Before I begin the review I just want to say this blog post is being made for an organization of Internet reviewers, like myself, called Red Ribbon Reviewers. Love the alliterative appeal in their name by the way. This organization has 2 goals this year. 1) To, and I quote, make America laugh again. 2016 has been a pretty crappy year and tons of people are legitimately in fear now. They want to entertain people and make them laugh to forget about all the hardships in life. Which has always been a goal of mine. The second and most Important cause is to spread awareness of HIV/AIDS by wearing a red ribbon (or in my case just putting in somewhere on this blog page). I only recently found out about this organization, but I have to say I'm all in for what they've been doing. So i decided I'd show some support. You can visit their website here. Also I highly recommend doing more research on HIV/AIDS. You might learn something new. Now onto the review.
Hello my name is Evan A.K.A. The Animated Critic. Welcome to the first episode of a new segment called Catch Up Session. As you all know I have a hard time keeping up with things. My schedule, school work,....life in general. This also applies to TV shows I want to watch. Sometimes new shows or episodes come out that I mean to watch and review, but it takes me awhile cause....I don't know I just suck. So welcome to a new show called Catch Up Session where I review recent shows and episodes that have been out for awhile...that I just haven't gotten around to watching yet.
Today we have Elena of Avalor, TTG V. PPG, The Loud House, Kuu Kuu Harajuku and Milo Murphey's Law.
First let's start with TTG V. PPG. Which was released at the beginning of the year. It's a crossover between what I'm willing to bet are the two most hated cartoons out right now. Teen Titans Go and The Powerpuff Girls reboot. Two shows I've reviewed in the past. Teen Titans Go is not very good. It ranges from god awful to mediocre with only a small handful of truly good episodes. The Powerpuff Girls reboot on the other hand is one that I thoroughly enjoy. It's not as bad as people say it is in my opinion. Sure there's a few cringe worthy moments...
Case in point, but it is a fun and entertaining show for the most part. I do understand the criticism the show gets though. So if you think it's bad it's understandable. This is a crossover no one wanted though. Heck I thought it was going to be utter garbage. I thought this would be one of the worst Teen Titans Go episodes. Heck it could've even been one of the worst pieces of animation to come out this year. So how much did I actually end up hating it.
.........
I actually think this episode was really good. Not only that, it's probably the best episode of Teen Titans Go. Yeah I was pleasantly surprised and I think a lot of others were as well. The episode, as I said before, is a Teen Titans Go episode technically. It has a simple plot. Mojo Jojo is being defeated by the Powerpuff Girls once again so he tries to escape them by going to a dimension where heroes don't actually fight crime. Thus he ends up in the Teen Titans Go universe. Cyborg and Beast Boy instantly take a liken to him and unknowingly begin to help him with his evil plan. Meanwhile the rest of the Titans meet up the Powerpuff Girls who followed Jojo. Of course the Titans don't take them seriously due to their small size. The girls though think that they're better heroes than the titans so they have a series of contest to see which hero team is better while at the same time trying to defeat Mojo Jojo. Now one thing that surprised me about this episode was the length. I thought it was going to be a whole 22 minute special considering how much Cartoon Network was hyping this up. But nope it's a normal sized 11 minutes. There really isn't much to say about this episode. It's pretty simple, but that's not a bad thing. You'd think being a Teen Titans episode they'd be completely biased towards the Titans and make them look super good, but actually both sides get ample time to make fun of each other. They even make jokes about how much the Titans suck as heroes. Of course though the girls win the contest, since even in the reboot they still fight crime actually. They do keep the Titans in character though and even when they lose they're still egotistical enough to think they've won. Having Beast Boy and Cyborg out of the competition was wise as then both sides would be at equal footing in terms of numbers. And since Beast Boy and Cyborg are the two most irresponsible members of the team (which considering the show they come from is quite a feat) it makes since that'd they walk off with some random talking monkey they just met, and thus wouldn't be able to compete. The girls are also in character as well. Well, in character for the reboot. Despite being a more comedic show the new Powerpuff Girls at least gives the girls close to their original personality. Just there's a few over exaggerations in a few of the things that they do. But they still do have personalities at least. More than the Teen Titans Go characters. So overall it's a good episode. It has funny moments, and is just an enjoyable 11 minutes. Not as bad as I thought. I'm actually really glad the show is making fun of itself for once. Usually when they do this it's in an episode like Return of Slade or Let's Get Serious where they defend themselves and aren't really making fun of themselves, but defending themselves and acting like the critics of the show are just haters or nostalgia blind. Here it legitimately feels like its being tongue and cheek about their problems. So overall not a bad episode. I'd recommend watching it at least once.
On a side note this seems like the year where heroes just can't get along. Civil War, Batman V. Superman, Teen Titans Vs. Justice League, and now this. And DC is associated with 3/4 of this stuff. Maybe that explains all the crapiness of this year. The heroes are to busy fighting to actually help people. Meanwhile villains seem to be getting along just fine. Moving on...
Next is Elena of Avalor. A spin-off of Sofia the First that's currently airing on Disney Channel. This one is going to be simple to review. You like Sofia the First? The you'll like this. You hate Sofia the First? Then you won't like this. Review over.
