Hitpig!

And this review is going to get a little political. I'm worried about Berkeley Breathed. Not just because this film is mediocre. But he hasn't updated his Facebook page in ages and didn't even pimp the film when it finally (briefly) hit theaters.

I fear the election broke him. He essentially brought back Bloom County in 2015 because he couldn't afford to sit out the political scene with Trump in it. It was supposed to be comedy gold. But it didn't work out that way. At all.

When Trump won in 2016, I think Breathed was as depressed as the rest of us. But he did something unique and amazing, and channeled his sadness into the strip and created shockingly moving and tearjerking storylines with Frank the Janitor, the kid with cancer Sam the Lion, and the return of an emotionally broken Lola Granola (from the original strip). Bloom County was one of the funniest strips in the 1980's. And I found its newfound wistfulness and pain very powerful.

Seriously, track down Frank the Janitor. That shit will make you cry. In a GOOD way, which is in my opinion the ONLY way respectable fiction ought to make you cry.

When Biden won in 2020 Breathed stepped back from the strip a bit. He'd do one or two new strips a year and that's about it. He reposted his favorite old strips on his page and talk about upcoming projects (like Hitpig and the Bloom County TV show that never came to pass). But I think the liberal fight had gone out of him a bit. While things were "normal" again, I think he wanted to do "normal" nonpolitical stuff like Hitpig.

And I get the sense from his absence that he's probably feeling like the current situation is so depressing he can't even do that anymore. If Hitpig is his creative swansong (and it might be) the fact that it IS such a disappointment fills me with deep sorrow. Breathed was always ahead of his time regarding cartoon naughtiness and subversiveness. The fact that the rest of pop-culture, especially computer animation, has caught up to his formerly bold mindset, and it feels tame now, doesn't make me feel great. Neither does the CGI film watering down the great designs from not just Pickle And Peanut, Breathed's children's book this was (loosely) based on, but also the ultra-detailed cool stuff he shared on his page. Breathed has grown into an amazing, literal artist from his crappy cartoon beginnings, and it saddens me that this movie lessened the unique things about how he designs his characters.

I am going to talk a little bit more about the film itself and I will share any fond memories of Breathed I can. I don't know if any Gilda And Meek readers know this, but Bloom County was an early influence on its humor, particularly its political humor. At least it was during previous iterations (that you won't find on my site). Not only did enough of my political opinions change for me to feel my comics were no longer appropriate, but like Breathed, I stopped finding humor in the subject, and the allegory, as many horrible jokes as I attach to it, because deadly seriously and openly tragic instead. I regret that with all my heart. I would prefer to be currently making fun of people like Dan Quayle and Ronald Reagan. But politics isn't fun anymore, so neither is Gilda And Meek (at least not always). And neither was Bloom County. Maybe the biggest way to prove Breathed was an influence to my work early on, even though he leaves ZERO footprints in the current stuff, is that like him, I was forced to course-correct politically once things in the real-world became unbearable. And I was not happy about it. But considering how seriously I take my work (and how seriously Breathed wound up making Bloom County) it's not necessarily a bad thing. Even when humor dies, sadness and despair CAN lead to good (or in Breathed's case, great) art. That's something I hold onto. Something I often think about Breathed when realizing it. And it's something I believe.

Let me ask you this. Have you read any current political comic strips? I don't mean like Doonesbury, which has a cast of characters to center its politics. I mean like Tom Tomorrow or Tom The Dancing Bug. One thing I notice about ALL of them is that they are never funny. It is true political strips do not need to be funny to get their message across. But they USED to be. Bloom County led the way there (as did Doonesbury). Now political strips' jokes involve simply relaying reality verbatim, and that's the joke and the point. I'm not going to say it's lazy (comedy is hard, and it's not like they can add a new spin or twist to an already beyond ridiculous reality). But it also makes me see less value in the format. Political strips in 2025 are things I read if I come across them. I don't ever seek them out. Not just because they are now depressing. But because they are NEVER funny. I see totally why Breathed is currently nowhere to be found. A political strip that isn't hilarious is outside of everything Breathed tried to be.

As beloved as Breathed is now, he wasn't always. And honestly, when I think about it, the shots against him back in the day make me mad. On some level I GET why Gary Trudeau hates his work. To start of with, before Opus came along and the strip found its center, it WAS very much a rip-off of Doonesbury, and in a couple of cases, famous Doonesbury jokes were "stolen" verbatim. This was unintentional on Breathed's end (he says he absorbed the strips as a kid and just didn't remember) but I do have to say comedians' current claims of ownership of jokes and humor never sat right with me. Most of the jokes in MY work are my own, but if I hear a good one elsewhere I WILL spread it around. And I think it's weird comedy has their current weird ethos about "stolen" jokes and routines. Everybody back in Vaudeville days told the same jokes. It was generally accepted that once a joke is let loose in the world, it belonged to the world. You want to rip on Carlos Mencia? Point out he is unfunny, stupid, and offensive. If I were the comedian Mencia "stole" his garbage routine from, I wouldn't be all, "Hey! That totally shitty joke is MINE!!" It's weird current comedians are that way. Maybe the fact that Carlos Mencia is unfunny is less about his poor comedy skills and more about the fact that everything he's "stolen" sucked ass, and that's why he appreciated it to begin with.

