designs and all around fun. The show sadly ended in 1996 but has lived on in various home entertainment releases. Now fans get to dive back into the world of Rocko and his friends with the all-new Netflix exclusive special Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling.

In the special, after being in space for around 20 years, Rocko and his friends attempt to conform to an even more modern life in O-Town, where coffee shops are on every corner, food trucks offer multi-layered tacos, touch-screen O-Phones are being upgraded on a near-constant basis, an instant-print kiosk has replaced Rocko's old job at Kind-of-a-Lot-O-Comics, and radioactive energy drinks turn their consumers into mutants.

This special was not only a great return to the fun series, but offers up social commentary and relevant issues that make it all the better without ever feeling too preachy. Much like the regular show it kicks off in an out of this world silly situation that propels Rocko and his friend’s right into more shenanigans. Despite it being 20 years later in the series everything felt the same in the best way possible while still using this clever direction to allow them to deal with more current issues and update the overall universe it had originally created.

The animation is as great as ever and offers up everything I could have wanted in this special. There will no doubt be some that disagree with the direction of some of the stories, but in the end it’s the bigger message that is really important and blended with the laughs, vibrant animation and classic characters makes this a win in my book. I hope this is just the beginning of the return of Rocko, but if not I’m glad we got to at least get a peek into his world one more time.

Check out Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling available now on Netflix.

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