Alejo and Valentina

Alejo y Valentina is an adult animated television and web series from Argentina. Originally broadcast over the Internet and then also by the MTV network, it is developed in Macromedia Flash by the Argentine Alejandro Szykula, better known as "El LoCo" , who interprets the voices of the vast majority of the characters from him.

The animated series began on the LoCoArts website, with 10 very short episodes, generally 5 min or less each, and then it reached MTV Latin America, where it had 4 seasons that total 53 episodes of 24 min each. The first chapters of the LoCoArts website were created and animated by Alejandro Szykula but when the series reached MTV Pablo Zimmerma and Adrián Peralta joined, both as co-authors of the series, and specifically Pablo Zimmerman as general producer and Adrián Peralta as director, cartoonist and screenwriter. It also had a production team: two scriptwriters, Paula Llompart and Martin Urquijo; and a team of animators led by Julián Castro, Marcos de Cousandier and Camilo Rodríguez as animation directors. This team was in charge of making the 53 episodes of MTV. In 2010 the series stopped being carried out after the fourth season and for 9 years no new chapters were made. This series is similar to South Park, in an artistic and humorous section.

In 2017 Alejandro Szykula made three new animated shorts of Alejo and Valentina for YouTube in which it is said that Alejo and Valentina were on the Moon all those years and return at the request of the public. In these chapters the son of Alejo and Valentina named Robert is presented. But after these three shorts, that story is not continued and new chapters will not be made until in 2020 the original MTV team (Pablo Zimmerman, Adrián Peralta, Julián Castro, Marcos de Cousandier, Camilo Rodríguez, Paula Llompart, Martin Urquijo and the incorporation of Viviana Marchetti as a scriptwriter) to make two new seasons for a new content platform called Flixxo.

Plot

The series is set primarily in Argentina, in "Papapipa" (a fictional city). Alejo and Valentina are a couple who live in a house far away from the city, completely alone, until one day a new character appears, "the Old Man with the Cane", an old man with a prominent beard and gray hair who lives up to his name. carrying with him a somewhat rustic wooden cane. Surprisingly, a character named Carlitox appears, who enters the house to watch television. As the series develops, new characters such as Gregory, Matías, Ricardo, El Negro, Panchita and La Vieja, among others, are added.

Characters

Away

He is 29 years old, wears a purple jacket and black pants, and is 1.80 m tall. He is Valentina's boyfriend and best friend of Carlitox, El Viejo del Bastón, Gregory and Matías. His skin is white, just like Valentina's. He is characterized by being a person who defends others if it is for his convenience and by being verbally aggressive in absurd reasons and occasions. He is a River Plate fan. He is also characterized by asking strange questions to anyone, such as "Are you God?" In the chapter Alejo and Valentina against The Living Dead , he asks a single zombie, «Are you the living dead?». Another example is "What's your name?" to Carlitox, since Alejo doesn't remember his name. He also tends to spontaneously order a hamburger saying "I want it with mayonnaise, without ketchup and mustard", or whenever he asks for something to eat. When he gets irritated he transforms into a parody of the Hulk. In the episode The Butterfly Effect , in an alternate future, he hates Carlitox, he has never gotten over Valentina choosing him and not him. Alejo had to disguise himself as her and left Valentina, which caused Carlitox to take her to the enchantment dance on a skateboard and later they fell in love with her.

Valentine

He is 29 years old and is 1.65 m tall. She is Alejo's girlfriend, best friend of Carlitox, El Viejo del Bastón, Gregory and Matías. She is characterized as deadpan, simple, and loyal. She has a long, tight-fitting pink dress and black hair. She is based on an ex-girlfriend of the author. She likes sandwiches and is a fan of Boca Juniors. In the chapter & # 34; The Mariposón effect & # 34;, in an alternate future, she is Carlitox's girlfriend. They fell in love at the skateboarding enchantment dance when Carlitox made Alejo dress up as her instead of Gregory, causing him to leave Valentina without a partner for the dance, Carlitox offered to accompany her and later at the dance they fell in love with her.

