Rick and Morty is an American animated science fiction comedy franchise, whose eponymous duo consists of Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith; they were created by cartoonist Justin Roiland for a 2006 parody film of Back to the Future for Channel 101, a short film festival co-founded by Dan Harmon. After six years, the sketch was developed into Rick and Morty, a half-hour prime time series that was a hit for Adult Swim, receiving universal acclaim across all seasons. Alongside the original television series, its characters have been featured in a variety of media, including spin-offs, comic books, musical releases and video games. The show has earned hundreds of millions of dollars in income across their merchandising and media franchise.
The series centers on the misadventures of cynical mad scientist Rick Sanchez and his good-hearted but fretful grandson Morty Smith, who split their time between domestic life and interdimensional adventures, with the characters traveling to other planets and dimensions through portals and Rick's flying car. Different versions of the characters inhabit other dimensions throughout the show's multiverse and their personal characteristics can vary from one reality to another. The Rick and Morty franchise has received widespread critical acclaim, winning two Annie and Emmy Awards.
Background Creation Justin Roiland conceived of the idea for Rick and Morty as an evolution of his 2006 short film parody series The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti, inspired by Back to the Future and Scud: The Disposable Assassin, the latter series of which future Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon had written for.
Themes Dan Harmon has described Rick and Morty as "a never-ending fart joke wrapped around a studied look into nihilism". The formula of the series consists of juxtapositioning two conflicting scenarios: an extremely selfish, alcoholic grandfather dragging his grandson along for interdimensional adventures, intercut with domestic family drama, while addressing the insignificance of human existence as compared to the size of the universe, with no recognizable divine presence, as described by H. P. Lovecraft's philosophy of cosmicism. Lovecraftian influence exists throughout the series, both visually and thematically. Not only does the series periodically depict images of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu, but the series’ foundation rests upon a Lovecraftian style of weird fiction, and an uncanny interpretation of Earth where once familiar parts of everyday life become questionable or uncertain. Like Lovecraft’s works, the series avoids any true connection to the sublime regardless of its otherworldly environments through frequent high stakes cosmic horror with no immediate return to the familiar world. However, unlike Lovecraft, a solution of completing a particular task can result in a return to the familiar in order to resolve an episode, or arc, allowing for a continuing narrative.
The characters of the series deal with existential dread and cosmic horror, either by asserting the utility of science over magic or by choosing a life in ignorant bliss. However, as Joachim Heijndermans of Geeks notes, none of the characters appear able to handle the absurd and chaotic nature of the universe, as Jerry gets by through denial while Rick is a "depressed, substance-addicted, suicidal mess".
Harmon describes the titular Rick Sanchez as a self-interested anarchist, who doesn't like being told what to do. He believes that the character's life on a larger scale has caused him mental illness, and opines that "the knowledge that nothing matters—while accurate—gets you nowhere". Matthew Bulger of The Humanist noted that the creators of the series were trying to communicate the message that we need to focus on human relationships and not preoccupy our minds with unanswerable questions, in order to find a sense of purpose and live a better life. Eric Armstrong of The New Republic notes that Morty represents the audience, as he is "mostly there to react to Rick's deranged schemes". The character is transformed by the truths he discovers during his interdimensional adventures with his grandfather. However, instead of sinking into depression, Morty accepts these truths that empower him to value his own life.
Occasionally, characters will acknowledge an episode's narrative or hint at the presence of a fourth wall, suggesting that they are aware of the fact that they are characters of a television series. Thereunder, Troy Patterson of The New Yorker notes that Rick and Morty "supplies an artful answer to the question of what follows postmodernism: a decadent regurgitation of all its tropes, all at once, leavened by some humanistic wistfulness." Sean Sebastian of Junkee says that the show can be both hilarious and deeply disturbing at the same time as it excels at the "intersection between big ideas, flippancy and wit."
