# The Maxx (1995)

> A purple-clad hero who lives in a cardboard box slips between a grim urban world and a primitive outback where he protects his only friend.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/50236

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 13
- Episode runtime: 12 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, science fiction, action, drama
- Created by: Sam Kieth, William Messner-Loebs
- Network: MTV
- Cast: Michael Haley, Glynnis Talken Campbell, Barry Stigler, Amy Danles, Tony Fucile
- TMDB rating: 8.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112065/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: surreal, eerie, disturbed, melancholic, hallucinatory

## What critics say

Acclaimed by audiences as a dark, surreal adult animated superhero series with a haunting psychological core.

## Synopsis

The Maxx (1995) is a American adult animated superhero series created by Sam Kieth and William Messner-Loebs for MTV. Its protagonist, a purple-clad hero who lives in a cardboard box, is voiced by Michael Haley, and he drifts between the grim real world and a primitive outback where he rules and guards his only friend, freelance social worker Julie Winters, voiced by Glynnis Talken Campbell. Barry Stigler voices Mr. Gone, a self-proclaimed student of the mystic arts who seems to know far more about their strange bond than he admits. The engine of the show is the uneasy traffic between these two worlds, with each thirteen-episode run of twelve-minute installments unsettling the line between hallucination and reality. Shaped as a single short season, it is a surreal, hallucinatory and emotionally raw piece of adult animation built on trauma, psychology and dreamlike imagery. Its tone is eerie, disturbed and melancholic, closer to an art-comic than a conventional cartoon. Fans of Twin Peaks and Aeon Flux will find resonance in its fractured identity and unsettling mystery.

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