MP4ORCE (or MP four Orce if you want to be an idiot), came out in 2006, and that's as much as anyone could find on a surface level. The most info I could find directly about this show came from a TVTropes article, oh it has a Wikipedia article... but it's in German. Based on what I could interpret through that, I couldn't find any insight into what network this aired on. I know it appeared somewhere overseas as this has an English track, but I'm licked on that.
This show had garnered a 1.9 on IMDb, but it holds no reviews. Only three people gave it a ten while a grand majority gave it one star. Someone had to have covered this at some point. Due to YouTube turning off comments due to the YouTube Kids bullshit, I can't find any surface level reviews of this. The most I could find was an open comment section of the shows intro, where someone called it a Code Lyoko rip-off (I mean, that makes more sense than Da Boom Crew supposedly ripping off Samurai Jack just because of how someone defeated an enemy, and a hell of a lot more sense than Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island ripping off SpongeBob (and believe me, it's a big rabbit hole.))
I had hosted a poll on my deviantArt account, where I post a link to one episode of whatever show I want to cover, where people would decide if it was good, bad or mediocre. Out of eight votes, seven called the show mediocre.
So, if you wanna know what that "one of two company" quip meant, this show and Da Boom Crew was funded by Berliner Film Companie, and you may already know where the company is based. They produced this show through their animation production subsidiary Berlin Animation (heh, pretty bold to have your company represent your capital.) Berlin Animation is perhaps best known for co-producing Happily N'ever After. I haven't seen the film but I don't intend to.
Our star power consists of Jeff Burrell, an American actor who currently resides in Germany (joining the ranks of many American actors who moved to foreign countries, Teresa Gallagher (Nicole Watterson of The Amazing World of Gumball) who moved to the United Kingdom, David Gassman (various roles on Code Lyoko) who moved to France, Patrick Harlan (Resident Evil Survivor) who moved to Japan.) And I brought up that trivia because he has no other interesting roles, aside from what looks to be a direct-to-video animated dud.
Jonathan Malen has a more interesting resume, appearing in Mean Girls and Paw Patrol. Okay, he's more interesting in that he had more roles that I know about compared to the other one. Apparently, another actor that appeared in this was Tajja Issen, the voice of the main protagonist on Atomic Betty (which I hate.) and Superwhy, but she has also appeared on stuff I've covered and or saw before, Braceface, Bigfoot Presents: Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, Girlstuff/Boystuff and hey, she apparently appeared on Da Boom Crew too. She's listed as a participant, no key roles are identified for her in this show, which is why I singled out the above actors.
I have a gut feeling that I'm gonna be the first person to talk about this show.
The Sting
The first thing I encounter is a techno rap song. A rule of thumb is that any show with a rap song is going to be a corny dated mess by default. Say what you will about Rocket Power and maybe Girlstuff/Boystuff if you saw that review, the intro didn't resort to using a rap song.
By the way, the intro lasts for a full minute. I don't single out something like this unless it's warranted. I would say the song is listenable, but that's like having a termite dig into your toe while you're numb, you can't feel it but you know something is wrong.
Following the intro which may have a big case of overcompensation, we see our protagonists playing video games. But through what occurs on the screen, it looks as though they haven't put quarters into the machine and are pretending to play them. This takes movie characters pretending to play video games to a whole new level.
While they play, we get some riveting dialog that strongly suggests the writers are a bunch of robots, or perhaps they had never seen any human under the age of 50. None of this dialog is natural, though I get the feeling the English actors went by a rough translation of the script. This wouldn't even pass for gaming nerd lingo. Another plus for Girlstuff/Boystuff is that their dialog was surprisingly more natural.
I could never trust anyone who calls anything a ripoff, because they tend to embellish very minor aspects. This is a list in the making, but for another time. I will say this is an inferior version of an episode of South Park, Make Love, Not Warcraft, where four gamers are at war with another gamer, but he's a pushover to that one guy the South Park kids were after (well, going by the impressions I get at the start.) Not to mention, the real guy they're after in this show looks like a borderline knockoff of Kevin from Ben 10 (which I hate.) He's also a dumbass, falling for a cheat code that's obviously a trap, it being a timed manifestation (or excuse me, download) of the main bad guy.
FYI, this is the first episode I'm going by, they literally think we can fully understand everything right away.
As I continue to follow the main characters, I can't help but feel that they've spent 80% of their lives playing games, why else would one of them make an elevator crack associated with playing video games? So due to them being the best players EVAR, they're selected to... oh don't tell me, play within the actual video game world? Never heard that one before. This isn't anything like Code Lyoko, but this premise had been beaten to death.
At this point, I don't care about what happens in the rest of the episode. Not even the dialog could save it, it's so stiff and most of the time they state the blatantly obvious. So yeah, I quit.
Animation
The animation looks fine on a surface level, looking stiff at its worst, but I'm no fan of the overall design. You know of the bean smile style, right? Well how about the borderline anime style?
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| Or maybe it's just me? |
Overall
I think the biggest issue I have with this show can be said about action shows in general. The genre is incredibly homogenized, you see one action trope you'll see it again in some form in another show, the drama, someone dying, the over the top villains, the visuals. I don't like action shows, like, at all. Straight up ones at the very least.
I stopped watching the first episode close to the six minute mark. To put this into perspective, I sat through the 1995 Clerks TV pilot which had been unanimously declared unwatchable, I've been harsh to Fatherhood and I saw whatever episode was available to the end. I saw two episodes of Days Like These and I saw That 80s Show to the end. While I didn't see the first episode of Game Over to the end I saw a later episode to the end. I saw the pilot and first episode of Emeril (which is considered one of the worst shows ever) to the end. I saw an episode of Baby Bob through to the end. I saw an episode of Father of the Pride to the end. You see what I'm saying?
I'm forgiving to crap, but I know when to draw the line. And I have a feeling this show kills brain cells because I can't come up with a witty closing line.
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