Pet Alien Revisited (plus one extra)

For anyone who seeks out painfully mediocre or outright garbage shows, there comes a point you begin to appreciate ones you previously covered. Beyond its faults, you found some enjoyment out of it, but you wanted to be fair and acknowledge the show's flaws for the sake of an interesting review.

Is it astounding that Pet Alien is getting this treatment against all other popular shows I hate? Don't answer that.

So, a while back I did a review of Pet Alien, a relatively unknown show that aired on Cartoon Network in 2005, around the time they became lost. I was pretty hard on it, thanks to some pretty obvious faults, but I had actually made it through the few episodes I saw.

To issue a correction, Telegael isn't an animation studio, they're a funding partner that helped finance various productions by MoonScoop at the time (among other shows.) I'd say I'm still on the nose when it comes to the other companies, Mike Young Productions being the pushers behind it (even distributing it through their Taffy Entertainment label), AnteFilm was an earlier identity for MoonScoop, they either co-produced or outsourced the animation to Crest Animation (if their Indian branhes were up at that time), and John Doze Studios was the vanity card of Jeff Muncy.

In regards to Muncy, he seems to be doing fine now, after Pajanamals, he began focusing on toy production, even creating the Psyclops toy brand, good on him, he found something he likes.

Changing my Mind

As mentioned in my initial review, I had seen this show when it was new. I didn't outright hate it, and I was at that age where I began to hate shows (Camp Lazlo, Foster's, even Ed, Edd n' Eddy's lesser episodes), I had no idea how this show would be viewed (by some miracle it escaped SaberSpark's greasy mitts), though something tells me it would be down the middle to the lower half.

So, is there some hidden genius to this show I was blind to? Well, no, it was just fun to watch. Pet Alien is essentially comfort food, sometimes we need to just sit back, turn our minds off and have a little fun. I never cringed at the show, and I bring this up because I'm a grown-ass man. If I can find enjoyment in any show, it's bound to have some form of quality.

The animation held up poorly, but that's a given for CG television shows of this era. CG animation is as good as the computers they use to produce it. I find it interesting that this is one of the first CG shows to make use of squash and stretch animation, only others before this was Mainframe Entertainment's Scary Godmother flicks (and Popeye)

Funnily enough, compared to Mike Young's own Butt-Ugly Martians, this has a similar contrast to Mainframe's earlier software pipeline.

I can treat this show as an experiment of sorts, to help inspire a new wave of CG animation that harkens back to the earlier days of animation, to show that it's still possible with an ever-changing landscape of animation.

It has some lesser characters, but they aren't within the mains. I feel Melba Manners is too annoying to get ahead as much as she does, episodes with her just feel predictable.

The writing isn't necessarily... there, but it isn't terrible, once more it's the kind of show you can shut your brain off to and have a little laugh at.

Overall

Pet Alien is no masterpiece, but it's no piece of shit either. It's basic comedic premise would give us little to expect out of, and as always, there's worse. If I had to guess what the worst MoonScoop show is, I'd give it to I've Got a Rocket.

And now a Bonus

I'd like to make an addendum on my Top 2 Worst Finales/Last Season listicle in regards to ChalkZone. I had made my judgement based on one episode, and I was wrong to do it. I saw another episode, and it had the same spirit as the previous seasons, but just has a slightly different look. I guess I just wanted an excuse to really tear into the conclusion of Malcolm in the Middle.

M4ORCE II: The Electronic Boogalooing Judgement

ReBoot: The Guardian Code. I'm just gonna say this outright, I'm very late on this, this was a product of 2018 and anything that can be said about the show had been said already by much better content creators. However, I have a connection that gives me some justification. This show was made by the same guy who made MP4ORCE.

A while back, I did a review of MP4ORCE Beyond Real, a show I considered to be the worst show I've ever seen, and I still stand by that claim. ReBoot: The Guardian Code had opened up a whole other can of worms when it came to the show's creator Michael Hefferon, and that's gonna be my prime focus as the new ReBoot is done and dusted.

Hefferon had previously worked for Berliner Film Companie (going by the fact that he had helped work on a bulk of the projects they funded), but had also worked on some misc. children's media, MP4ORCE being his first hurrah as an original project

Sometime after MP4ORCE petered out of existence, Hefferon became the CEO of Rainmaker Entertainment, formerly known as Mainframe Entertainment. Under Hefferon's thumb, Rainmaker produced some CG adaptation of Spy Kids nobody really talks about, he helped produce the Bob the Builder revival and had become head of a ReBoot revival, which turned out to be a travesty.

There was testimony from a Rainmaker employee, but due to it being posted on 4Chan its legitimacy had been disputed, though some details can easily be considered true. For instance, Hefferon has a son, and a character in ReBoot: The Guardian Code is named after him (Austin)

Another big one is how it was claimed that Hefferon turned the show into his own pet project, basing it on another certain project he worked on years before, you know, MP4ORCE, and it's all coming together. Hefferon seemed like a one-trick pony (well most of the time.), and it shows here.

It seems that Hefferon either thinks highly of himself or lacks foresight, in one episode of this show, he goes out of his way to incorporate a basement dweller to take the piss out of fans of the original ReBoot. And people say Teen Titans Go was rude to fans, at least the original Teen Titans was garbage to begin with.

Then comes the big one, ReBoot: The Guardian Code supposedly ripping off Code Lyoko, do I agree with that claim? Well I claimed that one character from MP4ORCE was ripped off physically from Kevin 11, so why not rub some more salt into the wound? The similarities are so obvious that even the creator of Code Lyoko weighed in on it, and agreed with detractors.

A team of four kids who're aided by an AI guide? Code Lyoko. Traveling into a virtual world to take on an enemy? Code Lyoko. The world being the work of someone related to a key character? Code Lyoko. Corruption in game leading to one becoming evil in real life? Code Lyoko. A game being made as a means of recruiting the best players to take on a greater evil? South Park, Last Starfighter and this is essentially another MP4ORCE.

It seems as though Hefferon was bitter that his first show was cancelled and rendered obscure, and because of that later factoid nobody would notice when he did it again with this show, and with such apathy to the original ReBoot.

Now look, I hate fans of any show too, they act holier than though, even attacking people in the name of a dead guy and forever tainting another show because shipping, but this just feels spiteful to the core, there's no other way around it.

So I guess the moral of the story is never let a CEO do a creator's job, or something like that, I dunno.

Top 2 Worst Finales/Last seasons

Worst Last Season 2: ChalkZone

I love ChalkZone, still do to this day, but the latter seasons are hardly anything to write home about, hell, I plan on doing a review of the show's Christmas special one of these days. I was hunting for clips featuring one character and was led to the show's fourth season, and it didn't fill me with confidence.

Rudy isn't necessarily the most mature character out there, but it wasn't as noticeable as previous seasons. Around season 3, it becomes a bit more obvious, and if you grew up with the older episodes it's whiplash in the sincerest form of the word. It doesn't fill me with confidence.

The fourth season is even worse as by then it was clear they were scaling back financially. This season, the show was outsourced to Yeson Entertainment and the animation style took a dive. Ironically, Yeson produced the animation for Fairly Odd Parents but got replaced by Elliott Animation in their last season.

Worst Finale 2: The Cleave (Star Vs. The Forces of Evil)

It's expected, but this hit hard for me because of the reason why it came about, something that wound up harming the show beforehand as well.

Shipping.

Okay many of you know it, but take it from someone who actually... kinda like the show earlier on. Shipping Star and Marco was the only takeaway many viewers had from this show, they didn't care about anything else, a character got shat on because she served as an obstacle (a modern day Sally Acorn if you will), they threw a spike into the LGBT name by making up a gay character just to prevent Starco from being ruined (and I'm more mad on the reason for the creation, we need more gay characters with better development, it's about time)

Then, everyone essentially dies. There's no getting around that, the world dies, but hey, our brainless ship fantasy came true. Starco was essentially a timebomb that went off by the end of the series. This is why we should be as distant from our fans as humanly possible.

Worst Last Season 1: Ed, Edd n' Eddy

This season was so bad it served as a basis for why I hated the show for a brief period of time. I like Big Picture Show, but as a finale... it's like a 69 out of 100 for me, especially with how shitty season five was. Hell, the unmade season 6 episode aired after this so Big Picture Show can't even be considered the last episode.

It feels like this season was born out of someone getting so butthurt over the depressing conclusion of the fourth season that they had to carry it on however they could, and it wasn't worth it.

What could be said about it? Characters got worse overtime, it made me hate Edd, Ed's too obnoxious to be likable, Danny Antonucci didn't direct one episode and shit went south fast, it had the worst Kanker episode by far (other times the Eds did something wrong for them to come by, otherwise serving as an unforutnate obstacle.), half the time they don't even do anything particularly wrong and get shit on.

Even as a kid these episodes pissed me off, just like Foster's.

 Worst Finale 1: Graduation (Malcolm in the Middle)

Depending on your upbringing, this episode aged poorly, already ending on a pretty dark note. On the surface, it felt like a rushed letdown that is only slightly in the same spirit as the very show it was part of, on the other, it paints a very dark picture.

No matter what, you will be under your bitch of a mother's thumb, she will be the boss of you now and forever and so big of a part, all yes, and none of the nos, maybes or I don't knows.

