"The Boondocks" started out as a very popular and very political comic strip created by Aaron McGruder that targetted all sorts of issues such as Hurricane Katrina. It revolved around two African-American kids Huey and Riley Freeman and their grandfather Robert Freeman. Then in 2005, the Boondocks was brought to life as an actual cartoon series. I didn’t know what to think but it seemed that the cartoon was pretty well made.
Regina King does a great job of being able to voice both Huey and Riley. The cartoon revolves around the Freeman family that lives in the white suburbs of Woodcrest, Maryland. In a snese, it’s more expansive than the comic strips due to its creative freedom and so forth. The main character is Riley Freeman who’s an intellectual terrorist of the sort and is trying to "save" the world. From what I have seen with each episode, the cartoon goes more in-depth with topics and issues that have been on the table for a long time both big and small.
Huey is the only intelligent and refined character of the show. He’s more disciplined than his eight-year old Riley. Throughout the series, Riley tries to be the voice of reasoning but hardly anybody listens to him. In a sense, he’s looking for African-Americans to "evolve" from the artificial culture of mainstream rap music and so forth. At the same time, Huey has a bunch of radical ideologies which contributes to many people not listening to him. However, Huey is an excellent martial artist and swordsman that wasn’t portrayed in the comic strips.
Riley is basically the stereotypical "gangsta" as he’s constantly watching rap videos. He aspires to be like one of those big rap artists. The boy is one of those kids brainwashed by the media that glamourizes sex and objectifies women. He cares more about the rap idols than he does with logic. While Huey is the brains, Riley is basically the brauns that doesn’t use any of his intelligence. Riley has very unrefined fighting tactics in which he always loses to Huey in a fight. In a snese, Riley is basically your career criminal which makes a very interesting contrast to Huey. Riley is everything that Huey is not.
Robert is the grandfather taking care of the two grandsons. He’s trying to fit in with society of Woodcrest at the same time trying to set Riley straight by using the belt on him. The belt plays a significant role throughout the series asides from using it to whip Riley when he’s being disrespectful which happens all the time. He’s not respected by his grandsons for different reasons. Riley mainly does whatever he wants without a care in the world while Huey feels that his grandfather is trying to change him.
Those were the three characters in the cartoon that are originally from the comic strip. The other characters in the cartoon aren’t present in the strips. But the characters are interestingly nonetheless.
There’s Tom DuBois an African-American man who’s a wealthy and scrupulous assistant district attorney and a close friend of Robert. He’s basically a wuss and is afraid of going to jail mainly after watching what happens to prisoners when they go to jail. As a result, he’s too scared to go to jail in fear of getting anally raped which is pretty humorous. He refused to smoke underage as he said he didn’t want to go to jail and get anally raped in which the two teens looked at him strangely. Tom’s wife illegally downloaded music in which he deleted and said he didn’t want to go to jail and become anally raped as a result of that. He has constant nightmares of being raped in a prison shower. When he wakes up, his wife Sarah asks "Dropped the soap again?" Riley always pokes fun at him and his family.
There’s Uncle Ruckus who hates black people. He’s one of the self-hating black people. Ruckus dreams of dying and going to "White Heaven".
The main antagonist of the series is Ed Wuncler Sr, a white man in his old ages. He’s basically an industrialist and white imperialist who is pretty rich. Wuncler Sr. is basically the representation of arrogant imperalists and greedy businessmen that just want to make money not caring who gets hurt. The reason being that Wuncler Sr. is the main antagonist is because he basically owns the entire town. Only person that sees through this facade of Wuncler Sr being a savior of the town is Huey. He basically sinks pretty low to market his own stuff as Jazmine made a lemonade stand. It’s a typical lemonade stand made by a ten-year old girl. How low can you go with that? Which makes Wuncler Sr the main antagonist of the Boondocks.
Then there are Ed Wuncler III and Gin Rummy whom are trigger happy ex-soldiers. Wuncler III is the heir to Wuncler Sr’s fortune. The two of them are what you call "wiggers" which is defined as a white person acting like an overhyped version of a young black person. The two of them are parodies of George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. Mainly because G.W. is still considered in idiot and Rumsfeld was justifying a war gone wrong. Wuncler III is a drunken idiot and Rummy says that "the absense of evidence is not the evidence of absence".
The two of them are very inept criminals though they think they’re criminal masterminds. Riley hangs out with them all the time because those two are the closest thing to a "hood". The duo constantly commit crimes such as robbery and kidnapping and pat themselves on the back. But Riley constantly points out that Wuncler Sr owns the city which is why the two of them get away with it. And they use their status as former members of the armed services for hero status to get a positive opinion.
Boondocks is something refreshing and very intellectual. They target a whole bunch of issues such as R. Kelly’s trial, George W. Bush, Oprah, terrorism, the death penalty, Martin Luther King Jr, and 9/11. Then they targer other issues on prostitutes and pimps for a humorous contrast.
Intellectuals will appreciate that Boondocks is right on point and that McGruder has the right idea. Right-winged neoconservatives would condemn it for being ultra liberal.
McGruder is a fan of the anime Samurai Champloo. The opening to the Boondocks is similar to the opening of Samurai Champloo. In some of the episodes, there are some great fight scenes.