GEORGIA: THE SIMPSONS COME TO TBILISI AS THE SAMSONADZES

[GeneralIvan]

Georgian animators are hoping a local television makeover of The Simpsons will mimic the American animated series' two decades of success. But the show, The Samsonadzes, walks a thin line between originality and flat-out imitation of the world's best-known cartoon family.

Shalva Ramishvili, the show's producer and creator, says that his idea was to create a program that is reminiscent of The Simpsons without being an actual copy. "I like The Simpsons, too. It is a cult cartoon for the USA. We needed to do something great, something that is different than everything else," said Ramishvili, who produced a political satire cartoon TV series under ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze. "In the [Georgian television] market, there is nothing like this series. There are no cartoon series and we decided to do it."

Launched six weeks ago on Imedi TV, The Samsonadzes feature the bulging eyes, mustard-toned skin, four-fingered hands and character movements reminiscent of their American counterparts. The series' opening shot -- a camera zooming down through the clouds into a candy-colored anonymous town -- is more than a little reminiscent of the presentation of The Simpsons hometown of Springfield.

But story differences exist. The Samsonadzes are a nuclear family in the Georgian sense: the father (Gela), mother (Dodo), daughter (Shorena) and son (Gia) live with Gela's parents, a frequent occurrence in family-centric Georgia. While Gela shares Homer Simpson's limited intelligence -- the first episode featured his finding a job as a bank's copy machine attendant -- Dodo is a sexier, more aggressive take on quiet Marge Simpson.

Georgia's Caucasus mountain range and the family's crazed parrot Koke -- not Bart Simpson on a skateboard -- take center stage in The Samsonadzes opening frames. Ramishvili said that the openings resemblance to The Simpsons is deliberate. "The first reaction is the most important. That is why," he said of The Samsonadzes introduction.


http://www.myvideo.ge/?video_id=667552

[Wasim]

those wacky georgians

[psi43]

AAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHA

When I read it i thought it'd look better
but THIS? Aahahaahhahahaha, looks like a bunch of 14 year olds teamed up and made that in blender or something.

edit: ok i watched the whole episode and didn't understand a word of it but it was fucking hilarious.

[shura]

lmao that video is the absolute worst thing i've ever seen

[Fuzz]

Why is it so hard to pronounce their names?!

I want to download the entire series...

[psi43]

Why is it so hard to pronounce their names?!

I want to download the entire series...

Yeah, Gela, Dodo, Shorena and Gia

pretty hard to pronounce

[dilly]

[DrRumack]

good god what a horrible thing

[lenko]

is that tom green

[creamcorn]

dude wow 3 fuckin' D

[rtil]

the camework in this is the mark of a true idiot who knows nothing about animation and film

[MarcK]

I watched the whole episode. The animation and graphic technical parts were so awful that I tried to not think of it but the terribleness just kept popping up.
There were some cute moments. Lisa's an adult, bart's bald, there's no santa's little helper or Maggie, but a parrot who strips. That i found fairly awesome. Other than that I'm just going to try and forget this.

heheheh

[The Good Ole Ant]

i could only last 12 seconds

[Casey Pixmintro]

Those people should die.

[Mew_User]

It was scary.

[emanhattan]

so god damn ugly

[The Good Ole Ant]

alright, from now on post how long you watched it before you clicked out

[Casey Pixmintro]

I probably watched 2 and a half minutes total. I watched the credits then a small chunk of the beginning, got really disgusted then kept flipping through scenes until I Xed out.

[Fuzz]

Why is it so hard to pronounce their names?!

I want to download the entire series...

Yeah, Gela, Dodo, Shorena and Gia

pretty hard to pronounce

I was actually talking about names like Shalva Ramishvili

[Dailyman]

It was worth the wait! 5 stars

240 seconds