“Rick and Morty, Morty! The smartest man -burrrp- in the universe is back; Rick Sanchez is back, baby! Season 5, yeah. 4 seasons already in the book. NEW episodes, Morty! Do you- buurp- do you hear what I’m saying, Morty? Season 5, Morty. Rick and -buuurp- Rick and Morty, Morty, for all time Morty!” Thanks to many Rick Sanchez rants during the previous four seasons of Cartoon Network’s zany series, “Rick and Morty,” (especially during season finales) it’s easy to imagine this hypothetical tangent coming out of Rick’s mouth. Season 5 of “Rick & Morty,” is set to air on June 20th, 2021.
“Rick and Morty,” the multi-Emmy winning animated show, is a phenomenon to behold, thanks to its neurotic blend of brilliant writing, epic humor, and condescending commentary on the state of the world. As well, there is constant “breaking of the fourth wall,” in which characters on-screen talk to the viewer. As something that started as an homage to the 1980’s “Back to the Future,” movies, the series “Rick and Morty,” was created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon in 2013. Both creators voice many of the characters, along with other big names such as Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer, and Tom Kenny (well known as the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants.)
Seasons 1- 4 of “Rick and Morty,” are an introduction to Rick Sanchez and the Smith family, who consist of his daughter Beth, her husband Jerry, and grandchildren Summer and Morty. After being absent for 20 years, Rick is trying to rekindle his relationship with his grown daughter, Beth, whom he wasn’t around much for when she was a child (although when Beth was young, he created an entire play world for her, in which she once left a friend behind in; one episode explores this). Beth now has her own family: Jerry, the man who got her pregnant in high school, thus leading the two to get married at a very young age; Summer, who is a sweet high-school girl, somewhat unsure of herself as most teenage girls are; and Morty, a 14-year-old boy in the throes of puberty and gangly awkwardness. The marriage between Beth and Jerry is very much on the rocks, and Rick, who doesn’t like Jerry, is constantly causing even more friction in the marriage. If given the choice, Rick would get rid of Jerry for good.
Rick Sanchez is an iconic character with his crazy blue hair, lab coat, and ever-present dribble on his mouth (Rick is a big drinker) and Morty Smith is often anxious, nervous, timid, and concerned about girls, school, and his parent’s rocky marriage. Morty is often Rick’s co-pilot, and the duo split their time between normal day-to-day life and their intergalactic adventures through space and time. They face absurd situations and crazy characters during their exploits.
As the “most brilliant person in the galaxy,” Rick has figured out “interdimensional time-traveling,” and also created a “portal gun,” that allows him to jump from timeline to timeline, of which there are an infinite amount of. He flies around in a little homemade UFO-looking vehicle, often speeding away from toxic and homicidal creatures and blazing into space after causing chaos wherever he goes. Much to Jerry Smith’s chagrin, Rick takes his grandchildren with him on most of his wild adventures. There is no other show on television quite like “Rick and Morty.” Whether dealing with sentient canines bent on taking over the world, building theme parks inside a person’s body, storylines that take place inside a toy train- nothing is off-limits to this show. Each episode is deliciously weirder than the last, and the mind-blowing ‘concept-hidden-within-concept’ storylines are fascinating. One episode is even called “Morty’s Mind Blowers,” and in yet another, there’s a play on the movie “Inception,” where Rick and Morty jump from dream to dream in various character’s minds.
Abradolf Linkler, Mr. Poopybutthole, Bird Person, “The President” (a character that looks a lot like former President Obama), Jaguar, The Vindicators, Mr. Meeseeks, and Squantchy are all frequent characters on “Rick and Morty,” but because there are so many worlds, each one populated with different versions of all the same characters, it is impossible to name them all. A great example of this is Elon Musk, who voiced himself as “Elon Tusk,” in one episode. There are infinite Ricks and Mortys as well, leaving the storyline open for anything. Its no wonder that the entire globe is counting down the moments until episode one is released!
Season 5 will have 10 episodes. In honor of the premiere, Cartoon Network is proclaiming June 20th to be “Rick and Morty Day.” For the first time ever, Adult Swim will premiere the first episode ever from space by launching “Rick’s Space Cruiser” 150,000 feet into the atmosphere. Fans across the world can join in on the fun by creating their own avatar or t-shirt for this special day, online at Go Rick Yourself. Hurry, you don’t want to miss out on this!
Wubba-lubba-dub-dub!
Written by Mandie Stevens
Hi, I’m Lynn, and I Make.
Props, Cosplay, Scale Models, Home Projects, and just about anything else that involves me Making.
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