2016 seems to be the year that everyone is yearning for the 90s. MTV launched ‘MTV Classic’, The X-Files returned at the beginning of the year, and now Nickelodeon are jumping in on the pool of nostalgia filled tears.
Along with the relaunches of Legends of the Hidden Temple into a TV movie and Hey Arnold! as a cartoon special; Rocko’s Modern Life is about to see the same modern treatment.
Rocko’s Modern Life ran for four seasons between 1993 and 1996, and was part of the second wave of animation from Nickelodeon’s Nicktoons. The show followed an Australian immigrant wallaby named Rocko (Carlos Alazraqui), who encounters a variety of different situations revolving around mundane aspects of modern life. He has three best friends; Heffer Wolfe (Tom Kenny) a dull-witted cow; Filburt (Doug Lawrence) a neurotic turtle with a tendency to feel uncomfortable in any situation and his dog Spunky (Alazraqui). He also has to deal with his loud, middle-aged neighbors Ed Bighead (Charlie Adler), a toad who despises Rocko, and his sympathetic wife Bev.
Series creator Joe Murray intended the show to be a cast of mentally unstable anthropomorphic animals, matching the personalities of the characters to their matching species to create a social caricature.
An hour-long movie is in the works over at Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California, with Murray returning as executive producer and co-director.
Murry has since released a statement, expressing his excitement for the project: “I’m very happy to be rejoining Rocko and my friends from O-Town again. What I have found by bringing these characters back is that it’s not so much about nostalgia, but a sense that they still feel relevant and fresh to me, and after 20 years, they can’t wait to comment on modern life in the 21st century. They still have a lot to say.”
Get ready for the nostalgia with the opening credits of the theme song:
