I have a problem. I want to pour my soul about drama relating to Irate Gamer from years ago, but I may be signing my own death warrant doing so, as in, becoming like MrEnter and having a crappy meme tied to me. Not to mention I'd be doing what the creator of a hate blog wants, and that is recognition for wasting thirteen years of his life. Not to mention, sensible people don't even remember Irate Gamer. I don't know what to do...
Oh, Chadtronic posted a new reaction vid? Piggly Wiggly? I've heard that name on an episode of Hotel Hell, they made a TV show? This was made during the heyday of Barney the Dinosaur? Wait, Ricky's Room? This seems interesting, I'll just see what the people have to say- Rip-off allegations? Holy shit, a sign.
So anways, Barney the Dinosaur, he was a dinosaur sensation. For a time people absolutely hated the character, his show and what he stood for. If you were a grown adult who still liked Barney, that was basically like asking people to harass you. Just ask Tooner1994, or Jeremy Crispo, or some other obscure commentary target from years ago that I know about for some reason.
It was big then, but it looks like that stigma died down years ago. SpaceHamster, game reviewer, admitted outright to having a nostalgic connection to Barney, and he hasn't been MisAnthroPony'd. Not doing anything? Well, remember BlackBusterCritic, and that time he reacted to a Barney fan's comments? Said Barney fan resurfaced with a documentary relating to Barney, albeit on an indefinite hiatus, and it has been recognized by staffers from the show, and well-recieved by audiences.
So yeah, Barney is no longer the dinosaur sensation he was, nor was he part of my childhood.
But you're not hear for that...
Ricky's Room.
It's no surprise that Barney had quite a lot of influence back then. It got to the point people attempted to cash in on the show's success with their own sensations. Stuff like Bloopy's Buddies came out, but is not really that known, Dream Bunny basically shit its pants before it became accessible... I don't know any of the rest.
Ricky's Room was a Canadian production, handled entirely in-house by a dedicated production unit. The only company involved with it I know about was its home media distributor, Ventura Distribution, which basically released lower end DVDs, probably for cheap. I know this show was produced in Ontario, and it seems that's the place for lower budget productions, and lower effort. It was the same place Turning Red was set, no wonder it sucked such balls.
I don't recognize any of the actors listed as constants on IMDb, the only one of note, Ron Sparks, is notable because he lent his voice to Crash Canyon, a Canadian Family Guy clone that ToonGrin covered ages ago.
Two out of three actors with their faces shown had gone on to appear in partisan productions. I mean they were already dumb enough to appear on this show apparently. But wait, I found one, Jake Epstein would go on to appear in episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation.
What's interesting is that this show turned up on the same place as Barney, PBS, even getting reruns on Sprout in later years. They said it aired on NTV years ago, but it sounds like an obscure network. I tried cross-referencing as much as I could to determine it, but let's just move on. I know in Canada it aired on CTS Television, which is currently a religious service. Just throwing that out there.
So...
Follow along here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyfiSP78fCw&t=1489s
To establish where rip-off allegations come into play, Barney makes use of a simple aesthetic. A costumed character interacts with a bunch of kids, dealing with basic issues and singing songs. I brought this up in my KingMasterReview journal, you can't base your influence on someone or something already distinctive. It would be harder to establish a disconnect between the show itself, and what it's based off of.
The only major distinction is the use of rhinos, rather than dinosaurs. Yay, you did the bare minimum. Any differences would be inconsequential to discuss, for the similarities are too obvious to pass up. Well for one difference, I suppose Ricky's pals aren't portrayed as younger than him, like for Baby Bop and BJ.
I'm looking at one episode now, and I will only single out bits and pieces that definitely scream Barney, like how Ricky speaks in a similar fashion to Barney. I hold no high expectancies for the kids in this, but they manage to strike the perfect balance between ham and actual talent. I found out who Jake Epstein played, the blue shirt kid, and yeah, he's the best actor in this, I can tell.
Two minutes in, and so far it's not too annoying, especially since we get our first song, which is bearable, even if the lyrics are ass. The show is incredibly low budget, I can tell. Taking one look at it you'd think this came out in the mid-90s, but no, this actually came out in 1999.
Speaking of Ricky's pals, one of them comes in, Harold the hippo, who straight up looks like Charlie Tuna from Foodfight, or just gives me those vibes.