Next up......*sigh* OK I'll go into more detail.
The story starts way before Sofia the First. An evil sorceress takes over the kingdom of Avalor. Her name is Shuriki. The crowned princess named Elena was put in an amulet. The same one Sofia wears in Sofia the First. Meanwhile her sisters and grandparents were put in a painting. 41 years later and Elena is free and finally defeats Shuriki taking back the throne. However she's not quite old enough to be queen. As even though 41 years have passed she hasn't aged at all and is still 16. So she still has training to do in order to become queen. Though she might as well be queen as she's in control of almost everything. Anyway to help her out she has her royal council and a variety of friends including flying jaguars called jaquins. This show is very similar to Sofia the First. After all it's created By the same person and takes place in the same universe. However it's doesn't feel like a complete rehash of Sofia the First. Sure it follows the same structure. There's a problem and by the end a character will learn some moral lesson. Every episode also includes a song. (The songs by the way are all really good). It's similar enough that I'm willing to bet you won't like this show if you don't like Sofia. However there may be some things that may make you Sofia haters out there like this show a bit more. To me though, a person who actually does like Sofia the First, it's about on par with Sofia. First I wanna point out that this show, while also shown on Disney Jr., is a regular Disney Channel show. Which is weird. I mean it's not like this deals with anymore mature themes than Sofia. It has the exact same TV-Y rating. So why put in on Disney Channel. My guess is they saw an increasing amount of older Sofia fans and wanted to give them a show similar to Sofia that didn't air early in the morning on Disney Jr. If that's the case though then why not just move Sofia to Disney Channel? Whatever. I guess it doesn't matter. This may sound like I'm saying its a pointless Spin-Off but it really isn't. It's a good show in my eyes, and adds to the world previously established in Sofia the First. Avalor is a pretty cool place and has a very different culture than Euchancia. Also this show is more adventure based than Sofia. My favorite episodes of Sofia are always the adventure based ones. Like Two for Tangu for example. This entire show is centered more on adventure. Plus it's pretty cool following someone who has actual political power. Sofia doesn't have the kind of political power Elena does so different adventures and events do occur. Like, for example, getting to work with other kingdoms to build a bridge between the two. I should say I really do love the world Sofia the First takes place in and since this show is more adventure based we see a lot more of said world and see how different cultures act. So if you are a Sofia fan there's definitely reason to check this out. How about the characters? What are they like?
Elena first of all is our main character. She's completely different from Sofia. She's an adventurous, and courageous spirit. However she's not arrogant. She's actually pretty wise. She'll try to stop situations without fighting if there's an opportunity to do so. She's empathetic to everyone. However she's also not naive. She's an overall fun main character to follow. I also absoulutley love the relationship she shares with her family. She always puts them first in any situation as seen in Model Sister. There's also Naomi. A girl who works the harbor with her father. She's also Elena's closest friend. She's really the only non-royal main character and also the only non-royal on the royal council I mentioned earlier. She can be a snark here and there and because she's not a royal this could lead to some interesting episodes. One has already aired called Finders Leapers. Which deals with her thinking that she's not good enough for the royal council because she's a commoner. Of course it ends with a message telling you you're special no matter what your origins are, and you can do special things. Naomi is enjoyable to watch but there isn't much to her character to be honest. Hopefully more episodes will come that develop her, but for now she's an enjoyable character. I will say I love her and her father's connection though.
There's also Esteban who I feel is the Cedric of this series. The anti-hero of sorts. Though I will admit he is not evil unlike Cedric. He's also no where near as fun as Cedric is. He's just an arrogant douche. He thinks he's the best fit for the throne. Though it does seem to be because he legitimately cares about Avalor, unlike Cedric who just wants to rule because....why not. He also does show empathy for other characters and he does love Elena as seen in the episode Island of Youth. So he's OK i guess.
Then there's Mateo. A wizard in training who was appointed royal wizard of Avalor. One of my favorite episodes so far, Spellbound, centers on him. There's not much to say about him though and It's probably because he really hasn't had much screen time to develop. He was enjoyable to watch though in the few episodes he appears in.
Last and probably least there's Gabe. He's the full prince charming type character. He's Elena's royal guard, though half the time she doesn't need him so that leads to some funny moments. He's just dull. So dull and void of any personality. He's a bit arrogant I guess, but he's just so dull, and unlike Naomi or Mateo I can't see what else they can do with this character. I can't see them developing him out of this black hole of blandness. They're trying to play up A bit of a romance between him and Elena, and I really don't want that to happen. Like at all.
Now that's not all the characters, but it is the most important ones.
Overall though Elena of Avalor is a good show for those who like Sofia. If you don't like Sofia I still recommend you watch it a bit as there's a small chance you could get enjoyment out of this series. It has likeable characters, good morals, an interesting world, and some fun episodes. It also has an awesome theme song to boot. Its just fun. Also a crossover with Sofia the First has aired. I haven't seen it yet, but maybe next Catch Up Session.
