ChalkZone is one of the most underrated Nicktoons of all time. If people praise it constantly and lose their mind if someone dare say something negative about it, and constantly vouch for its revival, it's not underrated, Rise, Infinity Train, Glitch Techs, Adventure Time. If something doesn't receive as much attention as it deserves, that is underrated. ChalkZone.
ChalkZone is pretty interesting when it comes to its progression. It had an incredibly short first season which is made up of shorts from its time on Oh Yeah! Cartoons, it had a fuller second season, and by the third season, things started to feel a bit off. Some episodes paled, some episodes stuck, it depends on what you saw. I feel like the fourth season marked a return to normalcy, even if the season was wrought through contractual obligation and they had to commission a different studio to produce the animation, and it's very noticeable.
I was gonna cover this back in July, you know, Christmas in July, but it got away from me. Welp, no time like the present.
Episode
When Santas Collide is the epitome of "well that escalated quickly", either that or they spend so much time on meaningless scenes that they forgot about the more important ones. Things either start quickly or end just as soon.
Rudy gets mad that he won't get some artist pencils for Christmas because of certain delays, well on his father's part because he didn't get the Santa suit, or bothered to find the box which was obscured from view and decides to run off to ChalkZone for a little escape, at least that's what it feels like. Any trouble relating to what happened in the real world is hardly brought up (in my case hardly is not the same as nothing, benefit of the doubt as it was a while since I saw this.)
Almost instantly we get a song, a staple for the show. Now, I'm not knocking ChalkZone for their songs, they have some straight bangers that're cool even for grown ass men. This isn't an exception, it's a progressive wet dream that appeals to celebrators of Christmas, Hanukah, Ramadan and Kwanzaa. Tết is a no-show, but can I get away with a joke like that?
How could I not forget the lyrics, Merry Chrishanukahmas, and a Happy Ramakwanzadah. Either these overshadow the rest of the song, or that's all there was. Personally, I prefer something simple, like Snowflake Day.
The conflict in ChalkZone comes through an accident that wipes out various Santas, yes in ChalkZone there are multiple Santas that are drawn and erased, and Rudy has to take the forefront to deliver the toys and save Christmas, Penny comes out to stall for time.
We get Santas, but little collision, unless this refers to them getting injured. Is this false advertising on SpongeBob and iCarly levels? Either things are going too fast or they invested time into areas where it wasn't very necessary. So, bad to worse? The Santa costume Rudy's dad ordered turns out to be a Bunny costume and they scramble to go look for another, they being him, Rudy's mother, the young niece and her mother who's very obviously voiced by Grey DeLisle. I swear I can't get away from her. Did people forget Kath Soucie existed?
So toy delivery, Rudy shows up as Santa, gets the knowledge he'd get those pencils and then just gives them to the niece, even though all of this started over him overthinking the Santa situation early on. This seems like a forced resolution, dare I guess, it is. Was it implied the niece wanted to learn to draw? Did Rudy stifle her? Was any of this implied in the special? Not at all. This happened for the sake of fulfilling some kind of cliche, if not for the sake of happening.
Final Thoughts
In the back of my mind, I feel like this was an episode nobody wanted to make, so they sought to get it off the chopping block as soon as they can, network demands may also apply. A ChalkZone Christmas special could work, even subverting the cliches associated with them. We deserve more than Charle Brown and Frosty the Fieving Snowman.
Perhaps have Rudy bring a ChalkZone Santa out to the real world to fill in, and make his dad jealous when he can't pull it off, leading to them trying to one-up each other, or in that case, replace Rudy's dad with a street Santa and there you go. There are Santas, and there is collision, and the plot is simple enough to fit the show.
This felt very disappointing, I like the show, but this left very much to be desired. This is one dour Christmas special.
And with that I say..... bye.
No comments:
Post a Comment