Malcolm would have to suffer more in life, so that maybe, just maybe, he can become president, like that'd make anything easier, take a few notes from Donald Trump, or George Bush, or Lyndon B. Johnson, or James Buchanan, or Abraham Lincoln, or George Bush, or Bill Clinton. No matter what good you do, people will still view you lowly and try to destroy you.

No matter how you view it, they basically tell you to suck up whatever life throws at you, but people only make it by if they have some reprieve. It's bound to be hell for Malcolm until he's ready to run for governor, may even hit the sauce once the monotony breaks in.

Compared to other ahole parents on Fox sitcoms, Lois has to be one of the worst. Any sympathy the writers expect us to have for her stems only from the struggle of raising children. Red Forman wasn't this bad, neither was Ken Titus or Bernie Mac.

Red actually liked Eric and at the very least his behavior came from his upbringing (he was a typical conservative dad who fought in the war.) Ken basically had an alternative way of keeping his kids in line and didn't force Christopher into one certain path, in fact, him being hard on Christopher pushed him to do what he can to make his father proud and continue to, and he did it with something he's passionate about. Bernie Mac held his kids to the same standard, and Jordan was the kind of kid who needed some pushes earlier on.

Point is, their acts had some merit to them, Lois had none, and by the end of it, there wasn't even any nothing left. If you live a life without fulfillment, where you're too afraid to share what you're passionate about because someone's anticipating some chiding, this will strike a nerve.

The Jackie Bison Show revie

 If a pilot never makes it to series, is that a blessing or a curse? I don't know, butt at the very least for every sin the big three committed, an animated prime-time failure during the height of The Simpsons' popularity isn't among NBC's.

In the early-90s, The Simpsons proved to be a surprise hit, and one that helped Fox hold its head against the big three networks. To cash in on this and gain some of Fox's viewers, the big three networks tried their hands at prime-time animation.

ABC produced Capitol Critters, a show about mice with a political slant. A few years later they'd produce The Critic, which frankly held up poorly, then they did Clerks: The Animated Series dirty. Well fine, less episodes means less stiffs, plus ABC was too busy milking Who Wants to be a Millionaire?.

CBS made not one, but two attempts. Fish Police which is considered the worst of the three, for some reason, and Family Dog, comprising of staff from Animaniacs and, frankly, deserves more scorn than Fish Police. You dodged a good opportunity Saberspark, and this show has garbage animation. Family Dog was so bad that CBS never aired another animated sitcom ever again (their streaming service doesn't count as it's separate from the main network)

NBC couldn't make it past the pilot for this show (there was another one, but the guy I found it from gives me the creeps.), but just know they had no short-term runs for their sitcoms, they never happened. Ironically, NBC would try more than ABC and CBS later on, ironically enough. They would acquire Stressed Eric (prophetic for how they'd do American adaptations of British shows), they aired God, The Devil and Bob and Sammy in 2000, only stopping due to a management shift, but would try again in 2004 with Father of the Pride. By then, they had better shows to go by.

History

The Jackie Bison Show was created by Bob Illes and James R. Stein, who had also created Amen a few years before, this being one of their only two hurrahs. The show was co-produced by production company and talent management firm Brillstein Grey Productions, of Larry Sanders, NewsRadio, Just Shoot Me, Mr. Show, The Sopranos, Politically Incorrect and According to Jim fame. Ironically, the later incarnation of them, Brad Grey Television, would produce Sammy for NBC in 2000.

The animation was produced at Broadcast Arts in New York. They had previously produced the first season of Pee-Wee's PlayHouse (and for some irony, they share the same director, Peter Rosenthal), Broadcast Arts would later rebrand as Curious Pictures and go on to produce short films before really getting their foot in the door with projects by Mo Willems and Matt Warburton, you know what they are.

I botched this up top, but this actually predates ABC's and CBS' sitcoms by about three years. This came out in 1990, around the time The Simpsons' first season was airing, think they were just trying to strike out on their own, while the producers wanted to experiment a bit.

On the show's YouTube upload, the comments were disabled due to YouTube's COPPA concerns, which led to a comment by Bob Illes getting removed. All I could remember from it was that interference reared its head into the ring.

Surrender

I think the biggest issue with the show is that of the directions you'd expect it to take, it's one with less staying power. The Jackie Bison Show seems to be setting up an anthology-style setting, where Jackie would either perform skits or retellings of events in his life, or just having these play out as is. I imagine it would've gotten dull very fast.

Jackie isn't particularly interesting, with someone like him I imagine it would be better if he stepped away from his famous life, with drama being around those trying to get him to perform again and those he had left behind to pursue his previous life. The characters are hardly interesting, I can't even refer to them by name. Aside from Jackie who I know by default due to the title, he has a lady friend who has a crush on him but, say it with me, he is too oblivious to realize it.

Only other standouts are a bird Jackie has in a cage, I like how it answers the question on pets in an anthro world. Plus some human who people apparently love to death. I don't know what this is meant to be a reference to, people hated the kid-type inclusions even during this era. I don't know if this was a stab at the network, I, fuck, I really don't know.

The story presented in this isn't any better either. Oh, tell me, ever heard of a woman claims to be in love with a guy but is only in it for his money? Of course you have, and this is played as paint by numbers as you'd expect. To sell anybody on a show, you gotta make it pop right away. A simple premise can work with unique characters and settings to go against. This show just has talking animals.

You can forgive the show for being like this as Brillstein Grey were primarily focused on stand-up comedy, but Stein and Illes produced a sitcom, one that has a story to it. I can see why networks didn't touch animation, they can't blend their brand with animation, and it shows here. With animation you can get away with a lot more than you could with live action, so it's fair to expect them to go above and beyond.

Animation

I'm mixed. At the very least the show has a style I can easily associate to it, on the other hand, it doesn't look very good. The animation's stiff, I even noticed a big inconsistency well into the pilot. This lack of polish is expected if you don't intend for your pilot to get picked up, but if it's the opposite, you gotta spend enough time to make sure it's fit to air.

Overall

Was it better that this show never got past the pilot, or worse? ABC and CBS basically went by a weak prayer when they tried prime-time sitcoms. NBC never bothered, or just came out early enough to avoid the tombstone gag in that episode of Treehouse of Horror.

The entire show felt like a missed opportunity, sky's the limit when you pick the brain of a comedian who wants to get back to simpler living, or go into the inner workings of stand-up comedy. At the very least I can commend them for not following the same route of The Simpsons, but they needed a better concept to sell people on the idea of a series.

Somehow, someway, I feel Brad Grey felt the same way, which is why Sammy focuses on the personal life of an actor. Hope someone finds the episodes, I think I'll have a lot more fun with that show than I did this pilot.

Some dogs deserve to lie.

FOP's Pilot Shorts

 Fairly Odd Parents began to suck as it got further down the road, that's basic knowledge. But, the deeds of he who shall not be named until I forget about it well into the entry made us more cynical to aspects to a childhood he claimed to have created.

I think the show sucked from the start, which most of you disagree with, but to be more specific, the show had a very bad beginning in my opinion, the original shorts, even a bulk of the first season didn't hold up as well (and of course the seasons I'd consider good have a decent bulk of stiffs.)

Some of you may point out that I essentially talked about this in my FOP/ChalkZone comparison entry, I'm giving it its own dedicated entry, and I'm going back into each short with some more detail, though the titles still escape me.

If I haven't seen one of them or I don't remember them, I'll admit it.

The First One

I won't be too hard on this as this was where everything began. The idea's ludicrous, but things would make more sense if you give it the time to grow. Not to mention... I don't remember this as well.

Too Many Timmys

Basically killed by a tacky premise, stop me if you heard this one before, multiple clones are created to take care of multiple chores, driving one person out of the loop crazy? One thing I like about episodes with this premise is that they at least tried to make it stand out from other episodes like it, for example, any episode that has the clones take on different personalities.

You can give it the benefit of the doubt of being during the earlier days of Oh Yeah! Cartoons, and... okay sure, but compared to what didn't make it to air, this is pretty dull by comparison. Take a clone-premise down to its basic components and throw in the typical Timmy-Vicky dynamic and tell me how you'd think it'd turn out.

No, seriously, I'd like you to tell me in the comments how you'd think the short would've played out with that premise.

Where's the Wand?

I haven't seen this one, beyond a clip of it shown in one of MrEnter's FOP reviews. Basically Wanda loses her wand (it was a different time, when both Cosmo and Wanda operated on the same mental frequency.) and Vicky winds up getting it. My complaints based on impressions would be rendered moot because I wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

Can humans easily use wands in Fairly Odd Parents? Most I can say is that it's just another basic premise. Other shorts would make circles around this in terms of original ideas and how they implement existing ones.

Party of Three

Only saw bits and pieces of it, or at least that's how I remember it. Vicky is let off when Timmy convinces his parents that he is old enough to be by himself. Vicky tries to expose Timmy and his fairies (and possibly him shirking his responsibilities, I don't know. Anyhow, the description on the show's wiki doesn't help, so I assume Vicky got her job back due to her claiming Timmy needed to brush his teeth.

A basic premise could be forgivable for one-offs, or done in a way that you wouldn't normally expect. But this is Butch Hartman we're talking about, and why I may be going so hard on these. His writing is as cut and dry, black and white as his religious views.

The Fairy Flu

If I had the time, a microphone, full access to Final Cut Pro at the time and abided to the stigma held by the cartoon community, I probably would've made it to the top ten when it came to the mean-spirited era of animation criticism.