OK next up is The Loud House. A new Nickelodeon show. Oh great. Well hey Harvey Beaks was good, so maybe Nick is improving and this show is good to. I've heard good things about it, and holy crap it beat out Spongebob as Nicks most viewed show. Will OK, now I have to see what the hype is about. After watching a good chunk of episodes I now totally understand. It's a great show with a lot of character and charm to it. Lincoln Loud is one boy in a house filled with 10 sisters. As we follow his life dealing with a big family. I don't know what I can say that others haven't said already. It's a fun show. It has lots of funny moments, likeable characters, and great episodes. Lincoln is a great main character. He's caring for his family, but at the same time very anal about things. Which makes since as he's the one who usually takes charge of the family. He's always coming up with plans and operations for various things. I also love how he occasionally breaks the Fourth Wall to talk to us, the audience. I could also talk about his sisters but talking about each one would take up a whole lot of time. Let's just say they're good characters. I thought they'd all be one-note and bland, (especially considering with a big cast its hard to develop every character.) but they're all really good. I will make special mentions to a few though.
Leni is worth mentioning as she's a dumb, clutz, but she's enjoyably so. She's not as funny as Pre-Movie Patrick, but she does that really stupid character trope quite well. Mostly because in all the episodes I've seen so far her stupidity doesn't have a negative effect on anybody else. Think about it. Modern Patrick Star is so annoying cause he's always screwing people over with his stupidity. Leni doesn't do that. She's just there for jokes and for the most part the jokes work.
Luan has to be my favorite. Her jokes are corny and awful, but the show knows that so it's quite funny. I love a corny joke every once and a while. Also to me it never gets old. There's no point where I feel like it gets annoying.
Lisa by the way is my second favorite. She does has some really funny lines.
After that though I really don't know how I'd rank the rest of the sisters.
Other characters worth noting. There's Clyde who is Lincoln's best friend. Not much going on with him. I mean he has a crush on Lori, but that's about it. He's not an awful character though. There's one thing about him really worth noting though. His parents. They're a gay couple. The show doesn't stereotype them, they don't even draw much attention to that fact. They act like its a completely normal thing. Which is awesome. This is the first time Nick has had an openly gay couple in any of their shows. It's also the third time I know of of a kids show showing a gay couple after Good Luck Charlie, and Clarence. Hmm...Disney, Cartoon Network, and I guess it's come fully around to Nick. Anyway I think most of us can agree that more kids shows showing gay couples is awesome. But Clyde's parents are great. They're your usual overprotective parents, but as minor characters they work. They're also a biracial couple. Which may not seem as big of a deal, but considering only a few years ago people got angry at a Cheerios commercial for showing a biracial couple I'm going say this is a victory.
So good job Loud House, you're crew is not full of bigoted idiots.
The show also has a number of heartwarming moments and messages about family life. Speaking of family the siblings really feel close and like real siblings. I just don't know what else there is to say. It's funny, it has tons of heartwarming moments and great morals, the animation and voice acting is solid. Some of the music is public domain music that Spongebob uses all the time so that's kind of distracting, but I can get past it. I will say some jokes do miss the target, but overall it's still pretty good. I really enjoy this show. It's a nice show. I'll probably review more episodes of it soon. So go check it out. It was created by Chris Savino who wrote two episodes of MLP and worked on shows like Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls. Though in all fairness the two MLP episodes he wrote are generally considered not the greatest and he is associated with the Seasonal Rot eras of Dexter's Lab and The Powerpuff Girls. So it's pretty surprising how good this show turned out. Guess he always had it in him. He supposedly heavly based this show on his own life as a child. Interesting childhood he must've had.
Man so Harvey Beaks and The Loud House have been pretty phenomenal hits. A return to form for Nickelodeon it looks like. Their finally listening. Their finally improving their practices and their shows. It's great. And Nickelodeon is actually given this show the time it deserves. One of my main complaints with Nick now is they kind of push some of their shows to awful time slots and don't give them the air time they deserve. Harvey Beaks for example, or TMNT 2012. They both air on Nick super early on Saturday morning. Heck they even did this with Breadwinners, Pig Goat Banana Cricket and Sanjay and Craig. I hate all of these three shows, but they do have fans so they do deserve a better time slot. Plus they don't even air episodes for very long. Usually they just get one time slot....per week. The Loud House though gets a decent amount of time on air and has a good time slot. So Nick might be actually learning from its mistakes.
🎵🎵Kuu Kuu🎵🎵
Wait. What was that?
🎵🎵Harajuku🎵🎵
Hello my name is Evan A.K.A. The Animated Critic. Welcome to the first episode of a new segment called Catch Up Session. As you all know I have a hard time keeping up with things. My schedule, school work,....life in general. This also applies to TV shows I want to watch. Sometimes new shows or episodes come out that I mean to watch and review, but it takes me awhile cause....I don't know I just suck. So welcome to a new show called Catch Up Session where I review recent shows and episodes that have been out for awhile...that I just haven't gotten around to watching yet.
Today we have Elena of Avalor, TTG V. PPG, The Loud House, Kuu Kuu Harajuku and Milo Murphey's Law.
First let's start with TTG V. PPG. Which was released at the beginning of the year. It's a crossover between what I'm willing to bet are the two most hated cartoons out right now. Teen Titans Go and The Powerpuff Girls reboot. Two shows I've reviewed in the past. Teen Titans Go is not very good. It ranges from god awful to mediocre with only a small handful of truly good episodes. The Powerpuff Girls reboot on the other hand is one that I thoroughly enjoy. It's not as bad as people say it is in my opinion. Sure there's a few cringe worthy moments...
