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Cartoon Review - Speed Racer: The Next Generation

noreply@blogger.com (Racattack Force) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:36:00 +0000

Okay, for those of you who don’t know, the original “

Speed Racer” was a manga series created by Tatsuo Yoshida in 1967. It was titled “Mach GoGoGo” and about a year after the manga hit stores, an anime series was produced. The anime series was directed by Hiroshi Sasagawa and around 52 episodes were made. It soon came to America under the name “Speed Racer” (which became the main character’s name), heavily edited and dubbed by American producer Peter Fernandez. The series is now famous for it’s “fast” dialogue and “bad” dubbing, and at least two other series (other than this one I’m reviewing) and a number of video games followed. If you want to see for yourself, all 52 episodes of the original series is legally available on Hulu (to promote the live-action movie of course). But anyway, now that I’ve filled you in on the basics on the series, on with the review!

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Name:

Speed Racer: The Next Generation

Creator(s): Larry Schwarz (original series by Tatsuo Yoshida)

Running Time: 23 minutes

Network: Nicktoons Network

Rating: B-/C

Premiere: April 27, 2008

This show is actually pretty decent to say the least. The animation in the racing scenes are pretty superb, flawlessly switching between Flash and CGI animation. And it’s simple to understand. Even if you have no actual knowledge of any of the previous series or manga. The backgrounds are kinda well-done, and the characters are well designed. Fans of the original series might not like this series (which is non-canon in the franchise’s continuity), but I have seen quite a few that do enjoy this series. But, I’m going to have to say that the bad qualities of this show can overshadow the good ones.

“

Nicktoons Network” is, of course, a spinoff network of “Nickelodeon“; Viacom’s “brilliant” answer to channels like “Boomerang” (Time Warner) and “Toon Disney“/”Jetix” (Disney). And the channel’s most successful series by far was “Kappa Mikey“. So Animation Collective, the animation studio (residing in NYC) that made the show, was hired to make the new “Speed Racer” cartoon. So Larry Schwarz (the founder of the studio and creator of all of their series) rounded up a nice group of voice actors, that also includes Peter Fernandez, and set off to work on the 26 episodes that make up this little season. The show is produced in Adobe Flash, and is quite stiff, with limited animation. Somewhat like the first “Speed Racer” series, expect with brighter colors. So that gets a point from me…a very slight point. But, they just had to put the whole thing in a school and make the villian so lame. So very, very lame…I mean, what villian cares about ruining the social life of his targets? Why should he even care about their socail status, if he wants them out of the darn way? That loses a big point from me…a very big point. The animation in this show could be a bit smoother, and their attempts of comedy simply fails…every single time. It doesn’t even sound like the voice actor of Speed Jr. (Kurt Csolak) is actually putting any emotion into the character.

It pains me to say that this series isn’t really that good. It actually pales in comparision with the 1968 series, which I truly find much better. Give me some more “Kappa Mikey“! Premiere “Three Delivery” already! But this Animation Collective show doesn’t do it for me. I’m not saying this series is horrible. If it was, I would have given it a D or F. This series is completely watchable, and I get some slight amusment out of watching it. But there are few redemmable qualities, and you would have to just watch it yourself to find them. I’m giving this series a C…a B- at the most. This is likely to be the show’s first and last season though. Not for bad ratings, but for the fact that the movie it was supposed to promote completely bombed at the box office. For those interested, the 66 minute pilot is on DVD, and available on the Lionsgate website.

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

Cartoon Review - Total Drama Island

noreply@blogger.com (Racattack Force) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:43:00 +0000

So, after the premiere of “

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack” (which I previously reviewed), we got the United States premiere of “Total Drama Island”. The reason why I said ‘United States premiere’ instead of just premiere is because this show is Canadian. And this series premiered in Canada a year ago on Teletoon. In fact, it’s second season (titled “Total Drama Action”) is going to premiere in Fall. Anyway, I was kinda surprised to see a show like this. First of all, it’s…actually, let me talk about it in the review. Is that okay?

