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.