Evil Con Carne is an American animated television series created by Maxwell Atoms for Cartoon Network.[1] 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 circus 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.
The series first appeared on Cartoon Network during the show Grim & Evil, along with sister series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. Thirteen more half-hour episodes of Grim & Evil were produced in 2003 and 2004; the two series became separate programs later that year. Though The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy aired for six seasons, Evil Con Carne aired only 13 full episodes (22 airings) until October 22, 2004.[2] 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, 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 on its throwback programming block, Checkered Past.
Premise
Once upon a time, there was a jillionaire playboy who was blown up in a tremendous explosion. His brain survived... (Stomach, too!) ...and was attached to the body of a stupid circus bear. I am that brain. My name is Hector Con Carne, and I will one day rule the world! (He laughs maniacally.)
— Hector Con Carne's brain (and stomach), in the opening title sequence
Hector Con Carne (Phil LaMarr), 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), 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), a purple Russian circus bear, 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), then created a secret laboratory on an island with a bunny-shaped mountain known as "Bunny Island" (a parody of Ernst Stavro Blofeld's lair in the James Bond movies). Gathering an army, Con Carne resumed his quest for world domination 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.
A viewer's poll to decide a new Cartoon Network animated series, titled Big Pick, was held on the Internet from June 16 to August 25, 2000.[3] 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.[4] 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, and the I Am Weasel segment on Cow and Chicken).[5]
The resulting show, Grim & Evil, premiered on August 24, 2001, and was put on hiatus on October 18, 2002.[6] 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 and 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.[5]
After Evil Con Carne was cancelled, its characters appeared in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. The first cameo was in the episode "Chicken Ball Z" which ended with Mandy purchasing Hector's Bunny Island. General Skarr moved to Billy's neighborhood in the episode "Skarred for Life" after Bunny Island was bought out by an "entertainment corporation that didn't want competition in world domination". Since then, General Skarr went on to become a recurring character in Billy & Mandy. In the episode "Company Halt", Con Carne and Ghastly appear in Endsville, in order to recruit Skarr and revive Evil Con Carne (the organization, not the show) in another attempt to take over the world; naturally, like most of their other schemes and misadventures, it ends in failure when Skarr turns against Hector once he tries to destroy his garden in an attempt to kill Billy, and crushes him with a giant catapult (which they were to use to destroy the neighborhood), causing Ghastly and the rest of the army run away. According to Tom Warburton, characters from Evil Con Carne were originally set to appear in the television special "The Grim Adventures of the KND".[7] Hector, General Skarr, and Dr. Ghastly (strangely, they're "costumed" by Lazlo, Raj, and Clam) did briefly appear in the crossover's end credits in a crossover with Camp Lazlo titled "Evil Camp Carne".
On July 29, 2016, the series aired re-runs for a single day on Cartoon Network's sister channel, Boomerang, in the United States, despite the schedule for Boomerang saying that The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy was airing in its timeslot.[8]
Both this seried and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy air as separate shows on Checkered Past.
Censorship
When the show was running as a segment on Grim & Evil, the two part episode "The Smell of Vengeance" was subject to censorship in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The episode centered on Hector and his army using an oversized stink gun on New York City, unleashing a stench that sends its citizens into a frenzy. A particular scene featured people jumping off of the World Trade Center prompted the decision. "There are the twin towers, and you see tiny, little people hopping off the roof of the towers into the water", said Linda Simensky, 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 instead; despite these changes, the episode was still suspended from broadcast rotation.[9]
Episodes
Note: Most of the episodes did not air in production code order.
Hector requires the aid of a legendary living stone idol to rule the world. However, the idol is immature and only agrees to help Hector if he can date Major Doctor Ghastly.
20a
2a
"The Mother of All Evils"
Juli Hashiguchi & Robert F. Hughes
Maxwell Atoms & Alex Almaguer
Alex Almaguer
October 8, 2004 (2004-10-08)
11a
Hector is nervous because his blind mother visits him and does not know that he is only a brain and a stomach.
20b
2b
"The HCCBDD"
Shaun Cashman & Phil Cummings
Maxwell Atoms & Brett Varon
Brett Varon
October 8, 2004 (2004-10-08)
11b
Hector is depressed that he has not been able to take over the world yet, and feels he is missing something. Then Major Doctor Ghastly creates the HCCBDD, which she intends to show Hector the following day. Even though he does not know what it is, Estroy tries to steal the HCCBDD, only to figure out it is Hector's surprise birthday party.
Evil Con Carne plans to steal gold from a ship, but ends up getting stuck in traffic for hours.
21b
3b
"Fool's Paradise"
Phil Cummings & Juli Hashiguchi
C. H. Greenblatt
Mary Hanley & Maxwell Atoms
October 15, 2004 (2004-10-15)
12b
Evil Con Carne goes on vacation, where Hector has a good time, Major Doctor Ghastly is bothered by Estroy, and General Skarr has a bad time.
22a
4a
"Jealousy, Jealous Do"
Robert F. Hughes & Juli Hashiguchi
C. H. Greenblatt & Maxwell Atoms
Mike Bell & Maxwell Atoms
October 22, 2004 (2004-10-22)
13a
Hector gets a new secretary who turns out to be a Swedish spy that Major Doctor Ghastly is jealous of. The secretary flirts with Boskov, not knowing that only Hector knows the plans she is trying to obtain.
Hector wants to rule Britain, so he goes to Great Britain to find Excalibur, but the Lady of the Lake may not give it to him even after he does things to prove himself worthy.
Crossover episode (2007)
No. overall
No. in season
Title
Directed by
Story by
Storyboard by
Original air date
Prod. code
78a
5a
"Company Halt"
Kris Sherwood
Maxwell Atoms & Alex Almaguer
Alex Almaguer
March 30, 2007 (2007-03-30)
6-05
As General Skarr is once again annoyed by Billy, Hector Con Carne and Major Dr. Ghastly arrive in his house with the intention of luring him back to the recently relaunched Evil Con Carne world domination organization. Although initially refusing to rejoin, Skarr later accepts with the condition that Billy and the other neighbors be destroyed. After weeks of living together and preparations, Evil Con Carne's ultimate weapon is revealed to be an army of tanks that shoot giant rubber bands. In the end, their all-out attack over the neighborhood is foiled when Billy tricks Hector into shooting Skarr's garden and they get into a fight, causing Hector to get crushed by the one of the tanks.
Five episodes are included as bonus features in the Season 1 DVD set for The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. On August 16, 2018, the entire series was added to the iTunes Store under a single volume.
^Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 52. ISBN9781476672939.
^Macmillan, Alissa (February 22, 2001). "'Toon Net Sets 2 New Series". NY Daily News. Archived from the original on May 9, 2012. Retrieved May 15, 2011.