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Name: Total Drama Island

Creator(s): Jennifer Pertsch and Tom McGillis

Running Time: 22 minutes

Network: Teletoon (Canada); Cartoon Network (United States)

Rating: C+

Premiere: July 8, 2007 (Canada); June 5, 2008 (United States)

Well, it’s best for me to start with that little stereotype about Canadian cartoons. You know, the one about all cartoons from Canada totally sucking? Well, that stereotype is wrong…half of the time, anyway. And for this show, that stereotype may just be half right. Well, this show doesn’t exactly suck, but it isn’t a masterpiece either. Maybe my hopes where too high? After all, this premiered right after I finished laughed at the decently good comedy that is “Flapjack”. Maybe I was expecting a huge parody of the entire reality series genre? Yes, this show is an animated reality series…a concept that is pretty weird to me. On a side note, this is the first cartoon to ever do such a thing. So anyway, something I hate about Canadian cartoons is that the series premiere of them is almost always a two-parter. With that “new” episode of “Johnny Test” airing right after TDI, there was obviously no hope for Cartoon Network to show the entire hour-long premiere on Thursday. It started like any reality series (animated or not) should start out: The host explaining the location, the show, the rules, etc. And then we meet the contestants. All 22 of them…but wait, aren’t there 26 episodes in this season? Will we ever get real character development and some episodes where no characters are eliminated? It’s pretty possible. Basically, all “Not So Happy Campers” (the name of the pilot of course) did was introduce us to all the characters and give us brief glances at their personalities. And you can automatically tell…they are all stereotypes. But I’m pretty sure that that was the intention. And you can’t really get some real character development until at least half of these guys are eliminated.

So, one thing that amazes me about this series is how it owes up to it’s PG rating. Besides a few censored words like “crap” (which I think was uttered only once), Cartoon Network kept a lot of things in. In this first episode, Cartoon Network (thankfully) kept in a homosexual gag that was done halfway into the episode. Now, I always knew that Cartoon Network’s BS&P was more accepting than those of other kids’ channels, but I never thought they would accept this. I personally think they kept it in because they knew this joke would go over the heads of younger kids, and only teenagers and adults would catch it. However, I’ve been told that this joke is tame in comparison with other things later in the season, so let’s see how Cartoon Network. Anyway, so in case you didn’t know, the creators of this show also created “

6teen“. You know, that animated series that got bounced around a lot on Nickelodeon’s schedule and eventually got taken off the air due to poor ratings (if you bounce any show around a lot, it’s bound for bad ratings). Anyway, Cartoon Network seems to be thanking care of this show. It gets advertised quite a bit (not as much as “Ben 10: Alien Force“, “Flapjack“, and “Chowder“, but still a lot), so Cartoon Network really wants it to do well. I can’t say that much about the production and ideas behind the show since the closest I’ve found for that is the official blog and a lot of the information there has been taken down to avoid spoilers for American viewers (thus leaving me with only two pictures bad, low resoultion pictures found off the Internet to show you guys).

Anyway, I gave this show a C+ because, despite being a comedy, it didn’t make me laugh at all. “Chowder” makes me laugh. “Flapjack” makes me laugh. But this show just doesn’t make me laugh. Maybe it will in the future, but I won’t really let you know that until I do a follow-up review a bit later…anyway, see you tomorrow when I get down to reviewing “Speed Racer“. The new cartoon, not the live-action movie….

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

Cartoon Review - The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack

noreply@blogger.com (Racattack Force) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:29:00 +0000

Now, when I first saw this cartoon, one thought came to mind: “This looks stupid.” I mean, a few months ago, I generally thought the artwork was great, but I expected the writing to be horrible and unfunny. True, it takes a bit of something to make me laugh, but I still believed it would be horrible and be cancelled within 26 episodes (the amount of episodes a

Cartoon Network series has to prove itself). However, once Cartoon Network started pumping out those Flapjack wedgies, my interest quickly went up. They continued to go up as I saw various sneak peeks and interviews with creator Thruop Van Orman on Cartoon Network Video. Finally, just two days ago, I sat down I watched the series premiere. And this is basically what I got from watching this whale of a tale…

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Name:

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack

Creator(s): Mark “Thurop” Van Orman

Running Time: 22 minutes (2×11 minute segments)