So the plot of this episode is that Ricky and the gang are looking to solve mysteries, and decided to do one relating to Harold's packed schedule. Place your bets, is this gonna turn out to be a surprise Harold had planned for the gang? I mean, I get what they're going for, but sometimes you gotta be respectful and take it as a given. Some friends you'd be if you complicate another's life because they had no time for your shenanigans. This would be a good time to teach something like patience or respecting someone's privacy or wishes. Just saying.
To be fair, I do like how one friend offers a suggestion he's just busy doing a personal project, and it's not immediately written off, saved by the doorbell.
Ricky soon meets his... sister? Nicky. Hi Ricky, hi Nicky, where's Dicky and Dawn?
But hold my thought on the Harold subplot, I missed the title of the episode. It seems this episode may be about helping find the owner of a toy truck left behind in the park. I can respect the intent behind this, working to help bring back things lost, or I'm giving too much credit to a preschool show.
But right now, it feels like they're trying to hammer in educational tidbits to justify its placement in educational schedules. If that doesn't sound bad, they wind up doing a song about construction work. I am starting to really feel like quitting, but instead.
Two minutes later...
Basically alluded to the need to return items to their rightful owners, Nicky wants to do the same. Let's modify the bet, will the toy truck be the reason Harold is so busy or just have some relation to him?
We get another song after a whole minute, and now I'm just gonna skip them. For my reward, I got a glimpse at God Rocks, which may soon becoming to a Chadtronic-like channel near you.
After a few minutes of commercials, we learn of something life-changing, lost signs you post to indicate something is lost. Never heard of such a thing in my life. Also, Rhinoriffic doesn't sound as natural as stupendous. Just saying.
It sounds like Ricky cussed, but I'm not gonna talk about it, I mean who am I? Doug Walker? He said craft by the way.
They're starting to get real annoying with the songs. After saying she found the truck in a baseball field, we get a song about the joys of baseball. Speaking as someone who considers baseball his favorite sport, I had to skip. Mr. Met, take me away.
So Harold gets back, and I'm gonna say the toy truck belongs to him. But finding out is delayed with another song.
Sensible people: Well this is kind of annoying, oh well.
MoBrosStudios (probably): Died of a stroke due to unjust anger.
We're almost there, one of the kids lost her friendship bracelet, I was half expecting them to go into a song about it, but they don't. Instead, what do you know? I was right? The truck belonged to Harold. Why am I saying this like I'm proud of figuring out a twist in a show meant for preschoolers?
I know somebody's gonna say "Oh you should not waste all this time and energy on finding a lost toy, just get a new one.", but I'm not like most people, and don't you forget it.
Also Harold found the lost bracelet, glad that was resolved, why am I glad?
And so, we get one last song, sorta like Barney, but without any semblance of being original. Barney tried something unique, or tried to do something unique, their song is straight up Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Final Thoughts
So, with all of this in mind, is this a rip-off of Barney the Dinosaur? Well, it's complicated. From a fundamental and technical standpoint, the similarities between it and Barney are undeniable. It only has just enough differences to justify clearing legal barriers. For how it ever turned up on PBS, best case it was just to replace Barney in periods they couldn't air episodes of it, or different affiliates got their hands on it.
Looking at reactions to it, it is hilarious how people were clamoring to defend Barney from it, even though they hate Barney. Is it worth going after the show if it's a rip-off of something you already hate? It's almost as if people had an attachment to Barney and were too afraid of that coming out they decided to A-Log this show.
But of all rip-off lashings, it's not the worst. I mean, it could've been a thirteen year effort that ran its course once the show lost a high honor. It could've been backed by blind loyalty to someone or something that had influence but is not this beacon of high quality. It could've been handled by faceless douchebags who would wind up turning on more prominent critics when even they knew how stupid it was to keep going. It could've inspired a YouTube group dedicated to sucking off, maybe it'd be called BarneyEmpire. It could've been populated by people who would gladly fund the construction of an atom bomb of shitty movies that pulls the intentionally bad card to avert meaningful criticisms. It could have that one guy who wasted thirteen years of his life talking about the show, and still expect to be taken seriously. It could have missed the point of an NES game because someone thought attacking the townspeople was the right thing to do when you're supposed to keep moving. It could've been something that I absolutely loved and had been tainted because the creator made so much shitty decisions, drove his friends away and let Craig Feldspar's racist cousin co-opt the entire channel. It could be something that was comforting then, but fucking stressful to think about now-
And thus Channeleven became so salty he gave himself a heart attack. But for the record this alluded to something meant for adults, we're off the Barney discussion.
But yes, Ricky's Room is a blatant cash-in on Barney the Dinosaur.
No comments:
Post a Comment