If you wanted an example of that back then, this would've rung the bell. Mean-spirited doesn't have to fall under people are being mean to someone, it could be one suffering through no fault of their own. This was where Tootie debuted for the record.

After a very poor joke (and I use that term lightly, Timmy just exclaims rats, and both Cosmo and Wanda turn into them for no clear reason. It doesn't even work on an absurdist level.), Timmy bemoans having to go to Tootie's house for her birthday, while Cosmo contracts the fairy flu (every sneeze causes an unfortunate wish.)

Credit where credit is due, they do give a good reason why Timmy brings them with him to Vicky's house, but I would've just had Cosmo go to Fairy World to get himself checked out, or have a cure disclosed right away, or some third thing.

Timmy doesn't necessarily get shit on in this short, but he does get on the short end of the stick a lot of the time. I'd forgive it if the episode was funny, but this adheres to the Butch Hartman principle, if it's absurd, that's good enough for me.

I was frankly more pissed off on how Timmy got an allergy from sauerkraut even though he didn't eat it (Food-borne allergies only really take effect when the food is ingested. Refer to Stressed Eric to get a crash course on how allergies work.) Then it ends with the one cliche I hate from FOP no matter the episode. Cosmo and Wanda cracking a joke as Timmy finds himself in trouble.

What was the appeal in that?

The Temp

The introduction to Jorgen Von Strangle, but I got nothing to say on that. The episode feels clunky at best, Timmy is at odds with an elf who is assigned as a temporary fairy while Cosmo and Wanda go through a mandatory training event. Jeff (to keep you up to speed), can only grant wishes involving toys, so when the twist comes that he was a defector from Santa, I was like "No shit."

But the ending though. Was Jeff bad enough to deserve to suffer in a cult-minded elf clan? Frankly Timmy was annoying in this, especially when it came to guessing Jeff's name (that was also a slight point to Where's the Wand when Timmy questioned Cosmo's pirate name.) The episode itself was just so bland that all I could single out were the worst aspects.

All I ask was a twist where Jeff is sent away once Cosmo and Wanda return, the actual temp arrives late and Jeff was just sent to survey Timmy to judge his behavior for Santa come the Christmas sweeps, where Timmy would receive coal because of how poorly he and Jeff got along. Think about it.

The Zappy's

Ever have one of those days where you start off one way but then trail off into something entirely different? You just watched The Simpsons. That kind of analogy fits this episode. Starting off with one idea, then turning it into another, only to go back to the first when it's convenient.

To break it down. Timmy's tooth gets loose, and it seems like the episode would focus on that, then all of a sudden Cosmo and Wanda get invited to take part in an award show against Jorgen. The tooth premise only comes back when Jorgen causes Timmy to lose his tooth. I feel like there was some missed opportunities here. If it were up to me I'd incorporate elements similar to Super Bike, where Jorgen takes winning seriously and so do Cosmo and Wanda, to a further extent.

On the tooth portion, Timmy fears losing his tooth, and there could've been an interesting idea where Timmy finds himself at odds with the Tooth Fairy for refusing to give it up, perhaps a trial of sorts. Interestingly, the Timmy losing his tooth plot was brought back for a later episode, though Timmy is willing to lose it. That one also has it where the Tooth Fairy and Jorgen hit a snag on their relationship. It was more interesting than what we got here.

Scouts Honor

This one also struck a nerve in terms of how it was executed. Just a bundle of missed opportunites and punishments that don't fit the crime. Timmy tries to earn a merit badge for finding a mythical creature, it winds up being a bust. Vicky blackmails the Cream Puffs to do all her chores, not that it's important, like the episode makes clear.

Vicky tries to scare the Squirrely Scouts, she gets caught and framed like a mythical creature and put in an exhibit, all for what amounts to no good reason. Timmy was more selfish in that for trying to get a merit badge, hell, he is as selfish as Rudy Tabootie was arrogant in later seasons of ChalkZone. It's the condescending kind of selfish, where he plays the ignorance card. Once you notice it, you can delete that draft on that long detailed comment you wrote to put me in my place.

This episode felt rushed, like if Butch didn't get it done in time he would've lost a slot in Oh Yeah!'s episode of the day.

But this episode basically showcases how poorly Butch writes antagonists, and most characters. They are incredibly one-dimensional, and he wants you to pick one side only, there is no room for a different perspective. For a time, Vicky seemed to have been punished simply for existing and one minor incident she didn't even know the extent of its damage, at least that's how it feels. The episode that debuted Chompy is a good example of it, she got framed for supposedly stealing him, is still locked up in the end, and all she really did was give Timmy a wedgie in that. So, to circumvent complaints, from then on Butch worked to make her as evil as humanly possible, don't want people to see things differently, that's not in his bible.

Ed, Edd n' Eddy had a similar principle with the Kanker sisters, but at large they were just around when the Eds were doing something obviously wrong, otherwise serving as an unavoidable obstacle. I can see why they come around so often, I wish they didn't and there was some variety, but it's handled better here than Butch handled Vicky. Do we have another, possibly more angsty, Jonathan Davis on our hands?

Grojband used a similar framework when it came to Corey and Trina's relationship. But it kinda makes more sense here, Trina's at a point where she becomes more bratty, theories as to why she's such a bitch can come easily to mind, plus, we can imagine Corey isn't the best brother in the whole world since he exploits his sister's emotions and steals her diary to write hit songs. The only reason I refuse to watch the show is because I imagine it would get repetitive quickly (and I got my Laney icon on Instagram from a TommyPezMaster review.)

But back on this, I hated how Vicky's demise wasn't wrought through the Cream Puffs and her using them as a means to an end. If the Cream Puffs got Vicky to suffer the way she did at the end, it would hit better because they got the confidence to stand up to her evilness. Heck, if this was a competitive badge task, the scouts on either side would work together to stop Vicky when she tries to scare the kids. But never go to Butch with that kind of complexity, his head would collapse.

Funny thing is, the Cream Puff aspect was actually explored in the very first Fairly Odd Parents video game. They knew, well somebody knew or made a hell of a guess.

The Really Bad Day

Never saw it, full stop, next.

Super Humor

This is another episode that feels rushed. Timmy wishes he could become different superheroes, each backfiring every time. This hits hard because I actually consider the superhero-oriented episodes of FOP to be the high points of the show. Chin-Up would be my favorite episode of season one, though I consider that season to be 90% dire (Apartnership is the only other episode I like from it.)

The episode ends with Timmy making an otherwise vague wish, which leads him back to his home in his livingroom. How it led to that is what made me dislike this episode, just some rushed, clunky writing, par the course for writers who'd fold when they're given five minutes for a plot.

Any Extras

I was not a fan of the art style used in the shorts. We all know how bad of an artist Butch actually is, and it shows through these shorts. I said it before, but I'm gonna say it again, ChalkZone had better consistency when it came to its art direction, like only one character really changed.

I'm conflicted on Mary Kay Bergman's take on Timmy. I for one miss her and wish she got the help she needed to keep her from leaving this Earth, but... I guess I heard too much of Timmy's current voice to the point any other one coming out of his mouth felt weird to me.

I'm tempting the fates here, but I didn't like Cosmo's voice in this. I like the idea of Cosmo and Wanda both being idiots, but Cosmo's voice... same principle as above I guess. But, Cosmo's penultimate voice helped to distinguish it from Timmy's dad's voice, so I can see why Darren Norris made the change.

Conclusion

I can say with certainty that these were the worst offerings on Oh Yeah! Cartoons, it just pales in comparison to all else. It had some interesting shorts that could've had more staying power as shows, it gave us ChalkZone, and sure, FOP has some good episodes, but I'd call it the weakest offering when it comes to Nickelodeon's classic lineup.

So, why do I persist when it comes to FOP? Well I did grow up with this show, I saw a lot of it, so I do have a connection. Also, I'm one of the few people who'd even consider season 0 to be shit. My edge is that I'm willing to go against popular opinion now and again.

This won't be the last time I cover something FOP related, fair warning.

Oh Yeah! Cartoons: Fairly Odd Parents Vs. ChalkZone

 Or, why I feel Fairly Odd Parents always sucked.

Before the advent of NewGrounds and YouTube, the best way to share your animated works with the world was through college classes and dedicated festivals. The latter is where Pixar and Mike Judge got their starts. But that wouldn't be enough.

Enter the world of televised animated short collections, Nicktoons Network Animated Film Festival, Random Cartoons, The Cartoonstitute, Cartoon Sushi and Liquid Television. KaBlam doesn't count as they primarily used episodic shorts and Shorty McShort Shorts doesn't count either because... well, if there was one thing Enter was right about during his shittier days is that this was a low point for Disney XD.

And I had to hold off on Oh Yeah! Cartoons since this was the point to the entry. This, along with the various others, was a good opportunity for animators to share their works with the world, and maybe, hopefully, not-assuredly, get a greenlight. Oh Yeah! Cartoons was a part of my childhood. I had never seen every episode, but I have seen the show... in general. We all know the deal with the shows that made it to series from it, Fairly Odd Parents and ChalkZone.

I'd say I'd make a comparison because of that fact alone, but it gets deeper. They share the same principal production companies (well save for FOP till later on) and even the same composer, Guy Moon. Plus, I'd say both had different flavors of seasonal degradation (a fancy term for seasonal rot.)

