I am neither poor nor rich
I bring my family to the land of peace
My Zozo is the grandmama
She looks like a short fat man
She’s not very happy in the land of peace
My Magda is the mama
She’s a very special mama
She give me the twins named Ivan and Nadia
And there’s the goat, heh, the very poofy goat
His name is Rasputin
He’s a real good guy
We are a great big family!
Weird Years was a Canadian animated sitcom that originally aired in 2006 on YTV. It was produced by Lenz Entertainment and Mercury Filmworks as the brainchild of Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon
The show follows the misadventures of the Dorkovitch family, who have immigrated from the fictional country of Kryobia in Eastern Europe to North America (specifically Happy Valley in Labrador, Canada). The family includes Donko (Cal Dodd), the eccentric plumber and father; his wife Magda (Kathleen Laskey), the deli butcher and mother of twins Ivan and Nadia (Phil McCordic and Tajja Isen); his ancient mother Zozo (Susan Roman); and finally, the pet goat Rasputin. Quirky but loving, the Dorkovitches do their best to adjust and transition to life in their new home, encountering the strange and often unfamiliar ways of North American suburban life with often humorous results.
The series was cancelled shortly afterward in 2007, with a total of 26 episodes released over a single season. The series had never been released on home video, but every episode can be found on Youtube.
Tropes that apply to this series:
- All There in the Manual: If The Other Wiki is believed, then the Dorkovitches moved to Happy Valley, Labrador.
- Camp Gay: Rasputin the goat. As revealed in "The Bears and the Bees".
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- "Infoodelity", Donko was eating food from Danny Jeng's mother rather than Zozo's food. The whole thing was treated as an affair.
- "Requiem for a Screen" treated Ivan's addiction to a computer game as if it was drugs.
- Funny Foreigner: Donko, Magda and Zozo. Averted with Ivan and Nadia since they were born in the New World.
- Happily Married: Donko and Magda have a healthy relationship.
- Lethal Chef: Nadia once pointed out that while Magda is an excellent butcher, she is a terrible cook. Magda adds that none of the women in her family can cook and marry into other families for that reason.
- Only Sane Woman: Nadia seems to be the most grounded in reality compared to the rest of her family.
- Revolving Door Revolution: Kryobia's tourist slogan is "Our people are always revolting". An actual example involved a revolution that involved Yuri the Yak Herder, whom brought Kryobia in the Dark Ages with his crazy ideas, like replacing all the blue hats with red hats. Donko's father led a rebellion and was thought of the be dead, where shortly afterward Yuri was overthrown.
- Ruritania: The fictional country of Kryobia, where the Dorkovitches hailed from.
- Shout-Out:
- "Requiem for a Screen" has several video game shout outs, from Tomb Raider to Donkey Kong.
- "Wingnut 5000" has Magda fighting one of the robots Aliens-style
Magda: Get away from her you glitch. - Strip Poker: Magda and Donko was shown playing this game in a flashback, but they were caught by the twins. Since then, they were taught the opposite, Dress Up Poker.
- Supreme Chef: Zozo, which she had her own restaurant back in Kryobia in her younger days and became a celebrity chef in "Zozo Stewart".