Network: Cartoon Network

Rating: B-

Premiere: June 5, 2008

Okay, after seeing review after review, interview after interview, short after short, and sneak peek after sneak peek; I finally came to this show expecting something that wouldn’t waste my time. And that’s exactly what I got…from the second half at least. The second half that was supposed to air as episode “7B”. That alone tells me that this show will get funnier as I continue to watch. The first half, which is the original pilot, left me a bit empty in comparison. It wasn’t terrible…but it wasn’t exactly good either. The reason for that is because there were some really good jokes that didn’t use. Jokes that they didn’t take real advantage of. The “juvenile delinquents” and “child labor” had many goods jokes just waiting to happen, but they only used so few of those. There were quite gems in the pilot, “Several Leagues Under the Sea”. One of those is where the guy in the “picture box” that the bad guy ‘invented” (all his inventions are run by kids) jumps out and declared that he’s going to art school. That moment got a good chuckle out of me. But that episode wasn’t weird enough. However, the second segment, “Eye Sea You”, was pretty good. As I said a minute ago, this was supposed to air later in the season. The segment had several good facial expressions, well-timed jokes, and much more. But it still wasn’t weird enough. Sure, the crazy dolphins wearing Captain K’nuckles clothes were pretty cool. So was Peppermint Larry’s Candy Wife seeking revenge and the giggling “The End” sign at the end. But it could be weirder. But I feel that is just weird enough to be up in the ranks of “Cow & Chicken“, “Billy & Mandy“, and “Chowder” (if just barely).

The creator of the series, Matthew “Thruop” Van Orman,

has his own ideas about comedy. He says, and I quote: “Comedy, or at least the kind of comedy I like, are the ones that make you feel a bit uncomfortable and then hit you with a great joke.” And this is good, since that’s the comedy I like also. Why do you think I gave “Chowder” an A- when I reviewed it all those months ago? Yeah, I love comedy animation even more than action animation. Anyway, one thing I didn’t like about the series is that the title sequence is a weird upon first hearing. But believe me, it gets real enjoyable after repeated viewings.

Anyway, “Flapjack” appears to be inspired by an event that happened when the creator was a teenager. In fact, it was also inspired by his childhood. It’s easy to see where he got the idea for this series when he lived next to an old sailor in Florida. When he was a teenager, and his family moved to “Salt Lake City”, he didn’t like it there. So after some convincing, he got to stay with his relatives back in Florida. From there, he had a thirst for adventure, so he went and decided to go to a deserted island off the coast. However, he got stranded on the way and had to stay in the water for the entire night until he got rescued. He ended up going home, feeling like a failure. But, through that experience (and people asking him what happened), his learned that people liked hearing about misadventures more than actual adventures. And there came the concept of “Flapjack”. Flapjack, his friend Captain K’nuckles, and his whale mother Bubbie are supposed to represent the outcast weirdos of Stromalong. And the people of the harbor are supposed to be representing the hardships of “real life”. However, if you ask me, then I’ll say that the people are harbor are even more weird than Flapjack and Co. But that’s just me.

Anyway, there is not much to say at this point. All I can say is that “Flapjack” is a pretty good comedy that might take a while to hit it’s stride, like a whole bunch of other shows. But when it does hit it’s stride, it will be wonderful to see. So, for now, “The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack” gets a B-, for it still has yet to get it’s sea legs. Ta-ta for now.

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

Animation Week #1

noreply@blogger.com (Racattack Force) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:33:00 +0000

Okay, before I post the news, I have to apologize for the “Random Drawing Craze”. I planned on posting two drawings today, to make up for not posting anything the past two days, but the scanner wasn’t working. With some luck, I may be a able to post up a whole bunch of drawings next week Wednesday and Thursday. Anyway, here’s all the animation-related news of the week, from last Friday to yesterday. Some of this stuff has already happened, but I’m posting it anyway. Also, I didn’t post reviews, so if you want to see those, so here:

5/30/08

5/31/08

6/02/08 (Nothing on the 1st)

6/03/08

6/04/08

“Total Drama Island” Animated Reality Show Debuts on Cartoon Network on June 5, 2008 (I have to say that this show really uses it’s PG rating. Despite the fact that CN edited out a certain word, they let a homosexual joke slide.)
New “Chowder” Episodes Debut on June 5, 2008 (New “Chowder” episodes for the next 8 weeks. These episodes are the original season finale, and the 7 extra episodes Cartoon Network ordered for the first season.)
LA Times on Yanked “Boondocks” Episodes
ADV Films Announces New August Titles Including “Red Garden” Vol. 6
Viz Media Announces New Sept. & Oct. Titles Including “Naruto” Box 10