Also, I hate the FOP pilot shorts nowadays, but I didn't have enough material to make a good review out of it, and since neither this or that could exist separately, I figured why not?

Overall Impressions

Before we get deeper into the fundamentals, I'd like to go over how well the shorts held up for me. Going into the FOP shorts as an adult, it started a bit rough, just wanted to relive some childhood memories, but it felt like I gained an ulcer the more shorts I rewatched. No wonder they're not on YouTube. Plus, I, ironically, wasn't a fan of Cosmo's voice in the earlier seasons. I don't know why. I pointed out how I felt the first season was crap in my opinion... right?

For ChalkZone, since I saw the show first I had no idea they were part of Oh Yeah! Cartoons at first (I vaguely remember the Oh Yeah! Cartoons bump on television some time ago. It was seamless when I saw them in the show proper, but I'll get back to you on that. ChalkZone is so good, not even the songs at the end bug me.

Bleeding into the actual series

There's a clear distinction between the FOP series and its pilot shorts. You could never include the latter on the former without someone questioning it. Along with odd character designs that wouldn't be incorporated later on, there're stylistic choices that were ditched before the show began, like us not seeing Timmy's parents right away (which was already a stupid idea, but Craig McCracken did a worse job with it)

For ChalkZone, I didn't realize it at first but a majority of the segments from the earlier episodes were more episodes from Oh Yeah! Cartoons (I just thought the first two were it). That was due to Nickelodeon wanting to age Rudy up for future installments (I know, surprising since they wanted SpongeBob to be younger, but I'm not saying that as if I somehow believe I'm friends with Stephen Hillenburg, my name's not Stan), and they had a two year gap as an explanation for it. So yeah, it could work, and they did, and it did.

Art Direction

The FOP shorts should clue you in to how bad of an artist Butch Hartman is. The whole thing feels... off. There had to be a reason for why the art direction took a drastic 180 when the show got picked up. Timmy has an elongated head, characters look wonky, environments are... okay they're mostly the same. It's not hard to look at, but you'd have to wonder why it got booted so soon.

ChalkZone's art direction from the shorts to the full series is... surprisingly very consistent. Rudy was the only one to get changed, but that was after two episodes and, again, this was explained. The only differences I noticed were slight drops in frame-rate, but the consistency of the first episodes of the show proper are similar to the first two shorts.

Frankly the only thing different from the shorts to the series was how Rudy's dad sounded, and it was a welcome change.

Watchability

This will cover how the episode execution compares to the show it became. Since I have much to unpack, I'll start with ChalkZone.

When you check out the show for the first time, with the first season, you've essentially seen the Oh Yeah! shorts. The style, spirit, writing quality, it never changed when it got to the full series. Bill Burnett knew full well how to keep the show watchable when you got older.

Then... FOP. The show already became infamous for its level of degradation, but if you view the episodes as entirely part of the show, you'd notice that it had been degrading since the beginning. Of the segments I've seen, they had different reasons of pissing me off.

The Temp got to me because I feel it wasn't executed properly. Oh, he didn't give Timmy exactly what he wanted, send him back to the very cult he was escaping from.

The superhero one? Felt like it was rushed especially toward the end.

The zappy's? Felt like it went from one plot to another, had a better idea for how the short could've gone, but what do I know?

Fairy Flu? Alright maybe it was fine, I'm not gonna whine about how Timmy was treated in it, even though I could say it was a torture episode and there'd be some air to it. I mean he didn't even do anything but not want to go to Vicky's house for Tootie's birthday party. I will say this, how can you get a sauerkraut allergic reaction if you don't even eat it? Food-borne allergies only happen when the food is ingested. This is illogical even by Fairly Odd Parents standards, and back then they tried to bring sense to their insanity (well, after the first episode of the show proper.), and Vicky just breathed on him for the record.

Many others are what I'd to classify as cases for Vicky. Back before she became what she was now, she was, otherwise, the typical mean teenager. My point is that it feels like she got more grief than what she would normally deserve back then. All she really did most of the time was bug Timmy, and going by the Craig McCracken principle, if you're mean to the protagonist, you're worse than Hitler.

Vicky tries to pull a prank on the Squirrely Scouts in Scout's Honor, and she is put in an exhibit with no chance of opening her mouth. This could've been better if the Cream Puffs stuck up to Vicky after she blackmailed them into doing her chores, but no, she did one thing that episode and now she has to suffer for it. All of this just to get a badge for finding a mythical creature.

Too Many Timmys, I'll say nothing, I haven't seen the segment in a while so I don't wanna go off of a judgement that may not be true.

But that seems to have been a recurring deal for FOP when it came to Vicky. She had been demonized for many episodes for Timmy's sake, sometimes the punishment doesn't fit the crime. So, rather than making better decisions when it came to writing, they just tried to make her as evil as humanly possible just to carry on as such. That was the lazy route for the record.

Funny thing is, this principle was carried over to Grojband, some Canadian show. I'm not into it because I'd be in for more of the same, though I question how good of a brother Corey is, as he exploits Trina's emotions and steals her diary to write hit songs, when she's at an age where she's perpetually in that time of the month and he's not helping matters. And people said the show only got bad later on.

A little food for thought.

Closure

I couldn't decide whether or not to make a dedicated entry for FOP's Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts or just do a comparison, but I guess for now I managed to kill two birds with one stone. I did what ChalkZone did and put in an older short with a new dedicated episode and gave justification for such.

As I got older, I got wiser to how poorly the show held up. Guess Butch's outing helped clear the path for me to make these kinds of points (along with Danny Phantom no longer being as beloved as it was back then. I hope I'm not alone in my more extreme perspectives on FOP (and I don't mean on the latter seasons, obviously.)

Episode Review: The Big Problem

It may be late to say I hated Fairly Odd Parents before it was cool to, but that would've just been a big lie, well sorta. I watched the show a lot, but I never necessarily followed it, beyond my penchant for getting suckered in by advertisements. That was a thing for many shows I watched as a kid. A lot of people say FOP became shit by later seasons, but as I became more cynical to the show, I started to hate the earlier seasons too, and yes, that goes for the Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts too, but for another day.

You may know how I feel about the episode already, as this managed to place on my worst FOP episodes lists, though Hail to the Chief is still the worst episode ever for me.

So yeah, with this in mind I can say the show sucked from the start, Butch's shitty behavior just made me wiser to how bad it was.

The Episode

I'm going to be borrowing off of Enter a bit in regards to his review on Anywhere But Here, though it'd be a bit of disagreement. He made a case for this episode handling a certain moral better than the episode of the show he compared it to, I mean I guess, I don't know if he was just claiming FOP was less disorganized than Anywhere But Here.

The episode is brought down through writing quality indicative of the average Butch Hartman show, going for the obvious and doing nothing to variate, well in the realm of FOP, but how often have you heard of getting bullied by bigger kids, going to bed early and not being able to go out with your folks? I will ask this, what idiot would be caught dead playing football?

So, after a paint-by-numbers day, Timmy wishes he could be older, and as expected he envisions a lavish over the top life. I won't talk about how he's still older than A.J. and Chester since it goes by the life granted through the wish, but it's the kind of self-indulgent fantasy that'd make you rip the skin off of your lip.

I will say this, it's surreal to see a FOP episode that used comic-style characters and backgrounds, which was a sign of the times. If there's one thing I like about the earlier seasons it's the retro aesthetic. Wish the writing was better though, the B-plot is the only thing keeping this episode from being worse.

Back to the fantasy, this kind of thing is commonplace in episodes with this moral. It happened in Anywhere but Here, and it happened to happen here too. They picture an idealistic lifestyle when they get older, and if you know better, you'd know where this'd lead.

Heh, wouldn't if be funny if Timmy was made into a balding ugly Italian guy? What? You said no? Well where were you twenty years ago? That's exactly what happens, they don't say why Timmy's like this, best I can say they just went by how he'd look with his kind of lifestyle. At the very least Anywhere But Here eased us in... kinda. It was still clear the poor execution came as early as a few scenes in, but it wasn't as quick as here.

Also, thought the gross-out began with the latter seasons? Prepare to have your mind blown.

So, the world comes tumbling down in an instant. Not mad that it's happening, but why it is. People freak out over Timmy's appearance (you can't convince me otherwise when it happens.), and nothing goes right, absolutely nothing. Shaving? Immediately gets hurt and blows a good Home Alone reference. Movies? Immedately grossed out by romance. Confronting Francis? Okay that's the most realistic out of everything. Washing dishes for not being able to pay the bill at a restaurant? Not as realistic but still there. Being kicked out of the house because you look so different? Maybe I should stop.

If that wasn't enough to convince you on worst possible scenarios, Cosmo and Wanda face reassignment and, heh, wouldn't it be funny if they'd be forced to go with a sociopath? What? You said no? Where's the Delorean?

Anyhow, it really comes tumbling down when Timmy gets arrest for, get this, set your brightness to the maximum, for being creepy.

Let me take a break to discuss Anywhere but Here. It handled its moral in a terrible way, that's obvious, but the scenario for Sabrina there was... kinda realistic. There are jobs that pay lowly, you may marry someone just to get a little extra support (though I'm not looking to settle), these things while not destined, are still possible. It's the worst possible life, but it's not out of reach.

But here, flat out, Timmy is arrested for being creepy. I'm harping on this because this is the first episode of the show proper. People say the show got worse later on, but it never started good. This isn't teaching me anything, it's fear-mongering. It's close to the end, so do I really have to go any further? Actually yeah what kind of question is that?

