Popetown

2005
Popetown

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1

EP1 The Double Jun 08, 2005

A group of disabled children are coming to meet the Pope and perform, but the Pope has gone missing (playing hide-and-seek too well). Father Nicholas, in desperation to keep the days activities running seeks out a Pope impersonator. This impersonator is an exact image of the Pope, but unlike the real Pope, who is a young child with a girlie voice, the impersonator is a Jewish man with a Brooklyn/Jew accent. To pull off the scheme, he must be seen but not heard.

EP2 State Visit Jun 15, 2005

The Cardinals are hoping to secure a 'sponsorship deal' with the pending visit of a head of state and his darling wife. Problem is, this head of state is a gun toting dictator, and his only interests are seeing that his wife is pleased, and killing people who displease his wife. Father Nicholas has been given the task of tidying up the Pope prior to their arrival. Pope however has been attempting a record-breaking stint of going unwashed for 3 months!

EP3 The Big Fight Jun 22, 2005

It's the Pope's birthday, and Pope has the unusual tradition of performing a dangerous stunt as part of the birthday celebrations, and this year Pope wants to fly (without wings or other aerial support). Ivan the Invincible, the 'meanest badass wrestler the world has ever seen' has arrived to see the Pope, who is a huge fan, and Pope wants Ivan to help him fly by throwing him into the air. Meanwhile, Father Nicholas has been desperately trying to find a present for the Pope, and in his haste he bursts into the room where Pope and Ivan are, but as Nicholas bursts through the door the door knocks out Ivan. Sister Penelope (the newsreading nun with curves that an hourglass would envy) sends up the event as if Father Nicholas had beaten Ivan in a bout, and Nicholas gets caught up in the hype, and set up for a rematch!

EP4 Trapped Jun 29, 2005

Spencer the monkey has disappeared from the Popetown Zoo, and the buildings of Popetown are falling apart. Sister Penelope, always after a popular story, has tricked Father Nicholas into joining her in the catacombs for an interview, and Father Nicholas passes the responsibility of puting the young Pope to bed over to Sister Marie. Pope fools Sister Marie into believing that the energy drink Purple Papal Bull is a bed-time drink, and he guzzles down the whole can - only to end up fizzing, belching and 'jet' propelling himself all over the place... and then the energy part kicks in, sending Pope into an even greater frenzy. Pope ends up burning off the energy in the catacombs, but sets off a ceiling collapse that traps Pope, Father Nicholas, Sister Penelope and Sister Marie, and it's up to the Cardinals to form a rescue team.

EP5 Possessed Jul 06, 2005

Father Nicholas disrupts a hive of bees, and the resultant swarm seeks refuge by flying into the gaping mouth of the Pope while he's asleep. The bees become trapped in Pope's stomach, and their combined efforts to fly out result in the Pope becoming levitated! Father Nicholas assumes the levitation indicates the Pope has become posessed, and seeks an exorcism. But the exorcist has been through one too many exorcisms already, and is only interested in hiding from the devils. Meanwhile, the Cardinals have discovered a creme that miraculously reduces the effects of aging, injury and deformity (but only temporarily). They set about making a fortune 'rejuvenating' the masses.

EP6 The Beautiful Game Jul 13, 2005

The Cardinals want to capture the immense publicity of having the Pope as striker for an International Class Football (soccer) team. Father Nicholas is given the task of assembling a team from Popetowns somewhat rag-tag residents. .. as impossible as that may seem.

EP7 A Family Affair Jul 22, 2005

Father Nicholas is having his mother come to visit.

She suffers from angina, and Father Nicholas is very protective of her. She however is more interested in a burly Popetown guard, or more exactly, passionate activities with a burly guard that will either raise her heart-rate, or bring her heart to a complete stop.

Owing to a crisis with the accounts, Popetown is having to cut back on spending, so the Pope's expensive rugs are replaced with cheap carpets... with the unexpected result that Pope develops a dangerous electric charge when he rides his bike across the rugs.