Carlitox

Best friend of both of them and also of El Viejo del Bastón, Gregory and Matías. He is 19 years old and is 1.60 m tall and has green hair. His typical phrase is "Hello, I come to...". He is a fan of Rosario Central, since the creator of the strip had a neighbor who whenever he came to his house the first thing he said was "hello, I'm here to play" and he was a fan of the Rosario Club (although according to the episode Alejo vs Baracus, the character had said that he was a member of the Almagro club). He knows how to float, has visions and has a UFO, a capsule to travel chapter by chapter, a car that travels through time, an X-Wing, a Ferrari, a collection of ancient swords, a chair that walks alone, a bar detector and a bailer from Colorines, among other strange elements. These are all gadgets that he keeps in his garage that he never uses (resulting in him having to keep his car in the garage of a TV studio, due to lack of space). He sometimes behaves absurdly and other times he is the only reason. In the first chapter, he only says a couple of unimportant lines, but in the following ones he starts to gain prominence. He lives with his mother, according to the episode Alejo and Valentina against the living dead . His father was a soldier who died in the Falklands War and met El Viejo del Bastón. The name and manner of speaking of him come from a childhood friend of the author. He is Valentina's boyfriend in the episode & # 34; The Butterfly Effect & # 34; for a short period of time and in an alternate future. By making Alejo disguise himself as Gregory's replacement, Valentina was left without a partner for the dance of "The Skateboarding Charm", to which Alejo had invited her. Carlitox accompanies her and there they fall in love with her, causing Alejo to hate him since she never got over Valentina choosing Carlitox instead of him.

The Old Man with the Staff

Usually wears a long gray robe, a staff, long hair, and lead. He is the best friend of Alejo, Valentina, Carlitox, Gregory and Matías. The author has confirmed that he is based on his late grandfather and that he hails from Sicily, Italy just like himself. He almost always at the end of each sentence he says the word «viteh». He often plays the role of a sage. One of his qualities is to appear on sites suddenly. He is a fan of Chacarita Juniors (according to La Vieja y la Piedra (part 3) (web), and Kill Rick (TV)). His most recognized phrase is "But vo & # 39; so' crazy, viteh" or "Watch out, the guys come here, viteh." He is always rejected by The Old Woman, since she is dating El Mustache and the same situation always repeats itself: When the Old Man approaches her, she says "No, leave me" and leaves, and the Old Man says "I have her dead, viteh». In Raíces, he tells his story: he was created by God before the earth was created and he said to God “Make light, viteh”, “Make water, viteh”, then “Make the earth, viteh," then "people do, viteh," and when some kind of pink goat appeared, who was apparently Satan, he said, "Get the bug out of me, viteh."

Gregory

Well-meaning, fat, and blond, he claims to work as a cameraman and owns a bar called "Gregory's Bar." He speaks in a deep, girly voice and tends to make light and irrelevant comments. He has incontinence problems, he is heavy and has difficulties with being shy with girls, especially with Panchita. Generally, when he feels shy or afraid, he tends to say "I shit", covering his buttocks with both hands. He was gaining prominence in the second season and becoming one of the main protagonists in the third. He usually takes revenge for Matías' taunts by using the word "boludo" (a phrase typically used by Matías) against him. In the second season he often sings famous songs with his typical feminine tone, stretching his arms up. In the episode Alejo vs. Mario Baracus appears as the double opposite of him, who has the character and appearance of a menacing and masculine man. Also in the second season it was revealed that he has a sister, named Judith, who dates Matías. She is a fan of Boca Juniors.

Matías Walterland

Known for his obscene and out of place language, with offensive phrases that reflect the little interest he has in the problems of others, the most characteristic being "I suck my dick vo' y tu vieja, boludo". Whenever he says something, he says it straight and to the point, even if he is insulting Gregory, who seems to be his best friend and regular victim. Almost always his sentences end with the word "boludo", referring to his interlocutor. Before the series, Matías tried to participate in several films but could not participate in the cast of many due to his obscene language, such as the feature film Inspector Gadget, which he was originally a part of. In the second season it is known that he was dating Judith, Gregory's sister and, apparently, she taught him to speak English. He is a River Plate fan, he wears an orange shirt, blue pants and white shoes. In some episodes, such as in & # 34; Gregory's Bar & # 34;, it is revealed that he is always armed with a light machine gun, with which he stopped a brawl that had started in his friend's bar during that chapter.