Main characters
The main characters of the show are the members of the Smith household, which consists of parents Jerry and Beth, their children Summer and Morty, and Beth's father, Rick Sanchez, who lives with them as a guest. According to Justin Roiland, the family lives outside of Seattle, Washington. Richard "Rick" Sanchez, voiced by Justin Roiland,(season 1-season 6), Ian Cardoni (season 7-present) is a sociopathic, nihilistic, narcissistic, self-centered, alcoholic mad scientist who is the father of Beth Smith and the maternal grandfather of Morty and Summer. One of Rick's interdimensional counterparts, Rick Prime, serves as a major antagonist. Roiland considers his voice for Rick to be a "horrible Doc Brown manic impression". Mortimer "Morty" Smith Sr., voiced by Justin Roiland, (season 1-season 6), Harry Belden (season 7-present) is Rick's neurotic 14-year-old grandson, son of Jerry and Beth Smith and younger brother of Summer Smith, who is frequently dragged into Rick's misadventures. One of Morty's interdimensional counterparts, Evil Morty, serves as the main antagonist of the series. Roiland considers his initial voice for Morty to be a "horrible Marty McFly impression". Gerald "Jerry" Smith, voiced by Chris Parnell, is Summer's and Morty's insecure 34-year-old father, Beth's husband, and Rick's son-in-law, who strongly disapproves of Rick's influence over his family. Summer Smith, voiced by Spencer Grammer, is Morty's 17-year-old (18 after season 5) older sister, a more conventional and often superficial teenager, who is obsessed with improving her status among her peers. Summer is generally similar to her mother, as she is often shown to be very smart and humorous, but she has also shown elements of Jerry's approval-seeking. Bethany "Beth" Smith (née Sanchez), voiced by Sarah Chalke, is Rick's daughter, Summer and Morty's mother, and Jerry's wife. She is the most assertive force in her household, while also displaying traits of selfishness, humor, and intelligence. Beth is unperturbed by her father's destructive and dangerous tendencies around her son. She, from childhood, views Rick more favorably than her mother due to the parental separation. Harmon expanded upon this origin in an interview: "Kids can sometimes idolize their worst parent and blame their supportive parent for chasing off the dad with the guts to leave. ... She believes that Rick, as crazy as he is, is the better of her two parents even though she was raised by her mother and she blames her mother's unremarkability on her father's departure and will do anything to keep her father back in her life." In "The ABC's of Beth", it is revealed that Beth shares the same sociopathic tendencies as her father. Rick offers to make Beth a clone of herself to tend to her family while she can explore the multiverse. In "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri", it is revealed that Rick did indeed make a clone of Beth, as there is another Space Beth fighting a new and improved version of the Galactic Federation, having usurped Rick as the "Most Wanted" in the galaxy. However, Rick erased his memory so that he does not remember which Beth is the original and which is the clone, which results in both Beths not caring about the truth or about Rick. Chalke praised the "really interesting dynamic" between the characters, expressing interest in future seasons of the series depicting "all of the things she used to do [as a child], like force Rick to make her mind control hair clips so people would like her. Just seeing her behave so much like Rick at such a young age would be really fun."
Television series
Doc and Mharti shorts on Channel 101 (2006) Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon first met at the latter's Los Angeles-based non-profit monthly short film festival Channel 101, at which participants submit a short film in the format of a pilot, and a live audience decides which pilots continue as series. Roiland, then a producer on reality programming, began submitting shock value—"sick and twisted" pilots to the festival a year after its launch, in 2004, eliciting confused reactions from the audience to which Harmon took a liking, leading to the two beginning an ongoing collaboration. In 2006, following the cancellation of Roiland's House of Cosbys, a series he regarded as "intensely creatively stifling," Roiland funneled his creative energies into creating a web series for Channel 101. The result was The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti, an animated short starring parodies of Doc Brown and Marty McFly, characters from the Back to the Future film trilogy, while promoting Harmon's run on Scud: The Disposable Assassin. Harmon would later dub the shorts "a bastardization, a pornographic vandalization" of what Rick and Morty would ultimately represent, despite their positive critical reception.
Roiland, who voiced the title characters in Doc and Mharti, would later reprise his roles in Rick and Morty.
Rick and Morty (2013–present)
In 2012, Harmon was briefly fired from his NBC sitcom Community. The Adult Swim network, searching for a more prime-time, "hit" show, approached Harmon shortly afterward, who initially viewed the channel as unfit for his style, citing his unfamiliarity with animation and his process for creating television focusing more heavily on dialogue, characters, and story than popular animated series of the time. Instead, Harmon phoned Roiland to inquire if he had any ideas for an animated series, to which Roiland proposed a series focused on the Doc and Mharti characters, ultimately renamed Rick and Morty. Roiland initially wanted the show's run time to consist of one eleven-minute segment, but Adult Swim pushed for a half-hour program. Harmon felt the best way to extend the voices into a program would be to build a family around the characters, to which decision Adult Swim development executive Nick Weidenfeld suggested that Rick be made to be Morty's grandfather. Having pitched multiple television programs that did not get off the ground, Roiland was initially very unreceptive to others attempting to give notes on his pitch. Prior to developing Rick and Morty, he had created three failed animated pilots for Fox, and he had begun to feel "burned out" with developing television.