This Jason Sudeikis Series Blends Live-Action & Animation For a Chaotic AF Comedy

The big picture

• Son of Zorn
  is a mixture of high fantasy and sci-fi comedy, with an off-the-wall character like He-Man.
• The show humorously mixes 80s cartoon nostalgia with everyday life, focusing on absurdity and comedic conflict.
• Zorn tries to repair his relationship with his son while embracing his Zephyr heritage, resulting in a chaotic family comedy.

For many readers of a certain age, there are fond memories of lazy Saturday mornings filled with sugary, kidney-destroying breakfast cereals and those iconic 80s cartoons. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe gave many young children giddy thrills as the perfect blend of high fantasy and science fiction struck a chord with its predominantly male audience. There, safe within the confines of Eternia, children were free to dream their dreams of overtly masculine and achingly virtuous heroes battling fiendish monsters in a fictional land filled with magic and wonder. But now, as adults, we know that these places only exist in those sweet memories of yesteryear. Life really is more complex and a more complex life deserves a more complex and nuanced show. Son of Zorn is the completely unhinged and wildly chaotic bastard son of those Masters of the Universe, looking at Jason Sudeikis. like the fully animated, sexually promiscuous, off-the-wall, He-Man-esque barbarian of the suspiciously Eternia-like Zephyria. In this beautiful blend of animation and live action, high fantasy comedy and science fiction, Zorn embarks on what will be his greatest adventure to win the love of his estranged son.

What is “Son Of Zorn” about?

Son of Zorn it takes place in a world not unlike ours, but with one key difference: Animated characters from a mysterious South Asian island called Zephyria live alongside regular people.. Zephyria is a wild place that parodies the He-Man universe, filled with beastly, magic-wielding villains bent on conquest and ferocious, hedonistic warriors who stand in their way. Among them is Zorn, the baddest warrior of them all, who has been kicking around Zypheria since 1971, defending it from Glombeasts, Lava Monsters, Vampires, and the Liberal Media.

Everything about Zypheria is reminiscent of 80s Saturday morning cartoons. Zorn wields a magical sword, walks around in a combination of futuristic technology powered by what appears to be magic, and often finds himself defending the earth from a humanoid vulture that doesn't he wants more than to see Zorn dead. Even the show's opening is a parody of the classic 80s cartoon thunder catsinvoking this joyous sense of childlike wonder in his audience and dropping it into the center of middle-aged mundanity to great comic effect.

Jason Sudeikis plays a parody of He-Man in “Son of Zorn.”

Jason Sudeikis voices Zorn, an obvious parody of He-Man minus the virtues, in this fish-out-of-water series. Zorn is hedonistic, savage and a sexually promiscuous barbarian, lacking civility and responsibility. Somewhere in the 1980s, he found himself married to a human woman named Edie Bennet, played by Cheryl Hines of Curb your enthusiasm fame, who loved and fought alongside the legendary defender. Together, Edie and Zorn had a half-human, half-zephyr child, Alangulon “Alan” Bennett, played by Johnny Pemberton from Negative consequence. Edie, knowing that Zepheria is no place for a half-human child, left Zorn for the sunny skies of Orange County, California, where she remarried the stable and affable Craig Ross. (Tim Meadows) and raised his son.

Zorn spent those precious early years indulging in his hedonism and shrugging off the responsibilities of fatherhood, and as a result, Alan drifted further and further away from his roots and is a regular American teenager in every sense but one. . He has animated legs that are super strong, which he is ultimately ashamed of. In the pilot episode, after a battle with his enemies, Zorn visits his estranged family, where he learns that Alan hates him for being mostly absent from his life. She also discovers that Alan hates her heritage and her body, for that matterZorn decides to leave the barbarian life behind to stay in Orange County to try to get closer to his son and prove his love and… kill giant hawks?

“Son of Zorn” combines animation and live action to hilarious effect

Son of Zorn answer the question: What if He-Man had a midlife crisis? There's something so funny about watching a wild cartoon barbarian trying to fit into the day job world where conflict resolution comes in the form of an HR department rather than the end of a sword. Think the mix of live action and animation isn't that unique Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but what makes this series a cut above is its slapstick use of 80s cartoon nostalgia. There are things this show can do that others can't by letting go of the weird and crazy world of Zepheria next to everyday things. Picture He-Man interviewing for a corporate office gig and then cutting a table in half or seeking medical attention for cartoon-specific sexually transmitted infections when treatments from magical animal doctors fail. Zorn's quest to repair his broken relationship with his son is endearing, but his inability to let go of his more animated nature is a constant source of humor.

As children, we sat in awe, watching the magical vehicles of the He-Man world come to life. We thought it would be cool to drive one of these things. Son of Zorn play right into those childish fantasiesa bit like The Lego Batman Movie does. So when Zorn acquires a Warhawk for Alan to win his love, it strikes a chord with the audience and of course backfires. Giving a normal kid a vehicle like this is bound to create carnage, and it does. Then there's the moment where Zorn helps Alan use the Sight Stone to help him get the scoop on his crush because Zeferians are famous for their ability to… get women. What teenager wouldn't want to be able to peek into people's private lives? But this creepy, totally inappropriate magic puts Alan at odds with the love of his life and further estranges him from his father.

The desire to reconcile the relationship, but also to instill pride in Alan for his Zepherian roots is really quite beautiful. You should never be ashamed of who you are and where you come from because these things are important parts of ourselves that help us orient ourselves in the world. Zorn is proud of Zepherian. In fact, he despises modern American culture, so Alan's self-loathing is, in a way, Zorn's greatest failure, and Zorn doesn't care much about failure. Alan is his father's shadow, a nerd who could be top dog at his high school if he would just accept who he is and embrace his heritage. Alan could kick a lot of thug asses with those cartoon legs if he only tried, but his shame prevents him from doing so. Zorn tries to fix it, but he also has to accept Alan on his own terms and recognize some of the shortcomings of the Zeferian way of life, which has no place in the modern age.

Son of Zorn is a chaotic family comedy that uses 80s cartoon tropes as a vehicle for comedic conflict that just works. The jokes in the show are entirely rooted in the absurdity of the animation coming into contact with the live action. What we have here is a totally unique series that puts a twist on the redemptive family dramaone that takes you back to the carefree childhood days of sci-fi sword, sorcery and mayhem, but also explores the contemporary issues of the Middle Ages. in a criminally underrated series that we hope will one day be rebooted.

Son of Zorn is available on Prime Video in the US

WATCH IN PRIME VIDEO