The Black Tripod

Represents the marginal population of Argentina. Since he was little, he sold drugs. His voice is that of a small child, he has crooked teeth and although he is not black, his name refers to how Argentines call "blacks"; to the humble people of low social class who live in Villas de Emergencia, or who do not have a home and sleep on the street. He wears a pink shirt, black pants, and a gray cap. He is part of a family of eight siblings, all of them from different parents, so in his appearances he always asks the characters for some kind of alms saying "A little coin for & # 39; (a cause), crazy» or «Don't I have...?». His first appearance was in the episode Back to the Futurex , parodying the mayor from the movie Back to the Future. He has a tucuman accent

Ricardo Gutierrez

He is 22 years old, wears a gray shirt, blue pants and is 1.80 m tall. It is said that he is Ricardo Montaner. He wears a mask to hide his face, his skin is pale yellow, he has red eyes, and he has curlers on his head. He usually acts as the main antagonist of the series (although in some episodes he acts as a minor character) and sometimes people are not faithful to their deals with him, since in the end they screw up. His most famous phrase is "he shit me." He has a mouse that always "screws up" and says "the mouse screwed up on me" and when someone else "screws up" he ends up saying "this one screwed up on me too", followed by a laugh similar to that of Snotlout the dog. It may be that he is immortal, since he has died in The Old Woman and the Stone (Part 2) and was quickly revived. He also dies on Darth Staff, where he was in the Death Star explosion because of the Mouse, because he gave Carlitox the plans to destroy said place and on Floggerfield dies too, but it was just a show they recorded.

Scenarios

• House of Alejo and Valentina: It always appears at the beginning of the episodes when a bird says the introduction or some of his comments.

You can see a house with yellow walls, red roof with letters that say "HOUSE" or "NEW HOUSE" on the right there is a large trunk of what is a tree that is so tall that you cannot see the end Inside the tree lives the little bird. You can also see another tree to the left of the house and in the sky a cloud that behind it is the sun.

• Living: It is the stage that appears most in the series. You can see the sofa that has written "SOFÁ", a pink carpet, the TV that says "TV" a picture on the wall on the left side of the sofa that says "CUADRITO".

Although the living room shown in its entirety includes a computer and a pot with a flower to the right of the sofa and a stereo, a bedside table with a telephone on it, light blue curtains with a window that sometimes changes shape in some episodes.

• Kitchen: It is one of the scenarios that least appears in the series. Appears in Terror Special, Extraordinary Madness, The Exorcist (Terror extended Special), Let's get out. (Extraordinary Width) and You have to have sex..

• Bedroom: It is another of the scenarios that appear least in the series. In the room there is a double bed with two tables of light with lamps.

• Bathroom: This could be the least featured scenario in the series. In it there is a toilet, a mirror with an emergency kit, a swimsuit, a swimming pool, a toilet paper dispenser and a wiper. It has celestial tiles with the size of an old bathroom and the floor with large tiles of light blue.

• Auto: It belongs to Carlitox and appears in some chapters of the first season. In the glass it appears written «AUTO».

• Casa de Carlitox: It is a photo taken to a real house, made a few appearances in the fourth season.

According to the image, it appears that the house is located on the outskirts of the city, between the mountains.

• Carlitox House Diner: It is a large room, with a long table vertically and a television.

In some episodes the table is shorter and horizontal, the television is missing, in the upper left corner there is a computer and in the other corner there is a door that can communicate with the kitchen.

• Casa del Viejo del Bastón: It is located on the city and on top of the door is written "VIEJO".

He has appeared in very few episodes, mostly in the first and second seasons.

Production

Alejo y Valentina was created in 2002 by Alejandro Szykula, on the LoCoArts website, developed in Macromedia Flash. It began being displayed on the internet, and during the following years, until 2005, it gained notorious fame in several Spanish-speaking countries, in different Latin American countries.

The series originally had two seasons online: one with ten episodes and another with six. And over the years it became very popular. In 2004 Pablo Zimmerman joined as producer of the series and commercial representative. In that same year, the host Marcelo Tinelli proposed to include the series in his Videomatch program. Tinelli announced the series on the air by broadcasting a fragment of the web chapter "MC King" but due to problems with the production of the program and non-compliance with the deadlines, the project finally did not materialize.

After the failed experience with VideoMatch, Pablo Zimmerman contacted Adrián Peralta (cartoonist and animation director) to put together a production team for the series and thus avoid future production problems.

In 2005, Alejo and Valentina have a new opportunity, MTV Latin America is interested in the series and commissions the production of 13 new chapters but requires that each chapter have a mandatory duration of 24 minutes.