6/05/08

“Dilbert” Becomes Daily Animated Strip On-Line (I’ve known about this prior to Toon Zone reporting it, but whatever)
Briefly: MTV Seeks Animators to Drive “Engine Room”; iTunes Movies in UK and Canada
Voice Cast Announced for “Madagascar 2″
“Kung Fu Panda” Interviews with Jack Black and Co-Dirs Osborne and Stevenson
Newsarama Interviews Dara Naraghi on “Igor” Comic Book Prequels
From Spider-Man to Venom: The Symbiote’s Journey on “Spectacular Spider-Man” (One of these days, I have to watch this series and review it)
Josh Olson on Going from Oscar to “Batman Gotham Knight”
New Images for “Wolverine and the X-Men”

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

Time to Get Down to Business!

noreply@blogger.com (Racattack Force) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:39:00 +0000

I rarely post on this blog, so I’ve been thinking of ways for me to try and made way more posts, then I figured it out! I have a few ideas on how exactly I can break at least 80 posts by the end of the year. So this is what you’ll expect for the rest of the year (mind you, I won’t really be doing this every week, just when possible).

Saturdays/Sundays/Mondays: Cartoon Reviews (movies, television shows, etc.) — As you know, I usually wait until a series has aired at least two or three episodes, then I review it. But I’m going to start changing that…at least with Cartoon Network. On Saturday, you’ll be getting a review of “The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack” which has had many sneak peeks and a bunch of wedgies shown in the weeks before it even premiered! On Sunday, I’ll be reviewing “Total Drama Island”, which makes it’s US premiere on Thursday on Cartoon Network. On Monday, I’ll try to do that “Speed Racer: The Next Generation” that I promised for Lionsgate that I kept putting off.

Tuesday: Personal Views on Animation (PVoA) — On Tuesday, I’ll be making some posts, big and small, on what I think about certain things in Animation. This starts next week with me talking about Flash Animation.

Wednesday/Thursday: Random Drawing Craze — Each week on Wednesday, I’ll be posting a drawing that I see fit on this blog. Some will be recent, some from when I was much younger, etc. This starts tomorrow.

Friday: Animation Week — I’ll basically be posting news that I got from Toon Zone and other animation sites from over the week. This also starts this week.

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

Cartoon Summer O’ Paradise

noreply@blogger.com (Racattack Force) — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:38:00 +0000

Okay, this summer, unlike the past several years, I actually plan to see more than one movie. All of these movies will be (of course) animated. I really want to see what’s in store for animation this summer, so I’m planning to see these three movies:

Kung Fu Panda, WALL•E, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Why? Because I can…I think. Anyway, here are what these films are about, with a few of my own added thoughts. And I will write reviews on these films after I’m able to see them.

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Name: Kung Fu Panda

Director(s):

Mark Osborne and John Stevenson

Running Time: 91 minutes

Distributors: DreamWorks Animation, Paramount Pictures

Release Date(s): June 6th, 2008

Summary: The movies takes place in ancient China and stars Po (voiced by Jack Black), a panda who is possibly the laziest animal in all of China. Po is an apprentice noodle-maker and also a huge kung fu fanatic. But when an evil warrior by the name of Tai Lung (Ian McShane) escapes from prison, and all hope gets been put on a prophecy naming Po as the “Chosen One” the must defeat Tai Lung and save the day. Therefore, he must go an seek training from a kung fu master, Sifu (Dustin Hoffman), who “has trained five of the greatest warriors that the world has ever known”, to fulfill his destiny. Rated PG.

Thoughts: Once again, DreamWorks gives us a funny animal movie. And of course, it has kung fu. And we all know how many martial arts movies we’ve seen, even if many of them didn’t feature animals. Anyway, I’ll just be seeing this one in hope for a good laugh, and to hope it doesn’t fall into the old clichés.

Name: WALL•E

Director(s):

Andrew Stanton

Running Time: Unknown

Distributors: Walt Disney Pictures (produced by Pixar)

Release Date(s): June 27th, 2008 (United States); July 18th, 2008 (United Kingdom); September 18th, 2008 (Australia)

Summary: It’s the year 2700, and planet Earth has long been uninhabitable due to rampant, unchecked consumerism. For hundreds of years, WALL•E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) has been on his lonely clean-up duty, and collecting a bunch of junk in order not to be bored. However, unknown to the little robot, WALL•E has recently stumbled onto a amazing secret that could save the planet Earth, and once again make the ravaged planet safe for all humankind. When the highly advanced search robot EVE comes to Earth to check on the clean-up, she quickly makes friends with WALL•E. When she realizes the value of his remarkable discovery, she excitedly races back to let the humans know that there’s hope for their home planet after all. But after centuries alone in space, WALL•E can’t stand the thought of losing the only friend he’s ever known (and loved), and eagerly follows her into the deepest reaches of space for the adventure of a lifetime. Along the way, this friendly trash-collecting robot who has always known what he was built for slowly begins to understand what he was meant for. Features the voices of Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, and Ben Burtt. Rated G.

