Jeff Boman · From fps #2 · May 1, 2005 | Like our editor, I'm a member of the generation that grew up on the limited animation of Hanna-Barbera. Harvey Birdman takes the Birdman character we grew up with and makes him a goofy lawyer type. He first has The Mighty Mightor as a judge, then a former villain, Mentok. He competes with lawyers Reducto, Freezoid and Vulturo, all former villains in the original cartoons.

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law Vol. 1 Warner Home Video, 2005 Originally aired in 2000 154 minutes Shop for Harvey Birdman DVDs and more: Amazon.ca Amazon.com

All are played with the humour and situations stretched to an extreme familiar to Adult Swim viewers. The show starts with a custody case launched by Race Bannon to get the children of longtime "companion" Professor Quest. Then there's the "mystery" of potential marijuana use by Scooby-Doo and Shaggy in the Mystery Machine van and later, the use of Ding-A-Ling's name for a porn site. Reducto has a fetish for small things, Vulturo gets unintelligible, and Freezoid makes his own cases as potential clients slip on the ice patches he creates.

The animation style is as limited as the original cartoons, except that the Attorney at Law creators began to use Macromedia Flash starting with the Dingaling episode. The series is full of running jokes ("manly kiss," a bear in every episode, surprise appearances by other classic Hanna-Barbera characters) and some gags adult viewers from our generation can appreciate more.

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You'll find it and many other articles in the May 2005 issue of fps, available as a free download.