Pope loves these new 'superpowers', but everyone else finds the effects 'shocking'.

EP8 Career Opportunity Jul 27, 2005

Father Nicholas is having a bit of an identity crisis, and starts chasing a change of position in Popetown, but Popetown is not an easy place to move ahead. Father Nicholas must pass a barrage of tests.

EP9 Day Trip Aug 03, 2005

It's Charity Day in Popetown, a day when the Cardinals drain visitors of their spare cash, and a day when The Pope is expected to ride in the armourglassed PopeWagon and address the gathered crowds.

But problems have arisen. Firstly The Pope simply doesn't want to cooperate, and is delivering a tantrum instead, secondly the PopeWagon has had yellow paint spilt all over it, and it needs to be dazzling white instead.

In order to get the car repainted, Father Nicholas and Sister Marie must get it to a garage. This means driving out of Popetown into unfamiliar parts of the city... parts of the city which seem to be nothing more than an endless 'vice' district... hardly the place for two saintly residents of Popetown to be seen.

EP10 Derby Day Aug 10, 2005

It's Derby Day at Popetown, the day when all the major religions come together for a day at the horse races, with $100 million at stake for the winners.

Naturally the Cardinals want all of that prize for themselves, and they've arranged for a genetically modified and drugged up horse to win for them.

And as always, keeping everything running to plan has fallen to Father Nicholas, but unknown to everyone else, a traumatic experience at age 3 has left him deathly afraid of horses, and without his control, the day risks being a shambles.

5.1| 0h30m| en| More Info
Released: 08 June 2005 Ended
Producted By: BBC
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.popetown.com/
Synopsis

Popetown is a controversial animated sitcom, billed by its producers as "Father Ted meets South Park", following the doodles and scribblings of a student at school during a lesson. His drawings depict the life of Father Nicholas, who lives in a Vatican City parody referred to as "Popetown". He is charged with being the handler for the Pope who is a complete nincompoop with the emotional and mental maturity of a four-year-old. Father Nicholas must keep the Pope out of trouble, and make sure the general public does not find out that the Holy Father is a drooling idiot. Other characters include a priest who is a sexual deviant, and a trio of corrupt cardinals who secretly run Popetown and attempt to get rich behind the Pope's back. These and other elements caused the show to be extremely controversial.