.........
I actually think this episode was really good. Not only that, it's probably the best episode of Teen Titans Go. Yeah I was pleasantly surprised and I think a lot of others were as well. The episode, as I said before, is a Teen Titans Go episode technically. It has a simple plot. Mojo Jojo is being defeated by the Powerpuff Girls once again so he tries to escape them by going to a dimension where heroes don't actually fight crime. Thus he ends up in the Teen Titans Go universe. Cyborg and Beast Boy instantly take a liken to him and unknowingly begin to help him with his evil plan. Meanwhile the rest of the Titans meet up the Powerpuff Girls who followed Jojo. Of course the Titans don't take them seriously due to their small size. The girls though think that they're better heroes than the titans so they have a series of contest to see which hero team is better while at the same time trying to defeat Mojo Jojo. Now one thing that surprised me about this episode was the length. I thought it was going to be a whole 22 minute special considering how much Cartoon Network was hyping this up. But nope it's a normal sized 11 minutes. There really isn't much to say about this episode. It's pretty simple, but that's not a bad thing. You'd think being a Teen Titans episode they'd be completely biased towards the Titans and make them look super good, but actually both sides get ample time to make fun of each other. They even make jokes about how much the Titans suck as heroes. Of course though the girls win the contest, since even in the reboot they still fight crime actually. They do keep the Titans in character though and even when they lose they're still egotistical enough to think they've won. Having Beast Boy and Cyborg out of the competition was wise as then both sides would be at equal footing in terms of numbers. And since Beast Boy and Cyborg are the two most irresponsible members of the team (which considering the show they come from is quite a feat) it makes since that'd they walk off with some random talking monkey they just met, and thus wouldn't be able to compete. The girls are also in character as well. Well, in character for the reboot. Despite being a more comedic show the new Powerpuff Girls at least gives the girls close to their original personality. Just there's a few over exaggerations in a few of the things that they do. But they still do have personalities at least. More than the Teen Titans Go characters. So overall it's a good episode. It has funny moments, and is just an enjoyable 11 minutes. Not as bad as I thought. I'm actually really glad the show is making fun of itself for once. Usually when they do this it's in an episode like Return of Slade or Let's Get Serious where they defend themselves and aren't really making fun of themselves, but defending themselves and acting like the critics of the show are just haters or nostalgia blind. Here it legitimately feels like its being tongue and cheek about their problems. So overall not a bad episode. I'd recommend watching it at least once.
On a side note this seems like the year where heroes just can't get along. Civil War, Batman V. Superman, Teen Titans Vs. Justice League, and now this. And DC is associated with 3/4 of this stuff. Maybe that explains all the crapiness of this year. The heroes are to busy fighting to actually help people. Meanwhile villains seem to be getting along just fine. Moving on...
Next is Elena of Avalor. A spin-off of Sofia the First that's currently airing on Disney Channel. This one is going to be simple to review. You like Sofia the First? The you'll like this. You hate Sofia the First? Then you won't like this. Review over.
Next up......*sigh* OK I'll go into more detail.
The story starts way before Sofia the First. An evil sorceress takes over the kingdom of Avalor. Her name is Shuriki. The crowned princess named Elena was put in an amulet. The same one Sofia wears in Sofia the First. Meanwhile her sisters and grandparents were put in a painting. 41 years later and Elena is free and finally defeats Shuriki taking back the throne. However she's not quite old enough to be queen. As even though 41 years have passed she hasn't aged at all and is still 16. So she still has training to do in order to become queen. Though she might as well be queen as she's in control of almost everything. Anyway to help her out she has her royal council and a variety of friends including flying jaguars called jaquins. This show is very similar to Sofia the First. After all it's created By the same person and takes place in the same universe. However it's doesn't feel like a complete rehash of Sofia the First. Sure it follows the same structure. There's a problem and by the end a character will learn some moral lesson. Every episode also includes a song. (The songs by the way are all really good). It's similar enough that I'm willing to bet you won't like this show if you don't like Sofia. However there may be some things that may make you Sofia haters out there like this show a bit more. To me though, a person who actually does like Sofia the First, it's about on par with Sofia. First I wanna point out that this show, while also shown on Disney Jr., is a regular Disney Channel show. Which is weird. I mean it's not like this deals with anymore mature themes than Sofia. It has the exact same TV-Y rating. So why put in on Disney Channel. My guess is they saw an increasing amount of older Sofia fans and wanted to give them a show similar to Sofia that didn't air early in the morning on Disney Jr. If that's the case though then why not just move Sofia to Disney Channel? Whatever. I guess it doesn't matter. This may sound like I'm saying its a pointless Spin-Off but it really isn't. It's a good show in my eyes, and adds to the world previously established in Sofia the First. Avalor is a pretty cool place and has a very different culture than Euchancia. Also this show is more adventure based than Sofia. My favorite episodes of Sofia are always the adventure based ones. Like Two for Tangu for example. This entire show is centered more on adventure. Plus it's pretty cool following someone who has actual political power. Sofia doesn't have the kind of political power Elena does so different adventures and events do occur. Like, for example, getting to work with other kingdoms to build a bridge between the two. I should say I really do love the world Sofia the First takes place in and since this show is more adventure based we see a lot more of said world and see how different cultures act. So if you are a Sofia fan there's definitely reason to check this out. How about the characters? What are they like?
Elena first of all is our main character. She's completely different from Sofia. She's an adventurous, and courageous spirit. However she's not arrogant. She's actually pretty wise. She'll try to stop situations without fighting if there's an opportunity to do so. She's empathetic to everyone. However she's also not naive. She's an overall fun main character to follow. I also absoulutley love the relationship she shares with her family. She always puts them first in any situation as seen in Model Sister. There's also Naomi. A girl who works the harbor with her father. She's also Elena's closest friend. She's really the only non-royal main character and also the only non-royal on the royal council I mentioned earlier. She can be a snark here and there and because she's not a royal this could lead to some interesting episodes. One has already aired called Finders Leapers. Which deals with her thinking that she's not good enough for the royal council because she's a commoner. Of course it ends with a message telling you you're special no matter what your origins are, and you can do special things. Naomi is enjoyable to watch but there isn't much to her character to be honest. Hopefully more episodes will come that develop her, but for now she's an enjoyable character. I will say I love her and her father's connection though.
There's also Esteban who I feel is the Cedric of this series. The anti-hero of sorts. Though I will admit he is not evil unlike Cedric. He's also no where near as fun as Cedric is. He's just an arrogant douche. He thinks he's the best fit for the throne. Though it does seem to be because he legitimately cares about Avalor, unlike Cedric who just wants to rule because....why not. He also does show empathy for other characters and he does love Elena as seen in the episode Island of Youth. So he's OK i guess.
Then there's Mateo. A wizard in training who was appointed royal wizard of Avalor. One of my favorite episodes so far, Spellbound, centers on him. There's not much to say about him though and It's probably because he really hasn't had much screen time to develop. He was enjoyable to watch though in the few episodes he appears in.
Last and probably least there's Gabe. He's the full prince charming type character. He's Elena's royal guard, though half the time she doesn't need him so that leads to some funny moments. He's just dull. So dull and void of any personality. He's a bit arrogant I guess, but he's just so dull, and unlike Naomi or Mateo I can't see what else they can do with this character. I can't see them developing him out of this black hole of blandness. They're trying to play up A bit of a romance between him and Elena, and I really don't want that to happen. Like at all.
Now that's not all the characters, but it is the most important ones.
Overall though Elena of Avalor is a good show for those who like Sofia. If you don't like Sofia I still recommend you watch it a bit as there's a small chance you could get enjoyment out of this series. It has likeable characters, good morals, an interesting world, and some fun episodes. It also has an awesome theme song to boot. Its just fun. Also a crossover with Sofia the First has aired. I haven't seen it yet, but maybe next Catch Up Session.
OK next up is The Loud House. A new Nickelodeon show. Oh great. Well hey Harvey Beaks was good, so maybe Nick is improving and this show is good to. I've heard good things about it, and holy crap it beat out Spongebob as Nicks most viewed show. Will OK, now I have to see what the hype is about. After watching a good chunk of episodes I now totally understand. It's a great show with a lot of character and charm to it. Lincoln Loud is one boy in a house filled with 10 sisters. As we follow his life dealing with a big family. I don't know what I can say that others haven't said already. It's a fun show. It has lots of funny moments, likeable characters, and great episodes. Lincoln is a great main character. He's caring for his family, but at the same time very anal about things. Which makes since as he's the one who usually takes charge of the family. He's always coming up with plans and operations for various things. I also love how he occasionally breaks the Fourth Wall to talk to us, the audience. I could also talk about his sisters but talking about each one would take up a whole lot of time. Let's just say they're good characters. I thought they'd all be one-note and bland, (especially considering with a big cast its hard to develop every character.) but they're all really good. I will make special mentions to a few though.
Leni is worth mentioning as she's a dumb, clutz, but she's enjoyably so. She's not as funny as Pre-Movie Patrick, but she does that really stupid character trope quite well. Mostly because in all the episodes I've seen so far her stupidity doesn't have a negative effect on anybody else. Think about it. Modern Patrick Star is so annoying cause he's always screwing people over with his stupidity. Leni doesn't do that. She's just there for jokes and for the most part the jokes work.
Luan has to be my favorite. Her jokes are corny and awful, but the show knows that so it's quite funny. I love a corny joke every once and a while. Also to me it never gets old. There's no point where I feel like it gets annoying.
Lisa by the way is my second favorite. She does has some really funny lines.
After that though I really don't know how I'd rank the rest of the sisters.
Other characters worth noting. There's Clyde who is Lincoln's best friend. Not much going on with him. I mean he has a crush on Lori, but that's about it. He's not an awful character though. There's one thing about him really worth noting though. His parents. They're a gay couple. The show doesn't stereotype them, they don't even draw much attention to that fact. They act like its a completely normal thing. Which is awesome. This is the first time Nick has had an openly gay couple in any of their shows. It's also the third time I know of of a kids show showing a gay couple after Good Luck Charlie, and Clarence. Hmm...Disney, Cartoon Network, and I guess it's come fully around to Nick. Anyway I think most of us can agree that more kids shows showing gay couples is awesome. But Clyde's parents are great. They're your usual overprotective parents, but as minor characters they work. They're also a biracial couple. Which may not seem as big of a deal, but considering only a few years ago people got angry at a Cheerios commercial for showing a biracial couple I'm going say this is a victory.
So good job Loud House, you're crew is not full of bigoted idiots.
The show also has a number of heartwarming moments and messages about family life. Speaking of family the siblings really feel close and like real siblings. I just don't know what else there is to say. It's funny, it has tons of heartwarming moments and great morals, the animation and voice acting is solid. Some of the music is public domain music that Spongebob uses all the time so that's kind of distracting, but I can get past it. I will say some jokes do miss the target, but overall it's still pretty good. I really enjoy this show. It's a nice show. I'll probably review more episodes of it soon. So go check it out. It was created by Chris Savino who wrote two episodes of MLP and worked on shows like Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls. Though in all fairness the two MLP episodes he wrote are generally considered not the greatest and he is associated with the Seasonal Rot eras of Dexter's Lab and The Powerpuff Girls. So it's pretty surprising how good this show turned out. Guess he always had it in him. He supposedly heavly based this show on his own life as a child. Interesting childhood he must've had.
Man so Harvey Beaks and The Loud House have been pretty phenomenal hits. A return to form for Nickelodeon it looks like. Their finally listening. Their finally improving their practices and their shows. It's great. And Nickelodeon is actually given this show the time it deserves. One of my main complaints with Nick now is they kind of push some of their shows to awful time slots and don't give them the air time they deserve. Harvey Beaks for example, or TMNT 2012. They both air on Nick super early on Saturday morning. Heck they even did this with Breadwinners, Pig Goat Banana Cricket and Sanjay and Craig. I hate all of these three shows, but they do have fans so they do deserve a better time slot. Plus they don't even air episodes for very long. Usually they just get one time slot....per week. The Loud House though gets a decent amount of time on air and has a good time slot. So Nick might be actually learning from its mistakes.
🎵🎵Kuu Kuu🎵🎵
Wait. What was that?
🎵🎵Harajuku🎵🎵
So this is another new Nick show though from what I understand this was not made in Nickelodeon Studios. It's kind of like Miraculous Ladybug where the show is on the channel but it comes from another country. In this cases it comes from 3 different countries. Canada, Australia, and Malaysia. And guess who created it. Gwen Stefani.
Yes Gwen 'Hollaback' Stefani. I will admit I haven't listened to her music much, but the songs I have heard were pretty bad. The only one I can say I like is Make Me Like You and even then it's not super great. This show was not only created by Gwen though it was inspired by her fashion brand. Harajuku lovers. Harajuku is a district in Tokyo, Japan and there's a lot of interesting fashion choices there. This is where that stereotypical weird anime fashion style comes from.
Gwen is apparently obsessed with this place. So much so she has a fashion brand named Harajuku Lovers and backup dancers called the Harajuku Girls.
This show is mostly based on the Harajuku Lovers brand, but slightly also on Gwen and her backup dancers. So with all that said you can probably gather that this show sucks. It's so dull and just awful. The show follows a band called HJ5 as they go on many wacky adventures while also trying to perform concerts. Unfortunately they seem to be cursed as every concert they have something goes wrong. I'm not even gonna spend much time on this one. It's awful. We got G, the leader. Then we have the Tom Boy, we have the geeky girl, we have the peppy one, and of course the dumb one. All these archetypes also appear in The Loud House. The Loud House gives personality to the archetypes though, they don't act as if the generic archetype is the personality. Unlike this awful show. All the characters are bland. We also have the band manager, named Rudy. He's dumb. He's a fricking idiot that constantly screws the girls and their music career over. It makes you wonder why they don't just drop him. I mean you could say that no one else will manage the band, but why's that. I mean HJ5 does have fans as seen by a few episodes. They just don't have great live performances (most of the time because Rudy screws them over). So with the right management they can fix that problem, and because HJ5 does have fans (lots of them) there's really no reason no one else will take them. Rudy is just so fricking annoying. Not to mention the episodes themselves are very lackluster and dull. Their not very funny either, and occasionally the show tries to have a heartwarming moment, but since I don't really care about any of the characters I don't really give two craps about any emotion being shown in this show. This show is just lazy. Purely lazy. I hate it. On top of all this the animation is weak and the dialogue is so insipid. Sometimes the characters will say "Kawaii Cute." For those who don't know kawaii is Japanese for cute. So they're pretty much saying "Cute cute." You can tell they frequently visit the Department of Redundancy Department. Each episode has their own little thing worth talking about that just absolutely annoys me. You know what. I think I have to make this show a regular target. That's exactly what I'm going to do. So expect to see more of this show soon. I think I'll cover the episode Game Over first. In fact I'm putting it on my schedule right now. It's going to be the fifth episode of Animated Critic The Show. God I hate this show. But technically Nick didn't make it so that still means Nick might be improving.
.....