Thoughts: This film won’t fail to entertain the audidence and tickle the old funny bone with it’s brilliant robotic comedy. After all, this is Pixar, and they never made a movie that a majority can honestly say sunk.

Name: Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Director(s): Dave Filoni

Running Time: Unknown

Distributors: Warner Bros. (produced by Lucasfilm Animation)

Release Date(s): August 14th, 2008 (Australia); August 15th, 2008 (United States)

Summary: The Clone Wars are raging between the Separatists and the Galactic Republic. When Jabba the Hutt’s son is taken by a group of renegades, two Jedi are summoned to investigate. Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi depart in search of answers: where is the Hutt’s son, and who is controlling this mysterious renegade group? Yoda sends Ahsoka Tano along as Anakin’s apprentice, Obi-Wan duels Asajj Ventress, and Anakin finds himself dueling Count Dooku once more. Meanwhile, the Sith plan to instigate a three-way war, including the Hutts. Rated PG.

Thoughts: At first, I was scared of adding this to my summer movie list (which is very small, these are the only three movies I’m seeing). I didn’t know anything about Star Wars. In fact, I feel asleep during a movie on a bus ride to a one week sleep-away camp last summer. But after being told that it would be an enjoyable adventure and that (while it may help) I don’t have to watch any other movie to understand it, I decided “What the heck!” and put it down.

And those are all the movies I’m seeing this summer! And I think it will be some pretty great fun also, to actually go to the movies more than once a year.

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

The Tednut of Months Past…

noreply@blogger.com (Racattack Force) — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:33:00 +0000

Things sure change huh? I made this teaser for my webtoon Tednut way back in December. You’ve gotta see the official Tednut website to see how Tednut is looking right now!

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

Cartoon Review - Ben 10: Alien Force

noreply@blogger.com (Racattack Force) — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:17:00 +0000

Yeah, it’s a bit late, but better late than ever. I finally got around to writing a review on this sequel to the series

Ben 10. Now, it’s not because I wasn’t able to watch, it was because I was lazy. So I watched the third episode last night (the premiere was a two-parter) on Cartoon Network Video and reviewed it. And this is what I got…

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Name: Ben 10: Alien Force

Creator(s):

Man of Action (Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, and Steven T. Seagle

Running Time: 22 minutes

Network: Cartoon Network

Rating: B+

Premiere: April 18, 2008

If you came to see this show expecting to see the light action and witty batter that the original Ben 10 series thrived on, then you should turn back, because this series is a bit different. Ben 10: Alien Force takes place 5 years from where the first series left off, with a teenaged Ben Tennyson putting on the Omnitrix once more, in search for his lost grandfather Max. Coming along for the ride is his cousin Gwen and his former nemesis Kevin Levin. Along the way, they discover this huge alien conspiracy that involves an evil group of aliens planing to takeover the Earth…or destroy it. The series takes a more serious and possibly a darker note than the first series. This may be because of the fact that Glen Murakami, a key creative force on shows DCAU shows like Batman Beyond, Teen Titans and The Batman, is the supervising producer for the show.

Glen takes the show with a different perspective, and as a result, the show is a bit different from it’s predecessor, but not so different as to near impossible to compare the two. Of course, that change in the feel of the show should be expected. After all, a lot can happen in five years. There is no longer much “hate” between Ben and Gwen, in fact, they get along a lot better as 15-year-olds then they did as 10-year-olds. Dwayne McDuffie has written the three episodes I’ve seen so far, and he also seems to be the story editor. He seems to invoke a continuing air of mystery within each episode of the series. Unlike the first show, there are less attempts (if any) at humor, and greater focus on possible character development and the story at hand. The voice actors for the main characters are all different from Ben 10. Ben is now voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, who usually voices a character in many English dubs of Japanese anime, when it comes to animation roles. And it’s ironic that Ashely Johnson and Greg Cripes (respectively) voice Gwen and Kevin, when Kevin secretly loves Gwen. Let me point to the resume of these voice actors and see that that on the shows they both voiced on, the characters they voice are in love with each other. Could this led to a blooming Kevin and Gwen romance? Maybe. Or, then again, maybe not.

Anyway, the show started off with a huge bang, being the highest rated original series Cartoon Network premiered in it’s entire history. And I must say, that’s quite a statement. The show is amazing, and it will surely continue to be a hit, but it does have a few flaws, but nothing I can’t deal with. One flaw is the aliens. Glen’s excuse for it is that the original aliens covered pretty much all the bases, and I can’t help but to disagree. So I have to excuse them for the mix-matched aliens that are really parts of previous episodes. Another is the fact of Gwen not really looking like you would think Gwen would look like when she’s older. But then you soon forget about that while watching the show. So I’m giving Ben 10: Alien Force a B+, for it is a real step above the first Ben 10. And I will followup this series when it reaches 13 episodes (the halfway point of season one).

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

Succeeding in Animation

noreply@blogger.com (Racattack Force) — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:25:00 +0000

I’ve recently found this really interesting online booklet on how to succeed in the field of animation. Its pretty helpful, and is a pretty darn good read also. It will help you get a start in the wonderful world of animation. It’s written by a man named Gene Deitch, who is a somewhat well-known animator, who has been behind several successful animated cartoons, such as Tom and Jerry (1960-1962), and Tom Terrific. His article, “How To Succeed In Animation” is a must-read for any inspiring animator/cartoonist.

P.S.: John Kricfalusi, creator of animated series Ren and Stimpy, is looking for artists that can help him with new George Liquor cartoons. He finally got a sponsor and now he can make up to 40 minutes worth of George Liquor cartoons. If you are interested, go see his blog: all kinds of stuff

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

Cartoon Review - The Mighty B!

noreply@blogger.com (Racattack Force) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:10:00 +0000

Yeah, this is the fourth edition of Cartoon Review. I actually started reviewing actual cartoons again, and I’m pretty happy about that. This time, I’m going to be reviewing Nickeldoen’s newest Nicktoon: The Mighty B! Now, this show was pretty interesting…

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Name:

The Mighty B!

Creator(s): Amy Poehler, Erik Wiese, and Cynthia True

Running Time: 22 minutes (2×11 minute segments)

Network: Nickelodeon

Rating: B

Premiere: April 26, 2008

Out of the Nickelodeon Studios in Burbank comes the channel’s newest cartoon, “The Mighty B!”. The show follows the quest of 9 and 3/4 years old Bessie Higgenbottom, as she seeks to gain every Honeybee Scout badge. Why? Because she holds the belief that if she does, she will become a superhero called “The Mighty B!”. Since this has never been done before, there is nothing to say that it may not be true. The show is pretty amusing, with the performances of the voices actors making the show pretty entertaining. You would think an annoying nine year old with a lisp would have a grating voice…well Amy Poehler makes sure it isn’t.

The art and animation style is something like Spongebob Squarepants meets Ren and Stimpy. Ironically the creators of both cartoons are given a ‘Special Thanks” at the end of the credits, so this art style is likely on purpose. The character design is pretty deceiving, as the characters are more “flexible” than they actually appear to be. Many of the jokes in the series are brought along solely through visuals and actions. Bessie being stretched and squashed by a taffy machine in “Sweet Sixteen” was a pretty great moment. The crew behind the show attempts to go “back in time” and they use techniques that are seldom used in today’s cartoons. Hand-painted backgrounds, some animation done in America, hand-drawn animation…they are clearly trying to get back to animation’s roots.

The characters are decent to say the least, but Portia and her friend seem like the generic ”popular kids” that are seen in a lot of cartoons these days. However, this seems to be the point of the characters. To directly hit that well-known cliche in the stomach. Bessie dangerously treads the line between annoying and funny, but is able to combine it both for a good plot. She is an off-beat werido that I, at times, can relate to. Her brother that looks up to her is nice character to have along, and so is her pet dog “Happy”, which was introduced in the pilot episode “So Happy Together”. This show is pretty good, but has room for potential that may be reached in the next few episodes. After we get half-way through the season, I will do a short follow-up review on the show. But for now, “The Mighty B” gets a B.

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network