Badly Drawn Roy
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This is Crumlin, a densely populated suburb of Dublin. A community not unlike any other working class area in modern Ireland. But it was here, in 1972, that the first Irish animated baby was born, into an ordinary live action family. |
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Badly Drawn Roy is a twenty minute 2006 short film. Set in Dublin, it chronicles the life of Roy O'Brien, a cartoon born into a live-action family. Through interviews with his family and friends, we learn about Roy's birth, childhood, and the rough patches he has hit as an adult. Instead of being a flat-out comedy (though it can be quite funny at times), it uses a Slice of Life approach filmed Mockumentary style. It would eventually become the basis for the CBBC series ROY, a full length television series set during Roy's younger years, also filmed as a Mockumentary.
Notably, the film is an entirely Irish production, from the actors to the director to the various groups that commissioned it.
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: While not an animal, the only clothing Roy is ever seen wearing is diapers (when he's a baby) and a bow tie (at his best friend's wedding).
- He tries to wear a tie in S1E1 New Boy, but fails.
- Anatomy Anomaly: Roy has no nose, four fingers, lacks detail and one hand is smaller than the other. Some of this is due to Stylistic Suck.
- Basement Dweller: An instance when this trope is played for drama. Roy continues to live at home because he can't hold down a job, which causes friction and arguments between him and his parents, running away from the camera, and he eventually checks himself into a rehabilitation center because of his depression.
- Beard of Sorrow
- Behind a Stick: One of the cartoon tricks Roy shows for the camera.
- Better as Friends: Roy and his girlfriend Ruth eventually broke up since they couldn't take the relationship to the next level, but remain friends.
- Catching Some Zs: This occurs when Roy snores.
- Dysfunctional Family: Averted; despite one of her children being a cartoon, his mother made sure to treat everyone equally. Roy's brother also mentions that his childhood was relatively normal.
- Eye Pop
- Foreshadowing
- Heart Symbol: When Roy first sees Ruth, this occurs along with Wingding Eyes. She found it to be very sweet.
- Hurricane of Puns: Several of these come when Roy lists off all his old jobs and how he was let go.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Roy desires to be a properly “cleaned up” cartoon (which would be normal for him).
- Limey Goes to Hollywood: Roy wants to go to Hollywood to try to find work. He's able to because of donations from the community.
- Mockumentary
- Nonhumans Lack Attributes: The main reason Roy and Ruth broke up (they remain friends).
- The Noseless
- Oireland: Averted since the whole production is Irish. If this trope couldn't be averted, we may as well give up.
- Personal Raincloud: Occurs when Roy is depressed while looking through the want ads and when he says goodbye to his family before going to Hollywood. They even pull out umbrellas and the driver turns on his windshield wipers.
- Roger Rabbit Effect
- Slice of Life
- Stylistic Suck: Both intentional and a major plot point. The animation on Roy is rough and sketchy since he never went through the clean-up process which is why Roy can't find any roles.
- Wingding Eyes
- Written Sound Effect