Samurai Jack is proof that Genndy Tartakovsky is an animation god. While Pixar and Dreamworks are upping the ante on computer animation with more and more realistic drawings and effects, Genndy Tartakovsky works with simple, hand-drawn animations that are more expressive than any computer animation has ever been able to do. And with news coming out a couple months ago about Tartakovsky’s newest series coming to Cartoon Network, I thought we should take a look back at Samauri Jack.

Genndy Tartakovsky was responsible for two wonderful shows before starting on Samurai Jack. His first show was Dexter’s Laboratory, about a young genius and his annoying sister. It was an amazing show that had at it’s heart a simple triangle of Dexter, his sister DeeDee and his nemesis Mandark. The show did a great job of putting the characters into silly situations that would grow and grow until a huge final payoff. They even did one whole show written by a four year old, with his voiceover telling the story.  After Dexter, Tartakovsky moved to The Powerpuff Girls about three sweet little superhero girls. Their father/creator was a scientist as was their arch villain Mojo Jojo, one of the great animated characters of the last decade. Overall the show continued on the fun from Dexter’s Laboratory, but it wasn’t quite as good. Then Tartakovsky decided to move on and Samurai Jack was born.

“Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil! But a foolish Samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Aku!”

That is the voice over at the beginning of every episode and pretty well sums up the back story. Samurai Jack is a swordsman and fighter beyond belief and was about to take out the evil Aku, but Aku flung Jack into the far future and Jack is looking for a way to go back to the past. The future that Jack was thrown into is a dystopian nightmare run by Aku. The technology on display sets it as futuristic from us as well as from Jack. Most of the episodes deal with Jack trying to get back in time and having to fight his way into somewhere, out of somewhere or save someone. Tartakovsky deals with comedy, drama, action and science fiction themes. The open ended plot lends itself to all kinds of stories. We have gangster stories, robot stories and once based on The Battle of Thermopylae.

But, by far, the best part of the show is the animation. The designs are purposefully simple, with a simple color scheme as well. But the simple designs mask that complex animations that can be done by smartly combining the simple designs. And since Tartakovsky lives on a cable network budget instead of a feature film budget, the simpler the designs the less expensive the animations. Tartakovsky makes the most of the animations and it is a joy to watch. Watch Samurai Jack and sit back and enjoy. Let the simple animations and fun storylines take you away to the future.