No, no they're not. They're still making the same mistakes. Let's talk about what I'm dubbing 'The Harvey Beaks Incident', and why it's so showing of all the problems modern Nick has. Nickelodeon recently screwed over a lot of Nick Toons. They did this by putting these shows on their less popular sister network Nick Toons. This includes Harvey Beaks. The creator, C.H. Greenblatt, never found out. That was until Nickelodeon made a tweet about it. Angry he took to Tumblr to make a big rant and Nickelodeon forced him to apology on the website Cartoon Brew. This is the Cartoon Brew article. This is just so....so scummy. So so scummy. The executives are just being not only awful, money grabbing people, but also awful businessmen. Now when I say that I don't mean anybody that works on the creative team for these shows. I mean the higher-ups who run the channels air times and stuff. Listen, why would you screw over so many cartoons, not only Harvey Beaks by the way, with so many fans. What is all animation on your channel just done. Besides Loud House, Spongebob and TMNT. Nick in case you don't remember animation is the big reason you are where you are. This is not cool. Are you not getting enough money from your animation. MAYBE IF YOUR SHOWS WEREN'T ABSOLUTE GARBAGE THIS WOULDNT BE A PROBLEM. OR YOU KNOW, YOU COULDVE GIVEN THE SHOWS A CHANCE. No you didn't do your job. Your job was to make sure the shows that the creative team put so much effort into got the attention they needed. That means giving them a proper air time, or more attention, and not sweeping them under the rug known as Nicktoons. Don't just air these shows once a week at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning. Your job is to make sure that all shows get the chance they deserve. Good or bad. I'm not a fan of Sanjay and Craig or Breadwinners but they deserved to get a chance to prove themselves to some audience. YOU FAIL NICKELODEON. YOUR EXECUTIVE TEAM IS FULL OF HACKS ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY. Yes I know money is important and you guys at Nick probably have families to feed and bills to pay, but when you drop quality that's when I get angry. This has been a problems with Nick since I was kid. I just now have waken up and now I see the problem. Too bad I only just now saw it when it was at its worst. They only want what'll give them money. Which is Spongebob, or anything that can compete with Spongebob. Interesting GoetHe Loud House didn't move to Nicktoons. A.K.A. the only cartoon on Nick currently competing with Spongebob in terms of views. They only want things that can compete with Spongebob. At least in terms of animation. However how do you know what's going to compete with the sponge when you never give any show a chance to prove itself. You got lucky with Loud House. I'm sure if it didn't become a success as quick as it did you would've also moved it to an awful time slot. You know Nick your problem would be solved if you had like two or three less time slots for Spongebob and replaced those with other shows. More importantly than their shows though is how they treat their workers. The way you treated C.H. Greenblatt is unacceptable. Forcing him to apologize like that, not telling him about a very important decision that's about his OWN SHOW. That's despicable. I'm done with Nick man. I was about to give up on all Nick shows in protest. But then I realized two things 1)I still need to watch these shows to support the creators. Especially now. And 2) They won't listen. I'm just a 17 year old dork on the internet. Why would they listen to me. I want to protest by not watching Nick anymore, but then I wouldn't be supporting the creators, and they probably need support more than ever at this point. So I'll just try to limit my self on the Nick intake. Whenever a new show airs that's really good guys, please support it as much as possible. Before Nick decides to screw it over like its been doing with most of its cartoons recently. And it's a trend I don't think will die anytime soon. I wish C.H. the best of luck, and hope him spilling this info won't get him in trouble or ruin his career. Well that was depressing. So to end off this review let's have some fun. Next up is Disney's newest show. Milo Murphy's Law.
This show is fantastic. In fact I'm willing to say it's the best cartoon of 2016. Is it too early to say that? I mean we only have two months left so....I don't think it is. The show was created by the same duo as Phineas and Ferb. If I'm to be honest I find this show to be the better of the two. Nothing against Phineas and Ferb, but this is a really good show. The show stars Weird Al as Milo Murphy, a kid who's a descendant of the original namesake to Murphy's Law, which states that anything that can go wrong will. Every episode follows Milo and his wacky adventures. As a normal day for us turns into a day of adventure. It sounds repetitive, but if I learned anything from Phineas and Ferb, these two can do repetitive right. Every episode has a new and interesting thing to throw at Milo. It's almost never predictable, and always keeps you on your toes. Milo is a great main character to follow. I think most people in his shoes would be super depressed. I mean your whole lineage's point of existence is screwing things up. However he's super optimistic which really makes for a lot of good jokes. Also something that really works for this show is that people generally like Milo. There's a few people who, understandably, don't like him, but for the most part people do. People generally aren't annoyed, or at least they don't show annoyance, whenever Milo causes something to go wrong. So it's not unpleasant to watch it whenever something does go wrong. Also since Milo isn't in control of this curse he remains likeable. One of things I really like seeing is how they try and counteract Murphy's Law. How they try and keep the number of things going wrong to a minimum. It can be really fun. Of course as Milo has said Murphy's Law is unpredictable. The other characters in this show are pretty good as well. We got Milo's Childhood friend named Melissa. The relationship she shares with Milo is just so great. They really do feel like old childhood friends. There's also Zack who is the new kid and a bit of a worrywart which really plays out well with Milo's unpredictableness. This show also has a really large cast of recurring characters. All of them are pretty memorable to. This actually feels like a real town with real people in it.
