Mary-Anne (left) and Doris (right)
Doris & Mary-Anne Are Breaking Out Of Prison is an animated web-series about two women (Doris and Mary-Anne) in prison during The Roaring '20s. The series was written and directed by Ben Levin and stars Andrée Vermeulen and Diona Reasonover. The series consists of ten episodes. The series can be found here
. The show's official tumblr is here and features some behind-the-scenes information.
This series provides examples of:
- Alliterative Name: Doris Delaney.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- Doris says that the reason she’s in prison is because of a traffic violation. She ran over a baby.
- Likewise when Mary-Anne admits she got into prison for doing some things she's "not proud of" (while ominous music plays in the background). She slammed a door in a friend's face and said she had "butt breath."
- Bittersweet Ending: The series ends with Doris serving her sentence, leaving Mary-Anne alone in the cell... along with Doris' lockpicking device.
- Bottle Episode: The whole series takes place in one jail cell, making it easier for the creator to animate the whole thing by himself, as he explains in a blog post:I knew I would be animating this series by myself, so I wrote and designed it to be economical. They’re short episodes with two characters confined to one setting, allowing me to get a lot of reuse out of everything. I gave myself some restrictions and wrote within that space so that I could tell a story about these two funny gals without giving up half-way in and throwing my Cintiq out of the window.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Doris is very excitable and talkative and has signs of going through a bit of a Sanity Slippage.
- Dead Baby Comedy: Used literally when Doris mentions she accidentally killed a baby.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Mary-Anne's female friend not only rejects her romantic advances, but says that her sexuality is disgusting. Also the reason why Mary-Anne is in prison: she slammed a door, which "is a serious crime if you're black."
- Girls Behind Bars: A downplayed example. The prison is shown to be terrible, but Doris has enough time to plan zany schemes.
- I Ate WHAT?!: In Episode 7, some inmates give Doris bootleg hooch which she takes a sip of and then spits out when it turns out to really be urine.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Doris suggests that her and Mary-Anne use their "feminine wiles" to get out of prison in episode 6.
- Incompatible Orientation: Heavily implied in episode 10 when Mary-Anne talks about telling a friend that she loved her. The friend not only rejected her, but told Mary-Anne that her feelings were "disgusting."
- Limited Animation: Ben Levin revealed in a blog post that most of the show's animation falls into this category, mainly due to the fact he did all of it himself. Fortunately this isn't noticeable due to how simple a lot of the animation is.
- Minimalist Cast: The only characters who appear onscreen (other than an unnamed guard) are Doris and Mary-Anne.
- Never Trust a Title: The series ends with none of the characters actually breaking out of prison. Doris is freed upon serving her sentence while Mary-Anne remains in prison... With the lock-breaking device that Doris made.
- Noodle Implements: Doris' lock picking contraption, which she explains in made out of "fingernails, bedsprings-" before being cut off.
- Ocular Gushers: Doris releases a happy version of these after Mary-Anne admits she "...doesn't entirely hate [her]."
- Religion of Evil: The religion Doris tries to convert to in episode 5 is heavily implied to be this, as the god they worship is called “Lord Gangrok the Destroyer.”
- The Roaring '20s: Set in 1922.
- Shout-Out: Doris tallies the days while she's in prison and calls them "Doris Days."
- The Silent Bob: Mary-Anne doesn't speak until the final episode.
- Spit Take: Doris in Episode 7, when she realizes what she drank.
- The Stoic: Mary-Anne. She outright acknowledges it while speaking to Doris in episode 10. This slowly changes over the course of the series.
- Too Dumb to Live: Doris swallowed a knife and attempted to throw it back up.
- Twofer Token Minority: Mary-Anne is Black and later revealed to be gay or bisexual.
