''Evil Con Carne'' is an American

animated television series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

created by

Maxwell Atoms Adam Maxwell Burton, known professionally as Maxwell Atoms, is an American animator, screenwriter, storyboard artist, and voice actor. He is the creator of the Cartoon Network series '' Grim & Evil'' and its subsequent spin-offs, '' The Grim Adve ...

for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

. The series centers on wealthy crime lord Hector Con Carne, who is reduced to his brain and stomach after an assassination attempt and subsequently implanted onto Boskov, a purple Russian bear. Aided by his scientist Major Dr. Ghastly and military leader General Skarr, Hector now oversees criminal organization Evil Con Carne, continuing his quest for world domination. ''Evil Con Carne'' began as a segment on '' Grim & Evil'', from which it was a spin-off, along with sister series ''

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy ''The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy'' is an American Animated series, animated television series created by Maxwell Atoms for Cartoon Network. It follows Billy, a dimwitted, happy-go-lucky boy, and Mandy, a cynical, remorseless girl, who, aft ...

'', on August 24, 2001. Although the segments were produced for ''Grim & Evil'', the series aired as a separate series from July 11, 2003, to October 22, 2004, on Cartoon Network. After the show's end, its characters would frequently make cameo appearances in ''Billy & Mandy'', with General Skarr becoming a recurring character. An official

series finale A series finale is the final installment of an episodic entertainment series, most often a television series. It may also refer to a final theatrical sequel, the last part of a television miniseries, the last installment of a literary series, ...

, titled " Company Halt" (which was also a crossover with ''Billy & Mandy''), aired on March 16, 2007. On December 1, 2023, 19 years after the show's final episode, reruns of ''Evil Con Carne'' began airing on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

on its throwback programming block, Checkered Past. Twenty-two episodes were produced.

Premise

Hector Con Carne (voiced by

Phil LaMarr Phil LaMarr is an American actor and comedian. He was one of the original featured cast members on the sketch comedy television series '' Mad TV'', where he stayed for five seasons. His voice acting roles in animated series include the Sam B of ' ...

), a wealthy crime lord and evil genius bent on taking over the world and the League of Nations, was caught in an explosion initiated by his nemesis, Cod Commando (Maxwell Atoms), a soldier for the Secret Paramilitary Organized Response Kommand (S.P.O.R.K.). The explosion scattered most of his body across the world. He was rescued by the scientist Major Dr. Ghastly (

Grey DeLisle Grey DeLisle (; born Erin Grey Van Oosbree; August 24, 1973), sometimes credited as Grey Griffin, is an American voice actress and singer-songwriter. DeLisle is known for various roles in animated productions and video games. On September 27, ...

), who placed his living remains into two containment units: one for his brain, and the other for his stomach. These two units were later installed into Boskov (

Frank Welker Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American actor who specializes in voice acting. He began his career in the 1960s, and held around 850 film, television, and video game credits as of 2020, making him one of the most prolific v ...

), a purple Russian circus

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

, giving Con Carne's brain control over (almost) all the bear's actions and movements. Hector, Dr. Ghastly, and his military leader, General Skarr (

Armin Shimerman Armin Shimerman (born November 5, 1949) is an American actor known for his role as Quark (Star Trek), Quark the Ferengi in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, appearing as the character in all seven seasons of ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (1993–199 ...

), then created a secret laboratory on an island with a bunny-shaped mountain known as "Bunny Island" (a parody of

Ernst Stavro Blofeld Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional supervillain in the ''James Bond'' series of novels and films, created by Ian Fleming. A criminal mastermind with aspirations of world domination, he is the archenemy of British MI6 agent James Bond. Blofel ...

's lair in the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

movies). Gathering an army, Con Carne resumed his quest for

world domination World domination (also called global domination, world conquest, global conquest, or cosmocracy) is a hypothetical power structure, either achieved or aspired to, in which a single political authority holds power over all or virtually all the i ...

and made a new goal: to find his missing body parts. The group's schemes typically end in failure, often due to the behavior and conflicts within the trio: Skarr is tired of being directed by Hector and wishes to overthrow him; Ghastly cares more about her unrequited love for her boss than world domination; while Hector is narcissistic, megalomaniacal, and generally abusive towards his henchmen.