So, Timmy is scared straight and makes a wish to return to normal (going by a deux-ex machina where whining somehow makes him younger again), yeah, about that. Apparently it didn't occur to them to look into Da Rules before making the wish, because once you're old, you're well out of range for wish granting. In Channel Chasers, this was measured by one's dependence on fairies, which would wane as they got older, here, I think Timmy could've gotten off on a technicality since he's still mentally a kid, hence still needing them. This was all to pad the episode out, certainly, clearly.

After all that, Timmy resorted to wishing that he'd remain young forever and never lose his faries, having Cosmo make that wish then forget he did before it comes back to haunt him several years later. Given how they handled the moral, you'd be driven to think that way too. Plus the fairy who handled the reassignment quest gets it in the end for messing with the heroes. You know, with the immediate punishment of the not so good, it really gives you a glimpse into Butch's rampant Christianity.

Conclusion

You know, don't hurry to grow up is one of the most mishandled morals out there, but maybe it's something that never had any potential to begin with. All it can do is make kids fear growing up would mean their lives would be ruined and there was nothing they could do about it. It feels like one of those ideas cooked up in the midst of one afternoon by people who haven't seen children for about thirty years and have little to go off of, "If my life sucks, everyone will feel the same way I do."

I'm going after Fairly Odd Parents, not because I hate the show, but because since it happened as early as the first episode proper, and as it goes by the crappy writing standards of the show as a whole, it handled the moral even worse than others. You don't have to abandon what makes you happy as a kid, and anyone who tells you otherwise just happened to have gotten more shit than you have.

Want a show that tackles the dilemmas of growing up? Twelve Forever had been offed by the first season so you don't have to waste too much time binging it. Want a better show that came from Oh Yeah! Cartoons? ChalkZone is out there, somewhere, and their shorts held up better.

Episode Review: That Foster's One with the Hard Crushing

Well, I hope you weren't expecting a certain episode. This was meant to be a filler question on a poll, but honestly I'm glad this won because I feel I'm way too old for Camp Lazlo.

Riddle me this, how often have you seen this premise? Boys begin crushing on a girl upon seeing her for the first time or suddenly out of the blue because of one circumstantial deed, they try pursuing her unaware that their quest is in vain and their boyfriend is, by coincidence, a jackass.

If you've never seen this premise in your life, you have very likely never seen a television. Granted, the premise not as by the numbers as you'd think, but it's the little things. Example, I just stated one toward the end of the above paragraph. If you see enough episodes with this premise in a row, you're bound to find some similarities.

To be honest, none of those episodes are particularly awful and, twist of the century, neither is this. However, this episode falls under one big cardinal sin. It's bland beyond comprehension. Given a show like Foster's where non-essential characters are limited to what they were imagined to be, how can I be surprised?

But to go off topic for a bit, I'm honestly surprised and kinda happy that my Foster's review went over so well (in that beforehand I wasn't faced with any opposition when I said outright I didn't like the show.) For perspective, even as a kid I felt something was wrong with the show, and it seems I'm far from alone in having that opinion.

I picked this episode because if I discuss episodes where Bloo got it in the end, that's where opposition would come in as he was everyone's worse takeaway.

Sorry for the delay, let's rip into a plot framework almost as bad as be grateful for being a kid.

Kiss from a Weed

One unique thing about this episode is that the one guy crushing is multiplied to four, Mac, Bloo, Pizza Guy and Prince Charming, which is one small stand-out from this worn framework. There're two words I can use to describe the episode, bland, and rushed.

Rushed, it feels like everything happens sooner than they need to be. A bit of a general statement to make but sometimes a general statement is all you can put it to. One way I can sum this up is how it began, Frankie, out of the blue (and gratefulness for him agreeing to take her place on work that needs to be done), kisses Mac, and you get the idea, hopefully. The other three guys I mentioned want in after some happily coincidental miss-wording, which could amount to, well you know.

Bland, basically how the romantic conflict began. This is something that applies to the general framework of plots like that as a whole. What more could be taken from it? Guy crushes on female well out of his league, he learns that the hard way but ruins a date, but don't worry, the guy's a total jerk, and everyone but the douche can go on as good friends.

As always, it's the little things that keep episodes that use the plot as separate from one another as they could. Hey Arnold! had Arnold crush on a substitute teacher who's actually Elaine from Seinfeld. Ed, Edd n' Eddy's typical brand of absurdity made their episode interesting. The Loud House showed the negative effects on crushing on people years above their senior. The Simpsons just had Bart try to get back at Jimbo well before they became sorta friends later on. The Fairly Odd Parents stretched that into several episodes and that's worse for it than this episode.

This is another one of those episodes that can easily be summed up. So Frankie meets her douche boyfriend and they go out to dinner. The guys try to crash the date, going by selfish impulse and the boyfriend gets appropriately upset because of this, I mean, Adolf McStalin harms the noble angels and Frankie scolds the boys for crashing the date, I mean she turns against Adolf and that's one more sign-up for Tinder.

What is it with Craig McCracken putting heroes with often selfish intent against villains who were acting in self-defense and suffer the worst in the end? I mean, take what I said and check out this and the PowerPuff Girls and tell me how it effects the episode. If there's one thing Craig's shows taught me is that the side of good isn't all sunshine and farts and he has a very authoritarian perspective on morality.

The end isn't anything to write home about, as more of the same from before happens after Frankie, once more happily coincidentally poorly words her sum up on everything.

Overall

In terms of structure, this episode is practically by the numbers on a done and dusted plot frame. In terms of execution, it's just so bland and years later I'm becoming open to faults that are undeniable. You can't just assume things are bound to go your way, then crash where you're not welcome and expect things to end close to how you want them to be.

Point is, Orlando Bloo can never save a bland bordering mediocre episode, and Frankie is hardly in the top 10.

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends review

 Think my biggest problem is that when I say I won't do something, I do the exact opposite. Think it's best I explain. I made an off-the-cuff statement on Foster's on Twitter and deviantArt, and just assumed people would be like "Well I respect your opinion." But surprisingly, people seemed to agree with me in some regard. I'd wonder if this goes over well, but feedback is rare on my front.

Rambling

It should go without saying, but the mid-late 2000s was Cartoon Network's biggest dark period, and for perspective this embodies the Stuart Snyder and Jim Samples era, one who had his heart in the right place but couldn't justify it, the other who had as much foresight as MrEnter, but even Enter didn't cause a bomb scare.

Now, what made Cartoon Network so great at the time was that they were still in their infancy (when it came to original programs that is), Dexter's Laboratory was the second show on the network to gain any kind of traction (and I know about The Moxy Show) and back in the day, the era was dedicated to creator-driven programs, they'd let people put on whatever, and only cut back where need be done. Though you don't see me waxing praise over classic Cartoon Network, just know I do respect it, and I mainly dislike Powerpuff Girls because I'm no fan of Craig McCracken's style of humor. (hi Dan)

People say the downfall began when Samples was dismissed from Cartoon Network, but ever since CN's first rebrand since the checkerboard era, it led to one big tumor. As mentioned countless times, the people at Cartoon Network had no idea what to do in the mid-2000s, which is why this era was mainly dedicated to imports and direct-to-video holdovers, along with whatever still-running shows they had and their originals at this point.

The funny thing is, a stark majority of CN's shows from this era held up very poorly. Let's go over the list. People hardly talk about Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi and that show was tone deaf when it came to anime tropisms (to the point one character from it served as a representation of toxic weeaboos.), and made by a company who's work is on the low ebb on a financial basis.

My Gym Partner's a Monkey was borderline doomed from the start, and I only have one episode (comprising the A and B segments), I still like.

Camp Lazlo, no word on whether or not Joe Murray was paid to be on the network, but the show feels like it took everything Rocko's Modern Life did right, and did the exact opposite. Or maybe I'm just old?

Class of 3000... actually it's still good to this day. Funny how the one show that didn't last compared to the others manages to hold up.

ReAnimated. Yeah, this was during the Samples era. Thought Snyder directly wanted to compete with Nick and Disney? ReAnimated came out before that for the exact reason, and Snyder just wanted to at least see if it would improve ratings, even if the shows sucked.

Then there's Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. I figured I'd get some people who say they like the show out of their like for McCracken, but people actually seem to agree the show held up poorly. So whatever I may say, I won't be alone.

Finally

I grew up in the era I blithered on about before, so I had seen this show plenty of times. My thoughts on it span to many shows of the time. I didn't have a strong opinion on them, I just watched them when they were on, unless of course I'm suckered in by promotions that lead us into thinking we'd be in for something kickass, only to get a bog-standard episode that often doesn't live up to the hype. This was a dime a dozen for Nickelodeon when it came to SpongeBob and iCarly.

Funny thing is, I kinda felt like I hated this show early on. Like, this was one of the first shows I recall that I outright began to hate. When episodes I saw that I hated came on, but I had no other channel to switch to, I often muted the TV.

It's pointless to go into the plot of the whole show as it follows a non-serialized premise. Just the escapades of a foster home for imaginary friends and the people who live in and come to visit there. So let's get into the one thing people stated they hated outright, the characters.

People have said that Bloo was their most hated character but... I'm about to blow your minds. The episodes I muted happened to be ones where Bloo got his comeuppance. I basically hate everybody, but I don't hate Bloo as much as everyone else. Maybe I'm all about "Don't stoop to their level.", who knows? This goes for a lot of shows with episodes like that for the record, and may very well have turned me into the troubled jackass I am today.