Overall this show is great with a good cast of characters, a great sense of humor (that doesn't just revolve around Milo screwing things up.) Oh, and Weird Al voices the main character. What more could you want. So I say if you liked Phineas and Ferb, or if your looking for something fun give this show a chance.
There. I'm all caught up now.
So what did we learn today.
Well, Murphy's law will cause you to screw up all your live performances while you have a battle against a fellow superhero team that lives in a house full of girls, but in the end you'll both learn a lesson. That lesson being Nickelodeon is an awful company.
See you guys later.
Peace.
Evan: "Well now that's done..."
*CRACK*
Evan: "What the...oh another protester threw a brick at my window. Dang it and it's the one I just replaced.
Excuse me! Protesters, I know you want my head on a stake right now, but can you please stop breaking the windows and painting the side of my house. It's becoming quite the expense to pay and fix. Thank you"
Random Protester: "Well when you put it like that....No!"
All Protesters: "Roast the ghost host! Roast the ghost host!"
Evan: "Yeah, I should've figured asking them politely wouldn't work."
*Riiiiiiing.....Riiiiiiiiiiiing*
Evan: "Ugh, who wants me now? I swear this text better be good. It's from Bradley, weird."
Message: Meet us in your garage.
Evan: "OK.....wait. They broke into my garage."
......
Bradley: "Glad you could make it. Sorry I had to pick your lock. This was really the only place we could meet without the protesters bothering us. They wouldn't notice if you snuck into your garage."
Evan: "Fair enough. So why did you guys call me here."
Sam: "We want to know about the ghost."
Evan: "Daniel? Well he's from Salem during the witch trials, he became a ghost by committing suicide, and we might be related."
Cassie: "Might?"
Evan: "It's a little up in the air right now."
Rob: *sigh* "Guys I don't know about you, but I feel like we have to help him."
All: "Agreed"
Evan: "Help me with what exactly?"
Ryker: "Getting the protesters off your back of course."
Evan: "Why would you want to help me. I thought you were terrified of Daniel."
Naomi: "We were, but your our friend."
Cassie: "And this is something you seem to care about."
Sam: "We want to help make sure you don't end up hurt."
Evan: *about to cry* "You guys really care that much."
Rob: "Why wouldn't we? We're your friends."
Evan: "I mean I always considered you guys friends. You guys are really my only friends. I just....always thought I was a burden to you. I thought I always annoyed you."
Bradley: "Why?"
Evan: *Crying* "Because, I'm an awkward nerd who does so much stupid crap. Look at me, I'm even crying for no reason. I'm a mess."
Sam: "Is that why you always sat at the other lunch table right next to us."
Evan: "Yeah. I didn't want to screw something up and become a problem."
Rob: "Man I thought it was because you wanted to work in peace without having to deal with our bull crap."
Ryker: "Yeah we just kind of always assumed you didn't like us, but was just too nice to tell us."
Evan: "Why would you think that. I love you guys."
Rob: "Awww, you need a group hug."
*Everyone hugs Evan*
Evan: "Ha ha, look at that. The tears are gone."
Sam: "Man, has anyone ever told you your way too hard on yourself."
Evan: "Yeah.....my guardian angel told me that once."
Sam: "umm....whatcha talking about."
*Group hug ends*
Evan: *sigh* "2016 has been a pretty eventful year for me. This is going to sound made up..."
Ryker: "You do realize your living with a ghost right now. I think we can suspend our disbelief for a few minutes."
Evan: "Well my year started off with me meeting my guardian angel. His name is Kevin and he use to be a film critic. Then I had an old childhood friend try to take my blog down, because I was a bit of a douche. But in the end we made up. Not to mention when my family came over for a family reunion my cousin brought over a girl with a split personality that turned out to be witch. And now they're living together. Oh, and I have a talking Pokémon plush in my room as we speak."
Rob: "OK so you've been busy."
Evan: "That I have."
Ryker: "You know the world in general has been getting pretty weird. I mean over in Chicago theres the two vigilantes."
Sam: "Oh yeah, didn't they get in a fight with some sort of bug man."
Ryker: "Yep."
Naomi: "Not to mention all the ghost and witch sightings going on."
Ryker: "It's weird though that for years these supernatural life forms were just stories and myths, but now there's no denying the reality of this stuff."
Evan: "Yeah, makes you wonder what it could mean. Anyway I would like to thank you for your guys help. If it's not too much to ask can I ask you for another favor."
Ryker: "I don't know, sound like work."
Cassie: *Lightly slaps Ryker* "Sure go ahead"
Evan: Daniel has been on a mission to find his brother. So I want to know if you guys are willing to help me look for him."
Sam: "I am."
Rob: "Same here."
Bradley: "Count me in as well."
Naomi: "Me to."
Cassie: "Me five."
Ryker: "hmmmm, I don't know let me check my schedule."
Cassie: *lightly slaps him on the shoulder again.*
Ryker: "Hey, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'll help."
Evan: "Ha ha. I love you guys."
To be continued
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