This time Alejo y Valentina already had a production team made up of:

• Adrian Peralta: Director, Dibujante y Guionista
• Pablo ZimmermanGeneral Producer
• Julián Castro, Marcos de Cousandier and Camilo Rodríguez: animation directors and animators
• Paula Llompart and Martin Urquijo: Screenwriter
• Alan Cabré: Social media

The incorporation of this team, added to the requirement of a longer duration of the episodes on the part of MTV, makes the plot structure and the aesthetics of the series have some changes. The longer duration in the scripts makes the stories have a more classic structure of beginning, middle and end, one or two knots of conflict to be resolved, etc. The extension of the first scripts of existing chapters such as "Matris" and "Back to the Future" as well as writing new chapters from scratch was in charge of Paula Llompart and Adrián Peralta.

In these new scripts the personalities and interactions of the characters were deepened, characters like Gregory and Matías (originally background extras) and El Viejo del bastón and Carlitox begin to have more prominence.

Regarding the animation and graphics, the characters have more movements in addition to the 4 or 5 characteristic ones they had, these new movements also make the characters have, to put it in some way, more interpretive richness, they begin to have more acting resources, although the idea that the characters always have a single gesture on the face is preserved, which makes the animation challenge greater to make them act and show different emotions. These changes in the animation were in charge of Julián Castro, Marcos de Cousandier and Camilo Rodríguez.

With all these changes in the script and animation, the first 13 episodes arrive on the MTV screen.

His first appearances on MTV were at the end of the show "Los 10 + Pedidos" at the end of 2005 and beginning of 2006, being the shorts that were seen on the internet. The first season premieres at the end of that same year within the animated block "Animatosis" resulting in a success in its time slot, surpassing in audience the other animated content on the channel such as South Park and Celebrity Deathmatch.

Due to its success, MTV commissions a second season. In this second season, the same production team is maintained, but Martin Urquijo is incorporated as the team's new scriptwriter

The second season (broadcast on MTV) had a dubbing in Mexico, which was broadcast only for that country with the voices of Miguel Ángel Palomera, Marisol Garza, Liliana Flores and Gabriel Ramos, which was strongly criticized. In the rest of Latin America the original version was used with all the voices performed by Alejandro Szykula.

The series had 4 seasons, always maintaining the audience levels of the strip above other animated content. However, once the fourth season is over, always made by the same team (Adrián Peralta- Direction; Pablo Zimmerman- Production; Julián Castro, Camilo Rodríguez and Marcos de Cousandier- Animation Direction; Paula Llompart and Martin Urquijo- Script) the episodes for television they stopped producing because an agreement was not reached for a 5th season. Szykula confesses that he was not satisfied with most of the episodes made for MTV, although despite that the series gained more followers, since before it was limited only to the public of the Internet.

In September 2012, Szykula announced on the series' official website a new season written and animated by himself, which would be broadcast uncensored on YouTube. During 2014, episodes 18 and 19 (continuation of the web seasons) were released on YouTube with an ending that indicated the beginning of something new (Robert, the son of Alejo and Valentina, was born). At the same time, a special chapter was also released on YouTube, a parody of the Argentine film Pizza, birra, faso. In August 2016, Szykula showed advances on his social networks and confirmed that he had prepared 10 new episodes to be released on the Web as the & # 34; New Era & # 34; from A&V but were never made.

The series is characterized by its simplistic animation style, with the characters facing forwards (some similarity it maintains with South Park); due to its exaggerated idioms of Argentine speech, the arguments and especially the type of humor (absurd cut and often based on parodies of famous films) which contributes to giving the series much of its comedy.

It has had the special appearance of Humberto Vélez (who played the voice of Homer Simpson in the American animated series The Simpsons for Latin America, from season 1 to season 15 and from season 32), in the episode Having lunch with Carlitox. Other special guests included well-known figures from Argentine show business, such as Doctor Socolinsky (in the episode of Locura Extraordinaria and Let's Go Outside); Ignacio Copani (in the episode Having Lunch with Carlitox); Julian Weich (in The Old Woman and the Stone (part 2)); Guillermo Francella (in the special chapter School Project); Dante Spinetta (in What do you jump, crazy?); Teto Medina (in some episodes but in animated form); Gustavo «Cucho» Parisi of Los Auténticos Decadentes (in La Fábrica de Cucho Mate) and the rock band Kapanga (in La Verdad de la Milanga).