Many of the characters are the sum of their parts, going through arcs that are either expected or nullified by the next episode. This could be fine if you don't expect anything much from the characters, it worked in ChalkZone because one-note characters are otherwise pushed to the side. But there're so many one-note characters it's something, even Cheese which was Cartoon Network's mascot, one of many at the time is no exception to this rule. Duchess? Enough said.

I can't put it to words why I hate these characters, because I don't know what to say, but if I had to guess, Mac and Frankie were condescending at times annoyed me the most out of the show, smug and too eager to lay on some comeuppance. It doesn't have to be shown to exist, it's felt.

I will never get why Craig McCracken is adamant on not showing the faces of most characters. Is this trying to be philosophical when he does it to Mac's mom? Where she embodies moms the world over? There's no mystery to her, she is around for whatever extent she needs to be, and if my theory is true, what's the point of hiding Ms. Bellum's face for so long? She's a terrible character so it'd be no loss if she has an ugly face.

Let's be real, anyone who had tried to hide the faces of characters either abandoned them overtime because it proved to be pointless (i.e. Fairly Odd Parents, The Loud House, someone who did webcomics on here), or actually made a decent joke out of it (Cow and Chicken made it clear mom and dad didn't have any upper halves.)

This was common in classic cartoons, but it went down like that because they weren't the focal point to the story. If there is a point to it, I don't know what it is.

I guess the one character I hate the most out of all of them is Madame Foster. The cooky senile old lady characterization gets to me something fierce, and yeah, she is pretty one note too. Anything she does is just one other aspect to her cooky aspect, it gets even older than she is.

The episodes themselves are either forgettable or, for me at least, make you question your views on morality. The most fun I had with any episode was that one special centered on Wilt, otherwise I can do without anything else.

They say the last season jumped the shark, but I don't think I saw much of it.

Animation

The show utilizes a retro aesthetic. I'm mixed on this in general. I hate shows that use it which people liked (Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi and Foster's), but like it in shows that people don't care about (Yakkity Yak and Gerald McBoing Boing) I'd mention My Life as a Teenaged Robot but I'm currently in the middle with that.

This looks like hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi with a higher budget, not cheap enough to look crap, but not expensive enough to look fluid.

Overall

You learn a little something new every day. I learned that I'm less alone than I thought with my opinions on cartoons, and that there's a building stigma on Cartoon Network shows from this era. Maybe I can get away with a negative review of Camp Lazlo, but first, I'm not entirely done with Foster's. See you next episode.

Top 3 Worst Reviewers

 So, if some crappy videos weren't interesting enough for you, maybe you'd like to see my picks for the worst reviewers ever? Admittedly I'm doing this to make up for leaving someone deserving of making my previous list out, but it would've been an umbrellaed coverage... which I did two of in that list.

Before I begin, I'd like to make some side-notes. I won't be including MrEnter or Irate Gamer in this list. For the former, it's a given once you take all I said about Enter's hatedom into consideration. If he had continued with his old style from back in the day he would've made the list for sure. For Irate Gamer, even at his worst I still watched a good deal of his videos, and he is in a better spot now than he was back then (no matter what BatDanKnight has you believe.)

Second, on the off-chance people bring up that MoBros has improved, I know that. I even saw his SpongeBob revisits where he acknowledges fault in his original videos (even from the start.), he had improved for sure in terms of reviews. HOWEVER, his old videos still had a hand in molding the cartoon community for what it is now, so I don't blame the creator, just the videos.

So with that said, let's get into more of the same, but slightly different.

RowdyCMoore

He completely flew off the radar in my Worst Reviews list. I don't know where he would've landed, maybe right at the bottom since somehow his content wasn't as low-budget or damaging on an influential basis, then again, Rowdy's been damaged on an influential level.

Rowdy hosts TV Trash, to give you the review series proper. They used to be on Blip TV until that site went belly up, but fortunately his reviews are still up on Vimeo (if you're ever that curious.) I heard about him back when I used to post blogs on Manic-Expression (though it was well after his heyday). I got into several fights with him on Facebook on politics (though that was me popping up when it wasn't necessary.) But honestly given his content, it's not worth dwelling on.

Rowdy was one of many reviewers who took inspiration from Nostalgia Critic, and that influence shows heavily in his reviews. He goes after shows that few have talked about, which is good, but he's angry about them, which is bad. Think Linkara if he decided to just rip off the Nostalgia Critic wholesale.

There's no charm in these reviews, and the sentiment extends to its watchability. I could barely make it through one review I saw by him (The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer), and if you say anything, it's to be expected his other reviews play out similarly. Frankly, the Nostalgia Critic had a negative influence in hindsight, which is why saner reviewers tried to do their own thing or scale back. Those who don't... well I imagine they have to stuff reviews behind a paywall, and a dollar is too much to watch coverage of a film I already know about.

If you know who I'm talking about, that guy isn't so much bad, just stagnant at this point.

Marlyonama

Let's be real, PushingUpRoses is the only objectively good female reviewer on YouTube.

Marlyonama is interesting, in that she was one of the earliest female reviewers on YouTube, though it doesn't change the fact that her content is ass and a half. With or without a script, she is unbearable to listen to, any points she brings up are either lifted near-verbatim from other reviewers or are carried out in an over the top way (or at least tries to come off as such, the bad acting ruins that illusion.)

Not to mention, she's not necessarily the prettiest flower in the garden. She lashed out at one commentator who covered her Tentacolino review, even removing one review outright after another person commentated on it. It seems she hasn't improved much either. Frankly I have no idea how much better she is now. The few videos I saw of her basically ruined any hope of me changing my mind on her.

If you really wanna watch her videos, I suggest you check out commentaries made by RickyRay102 and Doodletones on her Tentacolino and FoodFight! reviews, because trust me, hearing other people tear them to shreds would be worth it.

TommyPezMaster

Yeah I know, but trust me, Tommy deserves the title more than anyone else. The first two reviewers here obviously took influence from the Nostalgia Critic, some worse than others. This time, Tommy took influence from MrEnter back when he was trash. But it seems Tommy took more notes from Enter's earlier Atrocity videos than his recent ones (at least that's the idea I got.)

For perspective, I couldn't make it through the one review I saw him post, I dreaded how many times I'd have to see a running gag where he inserts an anime intro whenever one character was about to speak. I have received testimonies which confirm he takes points almost verbatim from MrEnter, few can make sense of his points against many shows, along with various quirks with even his written reviews (comparing two entirely different shows to one another as his tagline for many of his IMDb reviews.), not to mention he likes Saberspark, the first reviewer you find when you just want to look up some crappy CGI movie from your childhood, and very likely sticks to easy targets.

Compared to every other reviewer I know of, how could Tommy not top them all?

ReAnimated review

The biggest problem with CN Real was a lack of foresight... okay and the shows sucked too, as someone who hates going with the majority a lot of the time, I will never defend CN Real. A bulk of the programs they showed were either forgettable or destined to become cringe when you revisit them as an adult. Even Nickcoms had more soul than these shows, even if Dan Schneider embodied them all (what am I saying? I hate all of them)

There's a big reason I'm bringing up CN Real. It was a can of worms that landed on CN's desk some time after the release of one certain TV movie. Plus, it turns out that one of CN Real's shows happened to be a television adaptation of this movie.

Background

You probably figured out what I was gonna say before I said it, but for the sake of context, er, bite your lips.

ReAnimated is a live-action/animated hybrid movie that came out on Cartoon Network in 2006. It was around this time Cartoon Network was starting to scramble when it came to their shows. While they kept up with new entries and still-running old shows, well, who in their right mind still likes Camp Lazlo? 

Cartoon Network wanted to keep things interesting, so from then they worked on acquiring broadcasting rights to various Canadian and French cartoons (Which is how we got Totally Spies, Code Lyoko, Robotboy, George of the Jungle, etc,), continuing with inherited properties from Kids WB (starting with Static Shock way back when, Teen Titans and Johnny Test), continuing to air Christmas specials regardless of quality (that's where I first saw Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer) and even direct-to-video movies were screened on the network.

Then came Nickelodeon, who along with their cartoons also aired sitcoms. Them doing so would guarantee they would get more than just kids to watch their network. While I can't confirm things when it comes to ratings, it seems Nickelodeon would've got more views regardless of quality due to them being able to air just about anything, while Cartoon Network stuck to their guns. 

So, in 2006, perhaps to open the gate for potential new program opportunities, ReAnimated made its debut. I'll get into the reactions soon, but first, trivia.

The film featured a roster of otherwise negligible actors, three of which being kid actors who were burned off a few years after this movie came out. Laughably, this and Out of Jimmy's Head were the high-points to one actor's career (Matt Knudsen who played Sonny.) Perhaps unsurprisingly, he had no notable acting roles after this movie came out. Only notable actor on here is Fred Willard, may he rest in peace.

Along with live action actors, we also have voice actors (appropriately), namely Paul Reubens, Ellen Greene, Tom Kenny and Brian Poeshn. I was close to assuming Jennifer Tilly appeared in this due to how similar one of the characters sounded to her, but this just means Tilly has strong priorities.

