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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
Following the prior Taken/ Total Recall-centric episode of Rick and Morty, the next episode of Adult Swim’s animated sci-fi satire sitcom series continues to expand on the vast world of the show’s characters by bringing familiar faces, new ones, and new alien species into the narrative.
The seventh season’s eighth episode is titled, “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie”. It is written by co-executive producer Rob Schrab and directed by Lucas Gray.
In this review, I will discuss Rick and Morty Season 7 Episode 8. As the title of this article suggests, there will be no spoilers present here. References to previous series episodes may be made!
Rick and Morty Season 7 Episode 8 Logline
According to WarnerMedia Press, here is the logline for Rick and Morty Season 7 Episode 8—“Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie”.
Math is hard. Saving the universe is harder.
Action! Adventure! It’s a whole movie, broh!
Adult Swim Press
Discussion
“Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie” is all kinds of unusual just from what the episode title implies. Although, it is not without its brisk and straightforward pacing when it comes to the narrative. The episode follows sometime after Season 2’s “Get Schwifty” episode from 2015. Ice-T/Water-T (voiced by Dan Harmon) returns to Earth to recruit his former high school math teacher, Mr. Goldenfold (voiced by Brandon Johnson). At the same time, Goldenfold has the titular protagonist Morty Smith (voiced by Harry Belden) tag along in the journey as part of after-school detention. As the screenwriter for the episode, Schrab has some pun-filled jokes and one-liners within the teleplay, which is mostly why this episode works more often than not.
The Equation
The details of the plot here are pretty much confined to the episode itself. They don’t complement some larger plotline like, say, a story arc tied to the development of its main characters. Instead, the mixture of Transformers and old-school Star Wars-related elements that it has going on is an appreciative effort that conveys something familiar to popular culture fans. Next to that, there is a small moment dedicated to the series’ prominent inspiration, Back to the Future, involving a music engineer named Marvin calling his cousin. It pokes fun at a memorable scene from the film and delivers a fart joke in such a funny manner. Arguably, jokes that involve burps and farts do not normally land well. However, this scene happens to be flat-out hilarious as the fart comes out unexpectedly.
Viewers do not need to be too knowledgeable in the field of mathematics to understand what is at play. Small bits and pieces, such as Water-T’s lines “crunching the numbers”, “Imma deduct your ass”, “word”, Lithium-P’s “Sorry I’m late, I had to go peeeee”, or Sinistar-7’s (voiced by Debra Wilson) “spill the T[ea]”, “Infinity’s [voiced by Peter Serafinowicz] killing everyone and every two and every three and—”, and even her implied suggestion about the calculated attempt at assassinating Magma-Q (voiced by Ice-T), are laugh-out-loud hilarious parts that are as simple as they get, yet with layers of ridiculousness to them. The one-liners like “caps lock” or “hyphen drive” are the kind of puns that make one roll their eyes with chuckles. Even then, they are still effective to some degree.
A Transformative War in the Cosmos
The animators do a fun job at designing the different spacecrafts and characters. On the one hand, there is the giant calculator with the “58008” numbers. The calculator ships add to the more grave tone of the plot all while balancing with the comic relief. For an Adult Swim show, audiences are familiar with the word “boobs” written out in numbers. Yet, it’s a nice touch to work this into the episode in a way that also parodies both the Decepticons and the Galactic Empire. On that note, the Scribbles that parody the Ewoks of Star Wars stretch things out a bit insofar that the comedy reaches an almost stupid point. The only thing that works in this part of the episode is their penis-shaped roosters that screech, “Cock-a-doodle doo!”
In juxtaposition, there is Lithium-P’s Glyph Jumper, a piece of junk machine that almost pokes fun at the Millennium Falcon. The background artists marvelously design this mode of transportation’s backdrop within hyphen drive, the episode’s spin on hyperdrive. Its upgrade, the “Glyph Jumper Extreme” is such an absurd narrative choice that makes it even funnier to laugh at. Personally, the interior anatomy and its exterior designs are questionable. Then again, I probably shouldn’t look too deep into the logic behind those aspects.
Us vs Them + Them = We
The Alphabetrians’ different shapes and forms to resemble the letters of the English alphabet, mixed with different elements such as those of the periodic table, are creative looks that expand what was teased seasons back. Water-T’s transformation into Magma-T form adds development to the character. His fiery appearance could be some type of enhancement that we could see more of in the future. The prop design team crafts such a neat sequence of transforming the amulet of harmony into a glock, which is used in an awesome manner that destroys Infinity with a shot to the heart.
By comparison, the Numbericons’ snake-like appearances seem to harken back to Season 4’s midseason finale, “Rattlestar Ricklactica”. One character design I specifically enjoy is Oxygen-S’s transformation into Numbericon 8, then into the episode’s twist of the primary antagonist, Infinity. The latter transformation involves a rather wicked neat animated sequence. Obviously, 8 positioned sideways resembles the symbol for infinity. Because of that, the twist is one that has to be expected, as opposed to allowing Sinistar-7’s father, Lord Dreadnaught, to be the prime antagonist.
The episode does have a few interesting animated sequences. However, the former two do not beat the climax, which involves Water/Magma-T, Goldenfold, and Sinistar-7 engaging in a rap performance to combat Infinity.
The Crew Behind Rick and Morty
Rick and Morty is co-created by Dan Harmon (Community).
The series’ main theme and score is done by Ryan Elder. Hunter Curra serves as the supervising sound editor.
Wes Archer is the supervising director. Alex Song-Xia and Cody Ziglar are story editors. Grace Freud is the staff writer.
