''Grass Roots'' is a proposed British-American

adult An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

film based on the ''

Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers ''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' is an underground comic about a fictional trio of stoner characters, created by the American artist Gilbert Shelton. The Freak Brothers first appeared in ''The Rag'', an underground newspaper published in ...

'' underground

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

created by

Gilbert Shelton Gilbert Shelton (born May 31, 1940) is an American cartoonist and a key member of the underground comix movement. He is the creator of the iconic underground characters '' The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'', '' Fat Freddy's Cat'', and '' Wonder ...

Plot

The government develops genetically modified

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

as part of the War on Drugs, and Norbert the Nark accidentally gives the prototype to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. With the government on their trail, Phineas T. Phreakears, Freewheelin' Franklin Freek, and Fat Freddy Freekowtski are forced to leave town, acquiring a remote plot of land in order to fulfill their dream of retiring to grow marijuana in the country. Three women join the Freak Brothers' commune, but because gender politics have changed since the 1970s, they do not see eye to eye with the Brothers'

free love Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the State (polity), state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues we ...

philosophy.

History

Prior to ''Grass Roots'', there had been several attempts to film the stories. There was even an unauthorized

pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films, are films that represent Human sexual activity, sexually WIKT:explicit, explicit subject matter in order to sexual arousal, arouse, fasci ...

titled '' Up in Flames'', which "ripped off the Freak Brothers, Mr. Natural all in one go." In 1979,

Rip Off Press Rip Off Press Inc. is a comic book mail order retailer and distributor, better known as the former publisher of adult-themed series like '' The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' and '' Rip Off Comix'', as well as many other seminal publications from ...

received $250,000 from

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

for a five-year option on a live-action film based on the characters. Although a script was written, the film was never done. It was rumored that Universal bought the rights in order to prevent competition against the

Cheech & Chong Cheech & Chong are a comedy duo founded in Vancouver and consisting of American Cheech Marin and Canadian Tommy Chong. The duo found commercial and cultural success in the 1970s and 1980s with their stand-up routines, studio recordings, and fea ...

franchise. Over the next 25 years there were several more options taken on film rights, but none of them went to production. In 2006, Celluloid Dreams, in association with bolexbrothers and X Filme, began production on an

animated film Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

based on the Freak Brothers comics. ''Grass Roots'' was going to be directed by Dave Borthwick, whose previous credits include ''

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb ''The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb'' is a 1993 British independent stop-motion/pixilation adult animated science-fantasy dystopian adventure horror film directed, written, shot and edited by Dave Borthwick, produced by bolexbrothers stud ...

'' and ''

The Magic Roundabout ''The Magic Roundabout'' is an English-language children's programme that ran on BBC Television from 1965 to 1977. It used the footage of the French stop motion animation show '' Le Manège enchanté'' but with completely different scripts a ...

''. Cinematographer Dave Alex Riddett previously worked as the cinematographer on several

Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited, known simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England, United Kingdom. It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those fe ...

productions, including the ''

Wallace and Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British claymation comedy media franchise, franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving bachelor inventor, and Gromit, his ...

'' shorts and

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

, and ''

Chicken Run ''Chicken Run'' is a 2000 animated adventure comedy film directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park and written by Karey Kirkpatrick from an original story by Lord and Park. Produced by Pathé and Aardman Features in partnership with DreamWork ...

''. Test animation was released through Celluloid Dreams' official website. As of 2012, the film was still in pre-production limbo, with the producers still unable to raise the necessary budget; they are reportedly adapting the story into a

stage musical Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

2021 ''Freak Brothers'' animated series

In 2019, it was announced that a ''Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' animated television series was being developed. It was retitled as ''Freak Brothers''.

Mark Canton Mark Canton is an American film producer and executive. Early life and education Canton was born to a Jewish family in Queens, New York City, the son of Shirley and Arthur Canton, who worked in the film industry on marketing and publicity - incl ...

and

Courtney Solomon Courtney Solomon (born September 1, 1970) is a film producer from Toronto, Ontario. He has been involved with production, marketing, and distribution of over 80 movies. In 2000, at the age of 29, he produced and directed the critically panned ''D ...

serve as executive producers, while Alan Cohen and Alan Freedland are the showrunners. The first season consists of eight 22-minute episodes. The series was released on

Tubi Tubi (stylized as tubi) is an American over-the-top ad-supported streaming television service owned by Fox Corporation since 2020. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In 2023, Tubi, Credible L ...

on November 14, 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grass Roots 2000s stop-motion animated films American animated comedy films American adult animated films British independent films American independent films The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers British films about cannabis Animated films based on American comics 2000s unfinished films Cancelled films Unreleased American films Unfinished animated films 2000s English-language films Films directed by Dave Borthwick 2000s American films 2000s British films

Plot

History

2021 ''Freak Brothers'' animated series

See also

References