Moral Orel first aired on Adult Swim, a streaming platform, back in 2005 and is a stop-motion animated black comedy-drama series. The show focuses on a young boy named Orel Puppington, a devoted Christian living in a small town called Moralton, who keeps getting into trouble trying to follow God’s example.
Dino listed the aids of Alex Bulkley, Corey Campodonico and Ollie Green helped bring his vision to life in the form of clay figurines. The show was originally meant to air in five seasons, each darker than the last.
Unfortunately, due to some of the content being “too depressing” for the platform’s standards, Adult Swim executive, Mike Lazzo, cancelled the show by season three. But what about Moral Orel that made Adult Swim, a TV platform for a mature audience, decide it was too much for the audience to handle?
What started as a comedic show poking fun at overzealous religious people slowly digressed into seeing the true colours of the main cast and how not everything is as cheerful and harmonious as it initially seems.
What stuck out about this show was the unique way it represented its story and characters; the characters helped get the story moving in the trajectory it needed.
The first season painted the town of Moralton as a place abiding by the rules of God to an extreme degree with no complaints from any of the residents. With season two, it gets harder to ignore the small warning signs the creator is throwing at the audience, like spouses’ marriages not being as balanced as it was portrayed at the start of season one, witnessing certain characters’ insecurities and watching them make poor choices.
If the theme change wasn’t evident in the second season, by the third season, most of, if not all, the characters are living out the lowest point of their lives, and I think this is where the show started to peak.
When it began tackling serious issues like sexual assault, abortion, alcoholism and abuse, It set the mood and expectations for the rest of the show. It was no longer people in a Christian town living their lives in blissful ignorance, but a place where most of the residents hid their secrets under a blanket of false security.
The character development is astounding, even on the protagonist’s part as Orel continues to lose a piece of his innocence after every season. But it’s a clever way to show how his character matures as he becomes more aware of the things around him. Seeing the cast challenging their issues or succumbing to them was moving, in a way. especially considering the era it was released, where many adult shows emphasize humour.
Moral Orel tackles themes most shows are too intimidated to test out. The show has a unique way of not only challenging beliefs of faith but also showcasing how an environment can affect someone’s qualities and life. With the creative way Dino used his characters to divert the course of the plot, he created a slow burning story with more layers than what initially meets the eye.
Moral Orel is a hidden gem, a work of art, a masterpiece of a story that doesn’t get enough recognition and credit it deserves.