That Time A Cartoon Network Show Parodied The Weirdest Dune Book
02 -03-2024
Frank Herbert’s “Dune” is a beautiful book, and it's a masterpiece of science fiction. It is a well-written and entertaining adventure story about a boy who rises up to be Emperor after he avenges his family's death. But underneath, there is an extremely dense story with themes involving religion, politics and ecology.
The "Dune Universe" gets a lot weirder in Herbert's books. The "Dune" universe is filled with clones and mutants. There are also dogs who look like chairs. The character Leto II turning into a sandworm is one of the most bizarre and memorable aspects of the series.
Herbert's "God-Emperor of Dune" tells the story of Paul Atreides, whose son decides to take humanity forward by becoming a hybrid human/sandworm that can live thousands of years. He rules with an iron hand. This is why it makes sense that a story as bizarre as this one has not been adapted for the screen. Denis Villeneuve is not interested, choosing to adapt "Dune Messiah", as the final film in his "Dune" trilogy.
Villeneuve's "Dune: Part Two", as it is, is a dark blockbuster that focuses primarily on Paul's tale and the warning against believing in messianic characters. The movie will have less time to show off the more bizarre parts of the source material. It won't be able to explore the complex politics in the "Dune: Part Two" universe or the ecological setting, Arrakis, which is the main focus of the film.
There is a sort of adaptation already of "God Empire of Dune", namely a cartoon tribute. This would be a mention of "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy", the '00s Cartoon Network series about two children, Billy and Mandy who become friends with the Grim Reaper when they beat him at a game.
God the Emperor of Cartoon
Mandy, in the "Mandy the merciless" segment from season 2, episode 3 ("Mandy the Mercyless") gets a glimpse of the future where she will learn the secret to immortality through a transformation into a giant hybrid worm. By controlling spice, she now controls the world like Leto II. She controls cinnamon, which is the smell of spice mixture, as described in "Dune". It's hilarious to see a mutant worm-girl, but it is even more funny when you realize that she is a deliberate and overt homage of "God Emperor Of Dune", a tale no kid who watches Cartoon Network would be familiar with.
The parody does not stop here. Mandy, just like Leto II, awakens the clones through time of Duncan Idaho to be able to speak to them, unfreezes the clones Billy who are constantly dying in absurd ways or getting killed by Mandy.
It's hilarious that Cartoon Network could ever permit such a bizarre derivation. It's fun to see cartoons that are homages or parodies on things children are unfamiliar with. The "God-Emperor of Dune", with its long history, is a choice that has been made in the past "Dune" adaptions, but it is a unique one. It is a reference that ignores context in favour of iconic iconography.
Maxwell Atoms, the creator of the show Maxwell Atoms described it as his "favorite parody" in a Syfy wire interview because the obscure reference. Maxwell Atoms said, "This was an extremely post-modern episode and I'm not sure if I could even do another one today."
The movie "Dune: Part Two", is currently playing at theaters.