But, what do you get when you combine a live-action film that feels like a bootleg Thomas W. Lynch show (The Troop, 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd, Catlin's Way, The Troop, Romeo!, etc.), with an animation studio that're starving for money? Don't answer that. Most of you may know, but for those coming in, I hate Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi. So it should be no surprise I have no glowing opinion for the studio that helped work on the film, Renegade Animation. I'll go into how badly their work meshes with all else in a bit, but for a preface, this was their second big project (well for Cartoon Network excluding an unrealized pilot from way back when.)

Appleday Studios is just a moniker for Turner Studios for the sake of going with the film.

So, reception.

Divisive can't possibly describe how this film went over, though people were more on about how Cartoon Network aired live action on their network. 10-11 year old me was easily suckered when it came to show promos, and when I saw it, well I didn't think much of it, such is the way with things I actually caught when they were new.

My one revisit as an adult came from MrEnter's review of it from way back when, and as an adult, I'd break my own mouse and/or space key because I'd have to pause the movie so many times just to catch my breath. I watched a lot of Nickelodeon sitcoms back in the day, so I have the stomach for surface level cringe, hell I wasn't harsh to Romeo! a show that started out as tween cringe before pulling a major 180 by the second season and even saw a handful of episodes only a few weeks ago.

When you make a man of low standards cringe, you deserve every bit of scorn and ire.

For perspective, I'd put this film on the same level as School Gyrls, in terms of how obnoxious and painful it is. How so? 90% of everything Enter said about it can be considered the truth about it, and this was during his lesser era. I may make the same points, and if they're verbatim, it's only because I couldn't find a better way to describe them.

So the movie

In my Hi Hi Puffy Ani Yumi review I criticized the show for using an art style that contrasted with is Japan-centric framework, it being only a small sum up of what anime is like (I mean come on, it's based on a Japanese band and has Japanese culture, you gotta commit much further than Jay Ward-centric hijinks)

Okay to the point, much like how that show went by a basic depiction of anime, this show went by a basic depiction of tween-sitcom life, workaholic mom, eccentric dad, down to Earth sister (punchline soon to be intended) and the awkward as hell younger boy who's woefully unpopular. The dad's his principal, but that's honestly meaningless, he feels like a dad who's in a mid-life crisis but is desperate to cling to his childhood. I mean I can forgive watching cartoons, I'd be a hypocrite for mocking him for that since cartoons are timeless, but he's the kind of idiot that lacks any nuance to it.

For now, the movie feels like a mix between Ned's Declassified School Survival guide and As Told by Ginger. The former shows through the film trying to be like a live-action cartoon, but while that managed to be funny more often than not, okay you get the point. But to be specific, it just amounts to characters being over the top, and some random things like animals popping up every now and again.

But on As Told by Ginger, and you may have already caught it if you've seen this and Enter's review, Jimmy (the boy blunder) is friends with Craig, and their friendship is similar to Ginger and Dodie's, where I question the faith of the latter two for each pair. Craig is desperate to be popular, like Dodie. Craig treats Jimmy as a springboard to get approval, like Dodie. Craig annoys the hell out of me, and did I mention Dodie sucks?

To drive the point home, I don't agree with the stigma of calling some characters assholes, so you have to really screw up to make me break that doctrine. And guess what? He's like Sam from Danny Phantom in that he fucks up the life of a so called friend, leading to the major plot.

Jimmy attends a field trip to Golly World (I mean I think that's what it's called), where they learn of a rumor that the brain of its founder, Milt Appleday, had been buried below one of the park's rides (and yes, this is meant to coincide with one certain Disney urban legend. The potential for that had worn thin since 9 times out of 10, it proves to be true in episodes that incorporate that plot.)

So, Jimmy is sent to retrieve the brain, at the behest of Craig who'd gladly send him to an organ harvesting cult, probably, and comes across our antagonist, Sonny Appleday. Once caught, Jimmy tries to get away and gets run over by a train. At least that'd be the most sensible thing to happen. Up until now the cartoon-esque scenes amounted to just over-the-top characters and things that occasionally happen. This is already pretty known, but for the sake of discussion, the slow movement of the train and the collision causes Jimmy to go flying, literally.

Nothing could've made it look good.

After that, the impact causes Jimmy to get hospitalized, and in need of a new brain. You'd think with that kind of accident the brain would be the least of anyone's worries? If it was head first he would've snapped his neck, hell, the impact would've paralyzed him. I'm looking too deep into this, but I just want to know the correlation between a new brain and falling hard onto concrete.

This could be going back into cartoon logic to go with the human cartoon business, but this could also be down to crappy writing, and a desperate attempt to get to the selling point of the film. The only brain the staff has access to is that of Milt's. It had been in one of the doctor's possessions for years, for some reason. So, with Milt's brain he is able to see things through Milt's perspective, namely the cartoons he had created.

For perspective, this is part of Milt's mind, but Jimmy still has his old memories. I don't know the ins and outs of how brains work, but I imagine they took more liberties than necessary.

Okay, let's take a break from this and discuss the quality of the animated bits.

You already know what I think of Renegade's style, but let me tell you, they make things worse. First off, the cartoons themselves, they try to replicate the theater shorts of old, but it just looks like a modern day cartoon made by someone well behind the curve. The cheap flash animation clashes heavily with the live-action bits, cheap green-screening galore. This really just exemplifies how cheap Renegade is, even with Unikitty, they never evolved.

So Sonny paid at least one thoughtful visit my heart goes out to him. He was offered rent, seeing Jimmy he perspired oh, what am I alluding to? That was meant to be a Morrissey reference.

Non cringe sum-up, Sonny finds Jimmy's house and manages to get in by renting a room. There we meet the rest of the family proper, along with My Dad the Dimstar, we meet Jimmy's mom, an astronaut and his sister, a thot who enjoys Shrek cosplaying. Actually no that would make more sense, she is an alien, like an all green, long antenna sporting alien. Some say she was the most tolerable character in the film, but she's just the typical middle-ground type character. I.e., bland and uninteresting.

So, after Craig makes it clear how lowly he views Jimmy, of the toons (which I fucked up and didn't name right away). Mickey and Minnie references Golly and Dolly, Goofy reference Crocco the Aligator, pun-spouting comedian number 5009 Tux (think Luan Loud but more cringe), and Tom and Jerry references Pickle and Prickle.

Call it a minor nitpick, but it seemed like the business with Golly and Milt was meant to be entirely based on Disney. Why else would you go the route of a Disneyland-type themepark, characters meant to be like Mickey and Minnie in terms of structure? The inclusion of Tom and Jerry type characters only gives me a worse perception on the movie's writing. Renegade had no clue on how anime works, the writers had no clue on consistency when it comes to a brand known the world over. Just saying.

Anyhow, seeing how pathetic Jimmy is, Golly opts to help Jimmy straighten himself out and stand up for himself, and it works. My mind blanks after this point, so let's discuss Jimmy's love interest... girl. Or Robin for the sake of following along.

Robin is... all but forgotten to me. Most I can say is that she's on good terms with Jimmy and his topper and has a dark secret... that she like Golly and cartoons in general. If you have to hide your interests for your own sake you are shallow by default. If you wear your interest on the sleeve that means you have nothing to hide. I'd rather be with someone that likes Adam Sandler than Citizen Kane because they'd have more character to them by default.

So anyway, blah blah bruh, we learn that Golly's popularity had been severed by Sonny years ago, yet apparently the theme park is still attracting visitors and past cartoons are shown, I dunno, cheap tickets and syndication?

Jimmy is assigned the new head of Appleday Studios (or Golly World, I dunno), due to him having the mind of Milt, which could keep them on the right direction. He invites his friends to play along in the studio, but becomes distant from them as he has to, shock and horror, honor his role. Hey, he made the right choice blowing Craig off, hurts donit?

This movie features ideas that'd be too complicated for the writers on board, they think tweens are idiots by default, I know it's funny coming from someone like me, but I get it, I just hate rubbing elbows with people like that. They could've done something like explore Milt potentially having a deteriorating mind and it leading Jimmy to doing something potentially fatal (they did have Milt eat flavored paint.) They could've explored Sonny's relationship with Milt and why Sonny became so crazy. You get to a point where you could piece together ideas that'd make the film at least somewhat more interesting. This didn't need to be a tween-com.

It culminates in Sonny tying Robin to the train tracks, just as a new attraction is unveiled which would kill her and cause Jimmy to lose his head so he could get the brain. But Jimmy isn't around as he decides to honor his stockholm syndrome and go to a party helmed by Craig. The choice is clear. To lose Craig is to gain what's important in life.

Jimmy winds up going to save Robin, and remember how I lumped this with School Gyrls? In that film they put in animated bits which suggest they had to cut corners to get the film out on time and cheaply? One scene in this movie gives me that vibe. The world suddenly turns animated and Jimmy charges for Robin, adorned in armor and aboard a steed.

Did they run out of time? Did they blow all their budget on that kick ass train accident scene? Only good thing about it is the animation here doesn't look as ugly as School Gyrls' animated bits, but both are still cheap as hell.

Anyway, Sonny goes through the same fate as his actor's career, Jimmy gets to the party and several years from now will go bankrupt due to him having to handle Craig's finances because he is that weak. Yeah, about that, Jimmy's more assertive nature was treated as a bad thing, so he is devolved back to his old self, well for the most part, he got with Robin (I believe.)