Voice cast

Main

as Hector Con Carne *

as Major Dr. Ghastly *

as General Skarr, Hector's Stomach *

as Boskov the Bear

Recurring voices

as Cod Commando *

Maurice LaMarche Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is a Canadian voice actor. Across a career spanning more than four decades he has voiced Chief Quimby on Inspector Gadget, Egon Spengler on ''The Real Ghostbusters'', The Brain on ''Animaniacs'' and its spi ...

as Estroy * Peter Renaday as Abraham Lincoln *

Rino Romano Rino Romano is a Canadian actor. Having first appeared in on-screen roles in the 1990s, he became best known for his voice acting in the following decade; he has served as the voice of Batman and Spider-Man in various media. He has also served ...

as Destructicus Con Carne

Production

A viewer's poll to decide a new Cartoon Network animated series, titled '' Big Pick'', was held on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

from June 16 to August 25, 2000. The three choices for short films to become animated series were ''The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy'', '' Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?'', and ''Longhair and Doubledome''. After the event, the ''Meet the Reaper'' short film won with 57% of the vote. While ''Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?'' became an animated series in 2002, ''Longhair and Doubledome'' appeared at another ''Big Pick'' event, but lost once again. Another original short/pilot titled ''Evil Con Carne'' had been produced in 2000, shortly after the ''Billy & Mandy'' short. The two ideas were ultimately combined into a single show, as Cartoon Network desired a show that had a "middle cartoon" as an in-between segment (a format found in the ''Dial M for Monkey'' and ''The Justice Friends'' shorts in ''

Dexter's Laboratory ''Dexter's Laboratory'' is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network. The series follows Dexter, an enthusiastic boy-genius with a science laboratory in his bedroom, which he keeps secret from his u ...

'', and the '' I Am Weasel'' segments on ''

Cow and Chicken ''Cow and Chicken'' is an American animated comedy television series created by David Feiss for Cartoon Network. It is the third of the network's Cartoon Cartoons. It follows the surreal adventures of two talking animal siblings, Cow and Chic ...

''). The resulting show, '' Grim & Evil'', premiered on August 24, 2001, and was put on hiatus on October 18, 2002. In 2003, 13 more half-hour episodes of ''Grim & Evil'' were made, but aired when Cartoon Network separated the two series, and ''The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy'' and ''Evil Con Carne'' earned their own full-length series later that year. After production wrapped on both series' new seasons, the network gave Maxwell Atoms a decision to choose one show to continue, while the other would be dropped from production. Atoms ultimately went with ''Billy & Mandy'', and the final season of ''Evil Con Carne'' subsequently aired in 2004. He embraced the network's decision to drop one of the two series, as he considered being in charge of producing both shows difficult. After ''Evil Con Carne'' was cancelled, its characters appeared in minor roles in ''The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy'', and General Skarr became a recurring character. According to

Tom Warburton Thomas Edward Warburton (born July 23, 1968), better known as Mr. Warburton, is an American animator, producer, screenwriter, and character designer. He is best known for creating the animated television series '' Codename: Kids Next Door''. He a ...

, characters from ''Evil Con Carne'' were originally set to appear in the television special "The Grim Adventures of the KND". Hector, General Skarr, and Dr. Ghastly briefly appear in the end credits as character costumes for Lazlo, Raj, and Clam in a ''

Camp Lazlo ''Camp Lazlo'' is an American animated television series created by Joe Murray for Cartoon Network. The series follows Lazlo, an anthropomorphic spider monkey who goes to a camp called "Camp Kidney", a Boy Scout–like summer camp in the Pim ...

'' crossover titled "Evil Camp Carne". The series aired alongside ''The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy'' on Checkered Past.

Censorship

During its ''Grim & Evil'' run, "The Smell of Vengeance" was subject to censorship in the wake of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. The episode's plot involves Hector and his army using a weapon that produces foul-smelling odors on

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, sending its citizens into a frenzy. "There are the twin towers, and you see tiny, little people hopping off the roof of the towers into the water", said

Linda Simensky Linda Simensky is an American executive. She served as a creative executive for Nickelodeon Furniss, Maureen. (February 5, 2008)240 ''Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics'' ''Indiana University Press''. Archived at Google Books. Retrieved October 1 ...

, then senior vice president of animation for Cartoon Network. "I mean, two weeks ago, you wouldn't have thought about it. What were the chances of anyone jumping out of the World Trade Center?" In response, Atoms reworked the episode, so it took place in rural

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

instead; despite these changes, the episode was temporarily suspended from broadcast rotation.

Episodes

Note: Most of the episodes did not air in production code order.

Season 1 (2001–04)

Season 1a (2001)

Season 2 (2002)

Season 1c (2003–04)

Season 2 (2004)

Crossover episode (2007)

Home media

Five episodes are included as bonus features in the Season 1 DVD set for ''

''. On August 16, 2018, the entire series was added to the iTunes Store under a single volume.

Notes

References

External links

* (archive) * {{Rough Draft Studios 2000s American animated comedy television series 2000s American black comedy television series 2000s American children's comedy television series 2000s American comic science fiction television series 2000s American horror comedy television series 2001 American animated television series debuts 2004 American television series endings American animated television spinoffs American children's animated comic science fiction television series American children's animated horror television series Alternate history television series Animated television series set in the United States Fiction about brain transplantation Television series by Cartoon Network Studios American English-language television shows Fictional depictions of Abraham Lincoln in television Military science fiction television series Animated television series about bears The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Supervillain television shows Television series created by Maxwell Atoms Television series set in the 2000s Television series set in 2002 Cartoon Cartoons