Jeremy Gilfor is the writers’ assistant. Michael Kellner, Jax Ball, and Laura Cebula (Solar Opposites) are 2nd writers’ assistants.
Lee Harting and Claire Levinson serve as the editors. David Seger is the assistant editor.
Ruth Lambert and Robert McGee are the voice casting directors. Katelyn Semer and Amanda Ray are casting associates. Sara Jane Sherman is the additional casting director.
Amy Chapman and Nick Reczynski are voice-over consultants.
Animators
James McDermott is the art director. Philip Vose serves as the assistant art director. Carol Wyatt is the color supervisor.
Adam Burnier is the character design lead. Liza Epps is the background design lead. Brent Noll serves as the prop design lead, while Kelly Yoo is the assistant prop design lead.
Rufino Roy Camacho II (Futurama, Sausage Party, Disenchantment, Harley Quinn), Heather Langley, Dan O’Connor, and Steve Yurko (Robot Chicken, HarmonQuest) serve as the storyboard artists.
Scott Alberts, Martin Archer, Adam Ford, Sander Goldman (Big Mouth), Eric Hoff, Eugene Huang, Michael LaBash, Jim Shellhorn (King of the Hill, Sausage Party, Batman: The Killing Joke, Disenchantment, Harley Quinn), and Joe Wierenga are additional storyboard artists.
Alexa Hanson, Kari Kilpela, Maneen Mehta, Byron Merrill, Khang Nguyen, Elisa Phillips (The Venture Bros., HarmonQuest), Louie Ramos, Amy Sherrier, and Tony Weinstock are the character designers.
Jackie Cadiente, Paige “PJ” Hankins, and Alex Picar work on the character design clean-up.
Sean Bodley, Chris S. Bolden (The Simpsons, Disenchantment), Lauryn Danae Bremner (Solar Opposites), Phillip K. Burrows Jr., Vance Caines (Regular Show, Close Enough), Leasa Epps-Eisele, Kevin Chiya Kuan, Alex Steven Martin, Alycea Tinoyan, and Tuo Tsui work on the background design.
Devyn Adams, Cyndee Guerrieri, Tyler Justice, and Ashley Nolley work on the background clean-up.
The Voice Cast Behind Rick and Morty
Ian Cardoni is credited in the episode as the voice of Rick Sanchez, the genius scientist of the series. Harry Belden voices Morty Smith, the teenage grandson of the series.
Spencer Grammer is credited as the voice of Summer Smith, Rick Sanchez’s granddaughter and Morty Smith’s older sister. Chris Parnell and Sarah Chalke (How I Met Your Mother) are credited as the voices of Jerry and Beth Smith, Summer and Morty Smith’s parents, respectively.
Ice-T (Leprechaun in the Hood, Law & Order television franchise) guest stars as Magma-Q, Ice-T/Water-T’s father. Keith David appears as the voice of Andre Curtis via flashback as a then-United States Governor.
Peter Serafinowicz (Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, South Park, Shaun of the Dead, Guardians of the Galaxy, Sing, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget) voices 8/ Infinity, the main antagonist of the episode.
Dan Harmon provides the voice of Ice-T/Water-T. Brandon Johnson (NTSF: SD: SUV) voices Mr. Goldenfold, Morty’s math teacher at Harry Herpson High School. Debra Wilson voices Sinistar-7, a Numbericon.
Troy Baker, Terry Ilous, Albro Lundy, Nick Reczynski, Ryan Ridley, Rob Schrab, Maya Aoki Tuttle, and Gary Anthony Williams (The Boondocks) also make voice appearances.
Voice Performances and Character Developments
Johnson’s Goldenfold gets a brighter spotlight than that of Season 1’s second episode, “Lawnmower Dog”, in which the series’ title characters venture into the depths of his consciousness à la Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Goldenfold’s exchanges with Water-T are much akin to the relationships between mentors and students that are seen in the media. I believe Johnson delivers best through his dialogue, “I don’t teach English, bitch! And why would I do your homework? You didn’t do mine—”. The writers’ decision to briefly switch the focus from Rick Sanchez (voiced by Ian Cardoni) as the math expert to Goldenfold is an interesting direction. It emphasizes minor characters that the series does not often utilize.
Goldenfold’s flashback scene with then-United States Governor Andre Curtis (voiced by Keith David) seems intriguing. Similar to the season’s earlier episode featuring the politician, the writers build upon the worlds that bring together different supporting and minor characters. This time, the series sees the high school math teacher cross paths with a letter T from the depths of space as well as with a future US president. These interactions speak to the universe that is created around Rick and Morty by also pointing out that this universe doesn’t just have “non-playable character” (NPC) figure roles.
Final Thoughts on Rick and Morty Season 7 Episode 8
While not the most mature episode of the season, “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie” makes fun of cinematic blockbusters. The concluding scenes of the episode are hilarious as they lead to Ice-T finally doing math homework. The punchline here is that he does it and still receives an F-grade from Goldenfold. This is not without some kind of moral that the teacher who teaches learns from the student or that the student learns to learn. However, even the very idea of a moral is confirmed to not exist when Morty and Goldenfold discuss why they share the journey together. The episode does tease a third part to the subplot involving rapper Ice Cube as a Geomitron. Although, of course, that’s a subplot for another time…
Rick and Morty Season 7 is now airing on Adult Swim via Cartoon Network. The season will stream via Max (formerly HBO Max) next year!
Have you seen the series yet? If so, then what are your thoughts on it so far? Let us know! For more adventure, animation, comedy, and science-fiction-related news and reviews, do not forget to follow The Cinema Spot on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