Final thoughts

ReAnimated was a failure on all fronts. It's not that they aired live action on a channel dedicated to cartoons, but that it was a crappy movie that'd make the average Schneider-com blush. All I got from it was more reasons to hate Renegade Animation. Needless to say, few of the actors went on to do much else. The lead actor, beyond a role in Wild Hogs had never done anything else, people seemed to really hate Craig to the point he didn't have another acting role until 2014 (though then again he's more into doing stunts and had landed spots in more prolific films with that.)

It's history, but this managed to get a TV spin-off on CN Real (though that was owed to them wanting to keep costs low as they focused on original content and didn't want to die on some ill-advised venture.) Apparently the staff hated Renegade's work, so they have no involvement in the show. Though they did get help from the guys behind That's So Raven and Even Stevens. Craig didn't appear in this, well the character did but not the actor. Don't ask me to review the show.

Honestly, the only way this movie could've worked is if it were some mid-late 90s horror film (intentional or non-intentional), where Jimmy gets the worst aspects of Milt and we get an idea on why he went belly up, Sonny had been mentally scarred by an abusive father (Milt), and Craig dies at the end.

Tell me that's no better.

Worst Reviews Ever

It's easy to throw shit at reviewers nowadays, though it's becoming less common due to so many reviewers appealing more to familiarity and hemorrhaging for views rather than dishing out genuine opinions (with the amount of crappy CGI movies Saberspark covers, something tells me he helped make one years ago and is still proud of it.)

People can single out the personality behind the reviews, as the reviews themselves give us an idea on what someone is like behind the scenes, but sometimes a review can be just as shitty as they are, or they just fucked up at one point and it's hard to dismiss.

Er, fuck it, here're six reviews I find to be quite crappy, including some umbrellaed ones.

Marlyonama: Tentacolino

Starting off small, here's something a bit more obscure. Marlyonama is unique in that she's one of the few female reviewers on YouTube. But that's rendered meaningless due to the fact that her videos are cringe (I mean the more infamous ones anyhow.)

Marlyonama emerged around the time Nostalgia Critic did his review of Legend of the Titanic and refused to do the sequel. It was there that I discovered many new reviewers like WhyBoy and Bobsheaux, and while the former mostly evolved, the latter became stagnant. I mean it checks out, this review came out in 2012, and... it sucked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN9s_hZdxAg

It was below the par of other reviews from the time, and it got to the point a commentary was made on it by RickyRay102. Marly isn't the sweetest pot of honey on the shelf, as a matter of fact she's quite passive aggressive, as at one point she left a nice comment on the commentary, then did a negative reaction not long after.

For perspective, it wasn't just that one video, apparently a commentary was also done on her FoodFight! review, this time by DoodleTones, call that a preventative measure for a one-sided hatred claim.

BaseballSam1

BaseballSam1 was fairly known back in the day, and he still makes new videos though he is now off the radar. Once you see one BaseballSam video, you basically get the gist.

Sam had low production values, footage was recorded off of his phone. Plus he recycled opinions shared on other cartoons verbatim, each of his videos can be considered one in the same.

This guy is lower on the list because the one review I saw of him, the only reason I didn't make it all the way was because it was on Teen Titans Go. If I hated the show as much as everyone else I probably would've made it through.

Otherwise, this is to label all of Sam's crappier content to his old channel. His production has improved quite a bit since then, though I can't say how much else he had improved everywhere else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkK4PiizZDA&t=156s

MrEnter: Da Boom Crew

On the off-chance you assume I'm blindly defending enter because I'm referring to many of his detractors as starting a new trend of A-Logs, I'm going by what Enter is now, not what he used to be. Enter's videos could be divided into four camps, his avatar videos where he appears when narration isn't needed, his original videos where he was just starting out (bored and uninteresting), his intro videos, where a bulk of his old cringe come from (these Animated Atrocities had the opening), and his episode title-card reviews (the ones with red and black title cards)

That era was where he started ramping up the anger, and I feel his review of Da Boom Crew at that point was the worst of it. In the past, I actually managed to get through Enter's older videos because I held a similar mindset to the people who watched him back then, but I couldn't make it through his Da Boom Crew review.

Let's get this out of the way, it gets repetitive real fast, and something tells me he hadn't tried to find the context in most of what's going on. Sad thing is, Da Boom Crew is a crappy show, but the review isn't any better. If Enter continued to make videos this way, I wouldn't have warmed up to him and I'd see things through the perspective of his detractors, but frankly he had improved since then, and everyone's stuck with minor hiccups and past follies, hoping and praying they could keep the hate-wagon alive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60ef8jQyw5k

Game Dude: Just About Anything

I don't hate the Irate Gamer. It seems many people have moved on from hating him, some even considering his videos welcome compared to where AVGN is now (and this is coming from someone who still watches AVGN). At worst, Chris isn't as honest when it comes to using CAMEO for his celebrity features, but that's about it.

If there's one AVGN clone I do hate however, it's Game Dude. People were so focused on how he ripped off the AVGN, that they practically missed the deeper parts of it, I mean Encyclopedia Dramatica did, and they're usually on the ball. To get you up to speed, Game Dude was a stalker who was actually taken to court for it, before fleeing the country afterwards (though it's rumored he had likely come back.)

While his production values were surprisingly decent, given that he was a film student (albeit one who would frequently re-edit his student projects, much like how he took down reviews that didn't obtain four stars or higher.), it didn't change the fact that his reviews were shitty and sucked ass. People said his Sonic 06 review was good, but then again any review of it is good just as long as you say how bad it is.

Jokes felt forced, he had a habit of shitting on newer adaptations of classic game icons in order to score appeal, plus he shat on lesser known games just for the hell of it. That's really all that could be said about him, everything he has ever done was shit. I couldn't even find a review worse than the others, so here's just a small taste

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f17C0K-FRgQ

2: MoBrosStudios' SpongeBob Reviews

MoBrosStudios' SpongeBob review videos have held up poorly for me. I remember watching them when they were new, back when all I had to worry about was school, he was also the guy who got me into YouTube Poops for a while, and cultivated a negative aspect of the cartoon community that persists to this very day.

Why do we have people militantly pining for the older episodes (at least a lot back then)? MoBrosStudios reaffirmed their importance by treating the later seasons like they were the worst thing ever (now yeah those seasons aren't up to par, frankly the more expressive later episodes make me sick), his projection reaches whining standards, and he's a reason MrEnter's older videos were so garbage.

MoBrosStudios, being one of the pioneers of more ambitious YTPs, had influence, and when it comes to SpongeBob SquarePants, he can bring anyone any way, and MrEnter seemed to be one of them. Well, not by much, just using a term coined by MoBros in his SpongeBob videos, what was it called? Squidward Torture Porn? Why did he call the writers by name in his reviews? Well MoBros did the same in his SpongeBob videos, particularly Aaron Springer.

The reason why I brought up how MoBros and Nostalgia Critic influenced Enter is because of those influences, Enter cultivated a personality that led people to hate him to this very day. Thanks to how he happened to be years ago, people will continue to use him as a means of boosting their own self-esteem. I'm not harping on MoBros, believe me I'm not, he has improved ten fold in terms of reviewing in his Anim8Ball videos, but his earlier content had done more harm than good in the long run.

At large, these videos feel immature in a way, trying to embellish aspects that were less awful and more just mindless. Not to mention, he takes SpongeBob continuity too seriously, well one time he did, he based SpongeBob and Sandy's karate prowess entirely on Karate Choppers. Not to mention, he placed Rodeo Daze as number two on one of his lists, when it was the least offensive of all the other episodes. One aspect? He was mad that the town didn't rally together to help. Thinking about that, I want so bad to see a show parody the whole town coming to help cliche by having them abandon important aspects just for the sake of one guy. It was a stupid episode, but there were plenty other episodes that deserved to rank at 2 in that list.

These reviews are the equivalent of Sonic 93's old rants, good for the time, but wound up doing more harm than good, though at least MoBros' old channel is still open.

Some of these videos are gone, so here's the first part of the one that started it all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUGXvBHmmEw

TommyPezmaster: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: The Series

We started with relative obscurity, we end with relative obscurity. TommyPezMaster isn't just a bad reviewer, but a sight to behold everywhere else. You won't find his reviews on YouTube, but they are on his Vimeo. Tommy strikes me as someone who'd shoot up a store in Canada (because he hates that country so much) and doesn't even know the meaning behind half of his inspirations.

All I got from him is that he hates CatDog and ChalkZone, two great shows, but his reasoning is poor. He assumes CatDog is reliant on toilet humor, and he hates Canadian-sounding guys, which accounts for coherence in his ChalkZone review. I tried to have an open mind when looking up his reviews, so I looked for a review on a show I hardly care about. Then came Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. I wasn't a fan of the movie, so when it got a TV spin-off... I could've cared less, but it does look very bad, maybe I can focus less on a difference in opinion and just see how he goes on about it.

I stopped watching at the start of a gag where he would insert an anime intro when one character spoke. This felt like a parody of the old MrEnter, but he was desperate to make his own thing to. He claims something is mean spirited, but he doesn't put it to what happens in the episode he's covering, he claims to censor some aspects, but we don't know what (unless this was just him ripping something from another reviewer)

The scary thing is, I cut out after four to five minutes, there could be so much more wrong with the review that I don't know about. It's sad really, this looks like it could very well be a very crappy show, what with it being ugly and being on the lazy side when it comes to plots, not like Tommy'd be smart enough to point out something like that.

https://vimeo.com/207741668