Regular Show is going to be making its return to Cartoon Network later this May with a brand new revival series, and fans have nothing to worry about with Regular Show: The Lost Tapes from what we’ve seen so far. Regular Show originally ended its run with Cartoon Network nine years ago with eight seasons and a feature film under its belt. But now the classic show is coming back for a brand new series, and it’s going to sort of pick things up right from where it all left off.
Regular Show: The Lost Tapes shared two episodes with critics ahead of the new revival ahead of its premiere with Cartoon Network on May 11th, and unfortunately it’s not enough to give a fair review of what to expect from the new show itself. But with these specifically curated episodes, it is fair to give it an assessment based on what we’ve seen so far. And from that early look at the new revival series, it’s safe to say that fans of the classic have nothing to fear as the show has clearly not lost a step.
The two episodes we were given were specifically chosen to avoid general spoilers about the premiere, but are slotted early into the new series’ run. That means we have yet to fully grasp the nature of the revival series, but the episodes sampled do give a nice outline of what to expect. The two episodes take place within the original Regular Show timeline, but before the final episode of the series. That means it’s before the time skip that saw Mordecai and Rigby aging into adulthood. It’s unclear if that’s going to be the case for each episode, but it’s meant to sort of just jump back into the thick of things.
“The Lost Tapes” likely refers to the fact that these are going to feel like “lost” adventures that we never got to see in the original series. For example, “Coffee Wars” was revealed to be an episode focusing on Margaret and Eileen in the midst of a major coffee battle with a pop up shop that opens just outside of their workplace. This new pop up is hoping to push a gross fusion food that is basically just a donut that has already been dunked in coffee. And just like the old days, it’s not long before this ends up in a wild mystical battle between food mages.
It’s exactly the same kind of tone and fun that the original Regular Show series had. It starts out with a common kind of experience, and soon balloons into something that only these characters would end up dealing with in their increasingly surreal world. That’s always been the main hook of Regular Show (where it’s ironically anything but “regular”), and it’s clear that it’s going to be the hook of this revival series as it showcases lots of new adventures.
But what ultimately makes it tougher to determine the “quality” of Regular Show: The Lost Tapes thus far is the fact that you need a much larger sample size to really dive into the new era of the show. Much of Regular Show is built around its episodic adventures, and that central dynamic between Mordecai and Rigby. There’s also the sense that there is still a major surprise with the Cartoon Network revival that they are holding back until the premiere that will likely help all of these episodes make even more sense in the wider timeline.
When it comes to the presentation of the episodes themselves, however, the framing of the episodes seemingly haven’t changed. The episodes offered started the same way as the classic series except now a “The Lost Tapes” subtitle can be seen fading away with the usual Regular Show title card. The strength of the voice cast is still just as strong as they were in the classic series, but there are still many other characters like Skips, Benson and other favorites that have yet to be revealed to critics thus far.
Humor wise, it’s absolutely hilarious. There are some jokes here that really hit hard, and even offer a bit of modern commentary within a classic Regular Show lens. There are likely going to be all sorts of fun topics we’ll see Mordecai and Rigby dealing with going forward, but the revival will also leave room for the wider cast to have more focused adventures of their own as well. Visually, it also looks just like the classic series. There is a difference in visual fidelity compared to the original series, but it’s not off-putting.
The character designs still allow for flexibility in terms of wild faces, and there are some close ups that really get into gross out territory for maximum impact as well. It seems to have even picked up more of an edge since the old days too. Because while the original series easily killed off all kinds of background characters with fun gags (as long as they exploded), one of the episodes sees someone super cleaned in a dishwasher and stripped down to a skeleton. It’s hilarious, yet cartoonishly brutal.
This is far from a concrete review of Regular Show: The Lost Tapes because we need to see much more of the revival in action before fans can go one way or the other. But with what has been showcased thus far, it’s clear that there’s still a lot of love and fun put into this revival. We’re going to fall back into the classic series’ rhythm once more after all these years. Think along the lines of The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball revival recently released on Hulu. It’s both nostalgic, yet feels like a new era we’ll want to see unfold.
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