Since the end of the fourth season, in 2010, no new episodes were produced until the publication in 2016-2017 of the short episodes 18 and 19 made by Szykula and then no new material was ever produced again until in 2019 Adrian Peralta and Alejandro Szykula meet again and the idea of doing “something” with Alejo and Valentina arises, but with no intention of considering it as a return to the series. However, when commenting on it to Pablo Zimmerman, as if by chance, he decided to produce the series again, this time completely independently and without pressure for the duration of scripts or censorship or modifications imposed by MTV.

Adrián Peralta contacts Julián Castro, Marcos de Cousander and Camilo Rodríguez (Animation Directors) and Paula Llompárt (Scriptwriter) to discuss the idea and they all decide to do it again. Thus, the original team of Alejo and Valentina reunited and, almost without thinking about it, youtubers such as Marito Baracus, El Demente, etc., began to join the project to participate.

At the time of making these new chapters, Pablo Zimmerman contacted Adrian Garelik, CEO of a new digital content platform called Flixxo.

Flixxo buys the new season plus the previous 4 from MTV to have exclusive content on its platform. The return of Alejo and Valentina is announced for 2020 with 26 new chapters, distributed in two new seasons.

On June 29, 2020, the first episode of the new season of Alejo and Valentina premieres on Flixxo, with episodes lasting between 5 and 15 minutes, with no length restriction or censorship. The title of the first chapter is: "Someone is the eighth passenger" (parody of the movie Alien).

The titles of the new season of Alejo and Valentina are:

• 01 Someone is the eighth passenger
• 02 The Curse of Italpark
• 03 Recontraavengers
• 04 Alejo and Valentina against perita tomatoes
• 05 It the yosapa comepibes (with the participation of Marito Baracus)
• 06 Valenticia en Estados Unidos
• 07 Breaking Viteh 1
• 08 Breaking Viteh 2
• 09 Gregory's Bar 2
• 10 History at last
• 11 Greg-Man
• 12 Illuminatti 1 (with the participation of the Demented, the Benegas and Milton Re)
• 13 Illuminatti 2 (with the participation of the Demented, the Pato Benegas and Milton Re)

Cultural references

• The author said he was inspired by Les Luthiers, Pablo Cedron, Favio Posca and Alfredo Casero, among others. The episode “MC King” contains a phrase by Les Luthiers: “I saw her three times, the third did not understand her,” which is inspired by the words of Daniel Rabinovich.”-I saw her twice, the second I didn't understand.- in the "Kathy, the Saloon Queen". Another example is the character that says And why in English? in the episode "Termineitor 2", which are the same words that Marcos Mundstock (also a member of Les Luthiers) says in the sketch "Family Entreteniscience" that the group represented in the works By humor to Art and Great Daughters. In Timotines there are also references to Les Luthiers: the soundtrack was taken from the segment of Los Niños Cantores del Tirol (supposed children's coral group of the Swiss Alps) of the "La Tanda" sketch, and repeat the phrase "Your dad gave a seed to your mom who became a cabbag where he left you the stork that brought you from Paris", a phrase that the comic group used
• For the Internet episodes the video game song was used as an introduction Giana Sisters, by Chris Hülsbeck, European composer. Zombienauta’s song “Sensation” was also heard at the end. Both themes were replaced for transmission on MTV. Every episode on MTV ends with a different song. The series for MTV is musicalized and soundly decorated by Andrés Cáceres. Leonardo Blumberg performed with Alejandro Szykula the new introductory song.
• In the Internet season, several stories are film parodies, such as The Matrix, Kill Bill, Back to the Future, The exorcist, Terminator 2: the final judgment and Star Warsand video games like Monkey Island, and television series resources like horror specials and behind cameras.
• In the television seasons there are new parodies like 300, Nine Queens, The ring, The Fear Game, Saving Soldier Ryan, Pinocchio, Shrek, REC, Dragon Ball Zetc.
• In Venezuela, due to the rise of humorous series like Alejo and Valentina, the animated series was created in 2006 Don Silbón y Misia Sayona, issued by the then channel Puma TV (today Canal i) in colloboration with the producer LocoArts.
• At the beginning of the series, the credits (which included more meaningless words than the names of the organizers) repeatedly appeared the name of the renowned singer Michael Jackson., of whom the author has declared himself a fan.
• Complete scenes are placed based on the original audio of the film bent That's it.adaptation of Stephen King's novel.
• Mexican band We're not Marineros titles one of his songs Alina and Valentejo, a word game with the name of the series.