But when Breathed won the Pulitzer, cartoonists were fucking outraged this young upstart, who basically rode on the back of Doonesbury's popularity, was acknowledged as one of the best of the best. And let me tell you other cartoonists, if THAT is your reaction to another cartoonist's success, you are probably a shitty human being. I feel similar dark thoughts about the way the creators of South Park and Kevin Smith speak about Family Guy. No question that Family Guy was shitty to start out with. But it is not appropriate for other cartoonists to take such personal shots at Seth MacFarlane. The personal things they said aren't actually critiques. They are trolling and talking shit. It's not like MacFarlane doesn't do his share of that, but it still feels very unprofessional. I have to watch out for that in my own reviews, believe it or not. And I do.

And the truth is, whether political cartoonists back then wanted to admit it or not, Bloom County WAS something special. When Opus was added to the strip, and became the focal point, the entire tone changed from a Doonesbury retread into this very weird and whimsical comic strip soap opera, especially when Bill the Cat was introduced. (Bill's "romance" with U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick remains one of the most bizarre and hilarious random ongoing plotlines in comic strip history). When Bloom County is at its best, it outshines other political strips, INCLUDING Doonesbury. Did Breathed "Pay His Dues" in the industry before winning that Pulitzer? Maybe not. But he earned and deserved it anyways.

I am always tickled whenever Breathed admits his actual personality is identical to Opus', because Opus is not only very naive, but he's very foolish and trusting. And no lie, if you go back in time and see how trusting Breathed often seemed of increasing Republican malfeasance back in the day, that is quite obvious. Still, as naive as Breathed has always been, he (along with Trudeau) took MAJOR shots at Donald Trump back in the 1980's. He hated Trump before hating Trump was cool. Hell, he hated him before I DID (I didn't have a strong opinion one way or another back then, although I always disliked him).

Enough about my admiration for Breathed. Time to talk about the film.

I mentioned Breathed being ahead of his time regarding subversive humor in cartoons is a double-edged sword, because since the rest of animation has caught up with him, ESPECIALLY animation geared towards little kids, whatever edge he used to have is softened, and the things that used to shock and make you laugh are tame now. Yeah, that's this movie's humor. I will say this about Breathed (who wrote the story but not the screenplay). This specific movie FELT like it SHOULD have ended on a dance party number, my literal MOST hated tiresome trope in current kiddie crap because it's so overdone and unfunny, and this movie simply refused to do it. Good for Breathed. Maybe him being behind the times about this specific obnoxious thing makes him ahead of his time again after all.

I love that one of Hitpig's wanted posters is Bill the Cat.

Few other people will get this, but I like that in the end credits, the entire orchestra is credited, specifically with each instrument they played. You NEVER see that in a film, and I'm starting to think we should. I bet if you ran to Seth MacFarlane with this idea he'd get all excited and try to sell the rest of Hollywood on it.

Speaking of credits, most animated films for theaters, especially those with celebrities in the cast, I find tend to be disrespectful to actual voice actors when it comes to marquee billing. I love the fact that Charlie Adler, the biggest voice-over name (and least-known celebrity) of the cast get billed as "And Charlie Adler" at the end of the main titles. In the actual credits (if not the trailer) HE is the veteran the producers give an extra level of appreciation and respect for. I wish somebody someday gives Frank Welker this level of props in the next Scooby Doo movie. The most respected member of the cast in the credits is the one most people in the audience have never heard of.

I think the biggest way this is a Berkeley Breathed film is the animal rights advocacy it takes. Breathed LOVES animals. He is not JUST a vegetarian. He advocated against their abuse in the first run of Bloom County (The Mary Kay Cosmetics Company was part of a HUGELY controversial storyline involving animal abuse that was so graphic and painful, many newspapers outright banned it). He firmly believes zoos are terrible, and animals should never be locked up for any reason. For most kids' films starring animals, the moral there is for the characters ONLY. The writer themselves could give a shit, and expects the audience to still go to McDonald's on the way home from the theater, and they should pick up some movie swag in their Happy Meals for good measure. But this is not a jive for Breathed. He actually believes this. And it makes the messages about treating animals right in the film have actual resonance and not like some big moral con from a cynical producer trying to tug at the heartstrings in an unearned manner. I mention the film disappointed me (and it did). That one specific thing was the thing about it that is most recognizably Berkeley Breathed. I AM disappointed after all. But I refuse to DISMISS it for that reason.

Come back to us, Berkeley Breathed. We need your art, humor, and yes, pathos now more than ever. Don't let Hitpig, a serviceable but underwhelming film, be your last notable project. We miss you. 3 stars.