I won’t lie, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this show as of late. Stripperella chronicles the adventures of the crime-fighting superheroine/secret agent Erotica Jones, who works as an exotic dancer by day but then battles evil by night in the guise of Stripperella, the woman whose mission it is to turn unscrupulous bad guys scrupulous.
Enhanced reflexes, strength, and pain tolerance (not to mention the tons of questionable crime-fighting gadgets like laser lipstick and nipple cameras), but kicking crime fighting has never looked quite so good!
Stripperella is the brain child of Marvel comic alumni Stan Lee who partnered up with Pamela Anderson who came on board to voice the ditzy Erotica Jones, a character very much in a similar vein as that of VIP’s Vallery Irons which she portrayed for four years running. Consisting of 13 episodes in total and originally released back in 2003, Stripperella is best described as a mixture of animated comedy, action and camp (as well as just plain goofiness) and while it certainly isn’t raunchy, there is quite a fair bit of fan service, nipples and naughty double entendres to be had.
In terms of stories, most of the episodes are standalone adventures with little continuity between them. There are a host of recurring characters, particularly at Erotica’s home base, namely the Tender Loins gentleman’s club but of course these aren’t nearly as enjoyable as the host of over the top, comical villains the writers seem to come up with at will. If you remember the animated superhero goofball show The Tick, then you’ll know more or less what you are in for with regards to Stripperella. Villains like Cheapo (the World’s Cheapest Villain who dreams of becoming a “Hundrednaire”), Small Fry (the man who would make everything small so that he could be tall), Klinko (the copy store owner with delusions of brainwashing people for profit), Queen Clitoris (the man hater), and Push Galore (the TV saleswoman who peddles high fashion fakes to unsuspecting buyers) are all popping out the woodwork to give our poor old Erotica Jones a run for her money.
The writing is usually filled with puns, double entendres and just plain silliness, with a good dose of satirical representations of real world people (like poor old ridiculed “Richard Slimmons”) to fill the stage. That said, there is plenty of action to be had, a good mixture or martial arts, car chases and even three bullet gun chases if you must – with a little pole dancing action neatly stamped in on the side. You can’t take it seriously, but you can laugh, and in this aspect Stripperella really does work well with us more mature children at heart.
The animation is generally pretty smooth and not at all badly produced, though for some strange reason animation style and character design gets altered halfway into the short season, which can be a little jarring to all those animation puritans out there. The world is colourful, the characters fairly simple but with all the right curves in all the right places and for the most part, the dancing and action sequences are pretty well choreographed and pushed into life. It’s standard television animation, but definitely at the upper end the production value chain – not too many re-used or re-hashed bits as far as I can see! :)
Voice actors all throw in a pretty good performance, with Pamela Anderson proving to be the perfect voice for the often confused but loveable Erotica Jones/Stripperella and as a surprise showing, we even get the legendary WWE’s Vince McMahon throwing in his talents as the rival strip club’s creepy manager! Oh, and did I mention voice actor alumni Mark Hamill, Joey Lauren Adams, Thomas F. Wilson, Jon Cryer, Tom Kenny, Kid Rock, Maurice LaMarche (Brain from Pinky and the Brain) all make a voice appearance as well? Well now I did, so now you know.
In short, while not for kids thanks to all the exotic dancing and naughty puns, this is the perfect slapstick action comedy to put on when you just want to sit back and laugh at something absurd, silly and just plain over the top, with just that hint of adult fare to make it even more entertaining for all us young at heart (i.e. don’t want to grow up) adults with nothing better to do.
Thanks Stan, you’re a legend! :P
Related Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripperella