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historyhermann · 11 months

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Villainous Review

Villainous, also known as Villanos, is animated series which mixes the science fantasy, morbid humor, and comedy horror genres. Alan Ituriel, a veteran of the Mexican animation industry, is the series creator. This series is produced by Ituriel's A.I. Animation Studios and Cartoon Network. Humberto Cervera and Mayte Sanz are also executive producers. There will be spoilers.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the thirty-third article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on May 26, 2023.

This series flips the script often employed in superhero fiction such as Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Tokyo Mew Mew (and the reboot), Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon Crystal, Vixen, and Young Justice. It focuses on the Black Hat Organization, run by the villainous Black Hat (voiced by Ituriel). He is assisted by his team of three aides: Dr. Flug (voiced by Yian Riuz), Demencia (voiced by Cindy Eliz Pérez), and 5.0.5. (voiced by Mark Fischbach). They are contracted by other villains to "solve" their problems with heroes, either directly or indirectly, or sell inventions created by Dr. Flug. Their plans often go awry with comical and absurd consequences.

Villainous has garnered a massive following since the first webisodes premiered in 2012, followed by efforts by Ituriel to pitch the series to Cartoon Network. This resulted in the pilot airing in June 2019. The series had a backdoor pilot in the Season Two Victor and Valentino episode "Villainy In Monte Macabre", in October 2020. There were 29 shorts featuring the same characters, which aired from May 2017 to February 2019 on the Cartoon Network Latin America YouTube channel. Even one "episode" was released which consisted of the creators rick-rolling the show's fans.

Some have posted their own dubs of the show's six episodes, which were released in Spanish language in October 2021, on HBO Max LA, and other content. Their recent, and official, release as part of "Season 1a" on the newly renamed "Max" streaming service (formerly known as "HBO Max"), makes them more accessible to new and old fans alike.

The first episode of Villainous sets the tone. A superhero named Sunblast (voiced by Roly Gutiérrez) beats up a villain, Penumbra (voiced by Rebecca Manriquez), because his new punching bag hasn't been delivered. It is also a good introduction to each of the characters: a nervous and nerdy scientist in his 20s named Dr. Flug who wears a paper bag over his head, a green-haired mischief-loving fan of Black Hat named Demencia, and a big blue bear named 5.0.5. The latter is a contradiction, as he was intended to be evil, but is very loving, and likes hugging people. He also serves as the housekeeper-of-sorts of the Black Hat Organization (BHO).

Even from the first episode you can somewhat sympathize with these villains, despite their trapping of Sunblast in a jar, punching Ringworm (voiced by Sean Davis) into submission, and dropping heroes in pits without a second thought. This sympathy is clear when the three protagonists are yelled at by Black Hat for doing a "mediocre" job. One character in particular, Dr. Flug, is scared of his boss (Black Hat), ghosts like Emilia (voiced by Jackie Rodriguez), wrestlers, and almost being killed by heroes.

I liked how the series mixes humor with violence and "course language". For instance, a group of kids, based on Scooby-Doo protagonists, are scared off by a possessed fence. Later, the unstoppable Bulldozer (voiced by David Steel) attempts to destroy the Outlaw House (voiced by Alex Texeira). He is stopped by 5.0.5., as bears terrify him after one bit him years ago.

Sometimes this comedy is continued during the episode credits. In the episode 2 credits, Bulldozer ends up in the cave house of the three protagonists of We Bare Bears (Grizzly, Panda, and Ice Bear), another CN series. In the credits of the fourth episode, the heroic Airlock (voiced by Jinon Deebs), a short-haired White woman, is eaten by a space monster. This is after she escaped the show's protagonists because she found them as very "annoying".

This brings me to another part which I enjoy about Villainous: crossovers with other series. The third episode, reportedly a homage to the Mexican wrestling films of the 1960s, features characters from Victor and Valentino and Helluva Boss in the stands. A few episodes later, Johnny Bravo, from the series of the same name, is a background character, while the robotic lawyers for Black Hat bring plagiarism cases against characters from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

That same episode also features Harvey Birdman from the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, and characters from Grim and Evil like Hector Con Carne. Again, these are all CN series, which makes the crossovers all the more interesting.

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In the third episode of Villainous, the three protagonists are tasked at eliminating a luchador named El Valiente (voiced by Jose Aparicio) by their client, Adelita Guerrero (voiced by Margarita Coego). It reminds me of three series: Carmen Sandiego, Elena of Avalor and Victor and Valentino.

In the latter two, there are episodes in which the protagonists, or supporting characters, are possessed by a mask, like Mascara Macabra (voiced by Aparicio) in this series, or another individual. As for Carmen Sandiego, the Season Three opening episode features Carmen attending a wrestling match in hopes of finding her mother.

The characters of Villainous become even more relatable in the last couple episodes. In the fourth episode, Dr. Flug's favorite series is spoiled by a sassy A.I. named V.I.R.U.S. (voiced by Sean Davis). Even worse, 5.0.5. is horrified when Black Hat ruins a children's show, almost akin to the Teletubbies. It becomes horrific after Black Hat causes the Sun to light the bears on fire.

The series pokes fun at itself. In one episode, the copycats/doppelgangers claim they are BHO in order to rake in profits for themselves. This is better executed than the "Pirates" episode of Cleopatra in Space, as each of the protagonists comes across a "stronger" version of themselves. Hilariously, and sadly, 5.0.5.'s counterpart is just a cactus. In that same episode, I liked how Dr. Flug blatantly interrupts the "origin story" of the other version of Black Hat, annoying him to no end.

The final episode of Villainous ends the series on bang. It focuses on a self-absorbed social media influencer named Miss Heed (voiced by Katherine Clavelo), who Dr. Flug knew when he went to the academy. She is far worse than those depicted in the first season of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, or the currently airing Kizuna no Allele.

In fact, Heed has a special concoction she sprays on the city residents to make them love her. In an indictment of such influencers, also known as internet personalities or internet celebrities, and their power, Dr. Flug is able to take her down, with the assistance of Demencia. His kiss with her, is streamed and goes viral. It causes all of her zombie "fans" to fall out of love with her.

While some series would have stopped there, Villainous goes the extra step. Heed is pushed into a vat of her own liquid, ending her plan to be the "most-loved" hero. She is locked up in a maximum security prison. Fitting with her personality, she falls off her rocker, and demands that people need to love her. In one of the best scenes in the series, Flug, after learning about Goldheart's plan to eliminate all villains, tells Heed that she needs to love herself first (i.e. self-love) before she can love anyone else.

The entire sequence, at first, appears to reinforce retributive justice paradigms. The latter involves punishment being imposed unilaterally, no option for remorse, and crime in the domain of the state. This is interlinked with the narrative that violence is justified as long as it is directed at those deemed as "evil". It further involves heroes in league with the criminal system and has an assumption that villains cannot be rehabilitated. On the other hand, Villainous turns this around, as Heed is a hero and Flug is a villain, meaning that a "hero" is being locked away for something a "villain" would do.

While Flug's kiss is a one-off interaction, Demencia's romantic obsession with Black Hat spans the series. She believes that her romantic feelings will be reciprocated, but he likely doesn't care much about her. However, her love saves her from Heed's concoction, as she only has love for him. More than anything, Demencia is an obsessed fan. Perhaps her character is symbolic of out-of-control fans which feel the same way about public figures, to the detriment of themselves and those personalities.

All in all, this series has many similarities to Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel, especially the former. BHO somewhat resembles I.M.P. (Immediate Murder Professionals). The latter is contracted by demons in hell to assassinate people in the world of the living. The difference is that BHO specifically focuses on heroes and is only contracted by villains.

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The last episode of Villainous, at present, lays the groundwork for future episodes. Goldheart (voiced by Oliver Roberts) seems to know Dr. Flug, declaring "Flug, what did you do now?" The efforts of BHO to counter him could be an important storyline.

A possible second season, might not follow a serialized format. The six current episodes have the same characters, but are not, serialized. Each episode could stand on its own. This does not diminish the series, however.

The voice actors for this series stand out. Apart from Ituriel, Yian Riuz, Cindy Eliz Pérez, and Mark Fischbach, who voice the protagonists, are all talented. Fischbach is a well-known YouTuber, with this as his first voice role. In contrast, Pérez previously played a character in BoBoiBoy Elemental Heroes, and Riuz in Mashed!

Similarly, Sahid Pabon, Roly Gutiérrez, Connie Fernandez, Yenni Ann, Guia Burns, and Jason Kessler, who voice villains, wrestlers, henchmen, and others in the series, are equally talented. They have lent their voices to characters in Monkey King Reborn, Legend Quest, Gintama, Leo De Vinci, Rainbow High, Kageki Shojo!!, and Kemono Friends.

This is also the case for the Spanish-language voice actors, such as José Antonio Macías, Melissa Gedeón, Lourdes Arruti, and Diego Valenzuela. They have voiced characters in video games, animated shorts, and productions such as Guardians of Oz, and Top Cat.

The producers of Villainous worked on The Flying Machine, Hua Se, Frankelda's Book of Spooks, Pucca, Pandalian, Eden, Tonikawa: Over the Moon for You, and Xi you ji. Kevin Manthei, the music composer, worked on Ben 10, Spider-Man, Robot Chicken, Ultimate Spider-Man, Polly Pocket, Hanny Manny, Invader Zim, and Generator Rex.

Other than the amazing dubbing by VOA Studios, in Miami, the show's crew includes alums from many series. This includes Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Dota: Dragon's Blood, Black Dynamite, Legend of Korra, OK K.O. Let's Be Heroes!, Danger House, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, and Scan2Go.

Villainous is more than a series with humor reminiscent of 1990s cartoons. It has themes about overcoming your inner demons and lampoons popular Cartoon Network series. This is accompanied by entertaining characters, which have intriguing dynamics and comraderie within the BHO, wonderful animation, character design, artwork, and creativity. What other series has villains traveling to their destination in a flying hat spewing smoke?

I haven't watched enough Invader Zim or The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy to say if Villainous is like those series. However, each character is interesting enough and the story is engaging that Villainous could run for many seasons. If Helluva Boss has aired 12 episodes, why can't Villainous do the same? Perhaps the cast could become even more diverse and LGBTQ characters could be added. The latter would further enhance the series.

Unfortunately, Villainous comes at a time of extreme flux at Max's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. This includes an error causing writers, directors, and creators to all be lumped together into one category. There has been an awful rollout of the "Max" streaming service, in an inane effort to "attract" families.

This comes after the cruel content purge at HBO Max, former name for the service. It resulted in the removal of Infinity Train, Mighty Magiswords, Uncle Grandpa, Final Space, and Close Enough. None of them have been re-added to Max. The content purge on Hulu, and on Max, was discussed in a PCM podcast on May 22nd.

Despite the shenanigans of the corporate executives, I am hopeful that Villainous will be continued with additional episodes. All in all, I highly recommend Villainous as a series to watch.

Villainous is currently streaming on Max.

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fly-pow-bye · 4 years

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What’s Airing On Cartoon Network? (October 2020)

While trick or treating may not be recommended, to say the very least, we can still celebrate the Halloween season in spirit with new episodes of a lot of shows, most of them premiering every weekday. Also, a certain Cartoon Network Latin America series finally shows up on Cartoon Network US thanks to a crossover with Victor and Valentino. See you after the break!

(Update: Completely missed a rather important omission: a new Gumball...clip show.)

The Amazing World of Gumball

Wait, The Amazing World of Gumball has a new episode?! Not really, it’s just another clipshow just like the Darwin’s Yearbook episodes. A spooky clipshow!

October 5th:

Gumball Chronicles: The Curse of Elmore - When Gumball's schoolfriend Leslie finds an old videotape, the creepy mystery of Elmore's ghostly past unfolds. Featuring spooky and hilarious clips from the first six seasons of "The Amazing World of Gumball."

Apple & Onion

October 12th:

The Eater - Apple & Onion take on a monster in a parallel universe in order to get back home. (7:00 PM)

October 13th:

Apple & Onion's Booth - Apple & Onion must save their favorite booth at Pizza's Diner from a Texas oil tycoon. (7:00 PM)

October 14th:

Ferekh - Apple and Onion have to get Falafel's beloved rooster back from scientists. (7:00 PM)

October 15th:

Pat on the Head - Apple must unhypnotize Onion before they can cook for a very important guest. (7:00 PM)

October 16th:

Falafel's Glory - Apple & Onion must win a trivia game to get the world's largest pizza. (7:00 PM)

Bakugan: Battle Planet

October 4th:

Bakugan Battle League, Tokyo Edition/Battle Royal - It's the start of the Bakugan Battle League - Toyko edition! The first round will be a Battle Royale style competition, where only half the competitors will make it through to the next round. Along with the Awesome Brawlers, the field of competitors is filled with familiar friends and foes. / The first round of the Bakugan Battle League - Tokyo edition continues. The Awesome Brawlers and their Bakugan battle their way through the challenge and face off against tough competitors. (6:30 AM)

October 11th:

The Second Stage Begins/Mechanoids Attack! - With half of the brawlers eliminated, the second stage of the Bakugan Battle league begins. This round will be a timed race to the finish, with all kinds of tricks and traps that will slow down even the best brawlers. / Mechanoids have crashed the second stage of the Bakugan Battle League, causing all kinds of havoc. The Awesome Brawlers will now have to race against the clock, battling competitors and mechanoids if they want to make it through this round. (6:30 AM)

October 18th:

The Other Fight - Eliminated from the Bakugan Battle League, Ajit is airlifted by drone to a massive cargo ship in the middle of Tokyo Bay. Now that he's on board the cargo ship, he must rescue Dan and Drago, and stop whoever is sabotaging the Battle League. / Dan and Ajit investigate the mysterious cargo ship that the eliminated Brawlers and Bakugan are being held on. Dan races to track down Drago, but along the way runs into a familiar face. (6:30 AM)

October 25th:

The Bakugan Battle League Dash/The Final Stage - With Dan and Ajit eliminated from the Bakugan Battle League - Tokyo Edition, the remaining Awesome Brawlers - Shun, Wynton, Lia and Lightning - race to complete the second stage of the competition. In order to make it to the final stage, the gang will have to pull together to defeat some tough competition. / It's the final stage of the Bakugan Battle League Tokyo Edition! The remaining Awesome Brawlers are ready to go, but just as the final round begins, the competitors are surprised with some unwelcome guests. (6:30 AM)

Ben 10 2016

Last month, it was We Bare Bears, this month, it’s Ben 10 2016 that’s getting a movie premiere.

October 10th:

Ben 10 vs. The Universe: The Movie - The action-packed TV movie will focus around a blast from Ben's past returning to do double the damage on Team Tennyson and planet Earth itself, forcing Ben to go interstellar to save the day. Meanwhile, Gwen and Grandpa Max team up to help protect the world in Ben's absence. But when our boy hero is confused for the villain in space, Ben must figure out a way to get back to Earth to help save it! (10:00 AM)

Craig of the Creek

October 19th:

Trick or Creek - It's Halloween at the Creek, and Craig is on a mission to collect as much candy as humanly possible, but a spooky ghoul from the Creek's past threatens his haul. (7:00 PM)

October 20th:

Fall Anthology - In an attempt to finish a school project, Craig remembers some of his favorite Fall moments. (7:00 PM)

October 21st:

Afterschool Snackdown - Craig enters a food competition in the Creek, but worries he may be out of his league. (7:00 PM)

October 22nd:

Creature Feature - Craig finds himself being chased by a monster in the Creek that's straight out of the movies! (7:00 PM)

October 23rd:

King of Camping - The Williams family goes camping and Craig helps his dad prove he's the King of Camping. (7:00 PM)

DC Super Hero Girls

October 4th:

#SchoolGhoul - When Tatsu Yamashiro asks for help at a haunted all-girls academy, Barbara Gordon and Kara Danvers find themselves caught up in something much bigger than a ghost hunt. (4:00 PM)

Ninjago

October 4th:

The Skull Sorcerer - Separated from the others, Cole must trust his instincts and make the right choices to find his way to the surface to alert King Vangelis of the dangerous Skull Sorcerer. (7:00 AM)

The Real Fall - Cole, Princess Vania and Master Wu fall down a seemingly endless tunnel, into the bowels of Shintaro Mountain. (7:15 AM)

October 11th:

Dungeon Party - Having survived their fall into the mountain, Cole, Wu and Princess Vania befriend a motley group of survivors, called the Lowly, and are told the story of how they too ended up at "Rock-Bottom." (7:00 AM)

Dungeon Crawl! - Having joined forces with the Lowly in their quest to defeat King Vangelis, Cole, Wu, and Vania have to find a way out of the bottom of the mountain, a place said to be inescapable. (7:15 AM)

October 18th:

Masters Never Quit - Pursued by a magma monster, Cole, Princess Vania, Wu & the Lowly arrive at a mysterious temple deep in Shintaro Mountain, a temple which was once a training ground for Earth Elementals including Cole's own mother, Lilly! (7:00 AM)

Grief Bringer - Nya and Kai, who have become the respective leaders of the Munce and Geckles, attempt to unite the tribes in an effort to defeat their mutual enemy, the Skull Sorcerer, who schemes against them. (7:15 AM)

October 25th:

The Darkest Hour - Forced to flee by the arrival of Grief-Bringer, the ninja, the Munce and the Geckles take refuge in the Geckle Strong-Cave. But the bitter feud between Munce and Geckles threatens to tear them apart, just when unity is needed most... when they are about to confront the Skull Sorcerer and Grief-Bringer! (7:00 AM)

The Ascent - Cole, the Lowly, Princess Vania and Wu discover that the stone-mech is fueled by Elemental Power, and attach it to the mine-carts in an effort to blast their way out of the mountain to confront the evil Skull Sorcerer! (7:15 AM)

Teen Titans Go!

October 5th:

Ghost With the Most - When the Halloween Spirit is kidnapped, the Titans must team with Beetlejuice to save the holiday. (7:00 PM)

October 6th:

Bucket List - The Titans give Starfire a bucket list of activies to accomplish. (7:00 PM)

October 7th:

TV Knight 6 - Batman is forced to go to the department store with Alfred, but runs off to watch TV with Commissioner Gordon. (7:00 PM)

October 8th:

Kryponite - When Robin explains that knowing your weakness makes you a better superhero, Starfire journeys to find hers. (7:00 PM)

October 9th:

Thumb War - As the other Titans engage in an all out thumb wrestling war, Starfire tries to broker peace. (7:00 PM)

Total Dramarama

October 26th:

Ghoul Spirit - Gwen rejects the friendship of a friendly ghost. (7:00 PM)

Duncan Carving - Duncan takes advantage of a questionable Halloween legend to steal candy from his classmates. (7:15 PM)

October 27th:

Tu Ba Or Not Tu Ba - The class tries to help Chef achieve his dream of joining the world's most famous tuba band, Tubalicious, only to regret it when they realize how much they'll miss him. (7:00 PM)

October 28th:

Dude Where's Macaw - While trying to defend his elite gamer status, Chef uses an old cheat code that brings a dangerous avatar to life. (7:00 PM)

October 29th:

Way Back Wendel - Courtney must deliberately lose a challenge or let the entire world go back in time. It's a really hard choice for her. (7:00 PM)

October 30th:

Stingin' in the Rain - When Chef gets locked outside in a storm, the kids mistakenly assume he's a robber and decide to protect the Daycare...by any means necessary. (7:00 PM)

Victor and Valentino

October 5th:

Escaramuza - When Valentino's favorite Escaramuza team loses a member, he convinces Xochi to join the squad. He becomes her coach and will do anything to win the big competition. (7:30 PM)

Los Perdidos - When Victor joins a group of nighttime skaters called Los Perdidos, Valentino becomes suspicious of Victor's strange, new, vampire-like behavior. (7:45 PM)

October 6th:

Los Pajaros - When Valentino trades Huitzi's gifts for one of his own, the birds in town start to turn on him. (7:30 PM)

October 7th:

Get Your Sea Legs - When Victor gets teased for not being able to swim, he befriends a mermaid who offers to help - but at a cost. (7:30 PM)

October 8th:

Guillermo's Girlfriend - Victor and Valentino try to cheer up a heartbroken Guillermo by reuniting him with his lost love. (7:30 PM)

October 12th:

Starry Night - When Victor and Valentino embark on a camping trip in the woods, their friends start to act suspicious and strange. (7:30 PM)

October 13th:

Fueygo Fest - When Victor and Valentino throw the biggest kid bash ever, they realize they aren't the party planners they thought they were as things start to fall apart. (7:30 PM)

October 14th:

Folk Art Friends - When Victor and Valentino accidentally release some mischievous alebrije spirits, they must enlist the help of master mischief-maker HueHue to help catch them. (7:30 PM)

October 15th:

The Cupcake Man - When Victor's bad behavior gets out of control, Chata sends him to the one man in town who can set him straight - The Cupcake Man. (7:30 PM)

October 19th:

Villainy In Monte Macabre - In a crossover episode with the Cartoon Network Latin America series, "Villainous," Victor and Valentino team up with Dr. Flug and Demencia to try to find a squid monster who is disguised as a human in Monte Macabre. (7:30 PM)

October 20th:

Charlene Mania - When Victor attempts to have the perfect day off, the town's sudden obsession for Charlene gets in his way. (7:30 PM)

October 21st:

Old Man Teo - When Victor and Valentino are tasked to volunteer at an Old Folks' Home, Valentino becomes buddies with the oldest, crankiest person in Monte Macabre and helps him reclaim his youthful power. (7:30 PM)

October 22nd:

Poacher Patrol - When Don bestows Valentino the responsibility of patrolling the lake, Valentino takes it too far and stops who he believes to be a poacher - with disastrous consequences. (7:30 PM)

October 26th:

Lonely Haunts Club 3: La Llorona - When Valentino sets out to get a little privacy in the woods, Victor is bent on pranking his unsuspecting brother - that is, until Valentino goes missing... (7:30 PM)

October 27th:

In Your Own Skin - When Valentino is mocked for his lack of style, he's determined to get a designer hoodie to prove he has a sense of fashion, which turns out to be harder than it looks. (7:30 PM)

October 28th:

Ghosted - Victor makes a ghost friend but when she interferes with his shot at being part of the cool kids' Tlatchtli team, he must choose between the two. (7:30 PM)

October 29th:

Carmelita - Chata loans Xochi a car under the condition that Victor and Valentino can get rides when they need. However, the car becomes aggressive towards Victor and Valentino and attacks! (7:30 PM)

#fpb news #apple & onion #bakugan #bakugan battle planet #craig of the creek #ben 10 2016 #ben 10 #dc super hero girls #ninjago #lego #teen titans go #total dramarama #victor and valentino #villainous #the amazing world of gumball

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Loud House Season 5 Catchup (Blinded by Science, Band Together, Season’s Cheatings, A Flipmas Carol) or Of Mutants, Medicority, Merryment and Money

Merry Christmas everybody! And it’s Christmas Week so expect christmas out the jingle jangle for the next few days. And starting us off is something long overdue as coverage of the Loud House FINALLY resumes just in time for christmas. Yes it’s been over a month since the last episode and while i’ve covered two holiday episodes since then, I haven’t gotten back to season 4 despite, like Ducktales and Amphibia, it being on my roster. The answer why: I had a ton of comissions coming in, and other projects going on including ducktales coverage, so I kept putting off banned together/blinded by science for weeks.. until they coldied right into Season’s Cheatings and a flipmas carol. So yeah this one’s way too late and I will TRY not to have this happen again. I can’t promise they’ll be same day of or right on time as unlike Disney and Cartoon Network who are really good about putting their stuff on the app same day or that morning or streaming services which I own so.. yeah, Nick likes to take their sweet time sometimes and isn’t as steady with their release schedule. It’s why I ended up deciding not to do regular coverage of the casagrandes, though don’t be suprise if it shows up here on occasion as I sitll like it quite a bit. Nick is just a pain in the ass to deal with. Point is it’s here now and in time for the holiday season so i’ve delayed this long enough. Let’s get back to Season 5 after the cut

Blinded by Science:

So yeah... i’m just going to say it.. this season.. has been fucking weird.

I mean sure there’s been plenty of normal episodes: The Boss Maybe, Strife of the Party, Kernel of Truth, Banned Together, Season’s Cheatings. There are more normal standard Loud House episodes than the weird ones... but that just makes out how looney some episodes have gotten stick out MORE. I mean among episodes tackling Leni struggling to step into Lori’s true, an obnoxious party despute, a news antics episode, Luna dealing with her career, and a holiday shenanigans episodes.. we’ve also had Lincoln get shipped off to Canada for an episode, Lincoln thwart a supervillian plot, Lori learning her school has a friendly ghost caddy that everyone who goes there knows and just accepts like that’s a normal thing, and with two of today’s episodes, Flip being some kind of monsterious miracle of science or possibly having an x gene we don’t know and then being visted by the ghosts of christmas past, present and future, who for no explained reason look and act like Lisa, Lincoln, Clyde and Lucy.

I mean I can stretch disbelief for a lot of cartoons and i’m fine with it. Lisa does it pretty much on concept. But stretching things a bit for a joke is fine.. but it’s gotten to the point where the plots have gone from grounded slice of life stuff to really weird high concept stuff and it’s really hard to tell if this is going to work or not as Schooled and Family Bonding were not great, especially the latter, Ghosted was pretty good, Flipmas Carol was okay and this one... is decent. So it’s two good, two bad and one neutral. It’l take smore more episodes to see if this is a good thing or not.. I was leaning toward not before this block, but it’s very clear by the fact multiple writers have done this and the one whose done this the most wrote normal episodes last season, that this is an overall creative decision and thus something ‘im just going to have to live with. And hey, it gives me more material to work with so there you go. So yeah let’s actually talk about this episode: Lisa is scrambling because she has a presentation at a big science convention, but doesn’t have any new discoveries to report. She does have snakebird though, which is exactly what it sounds like and exactly as delightful. Everyone should have one of those I don’t know how this isn’t worth presenting. Just put snakebird in hat. Lincoln comes to help because Rita heard snakebird and wanted to make sure lily was okay, and all he’s doing is taking her for a ride so it’s fine. Snakebird should be a part of my a different world style spinoff I’m just saying. Or with Stella.. I have a lot of spinoff ideas and only one of them has gotten a cease and desist from viacom so that’s progress!

Point is Lincoln ends up being a very good big brother and takes her to flips for a flippee as that usually helps him think. He also crouchs down adorably to reach her height at one point.

Like it’s jsut really precious to see that. It also does something the show does at it’s best: Weave the other siblings into each others plots organically. Lately they haven’t been as good at that with some exceptions and while it’s fine to have a few episodes where the rest of the family isn’t involved it is weird to just sorta.. cordon off 11 of our leads instead of giving them their own unique dynamics with each other. And while I do think Lincoln gets way to much of the spotlight at times, and his episodes have not been the best this season, I do think he works perfectly here: He’s the one with the most history with flips, so his role he ends up taking in the plot make sense, and him taking a big brother role and taking her down there is really adorable. It’s honestly easy to forget sometimes since half his sisters outage and outrank him by a lot that LIncoln has some authority and brotherly duty himself but when it crops up it’s really nice to see.

But yeah while Lincoln’s gesture was nice it does nothing to help. But what does is Flip himself. Honestly before these episodes i’d barely seen Flip and he’s alright. He’s not bad it’s just with this having happened just a few years ago

So i’ts really hard for him to stand out in comparison when he’s kind of generic. He’s still pretty damn loveable though. And this episode has as he drops a drum of cheese on his foot, it does nothing, eats cheese right out of the barrel which..

I mean at least have some sanitary standards man. Get a bowl or put it in a bathtub or something. Figure it out. But yeah it turns out his heart is also in his arm, literally on his sleeve.. something they don’t point out so it’s a subtle and well done joke.

Anyways yeah... so this is where the weird stuff comes in. Flip is some sort of miracle of science despite in all other episodes clearly being a normal human, And I like it.. while some bits of it are gross, i’m not a gross out guy so if you like that it’ll be up your ally and I respect that. But for the most part it’s just weird, bizzare stuff I can’t help but chuckle at like Flip having gills on his leg or being able to surivive freezing tempratures while not moving at all. See this works better than the spy episode in terms of what the fuck or to a lesser extent schooled because while it is fucking bizzare.. it works and it’s just swining so hard for the fences, it hits the moon. With the other two one didn’t bring it up till the end and the other just.. suddenly annoucned Royal Woods is next to canada and that lincoln taking a boat there was feasable. This just works for me. So Lisa takes him to the conference, with Lincoln and Clyde joining in to serve snacks and promote the food and fuel which works, I also like the gag about them being late because they argued about what Science Casual meant. Lisa shows off this monstrosity and gets praise.. and a shady scientist asking if she can use flip for her experiments which lisa talks him into and Flip agrees to because, like his agreeing to lisa’s experiments he likes money and tasks the boys with running things. Naturally handing a miracle of science over to a shady science lady you know nothing about backfires and lisa trying to search incognito labs just blows up the computer.. somehow. Don’t think too hard about it. But LIsa finds lily petting a rat and soon finds the rat comes from flip begging for help. And upon spying on the lab, Lisa finds that flip is basically being tourtured and feels she did no better which.. no. While she did use him as a test subject, she also did so with his full consent, and for free publicity. She didn’t harm flip as while she subjected him to a lot of crap NONE of it harmed him like Ingognito’s experiments are. This attempt at a moral dosen’t work when Lisa , while still seeing only flip for his achivments, did nothing unethical. Flip willingly signed on for this and was never once in danger. And look medical trials can be unethical epsecially when people are deseperate. I get that. But here Lisa did nothing wrong and given her usual tendency to ignore scientetific ethics, that’s a lot. Lisa goes to the boys for help and together they all sneak in and free flip in a decent sequence using various stuff from flips. The doctor for her part, as she was planning to shoot flip up into space without a suit to see if he could surivive because evil, gets blasted up. So yeah.. this episode ended with a 4 year old, an old man whose apparently a mutant of some kind x-men or otherwise and two 12 year olds having killed a woman.

And then they all just.. have flippees for aj ob well done. I mean yes the lady deserved it but still.. you all just killed someone! YOU SHOULDN’T BE ACCEPTING THIS. WHAT JUST HAPPENED. AND WHY DOSEN’T SNAKEBIRD HAVE HIS OWN MOVIE. EPISODE OVER.

Final Thoughts on Blinded By Science: This one was okay. Insane, VERY insane, but okay. I’ve seen way worse, from this very season but man is it weird and man is that ending just...

Yeah that takes it down a bit but overall really enjoyed this one, Moving on. Real behind and got four to go so

Band Together: I think I have one of my many reaction images that says it best here:

Given i’ve seen pretty much every Luna episode, she’s my faviorite and i’ve been blatant about that, and all of them are pretty good, I had high hopes for this one. And it STARTS promisingly enough: Luna is rocking out with her band which finally has a name! The Moon Goats. Which I like a lot: Besides reminding me of the objectively awesome Mountain Goats, it fits thehir personality and also reminds me of fellow teenage garage band goat cheese pizza from Zits... I miss when that strip was about teenagers and not two old men yelling about teenagers. Metaphorically. Point is I like this and my recent scott pilgrim kick means this is even better. We also find out Scoots is a huge fan of the band. Which is fantastic. Why an old lady with questionable morals is their biggest fan I do not know. We also get a band prank and fully names for the other two: Sully, the guy and Mazy the girl. I mean their not given MUCH character, Sully likes to bash his head on the keyboard and Mazy is uh there. And that is one of the episodes downsides: Despite being the first episode with Luna’s band to NOT focus on just Sam... the rest of them, and Sam really get to do nothing. The fact Sam and Luna are together dosen’t even factor into the plot. I honestly think it’s what removes the episodes punch, that we don’t KNOW these characters and thus LUna posisbly leaving them behind has no weight. In contrast the series actually did something similar with little build up but made it work with the episode where Leni’s friends are trying to make her choose between them: Her mall coworker friends or her school friends. While we didn’t KNOW her school friends like the mall ones, the episode took time buliding them up so we got why Leni loved both and why this was so unfair to make her choose between them. Here it’s just two well designed carboards and a sam. And without the stakes of it possibly impacting Luna’s relationship, which I don’t want obviously but at least we have a stake in at this point, there’s just.. not a lot. Plus the solutions kind of obvious. But what’s the problem? The band performs for a big manager who only needs Luna to fill in for a professional band. The IDEA as i’ve said is good: LUna being forced to pick between her friends and her career, and both sides not being happy about it. But it’s just.. wasted. Besides clearly being bigger than 30 minutes, apparently we needed the half hour slot for a caddy ghost, this story just feels slight. Luna ends up with the other band and the manager gets on her for acting like she does with her friends.. but she’s a 16 year old who dosen’t know any better. What’d you possibly expect? none of it just really works. She goes back, no one is suprised, and the only part that really works at all.. is the ending. After welcoming luna back , as their roadie at first and clearly it’s more of a joke, Chunk plays with the band and gets Luna’s spot. THAT is not a bad ending and while I”ll miss the big lug, it’s really nice to see the guy get a big break and Chunk is low key one of my faviorite parts of the show. But otherwise yeah, this was almost nothing and given how usually FANTASTIC the Luna episodes are, this one was a really huge disapointment. No need for final thoughts moving on.

Seasons Cheatings: This is a quick one but only because there’s no real character stuff or bad parts, i’ts just a decent if contrived holiday episodes. It’s the annual family gift swap, and Lincoln wants a backpack for (insert thing he likes #37). That being said I DO like that Lincoln isn’t just into one thing obession wise as even with my tendency to hyperfocus due to my autisim, I have TONS of things I love and glom onto. YOu can tell just by my massive assortment of reaction images and quotes. So it’s nice for a show to for once NOT have a nerdy kid just have one hero they focus on. So it’s rip hardcore this time, with a fancy backpack. Why Lincoln didn’t just ask for it for christmas is beyond me and is the only thing that bothers me about the episode. Ohterwise i’ts pretty decent; LIncoln’s trying to cheat his way to victory by getting the right sister for the swap. Which really ends up boiling down to first LIly, since the parents will choose, but since LIly did her own gift this year, he then tries one of the older sisters since obviously, they actually take this seriously and have the money to get something nice with various shenanigans including lincoln dressing up like his own mother. Neat. It’s nothing amazing but it is neat.

Naturally he forgets his own, and has to trade his gift to Chandler to get Lola a nice gift in time. Also Chandler is apparently Lincoln’s black market hookup ala hustler kid. I genuinely love everything about this from the fact it fits his character, to the fact him being rich means there’s a genuine way he can get the resources, to the fact that despite being rich and probably not needing to do this it still fits he’d do it anyway because he’s kind of a scamp. If they use Chandler more like this, as Lincoln’s sorta shady frienemy who Lincoln and Co and possibly the sisters go to for shady schemes and crookery, i’ll be fully on board with it. Plus it might finally squeeze liam out of the group and give us someone willing to hit rusty. So all good things.

But we do get a REALLY sweet ending as Lily, having seen her big brudder sad, paints him a picture. We also get the sweet image up top of LIsa and Lucy having given each other the same gift. Overall not a bad episode. Not nearly as good chirstmas story wise as 11 louds a leapin, but with a shorter runtime and a tight premise it still works and is still very sweet.

A Flipmas Carol: Another very simple but alirght one.. and ANOTHER flip episode. And another one I can speed through a bit more. Basically it’s the night before christmas and Flip is taking advantage of the neighborhoods desperation with shoddy merchandise.. and forcing Lynn to work off the debt for some accidnetal damage on christmas eve and day. I mean she is legally of working age so this is legal but it’s still sketchy. Which is Flip’s wheelhouse. Naturally this leads to a christmas Carol Parody and the weird part as the ghosts resemble and act like the loud kids> This is never explained, it’s really weird especially since Clyde ghost refrences his therapist.. but given the louds were in there and are in there enough for Flip to know them well, same with the mcbrydes, it easily could be a guilt induced hallucination or simply the ghosts taking a familiar form so i’m not going to dicker over it. It’s weird but you know not sudden super spies, golf ghosts or childrne comitting murders weird and as I mentioned up top, holiday episodes get a little more leway with me in terms of weird shit. not by a lot but by just enough.

So they take him through what you’d expect: The Past gives Flip a sympethatic and well done origin story: Flip had a date with the girl of his dreams, but lost out due to a comination of Scoots selling him bad goods and bad tickets in middle school and vowed never to be hurt again barney stinson styles. The present shows him the consequenceds of his actions on other people’s christmas including whatever he gave the louds to make christmas dinner having turned into some form of abomination, causing him to actually feel guilt. The final one shows him having died, buired alone with no one to care in a ditch with a pizza box and having lost everything due to his practices. It ends how you’d expect, he goes to eveyrones houses and fixes things before giving the loud kids present and clearing lynn’s deabt before that happens. Not much to really dig into here, just a pretty good specail. Both of the christmas episodes are good, and while again not as good as the first one aren’t bad themselve.s

So yeah overall this crop was okay. No real standouts, but outside of Band Together nothing bad and even that had extra scoots, luna’s band getting a name and that cheeks suish. All in all not a bad batch feels good to be caught up. Until next time courage.

#the loud house #christmas #lisa loud #lincoln loud #clyde mcbride #luna loud #sam sharp #saluna #chester monk #scoots #flip #rattus #lily loud #lola loud #lucy loud

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years

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Episodyssey: Diseasy Does It

CHIMPERS! RISE UP!

On the unexpected return of Episodyssey, I’m not just gonna talk about an episode of a cartoon; no, I’m going to talk about literally the only fucking thing a cartoon ever put out. This is the failed pilot for Mr. Warburton’s cartoon Kenny and the Chimp, and it failed because the execs saw there was a bunch of side characters who were good-for-nothing kids who caused a ruckus and fought adult tyranny, and they were like, “Dude, just make a fucking show about them.”

[And the rest is history.]

But is there any value in Kenny and the Chimp? Why didn’t it capture the hearts and minds of the Cartoon Network execs back in the day?

Well, aside from the fact that executives at animation studios don’t have hearts, I think the real issue with this pilot is that it didn’t really do much to set itself apart from other cartoons at the time. Like, ok, no, there was no other cartoon where a boy and his chimp helped out a mad scientist named Professor XXXL (pronounced Triple Extra Large, and it has to be bolded) who has a lobster claw for a hand, but it’s not like a boy and his chimp is the most original idea in the universe. It has been done in millions of cartoons and movies, and one time a chimp even starred alongside one of the most wicked men in American history.

[I was originally going to make a joke here about Reagan being the chimp, but chimps don’t deserve that sort of slander.]

But just because the concept is unoriginal doesn’t mean it can’t work. And yes, the concept is shallow, but it is just a pilot, and pilots tend to not be very good indicators of the final project. I’m going to talk about more pilots eventually, but off the top of my head shows like Foster’s Home and even Kids Next Door itself had pilots that were really awkward and didn’t really showcase the strengths of the main show. For all we know, Kenny and the Chimp could have ended up getting more story-driven as it went on like KND did, culminating in some sort of tragic fight where Kenny has to stop an evil Chimpy before he dooms the continent of Antarctica to a fiery death or some such late 90s/early 2000s cartoon nonsense. The point is, we’ll never really know, because again, this is just a pilot, and most pilots suck major ass. Good pilots are pretty rare.

[Pictured: A rarity.]

There are some things that do really stand out, with one of them being Professor XXXL, the mad scientists whose lab Kenny and Chimpy must watch. Much like fellow failed pilot villain Baron Vain, Professor XXXL is hilarious, hammy, and absolutely absurd, considering he has an entire collection of debilitating deadly diseases he doesn’t even know why he has as well as a giant lobster claw for an arm and a completely unexplained hatred for the PTA (though considering they apparently cut off and eat his lobster arm offscreen, perhaps his hatred of them is not unfounded). Unlike Baron Vain, Professor XXXL actually got to live again as a recurring “antagonist” on KND; antagonist is in quotations because he turns out to be one of the few adults who is actually not really evil at all, he just seems that way because… well, he’s Professor XXXL. What he’s really always up to is trying to create the perfect snowcone, which never works out for him because he’s an adult in a show where adults get the shit kicked out of them. Amusingly, every time he appears he has a different animal part. He’s definitely one of the more entertaining gimmick villains on the show.

The pilot also has some pretty amusing gags, a lot of which would probably go over a child’s head… or they would, if they weren’t painfully explained. The “Salmonella Fitzgerald” joke sadly gets a Seltzer & Friedbergian explanation, which kind of ruins things; this isn’t a problem for the Swine Flu cure joke, which has a parody of Emeril, but the Swine Flu joke has aged poorly for… other reasons. Aside from those, it does have some pretty standard gags that would have most likely led to it working better as a series of shorts, though if that were the case I’m not sure if this would be particularly memorable. Do you remember any of the shorts Cartoon Network did fondly? Don’t answer that.

As it stands, it’s become depressingly obscure, though again, I do get why. It just didn’t really do much to set itself apart, and it had far more interesting side characters in it that, when fleshed out, made a far better show. That’s kinda what happens sometimes. Still, I feel like there could be some value mined from this, and there’s certainly plenty of meme potential in the show, at least in terms of out of context images.

[Please explain what is going on in this picture.]

My pipe dream for the 2020s is to foster a semi-ironic Kenny and the Chimp fandom and somehow get Mr. Warbuton to do a revival. Obviously this isn’t going to happen, because maybe five people will read this review and even less people are going to come out appreciating the sheer genius of Kenny and the Chimp, but hey, can you fucking imagine? Galactic Kenny and the Chimp, people drawing chimpsonas, Kenny and the Chimp discourse as people argue whether or not Chimpy is old enough to be shipped with Professor XXXL…

Actually, you know what, I’m glad this didn’t happen. We got KND, Kenny and the Chimp remains an amusing little footnote in history, and I think things really worked out for the best with the Mr. Warburton show we ended up getting.

[Well, mostly for the best.]

#Episodyssey #Mr. Warburton #Kenny and the Chimp #Kids Next Door #Cartoon Network #pilot #failed pilot

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burritodetodo · 6 years

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Fare You Well Adventure Time - Final Review

On Monday September 3rd 2018 at 19:00 (EST) the 2010s Animation Renaissance era was over after Adventure Time ended. It was the foundation stone of eight years in which a generation that grew up watching cartoons could meet them again thanks to a great story. One of the tales from the mythical Enchiridion that became a worldwide cultural phenomenon.

Pendelton Ward’s creation was born on 2007 as a short on Nickelodeon, but that network didn’t think it was material for a full series. In a very clever move, Cartoon Network, where Pen was working on Flapjack (the mothergum of 2010′s animated series) on those years, did think it was a good series and gave Adventure Time green light.

In eight years Adventure Time went from the adventures of a 12 year old boy, Finn Mertens, and his magical shapeshifting dog, Jay T Dawgzone Jake, on a post apocalyptic world to a coming of age story that has nothing to envy of John Hughes movies.

The first three seasons the Finn wants to be a hero no matter what the consequences. On fouth and fifth seasons, our little dude falls into love games of infatuation, teen love and broken hearts. Family and existential dramas are shown on its sixth season, in which the tone is darker and deeper. The final three seasons show Finn discovering who he is, why he has a heroic behaviour, learns to cope with depresion and anxiety with his other part, Fern, and, different to his younger self, learns that not everything has to be solved with violence.

Alongside Finn we have a cast that grew up with him and were key to the main story:

Bonnibel Bubblegum: an 827 year old princess that looks like a 19 year old one that learned not to be manipulative all the time and has to lean on her friends to solve her problems and chill out.

Marceline Abadeer: a +1000 year old vampire queen (that also looks 19) who survived a nuclear war and heir to the Hell throne that realises she can’t escape from her troubles all the time and need her friends beside her. Especially her loved one, PB.

Simon Petrikov/Ice King: he used to be an archaeologist cursed by a magic crown with antediluvian magic that turned him into mental insanity and looks for his fiancée/princess to say one last goodbye.

BMO: they have the purpose of entertain a young boy, the possible son of their creator that didn’t have because he also didn’t have time to make one, who have some journeys where they found out where they come from and learns about life and death.

Jake: a magical dog who efusively lives under the YOLO rules and skips way too much some important moments like his children breed. Through seasons he learns he needs contention and tries to be a better dad by supporting his pups.

The fight between good and evil can’t be absent from this epic tale. A bunch of major enemies appear such as The Lich as the personification of Evil on Earth, a Grass Curse that brings lots of problems in later seasons, the Vampire King that awakens after a thousand years, a wacky scientist who did hideous experiments on animals and humans and a primordial god that seeks destruction. There’re also other enemies who were defeated in one or two episodes.

Love is a fundamental element of the series. Finn went through infatuations and teen love, satisfy himself through a fantasy that pulls a break up with Flame Princess (his first girlfriend), his unloving dad and loving virtual mom and the spiritual conection with Huntress Wizard towards the end of the show. That feeling can also drive someone mad, like Betty trying to save Simon and almost destroying the world twice.

But the most notorious demonstration of love of the series was the one between Marceline and Bonnibel. Shown distant from the begining because of a mutual distance, they were getting closer and closer as long as the series was reaching the end and the climax was with a long awaited kiss during the end of the world after Marcy went bersek when she saw Bonnie almost dead after a GOLB monster attacked her. That LGBTQ kiss was very important for inclusive representation in animation, a taboo that is luckily disappearing little by little.

We can’t leave behind the crew who made Adventure Time possible. Pen Ward was in charge for four seasons until he stepped down. Adam Muto replaced him with profit the creator’s project. Storyboarders and writers staff that were in the series left to create big hits:

Patrick McHale: part of the core of what was Adventure Time on its first seasons, he did in parallel the extraordinaire Over The Garden Wall. A 10 part miniseries themed in Halloween that was an instant hit and every October is revisited by fans.

Rebecca Sugar: the best alumni for many fans. They left on Season 5.1 to create Steven Universe, CN’s powerhosrse nowadays.

Ian Jones-Quartley: he went with their girlfriend, Sugar, to Steven Universe. His short, Lakewood Plaza Turbo, was greenlit and it was renamed to OK KO. An awesome cartoon with 90s spirit on its own.

Julia Pott: she created a short that was premiered in Sundance festival called Summer Camp Island. It got an award and the network gave it green light for a full series. With her, many members of Adventure Time crew went there and has a tone that’s familiar with AT’s first season.

Voice actors were also a key role in their interpretation of characters. Big names such as John DiMaggio or Tom Kenny mixed with the aging Jeremy Shada that grew up alongside Finn so the production didn’t have to change his voice actor as it happens in many shows. And, as I did in previous reviews, Olivia Olson was amazing playing Marceling but also by singing: from mourning about the last fries on Earth to doing a terrific Mitski cover back on Season 7.

youtube

Of course, a big hit series can have big guest actors voicing characters. Names such as Ron Perlman, Neil Patrick Harris, Maria Bamford, Mark Hamill and many more also gave life to Ooo’s big characters.

We say fare thee well to an epic story. Nine seasons, or chapters, that explored with creativity real life situations ambiented in a post-apocalyptic world. A story that gave us back faith on animation, despite network’s mistreatment in the final seasons. A show that wasn’t only child’s game, because animation is for everybody. Listening to the Music Hole sing sweet songs, she rock our souls while we ask what time is it.

If you liked this post, not only like it. Hit reblog.

Support content creators. Vote NO to Article 13 of the European Union.

#burrito revews #adventure time #atimers #long post #SORRY for the very long post #burrito reviews

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chojin-cu-chulain · 5 years

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Argooville

Ever since I was a kid, I was a fan of Cartoon Network. The best days of my life were when I would come home from school on Fridays and watch all the Cartoon Cartoon shows like Courage the Cowardly dog, Billy and Mandy, and Ben 10. I stopped watching around when I was a teenager, I told myself it was because I was getting to old to watch that kind of stuff.

But I think it was also because that was around the time, they started having that whole live action phase they were going through. Remember that? when they had stuff like Unnatural History, and Tower Prep, and all those reality game shows, and crap. Yeah most of it sucked but I remember one good thing came out of it, and it was called Argooville.

Now you probably don’t remember that in fact until recently I forgot about it myself mostly because it was hard to watch in the sense that it was only aired very early in the morning, and Cartoon Network didn’t have on the streaming section of their site or on on-demand. In fact, part of the reason I even saw it in the first place was by recording it on my DVR back in the day.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. The show itself was about a boy named Johnny Sparks who one day moved to a town called Argooville. At first it seemed like your average ordinary small town were nothing happened but to Johnny’s horror the town was home to the titular Argoos.

I’m trying to think of how to describe them, the best way I can is that they looked like a person’s top of on top of a giant human head with a bunch of eyes all through out their bodies. Remember Eustace DeMonic’s monster form from Rampage World Tour? Think something like that if his bottom half was just a giant head, and he had eyes all over him.

I remember there were about four in all there was Dr. Arg who was the main villain who looked like a stereotypical mad scientist. There was Scuzz who was the dumbest one who was the comic relief, and looked like a balding man.

Glump who was the big bully strong man type, and finally there was Glooria who was the token female one who looked like a stereotypical blond woman who would act like she was nice but was just as mean and evil as the other Argoos.

I don’t remember if the Argoos used to be humans or if they were always mutants or aliens or whatever they were but I remember the creepiest thing about them was that in every episode they would grab somebody, and the person would just melt, and sink into their body. Sometimes that would just eat them but other times the person would be incorporated into the Argoo, and they would get bigger, and have more eyes.

I don’t remember much about the actual plots of the episodes other than they generally followed some kind of formula of Johnny, and his friends trying to either stop the Argoos or warn the rest of the world about them, with the Argoos themselves having some evil plan that often times would only get foiled either by Johnny, and his friends or the Argoos getting into fights over who should control the town ending with none of them winning.

The show itself lasted for about 13 episodes but I don’t think it ever had a proper conclusion I know there was a cliffhanger where it looked like Johnny was about to be absorbed by Dr. Arg but that was it. and afterwards I think even I forgot about it. That was until a few nights ago.

It started off normally when I was watching tv when all of a sudden they started showing the first episode of Argooville. Then when they got to the part where Johnny moved to Argoovile, and the Argoos showed up for the first time it stopped being a show, and I was actually there in Argoovile myself, and it was real life.

I remember being freaked out the entire time because I knew best case scenario I would probably die or worst case I’d probably be assimilated by one of the Argoos. In fact I think the only reason that didn’t happen was because they saw use for me as a minion to do mundane things for them but I knew that still meant I was on borrowed time.

I don’t remember how it ended. Maybe I snuck into one of their labs and overloaded one of their machines or maybe I just took Johnny with me, and just got the hell out of Dodge while I could but I remember Johnny being upset with me that we had pretty much left every one else there to whatever horrible fates awaited them but for me I was glad I was out of there.

The rest of my dreams that night weren’t exactly good, walking through a dark street at night with all sorts of animals on the ground, getting in trouble with my dad, doing badly in school but I remember even then being glad that they were just real world anxieties that I was as far away from that place as I could get that even in my dreams that was just a tv show or dream.

When I woke up though I couldn’t get that dream out of my head, so I searched everywhere. I searched Youtube, and KissCartoon but couldn’t find anything. I searched Ebay and asked about it on all the various message boards I go to, and Tumblr.

So please I just want to know. Does anyone else remember Argoovile? Do you remember the episodes? Does anyone have them? Please I must see it for myself I know I saw it. Has anyone else had any weird dreams about too. I just need to know that it’s real that it’s not just something I imagined.

#creepypasta

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sonicpositive · 7 years

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Sonic Character Analysis: Dr. “Eggman” Robotnik

A hero is nothing without a villain, and the longest-standing villain in this particular story is the genius Dr. Eggman. Over the years our favorite supersonic hedgehog has butt heads with the good Doctor over and over again, and seen him characterized many different ways. From a laughing stock to a remorseless killer, and everything in-between. In the interest of being somewhat brief, each of these portrayals will be analyzed one at a time. Let’s get to it!

Requested by: In Honor of Eggman Day!

Non-Sonic references:

Sonic News Network: Doctor Eggman (Pre-Super Genesis Wave)

Thomas “Eyokir” and Evan Stanley: Sonic Adventure DX Commentary

Other content warnings: GIF images (1)

The Comic Relief Opponent

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

The version of the doctor most known for painting him as nothing but a bumbling idiot is the old show, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. He throws temper tantrums like a child when things don’t go his way, which is very often. Despite his smarts he can’t outsmart a teenager and his five year old sidekick. Not to mention, he’s extremely unattractive.

The thing is, all of these were intentional. The show was going for a slapstick cartoon feel, and in order to do that they had to very deliberately make Robotnik someone we wanted to laugh at. An old animation guide for the man shows some insight that went into his design:

(Source: pr0jectneedlemouse

Remember: Robotnik is not a straight villain. He is an object of ridicule. When drawing him, keep that fat adult you hated when you were a child in mind. Or your least favorite politician.

Big, huge, fat and repulsive.

It’s clear this man is never meant to win. Yet, despite that, there were times in the show where he did come close. For example, take the episode “Over the Hill Hero, where he actually captured Sonic in a small force-field.

Sonic is rendered completely helpless for the second half of the episode, unable to escape or to help the people of Mobius. Attempts to saw through the field with his spin-dash only result in the Doctor manipulating it to trip up his stride and make him fall flat on his face. The only reason he escaped was because of the help of an older hero Robotnik had decided was incompetent. Otherwise, it would have been game-over.

Despite having him be a comical villain very deliberately, his plans are just clever enough that we worry they might succeed. But he doesn’t, because if he ever did he wouldn’t be funny anymore.

Sonic Underground

Another, similar portrayal of Eggman when he was still using the “Robotnik” handle is Sonic Underground... which is decidedly ironic, since it was based off of the Saturday morning cartoon.

He certainly doesn’t look as comical, and his tactics are shown to be as ruthless as those in SatAM. But actually re-watching the show, I was surprised to realize he wasn’t nearly as dark as I had thought when I first saw the series.

And I also realize a way to tell; how competent his help is sets the tone for the Doctor himself.

Sleet and Dingo are constantly bumbling their way through their attempts to capture Sonic, Sonia and Manic. They get some good breaks, and Sleet is actually rather clever, but they’re never exactly threatening.

Because of this, most of our exposure to Robotnik himself is paired with these two, and the fact he even entertains their company magnifies the silliness factor of what he’s doing. Even during the final episode of the Chaos Emerald Crisis arc, one of the most serious points in the show, he falls victim to easy tricks and slapstick comedy, despite otherwise being portrayed as competent and dangerous.

So, as oppose to Adventures Of where he is funny but his plans are potentially dangerous, we laugh at Robotnik here because he might be dangerous, but his plans will never work. Any threat he might have is undercut by the fact he truly believes nothing could go wrong.

Sonic Boom

“But these are old cartoons!” I hear you saying. “They hadn’t established his character yet!” This is true. But what’s also true is that in the Sonic Boom TV show, he’s been given the exact same tone.

By now, Eggmans character has been several years in the making, solidified and polished to something consistent. But Sonic Boom, besides being an alternate universe, doesn’t benefit from this tone. The show is meant to be silly and mostly lighthearted, with the Doctor being an episodic nuisance.

However, this portrayal does differ from the other comedic roles in one important way; he’s shown in many ways to be a secondary protagonist as oppose to an antagonist. Episodes center around him, and he has a somewhat friendly, albeit very complicated, relationship with the heroes. In many ways, he’s more similar to a rival than an outright villain. He helps them if it benefits him, but more importantly, they help him as well.

The episode “New Year’s Retribution” is a good showing of this; with his self-esteem in the gutter, the Doctor desperately tries to best Sonic before the year is over at ANYTHING. And when Sonic realizes this, he challenges him to a dance-off and intentionally loses. Despite the fact that time and time again he tries to ruin their day, when he’s truly distraught the heroes let him win.

The reason Eggman is funny here isn’t because he fails at his plans. Instead, it’s because we as the viewers end up seeing him in some ways as a hero, not a villain. He’s just really bad at being bad.

The Merciless Dictator

Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)

On the completely opposite end of the spectrum, the doctor has been portrayed as the epitome of evil nearly as frequently as he has been a joke of an adversary. The one most fondly remembered for this is likely SatAM.

Considering SatAM was in production at the same time as Adventures Of, you can see the stark contrast. His design is much harsher, even including a robotic arm (not shown in the gif above). His personality and how he handles roadblocks is also much different; he’s a cold, calculating enemy who still gets angry, but in a much more dangerous way. Snively is actually afraid of him, whereas many times in other shows his underlings actually are not.

He’s a threat, certainly. But he’s also... flat. We don’t love him, we don’t even love to hate him. He’s just “Sonic’s enemy.” He hardly even seems human. He shows fear in one episode, and only towards Naugus. The only reason we get on-screen for him hating Sonic is that the hedgehog ruined his plans and inadvertently roboticized his arm. He’s barely a character; more often than not, he’s simply a walking “big bad” trope.

Sonic the Comic

I know, not one we talk about often, right? But the Sonic the Comic iteration of the Doctor is actually interesting in many different ways, and balances having a stock “evil villain” character with a realistic, compelling backstory.

Uniquely, in this version of canon Robotnik did not simply start out as a mad scientist in search of power. His intent was to make Mobius completely perfect by taking away all the negative Chaos energy in it. He even functions as Sonic’s origin story, giving him his shoes that provided super speed.

But, the best laid plans never seem to work; his experiments backfired on him and sent everything he was trying to destroy into him, transforming him into the same cruel villain SatAM shows. He terrorizes the world just because he can, and if he can’t have the planet then he’ll destroy it and make sure no one can.

While possessing more depth than other Dictator Doctors, it feels in some ways cheap. It almost seems that he is not the curator of these actions, but rather negative Chaos energy itself. It’s kind of pathetic, oddly. As if his body is just a host for some parasite that wants to suck the whole world dry.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics, Pre-Super Genesis Wave)

Somewhere between “to much backstory” and “not enough,” the early Archie Comics issues of Sonic the Hedgehog found a midpoint that worked pretty well. I will admit that I didn’t start the series until after the Super Genesis Wave, and going back to read all the issues prior to that requires time I simply do not have, so I will be directly citing the Sonic Wikia.

The Archie Comics were in the unique position of needing to adapt their version of Eggman as new media was put out to keep it current. They started from the SatAM version of Robotnik, and had to melt game-canon Eggman into more or less the same character. For how difficult a task it was, they did surprisingly well.

Being stated on several occasions as being many times more nasty and evil than the original Robotnik ever was, Eggman has shown himself to be far more prone to toying with his opponents than his Mobius Prime counterpart on numerous occasions. As opposed to simply wiping out Knothole from the get-go, Eggman decided to "have fun" with his Mobian enemies and take the time and resources to engage in "war-games". [...]

Like Robotnik, Eggman is also arrogant, and egotistical, both of which may be his greatest weaknesses. He has a habit of frequently putting "Egg" into the names of numerous inventions and places [...].

Despite his genius, Eggman has the annoying habit of thinking that his plans are foolproof, even when the flaws are quite obvious [...], and not realizing that there may be a problem until it is too late [...].

(Source: Personality section of Wikia page)

The biggest issue with this portrayal of the Doctor is... There’s just. So. Much. His personality grew and changed drastically over the course of the never-ending story in ways that don’t always make sense. Some of his arcs seemed to be the end of him, but you can’t get rid of the main villain, so he came back despite there being no logically believable reason to. Robotic body literally exploded? Built it back. Complete mental breakdown? He reasoned himself back to reality. His character has possessed so many different traits at different points that the question becomes... is he really one character?

The Mad Scientist

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics, Post-Super Genesis Wave)

Clearly, neither of the two extremes worked well for a children’s video game series. We need to be able to take the Doctor seriously, but not simply see him as the featureless face of evil either. And so, somewhere in the middle, a balance was found that turned Eggman into the character we know him as today.

As previously mentioned, the Archie Comics needed to adhere to new media as it was created, so surprisingly the good Doctor didn’t change that much. Mostly his past was simplified from a giant drama to a set of specific successes and failures, which served his character much better. He still ruled the world, and he still kept getting beaten by Sonic.

The most interesting change this brought was that instead of dealing with robots and robians, much of the Doctor’s regime centered around mobians with free will working under his watch. He no longer works in a bubble of just his own thoughts and plans; he occasionally actually receives advice from the mobians that are loyal to him.

However, this doesn’t stop him from making it absolutely clear that he is the one in charge. He might be goofy enough that they occasionally speak up and offer a different view of a situation, but he’s still utterly frighting in other respects. All of the mobians shown to work for him have cyberkinetics somewhere in their body. If they betray him, they can say goodbye to their mobility. No one would dare say he’s not a threat to them.

Sonic X

I will mention I’m going by the original Japanese for this up-front, because honestly 4kids didn’t localize the series well at all from a story/character perspective. I re-watched the first several episodes of Sonic X in the past few years for a personal project, looking specifically at characterization of Eggman. Going into it, I thought he’d be a comical villain. He can’t be that dangerous, right? He has them gamble the Chaos Emerald on a round of baseball, like it’s a can of soda or something. Clearly he’s a joke.

But then...

Y e a h.

Eggman here is actually deceptively intimidating. In spite of his odd ways of going about things, he thinks his plans through pretty thoroughly no matter what they are. And most importantly, we get to see that on-screen. It doesn’t matter how wonky the plan is, we see his train of thought and realize it might actually work.

But while I was almost always anxious about Eggman’s plans, I never found him frightening. He’s incredibly expressive, often silly looking or sounding. Ironically, I think a lot of the time he uses that to his advantage. “Go ahead, underestimate me; it’ll make defeating you a cakewalk!” He played Knuckles this way, and he played a few of the human characters too.

He’s a funny villain, very cartoonish in looks and behavior. But he’s a smart and capable one, with several plans having victory slip just barely through his fingers.

Game Canon

Of course, none of these modern Eggmans would ever exist without the games. No matter how far back you go, the Doctor was never at one extreme or the other. Even, you might be surprised, in the games without story at the forefront.

You can show characterization through more things than dialogue. In fact, old video games relied on this sort of characterization because of not being able to have voice-acted characters. Large blocks of text on screen were tedious and cumbersome, so the bad guys had to match whatever tone they were going for.

And we got these guys. Not the harshly mechanical designs of the SWATbots in SatAM, not the mildly-grotesque designs of some Pokemon or Koopa Troopers, not even the round but metal designs of the later Egg-pawns. Brightly colored robotic animals. And even at that, the boss fights were entirely different. These were the roadblocks he threw at Sonic to slow him down and hope to get lucky. The boss fights were him getting serious.

This trend was carried over once the games started getting spoken dialogue as part of the story and experience. Archie Sonic artist Evan Stanley and Sonic the Continuation writer/artist Thomas (...I don’t have a last name for him I’m sorry) briefly discussed Eggman in one video of their Sonic Adventure DX Commentary, and the statement has stuck with me ever since.

Thomas: You know what, I want Eggman to be a serious villain, and then even in the “Adventure” games [...] They had this stuff [the Egg Carrier rooms].

Evan: He’s never been serious in the games. He’s had... the promise of threat, but he’s not serious.

This is the differentiation between all other portrayals of the good Doctor, and why we most remember him. He is believably dangerous, his plans have weight, but he's equally ridiculous and quirky in a way that makes him bizarrely lovable.

We want to see him succeed. Just not for too long.

#Eggman #Dr. Eggman #Robotnik #Dr. Robotnik #Eggman Day #Character Analysis #Bucket List Mod #Bucket List Note: I tried to be brief but I analyzed nine different iterations of the Doctor #so it's still REALLY DANG LONG

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lielisstrange-blog · 6 years

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I came in with a storm 2182002 straight from the gods to a hospital in Maryville Tennessee

My existance called for change, leaving the couple im told to know as mother and father to divorce

I was put in a family of a brother and a sister and on one side i had mor cousins than i could count and the other seemed to be the ones who brought me here , with so many similarities with me

Growing up i was always smiling despite the constant aruging, verbal abuse, and later on physical abuse. I smiled becouse ,be it the gods, something told me id be just fine, that its all to change soon.

I was right.

Now ages 0-2 where pretty blurry

But from what i remember of 3-6

I met new siblings called step siblings and met this woman suppose to be a step mom. I didnt like them right away, i didnt really know why. But i treated them kindly likely becouse someone mentioned in a movie you should treat others how you liked to be treated. Now at this point i spent all my years in this big house doung whatever i wanted, i knew whats up and in this big house i was a bug but i was the king bee. No one ever stepped on my toes.

Now i didnt have much toys so i used my hands, i named them bith friends.

Which was kinda sad but they provided lots of entertainment when i was bored un school . I also spent my days watching drake and josh,icarly, and basically a bunch of nick and cartoon network shows from the 90s to early 2000s. One night i remember the mother coming to the house to sleep in the gym room. I had told her and my aunt that id sleep with them that night so i kept going back and forth rooms, aunts to the left,the other yo the right. At one point i got sick of it and sat in the middle of the hall looking out the door up the stairs directly obove me. I don't think i ever chose. I remmember mamaw worked for a jewlery company and we attended a christmas ball thing once, thus i descovored i loved christmas

Until around age 5, i realised i didn't care about school, loved christmas, felt lonely on Halloween and that everyone around me wasnt like me. Or perhaps i wasn't like them,,around that age someone who was suppose to be a cousin had me do some griss things with him. When we where cought with him on top of me, we where sat in the courner. Thats all that was done about it. Now ive always been very asexual, so i saw the act as a performance of sorts and truly didnt care as it ended shortly after. Until i was kicked off my thrown and moved out with the step siblings and that father. I was treated unfairly but found it hard to care. The step brother about two years older than me started demanding im to kiss him which i thought was gross. But he said if i didnt, hed tell on me. Given he was the favorite and had actual pull in the house i had no choice but to comply. Which i didnt but hed make me. At this time id go to the mothers house every other weekend to see my sister, eat pizza, and watch 90s cartoons or Madagascar. I swear i memorized that movie. Now the kissing eacalated through out the years into worse and worse things. But i honestly never put much thought in it. I was unattached from each side of the family already so i didnt care. My memory of these years are blurry due to repression. Not the kind youd think though.

See a memory that came back to me i was about age 7. I went outside in a fit and as i walked the wind seemed to kick up and i raised my hands at the side of me slowly making it kick more. I stud on a stump and remeber making a leaf tornado. I was very happy with my work. But at these times i was being told magic was evil from the mother. I figured it was magic, got off of the stump and stomped inside.

From 7-9 i descovored more abilities almost yearly. I noticed id think of a shows episode or a line in the episode and no matter what id see that exact scene the day of or week after. It happened all the time. Id also be sitting in the car on hot days wanting a drink but knowing enough that they'd never stop for drinks. Id think this or a specific question about a person ir thing and some out, like my brain would go silent fir a moment. Then right after, one of the people in the front seat would ask that question, anwser it,or announce we're stopping for drinks.This happend so often that i assumed they had mind reading powers,i even asked them. They always said no thiugh.Another one seemed to be just magic ,like id want something to happen and the moment im not thinking about it, it just happens. Which sounds amazing but keep in mind i was trying to repress these abilities as much as i could along with memories of them so itd build up. Like when you're young and mad you might think about wanting something bad to happen to somone whoes mean to you. Now with this ability if you wanted it, just for a second, its long enough to do damage. Which,wasnt fun. Also one day i had a watch and said out loud that id descovor time... perhaps i have a time ability. I forgot to mention, when you try to repress things like this, you get KILLER headaches all the time. Like yiu cant run or jump or talk loud without feeling like your head was going to expload. I also made killer storms when angry. And i was always angry. But my abilities are fight or flight activated so itd never hurt me. Sometimes id black out and look off in a direction and use one of my powers. Like i couldn't control it, it had to get out. One time i was in a car, got angry, abd looked out a window,my mind went silent as i looked at a truck that was suppose to stop at a red light then looked at the tip of our car slowly until i was blasted back to reality as the truck hit our car. We span to the middle of the road, the two people in the frount seat crying and screeming as i sat their completely untouched with a shocked look on my face.

I remember the mother teaching the brother hiw to ride a bike,she didnt have time to teach me as well so i looked at what they where doing, hopped on my bike and flew down the hill. Now i didnt exactly know how to stop it so i mightve went down the hill straight into a tree. However, i got back up laughing my ass off and learned those little grippy things on the handles can stop the bike when needed. I then knew how to ride the bike and went flying down the hill again.

Now from 8-10 ish we lived in a house on a hill with a creek at the bottom and a church to the side. I spent those years unallowed to get on the internet, loving tv, trying to gather enough food to actually eat, saving pinnies to get 15cent candy and ever ran a little store to cell old toys. We also had an old schoolhouse in our backyeard and woods to play in, which i did often. It genuinely felt like i was growing up in a different time period as i hunted for crawdads and heard the rasist or homophobic rants from the father and step mother.

Now from about 8-11 i was shown back to the future, doctor who, and the joy of mac and cheese by my sister. The 9th doctor was my first him id seen, and i loved him and the show. Because up until this point id felt alone but he made me feel completely not alone. I also descovored i wanted to be a scientist, not even really knowing what that is yet. The gross things stopped for the most part. Also i picked up a camera phone for the first time making a video where i killed a stick and even crushed a berry to make it look of blood.

I thought it was so badass. At this point id visit the mothers house everyother weekend and sometimes go to mamaws every other other weekend. Mammaws being where my thrown originally was, although they moved to this town called oak ridge. Now i loved oak ridge. It was the original time bomb town. Ive also always had a weirdly strong connection to albert enstine whom was there. I swaer i genuinely was Nikola Tesla in a past life, he was an asexual scientist with cool hair and pure sass. The mother also moved to oak ridge. Her house had a tierswing made by my sister. I loved it there, it was a perfect time capsule until one night. We had just got there and i was playing with my binderoos as my sister was started getting yelled at by the mother. She was screaming, i think my sister threw a party or something. Then my sister got up just kinda talking her points out as the mother yelled and yelled then my sister started yelling. Then out if nowhere the one we've been calling mother, we'll now call "T" , slaped the glasses off of my sister. My sister looked shocked then left the house as T screamed. Now everytime id go over to her house shed make it seem like she was the good one, like he was evil. At this moment i knew for sure, neither of them where the good guys. So i grabbed my sisters glasses and fixed them with my bendaroos. What makes it worse is that my sister came to her house after being abused at mamaws. She knew that and still hurt my sister.

I never stopped smiling. I always knew itd get better.

Age 12 , the step brother sent false claims about my sister, leaving it to wear we couldn't see her for months that felt like years

She tought me that no one could tell me i wasnt what i wanted to be, even if it was a ninja . She tought me to fight ,how to get out of trouble, and told me stories of her stealing at my age. I only ever stole food or tiny things as we rarely had any

And now people at mamaws started ordering me around more , getting meaner , or perhaps they where always mean i just didnt care enough to catch it

I also watched harry potter for the first time and related very VERY much.

2012

We left that house with the creek and that step mother and where off to live at mamaws

Which i loved dearly as ut was the only place i was allowed to exist with out being hit or pushed or screamed at and i could go online

I descovored i love 50s music and shane dawson

I also started going to the elementary school across the street. Now with schools over the years, at first i just didnt care because it was easy and boreing, then it began where i couldnt pay attention as hard as i tried. Id look at a book and have a whole movie in my head playing about a magic book or something where ozzy Osborne came to my school to sing crazy train and hug me ...which i thought about a lot. Then the teacher would call me out for not paying attention, but it was never on perpous id just check out.i also had a habbit of always having teachers who hated me like one time in like first grade a teacher said i was in trouble and moved my car back (which was a paper car on a paper road that youd get rewarded for if you got far or punished if you got taken back). When she did that, i made it obvious that i gave no shits by sitting and saying nothing as she yelled. Hen she moved it firther back when seeing no reaction from me. Then further. Then straight up just called the father who we'll now call V. To another teacher who lout laud to the class said her dog writes neater than i.So my grades where never too good

From 2012-2014

Every morning for school at mamaws id get a little coffee, watch a little of the morning news, then head off

Every night i could, id watch boondocs or family guy with my little cousin who was basically my little brother at this point and drink some chocolate milk

Every other week, i think, we'd get our allowance and go to the same walmart on fridays to spend it

It was the most like a family sitch i think id ever had

I remember my first day of middle school, and listening to "makes me happy" by drake bell on the bus, even coming back to do homework and eat butterscotch chips for cookies

That being said after being there until middle school me and the other brother was taken by V to see his new house

I didnt want to go nor stay and i made that very clear. Something seemed,,off.

Then sure enough on the way there v told us he got back with the step mother we'll call the L (hehe)

And that they're now renting the house we're going to together

It was hell, i had to share a room with that step sister , it was back to rarely having enough to eat, virbal abuse, and general bullshit all the time

On top of that, because in oak ridge the age for middle school was one year below the requirement for this new town , i was sent back to an elementary school

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justafineblog-blog · 6 years

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My Essay on Genndy Tartakovsky

Genndy Tartakovsky

Genndy Tartakovsky is an animator, storyboard artist, producer, director and screenwriter, he is most famous for the cartoon network series’ Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2003). I grew up on Tartakovsky’s work without even knowing it, I only recently found out that this is the man who partially inspired me throughout my childhood.

One of my favourite Tartakovsky projects is Dexter’s Laboratory, Known for its simple style and, in my opinion, it’s very interesting characters, Dexter’s Laboratory tells the classic story of a mad scientist constantly trying to invent new creations and most of the time failing but this time it comes with a twist, the scientist is very young boy, he’s supposedly around 8 years old, interestingly Dexter’s Russian accent is a reference to Genndy himself as when he was a young boy he had a very harsh Russian accent.

In terms of style and feel, Dexter’s Laboratory was heavily inspired by the classic cartoons of the late 1940s and 1950s. the character designs of Dexter and his supporting cast were very from an approximation of actual human anatomy, a huge difference from what people were used to at the time, the design was quiet close to the aesthetic used by Hanna-Barbera cartoons combined with the fact that the each episode was split in to 7 minute segments telling a new story each segment and because of this the show had to rely on slapstick violence and gags similar to tom and jerry and the looney tunes actually . It carried this out incredibly well.

For example, the episode ‘The big cheese’ told us a story where Dexter wanted to learn how to speak French but after something wrong in his attempt Dexter woke up only being able to say one thing “Omelette du fromage.” The episode then takes us through Dexter’s whole day which leads to some typically absurd moments, you would think after a while this gag would get old but somehow it managed to stay fresh all throughout the episode, Of course, the thing that really upset Dexter was the fact that he couldn’t get in to his voice activated computer as the password was ‘Star Wars’ and Dexter’s attempts to access the computer resulted in a huge explosion. This combination of effective storytelling, classic humour was exactly the type of thing Dexter Laboratory is still remembered for to this day.

Another very famous animated series’ that Tartakovsky had a part to play in was Power Puff Girls, this show was amazing, I would call this show one of favourite animated series of all time, the brilliantly vibrant colours, the fantastic, gorgeous, simplistic style of all the characters and the classic archetypes used, it all culminates in the perfect kids show.

I especially loved the designs of the villains, they were all so obviously inspired by classic Saturday morning cartoon villains and the characterisations echo this.

The episodes that Tartakovsky directed were complex and added a lot more to the characters, for example the episode ‘Mr. Mojo Rising’ in which Mo Jo Jo Jo captures the professor in hopes to lure the Power Puffs in to a trap, in this episode Mo Jo discovers that he was the one that caused the accident that created The Power Puff Girls, his greatest enemies, but the interesting thing about this episode is that Mo Jo manages to defeat the girls. This episode adds so much to the character of Mo Jo Jo by making him find out the truth, and the fact that he defeats the girls means that Tarkovsky was tired of seeing the heroes win and in turn this adds a fresh new take in the story of good vs evil.

Genndy once said “For me, animation is the caricature of life. It's something that we create, from the ground up” I think that that this is a beautiful statement and truly shows the real passion behind every one of Tarkovskys projects, he fully delves in to all of his projects because he genuinely loves his work.

When Tartakovsky was done with Dexter’s Laboratory and Power Puff Girls he decided to go with something much different and introduced us to the ultra-stylized action series that would reinvigorate Tartakovsky’s career and proof to the world that he could truly do anything ‘Samurai Jack’ but that wasn’t why the animator decided to do this new style, the reason that Samurai Jack was so cinematic and far from his original style was so that he didn’t want to do dialog, he was clearly burned out after the various comedy’s was known for.

Tartakovsky would never take on two projects at once, he is of the believe that you cant fully put yourself in to two at once “Whenever you're doing two things at once, you're compromising them both” I completely agree with this statement, you should allows focus on one project before moving on to the next, if you complete a project and receive criticism you can work on that in your next project but if you work on two projects at a time you wont be able to consider critiques.

I've always loved Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory, but I especially loved his version of Star Wars: The Clone Wars due to his incredible style and all the interesting ways he showed the conflict within the characters using colours and style, for example in the scene where Anakin Skywalker fights the assassin Assajj Ventress, with each clash of their sabres, a flash of some of Anakin's masters shows an expression of despair and disappointment.

Not only was he skilled with stylistic animation but he is also skilled in script writing and foreshadowing events, at one point during the aforementioned duel Assajj states to Anakin “your fall will be my ascension to the Sith”, it turns out that her literal fall was another step on his journey to become the dark lord Darth Vader, If this was unclear to the casual watcher, it was made obvious by the mood, lighting, music, and visuals of the scene. It’s entirely unmistakable that this was meant to be a turning point for Anakin Skywalker, another testament to the skill of Tartakovsky.

Getting this series off the ground was no easy feat and is quite an interesting story, the idea came together from conversations between Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network, when Tartakovsky was offered the project he of course said although there was a small problem, Lucasfilm wanted the series to consist of one minute episodes so Tartakovsky told cartoon network that he couldn't really do anything significant with one-minute episodes-it's simply too short a time to tell a story. Cartoon Network went back to Lucasfilm and relayed the message and told them that they would be working with the team behind Samurai Jack, it turns out that George Lucas watches and really admires Samurai Jack, so they sent word that they now would be allowed three-minutes for each episode. When they got the word back from Lucasfilm, he still wasn’t sure that three minutes would be enough to tell a story.

So he took several existing 22-minute episodes of Samurai Jack and re-edited them into three-minute versions to see if it would work. He wanted to know that in three minutes you could make sense, capture the viewer's interest and still tell a compelling story. He found that this worked surprisingly well, particularly when each instalment worked to build upon the previous one, to offer an important piece to the overall story.

The series won three Emmy awards two for Outstanding Animated Program and another for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation

Even though Tartakovsky is incredibly well known due to his success in traditional drawn animation he has recently done a lot of work in 3d animation, he has directed all the movies in the hotel Transylvania franchise including a short film based in the universe called ‘Puppy’. Hotel Transylvania is a movie franchise where we follow Dracula, after his wife is killed by an angry human mob he decides to open a hotel as a haven to all other monsters, most importantly his daughter.

Tarkovskys main priority for all projects is the audience, he uses everything in his arsenal to make sure the audience is fully immersed in the worlds he creates “The computer is designed to mimic reality. And in an animated world, in my perspective, that's the worst thing to do. I want people to walk into a movie theatre and be transported to a different world”

Tartakovsky has also worked on the 2016 3d animated movie ‘Trolls’, Trolls is about a group of happy little creatures who due to various things are forced to go on an adventure to protect their people, I have never seen the movie but after reading the synopsis for the film it seems to be, just another Smurfs, Tartakovsky much prefers his movie projects to his television projects simply because he loves being in the audience with everyone else rather than going home and hearing what people thought later, “Watching a movie with an audience is so exciting. For me, coming from TV, you finish an episode and then it airs, and I'm at home. There's no gratification and there's no audience interaction with it”

In 2010 Tartakovsky was inspired to create a new series in the vein of speed racer and battle of the planets “I started messing around with this idea for a show about a robot, but he's disguised as a human in high school” the goal was to place a character with almost no emotion into the most highly intense emotional situation that we can all relate to, and see what comes out of it.

Like all of us when Tartakovsky was a child he always loved the idea of a kid in a giant robot, because we knew we weren’t tough on our own but if we had a giant robot we wouldn’t have to be tough.

Earlier in his career Tartakovsky worked as an assistant animator, storyboard artist and in between artist on a lot of very famous series’ such as Cow and chicken, Tiny Toon Adventures and my personal favourite series of all time Batman: The Animated Series which of course follows the adventures of the much beloved hero The Batman, he is also credited as supervising producer for The Grim adventures of Billy & Mandy and a timing director for Steven Universe but only for the pilots of these two shows.

I believe the most important part of any television show or movie is the heart, any time you watch anything from Genndy Tartakovsky you feel the heart and all the love that pours in to everything he produces, when there is no love in a project you can really tell, and it almost feels cold and robotic.

I have gone in to detail about a lot of Tarkovskys work but what about the projects that didn’t come through the ones that were left in the dark, that had some amazing potential, in 2013 Genndy Tartakovsky was planning an animated short based on the very famous superhero ‘Superman’, he was working on this project with Scott Willis the plans were unfortunately scrapped but not before some concept art was made, and the images are truly beautiful, they were quiet different from what were used to with the iconic hero, the images suggest that it would have been a sort of bleak story, the opportunity eventually came back to Genndy and his team but the agreement had lessened and over time it continue to lessen until there was nothing left, we only have two images to go off but if Tartakovsky was at the helm, this could have been the Superman story we have been waiting for.

Recently Tartakovsky was working on a new ‘Pop Eye’ movie based on the iconic character for Sony, but the production company got “cold feet” and pulled the sure success from production, this surely would have been an amazing return for the character that we may never get now, but Sony are continuing to work with the legendary animator so as long as the company don’t make another one of their purely idiotic mistakes we will still get to see Genndy’s passion project and original idea ‘Can You Imagine’ which sounds like a fantastic beautiful tale about a boy and his imagination.

In conclusion Genndy Tartakovsky is a very well-rounded animator, with a plethora of incredible, inspiring, life changing work under his belt. Before this essay my knowledge was very limited on this man, however now I that I have deeply researched his work I have learned so much about his process and the inventive ways that he would test things, I am now very interested in Genndy Tartakovsky and I would like to look in to his work and take in all the inspiration I possibly can.

http://www.azquotes.com/author/87771-Genndy_Tartakovsky

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/z49d9e/you-can-thank-genndy-tartakovsky-for-the-cartoon-network-holy-trinity

http://www.slashfilm.com/genndy-tartakovsky-superman-concept-art/

https://jonnegroni.com/2015/03/13/why-the-ruler-of-my-childhood-just-got-kicked-off-the-new-popeye-movie/

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fly-pow-bye · 6 years

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Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Not So Secret Service”

Written by: Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboarded by: Kyle Neswald, Benjamin P. Carow

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Not so great service, more like.

According to Cartoon Network US's website, this is the first episode of Season 3. However, it aired in other countries as a Season 2 episode. The confusion only starts here, because there's also Aliver and Never Been Blissed, both of which aired as Season 2 episodes over here and will be Season 3 episodes everywhere else. I am going with the US order, because the show is made in the US, I'm in the US, and I already reviewed both Aliver and Never Been Blissed.

And now, the delayed first review of a Season 3 episode, and it already starts off with some excitement, as the Powerpuff Girls are beating each other up!

In a video game. The Powerpuff Girls are playing what is essentially a robot version of Mortal Kombat. The robots, under the command of a surprisingly bloodthristy Blossom and a not-so-surprisingly bloodthirsty Buttercup, continue to do Fatality moves on each other, the robots apparently reforming themselves after every one.

Buttercup: Prepare for the battle axe! (red one cuts the blue one open)

Blossom: Here comes the organ shredder! (blue one twin-saws the other one in half)

Bubbles: Send them home...in pieces! (red one turns into a bomb and blows up the whole screen)

The joke is that the Powerpuff Girls aren't normally like this.

The Professor decides to be the responsible adult, and tells the girls to stop playing the game because it's too violent for them. He then leaves, deciding that doing anything to prevent these kids from being desensitized, like looking at that little letter on the box that tells you not to give this to your kids, is just too much for him. Blossom is confused by this, but not in a way I would think.

Blossom: Why does the Professor not want us to play it? It's not like it's going to make us violent in real life!

Perish the thought: the video game might inspire the Powerpuff Girls to actually be violent in this reboot! I take that back, I hope they continue playing! As soon as the hotline rings, they learn that Discount Jojo is in the Mayor's office. Apparently all hyped up on those non-age-appropriate robot fighting games, they decide to start the carnage!

They break into the City Hall, and decide to punch first and ask questions later in a psychadelic slideshow beatdown. Before Buttercup can drop the Mayor's desk on him, the Mayor skateboards into the scene, totally not to save a few dollars on walk cycles, to tell Buttercup he called for the Powerpuff Girls to help Jojo.

Buttercup: Help him out of his misery? Okay!

Okay, that's a line from Samurai Jack, but what a missed opportunity. Instead, Buttercup gets to lament that she rarely gets to hit anyone with a desk. It turns out even the characters are sick and tired of the lack of actual fighting in the reboot.

The Mayor explains that, despite being a supervillain, he's still technically a citizen of Townsville, and is therefore eligible for the Townsville's People's Protection Program, or "T Triple-P" for short. Because he's cool with the cool kids, you see?

With an old-timey film, the Mayor explains how it works: if someone is in trouble, a superhero will come to protect him or her. Apparently, superheroes always existed in Townsville, because this is all in Townsville's Constitution, along with a law that states that only real cowboys can dress in a cowboy outfit. My first guess was those Discount Jojo Cowboy jokes from Deb O'Nair was so bad, they needed a constitutional amendment to prevent them from happening again...

...but it's just so Bubbles can decide that now is the time to put on a cowgirl outfit and act like a cowgirl for a decent chunk of the episode, complaining that everything she wants to do is illegal. It's a running gag that is completely forgotten halfway through the episode. It should have been forgotten when it came up, really.

What did Discount Jojo do to need this help?

We go to a flashback, where Discount Jojo has created the ultimate super-weapon: a robot made out of a cardboard box and two giant machine guns that fire lasers. See, that's the difference between TV-Y7-FV and TV-14; this robot can have big machine guns, but as long as it fires lasers instead of bullets, it's A-OK!

The robot learns who is Jojo's worst enemy, and it happens. The screen even shows a reference to the original Powerpuff Girls, the reboot assuming that anyone familiar with that show is still watching it. I wouldn't give that a high probability. The show decides that he needs some motivation to destroy the Powerpuff Girls, even though we didn't need one before. With this Box-Droid, he will win an Evil Award for Best Mad Scientist.

Without it, he will lose to a man we have never heard or even seen before this episode, will not show up after this scene, and we’ll probably never see again. I would tell you his name, but there's no point. He tries to throw something at this picture, and it bounces right back in his face, causing him to call himself his own worst enemy. The robot took it literally, and that's how this situation happened.

The Powerpuff Girls are, of course, not big fans of this. They answer every excuse for them to not take care of Discount Jojo.

They bring up that Discount Jojo admitted that he wanted to murder his would-be saviors, but the Mayor simply doesn't care.

The Powerpuff Girls can't stop the robot, because the robot is apparently a master of disguise, leading to another running gag where the robot dresses up like an ordinary person, rather poorly, and asks around where Discount Jojo is. It's an attempt, to say the least.

How are they going to get Jojo past the Professor? For some reason, they decided to consider that an issue. Well, it gets solved in a very expected way for our good old Sitcom Dad...

They dress him up as a cousin named Johann. The Professor buys it, because the plot wouldn't work otherwise. It's kind of a shame, really; it would have been somewhat interesting to see the Professor live with his former lab assistant, but...

(ding!)

Professor: Ooh, Peach Cobbler!

Said peach cobbler ends up taking him out of the entire episode. I guess they couldn't find anything else for the silly dad character to do. He doesn't even come back to resolve that all important "violent video games" plot; it just barely comes up again right at the end of the episode.

This appears to be the setup of a good episode, and in the original, it was. There was an episode called Child Fearing, where Mojo Jojo ends up being the Powerpuff Girls' babysitter.

This reboot takes it in a different direction, because Discount J, er, Johann is the one that going to be annoying to the girls. Johann decides to take every advantage he can. Stealing a meatloaf patty from Buttercup, and immediately spitting it out because he only wanted the flavor. I swear they stole that joke from somewhere.

He then decides he's tired, and decides to steal the Powerpuff Girls' bed...and Octi, too! He also screams in the middle of his sleep. This seems like something they just added to make him the most annoying person ever, but I could imagine he's dreaming about the times the Powerpuff Girls beat him up to a pulp. If only that was even implied.

The next morning, the Powerpuff Girls are exhausted. Johann makes them some of his famous pancakes! Buttercup wonders if they're poisoned, but she decides to try it anyway. In a surprising twist...

...it was so good, we needed stock footage to show how amazing it was. He also fixes up Octi and cleans the curtains he dirtied up from before, winning Bubbles and Blossom's respect. See kids, let that villain who wants to kil, er, destroy you in your house; sure, he'll dirty up the place, be an awful snorer, and will steal your meatloaf and/or toys, but he'll make good pancakes! What a great lesson.

After Johann shows his positive side, we immediately get a parody of sitcom openings. If it was done in a more superhero way, I can see how it could be clever, but it's just...it's the Powerpuff Girls and Discount Jojo, and there's a bear in one shot. Okay, there is one particular thing that reminds me of Discount Jojo's character: Johann puts on a princess costume! At least it’s not the only joke this time, but still, that’s a bad reminder of how his character used to be in this reboot.

It even ends with an exterior shot of the Powerpuff home with sitcom music, which is how they sometimes open real episodes of the reboot. This could have been the start of a huge parody of sitcoms if this was done near the beginning of the episode. Alas, they wasted all of that time on the useless Bubbles jokes.

Johann immediately decides to leave the room and run away from the house and protection program. The very thought of becoming friends of his worst enemies is sickening to him. Compared to Princess's near face-turn, turning into a friend because he makes good waffles would be a major step down.

He then encounters the robot, who, due to a visit to a library in his stints of trying to blend in with society, found out that "my own worst enemy" is just a figure of speech. After an evil genius-robot hug, Discount Jojo decides to finally destroy those Powerpuff Girls with this strong robot made of cardboard. Surprisingly, the Powerpuff Girls don't do their usual plan of just standing there waiting to get lasered, because there's less than a minute left!

The Powerpuff Girls immediately eye-laser it. In fact, this is one of the same moves done in the video game, in the only real book end that plot had. An aesop about violent video games would seem hypocritical in a show where superheroic girls beat the stuffing out of people; it's kind of funny how violent video games actually helped out in the end!

In response to this, Discount Jojo has two different expressions at the same time. Clearly, an artistic way to show the duality of Discount Jojo’s feelings of the situation...and the fact that the people who animate the show have stopped caring.

Amazingly enough, they then beat up Discount Jojo in another psychedelic slideshow beatdown. They even drop an entire desk on him, much to Buttercup's delight. That is one book end I do not mind. Too bad I had a lot to "mind" about this episode.

Does the title fit?

This is more Witness Protection Program than Secret Service. Also, it apparently is a secret, since they have to keep the Professor from knowing its Discount Jojo. Maybe it's "not-so" because it only seems to be an issue for about 25 seconds of the episode.

How does it stack up?

I could see why Cartoon Network US sat on this one. This episode can't decide what it wants to be. An anti-video game episode, a "silly monkey" episode, a "Jojo being terrible" episode, a "Jojo being good" episode, a sitcom parody, an action-packed episode, and, at best, any of those ideas are excuted poorly, and at worst, not at all. While this isn't the worst Discount Jojo episode, I just couldn't get into this.

Next, the Fashionistas are back!

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#fpb ppg 2016 #ppg 2016 #powerpuff girls #cartoon network #fpb reviews

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