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Reviews

redhenry Forget the offence taken by soft-lad Catholics, what about the offence to people who like comedy and animation. Not funny, not clever, not witty and not interesting. The character of The Pope is SOOOOO annoying that just thinking about Ruby Wax's voicing of it wants to make me slap her - hard. The other characters are bordering on boring and none are remotely unique or eliciting laughs. Do yourself a favour and spend the time watching other things.I am not sure how they got the go ahead for this. Even on paper it must have come across as rubbish, although the lure of some of UK's better comics must have helped it over the line. It's not in the league of your better known animated series, and in fact is not even close.
DWaterson Considering the furore that surrounded BBC3's decision not to broadcast this flagship animated series, after protests from Catholic groups, two main issues arise:1) Is it offensive? 2) Is it entertaining?In response to the first, I suppose that depends on whether you regard religion as a suitable target for satire. In the case of Popetown, the satire is marginally less scathing than "Father Ted" (1995). Bob Mortimer plays Father Nicholas, the long-suffering back office clerk whose main duty involves satisfying the whim of the infantile, childish Pope, played by Ruby Wax. To help him out, he can depend on the dotty Irish nun Sister Marie (a sort of Mrs Doyle type housekeeper), and to hinder his best efforts he has the evil machinations of the three money obsessed Cardinals. Minor characters, such as the svelte, vixen-like TV presenter Sister Penelope, and the creepy, animal-mad Father Bosch, provide additional plot twists and side jokes.It is quite evident from the series that Popetown is not based on the real Vatican, but is a parody of it; characters and places do not match up directly with real life, and, in the one episode where Father Nicholas leaves the familiar walls of 'Popetown', he appears to be in a crime and drug ridden New York, not Rome. Furthermore, the Pope is clearly not John Paul 2.0, or Benedict XVI for that matter - he has the maturity of a 7 year old, likes bouncing on his pogo-stick, and prefers horror movies to sermons. This is not real!If I had to pick one genuinely offensive characteristic, it is the stereotyping of all the Popetown tourists as Japanese camera-flashing stick characters, speaking a faux 'oriental' language. This I found a little uncomfortable.So, we come to the second question: Is Popetown actually any good? Well... it's not bad. As an animated comedy, it's nowhere near the comedy calibre of The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, or any of the benchmarks. As a religious satirical comedy, it doesn't hit the level of Father Ted. The jokes are amusing, but not laugh-out-loud. Animation quality is fine, with some scenes being in 3D; but occasionally, roughness shows. Voice-over quality is excellent, as you'd expect from the all-star cast, though Ruby Wax's Pope voice is intentionally irritating. Overall, therefore, Popetown is definitely worth seeing, but be prepared to be mildly disappointed; and, considering this is a DVD-only release in the UK, it might be worth waiting for someone else to shell out their money and borrowing theirs.
hyperliquid I like that show a lot. OK it's a little bit childish and did not make all of the possible topic, but I think it's OK. The pope is a small evil brat and not a power hungry Machiavelli or a senile old man. There is a weird monk dearly wanting an animal maybe as companion and pet maybe in a sexual manor. We will never know. He has no luck getting one. The main character father Nicolas have eyes for sister Penelope, but she is a self centered media monster being moderator for channel Vatican. No there is nothing going on between those two, except one or two shy looks from father Nicolas.That's not what I have expected, having all those sexual scandals around the catholic church in mind. I'am speaking here of hundreds of abused ministrants or the open secret about the "housekeeper" and their pater in nearly every catholic village. Did you know, the catholic church pays for child support for up to three kids for each of their parters? Well, non of these topics made it into the show. I guess the BBC never signed for the ten episodes when those topics were included. The weirdest thing are the massive protests of catholics in Great Britain, so BBC3 never aired the show. That show is not so evil and cynical, as I hoped it would be, when I heard about the protests. I cannot understand all the British protesters. The show was finally aired in new Zealand and the terrible number of two people complained about this show.The drawings are better than in south-park but they could be better. For a comedy it's enough but a better quality would be much cooler. The background scene is rendered in 3D and looks as it was done one an at least fifteen year old computer. Remember, 1993 was Jurassic Park and that show was made ten years later. But this show is not so much about special effects or perfect drawings ala Disney. It's a comedy and for that, the visual representation is enough. Shure it could be better and in my opinion it would gain. On the other hand it's not so bad as south-park for example. Conclusion: Nice show! (7/10) But they could have done more of it. Technically sufficient. Maybe restricted by a small budget, so not able to make it much better. Thematically more harmless. Some topics are left out. But were they in, I don't think they would have got a penny from aunt BBC. You can buy it now on DVD and maybe they will produce some more episodes without the fear of censorship, when those DVD sell well.
eddy before we start off i luv animation. Simpson's to the tick, I'm not to by est but this show really disappointed me. it actually was a gr8 idea a cartoon about the pope, the word pope is funny by itself. but after i saw the first three episodes i was gravely mistaken. this was a painful show to watch. the creators kept trying to be funny so hard yet trying not to offend anyone at the same time. it is so smooth my Irish grandmother who thinks noughts and crosses is sacrilegious wouldn't find the show offensive. i have to compare this show to south park, which tho offensive often raise important issue while being edgy or funny. popetown offers none of this. and apart from story character designs are horrible, and ruby wax may have a face for voice over but she doesn't have the talent. spend this half an hour at a fun areal u'll laugh a lot harder