CircleCity

CircleCity™ is an American adult animated comedy-drama series which first aired on June 10, 2000 on Comedy Central. Set in a reality where humans exist coinciding with living shapes, the show follows the exploits of circle Lloyd Donovan (Nolan North), a young adult hopelessly unprepared for the long life ahead of him. With his family cutting all contact with him, the only people Lloyd can rely on are his exceedingly optimistic roommate Benny (Rob Paulsen), whose crime family consistently gets in the way of Lloyd's life, and a cast of recurring characters, whose presence also barely benefit him. Exploring various themes about life, crime, purpose and other topics, the show ran for four seasons on Comedy Central before being abruptly canceled in 2004 due to budget concerns and declining ratings. Generally regarded as a cult classic over the years following, the show was later given new life on Vision, who revived the show in 2012. Show creator IAmBagel plans to end the series in 2019.

Premise
Having just graduated college, 22 year-old Lloyd Donovan (Nolan North) is completely unprepared for the new life ahead of him. Somehow majoring in absolutely nothing and having no goals or aspirations, he quickly finds himself in a rut when his family decides to cut off all contact with him. With nowhere else to turn, Lloyd finds himself under the care of the middle-aged Benny (Rob Paulsen), whose optimistic and positive qualities greatly clash with Lloyd's pessimism and confusion about life. Together, the duo must survive relationships, crime, politics, casual life experiences and general oddities as Lloyd searches for a purpose.

Over time, CircleCity's plot, characters and tones have broadened themselves into several different topic and themes that heavily deviates from those that the series started out on.

Main

 * Lloyd: The show's protagonist, Lloyd is a 22 year-old college graduate who is greatly unprepared for the future ahead of him, and makes it his goal to find a purpose within the diverse, though crime-filled city of CircleCity. Raised upon an un-supportive upbringing, Lloyd is naturally cynical, pessimistic, self-loathing, bitter and downright careless - but at the same time very hard-willed and determined to find his future.
 * Benny: Benny is a 35 year-old janitor who takes Lloyd under his care, seeking to essentially be his "life mentor" out of a desire to do good for the world to contrast the actions of his notorious crime family. In many aspects, Benny is the opposite of Lloyd - encouraging, optimistic and ultimately a shine of light in the darkness that plagues the city's society. He is, however, a hardcore alcoholic - and often chooses to ignore conflict or hardship if it means maintaining his unrealistic outlook.

Secondary

 * Fat Bob: Benny's 40 year-old brother, who is the kingpin of the city's most notorious and powerful crime organization, to the extent where he has influence over major aspects of the city's inner workings. As the eldest brother, Fat Bob was raised into taking over the family's crime business from a very young age, which, unsurprisingly, hindered any actual real personality development, resulting in a violent and sociopathic manchild. Despite his many sociopathic qualities, he genuinely cares for Benny, though makes many attempts to get him back into crime.
 * Madison:
 * Moe: A very successful restaurateur, Moe is everything that Lloyd isn't - he's figured out his calling in life and has made a living off of it at just 23 years old. This wouldn't have been an issue for Lloyd if they weren't constantly butting heads with each other throughout their childhood. At the time, Moe took pride in dominating every field that Lloyd couldn't find success in - and that strained, intense rivalry hasn't changed a bit since they became adults. Despite his exceedingly smug outer shell, Moe is a paranoia nut - well aware that his entire life has been the result of an extremely lucky fluke and constantly afraid that his success will backfire at any second due to karmic repercussions.
 * Nancy:

Recurring

 * Dr. Hurt:
 * Mayor Royam: The bumbling mayor of CircleCity, who is well aware of the city's rampant crime issue, but does nothing about it so he can use it to his advantage in an extremely convoluted plan to get him to the top of the political world.

Films
During the show's second season, Paramount Pictures, whose parent company Viacom owned Comedy Central, began negotiating with the show's creators and writing staff on making a theatrical film based on the series. They eventually went into an agreement and Paramount greenlit the film. Production on the film began in November 2002, with the film being titled CircleCity Worldwide, and Paramount later scheduling the film for an April 2004 release. Released on April 16, 2004, the film follows all world leaders banding together to create a unified new government that spreads across all nations and unites the planet together, which in turn causes every country to surrender their identity and culture to the new world order. Suspicious of how this happened, Lloyd and Benny trek across the former nations of the world in order to confront George Bush and restore the Earth to its former chaotic but distinct glory. It grossed $87 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, but did receive controversy for its portrayal of several real-life issues.

As Season five of the show began airing on Vision, IAmBagel commented on a potential second film, stating that "there's always huge shit going on in the world that could lead to the basis of a second movie, and the crew would always be up for big tasks such as that". Due to the unexpected ratings of the revival seasons thus far, second film was confirmed at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, entitled CircleCity: Civil War, with its distributor,, scheduling it for a June 3, 2016 release. The film follows the titular characters from the series becoming caught up in a civil war as a result of a new governmental system which separated the country based upon political alignment. It went on to gross $150 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing R-rated animated film.

It was announced at SDCC 2016 that there will be a second film based off the DragonCircle arc, which will serve as the finale of the arc. It will be a made for TV animated movie, airing on Sundown.

Rumors were circulating around the internet after the home media release about a third theatrical film because of the success of Civil War. Bagel said that "he was done directing CircleCity movies" after directing the last three movies. He was proud of Chaossy's work on DragonCircle, so he approached him if he would like to direct a fourth if he liked to, and Chaossy agreed. Work on the film took place during the last six months of production of CircleCity: A DragonCircle XYZ Adventure, which was set to be released the year after.

At the 2017 Santa Fe Comic Con, it was announced by a surprise panel by Typewriter Productions that pre-production of the next theatrical film was to start that weekend for a 2020 release. A brief synopsis was released by the company later that day.

Video games
Two video games based on the series have been released thusfar. The first one, simply titled CircleCity, is a Grand Theft Auto clone that was developed by Radical Entertainment and released for the Xbox and on November 18, 2003. The game follows Lloyd and Benny being forced to do criminal biddings for Fat Bob after the duo lose their jobs, which eventually spirals out of control into an all-out crime war between the many druglords and criminals of the city.

The second game, entitled CircleCity: Warzone, is a beat 'em up/hack and slash that was developed by Platinum Games and released for the, and PC on June 23, 2017.

Another game was announced at NYCC 2017, which will be another Grand Theft Auto clone titled CircleCity: Crime City. It was in development since the springtime of 2018.

Parental guide
Main article: CircleCity/Parental info