Hello, my name is Eila AKA The Animated Critic. I know what you're asking. Where's the next review? It'll be out soon. I promise. Maybe the next week or so. But before we talk about Cybersix, let's talk about another show I love about Superheroines kicking butt and taking names. The Powerpuff Girls. I love the original show. Even if it did have some seasonal rot near the end of it's life. It was fun, hilarious, memorable, and the trio of Blossom, Buttercup, and especially Bubbles will always remain as some of my favorite cartoon characters. Hell, I didn't even mind the 2016 show all that much. I didn't watch it as much as the original and it had stupid moments, but it had moments that made me feel like this was a proper modernization of the original series. And even some of the newer things it did to stand on it's own weren't that bad. Hell, I liked some of it even.
So as you can imagine, I am a big fan of this show. So I have some thoughts about the recently announced live-action series. Now, I have nothing against transplanting a cartoon into live-action. Some have criticized this practice and say it's part of an overarching problem of people not taking animation seriously. And while I do agree with that, I think some live-action adaptations do take great respect and care to adapt the original source material. However, this doesn't sound like one of those. This is a going to be a show aired on the CW, following the girls as adults. In this "darker and edgier" reboot the girls are disillusioned and hate life because they lost their childhood to crime-fighting.
Now I don't want to say this idea will immediately fail. It's unfair to say that and judge a product based on its premise. It's the execution that matters. However, I do have the right to make an initial impression, and to talk about this problem I feel animation, heck kids entertainment as a whole, is facing.
Let's get to my complaint with how this contradicts what we've seen multiple times in both iterations of the show. The girls are apparently miserable because they feel they lost their childhood to crime-fighting. However, we've seen multiple times in multiple episodes them doing normal childhood things. Going to school, making new friends, hell even stuff like peeing the bed. Watching cartoons, playing video games, pillow fights. All that fun stuff. What childhood did they lose? Professor Utonium made them to be the perfect little girls. He wanted to raise children and give them a normal life. It's just the freak accident of Chemical X gave them superpowers. But he still tried his best to give them a normal life and also let them use their powers for the greater good. Hence why they go to school and such. The gimmick of the show is that these are normal girls in almost every other way. They just have powers and also fight crime with them when not busy dealing with their own thing. So I don't know what's up with this cynical look that they lost their childhood. Look I know as well as anyone, that taking a more serious and cynical look at classic cartoons that are usually all happy go lucky and colorful can be funny. But it has to still make a little logical sense within the concept of the show, and can't be contradicted by the fricking basic premise. Also, you really want to make a whole season based on that one semi-funny idea.
But that's what I mostly want to take a look at. The cynicism. Why is there constantly attempts to give classic kids media a darker edge to them. Especially kids cartoons. Not saying it doesn't happen with live-action stuff as well, but let me just say you're not seeing an Icarly reboot where Sam's sex tape is accidentally leaked to the web. It happens with some live-action stuff, but mostly with cartoons or comics. Michael Bay's TMNT and Transformers movies for example. The live-action Scooby-Doo movies tried to throw a lot more adult themes in there. Hell, even Shyamalan's Avatar movie. Most of these were critical flops, but they were financial successes. So there's that. But they're not really looked back on fondly for the most part. I heard the Power Rangers movie was decent so that's cool. I didn't watch it though since I don't really care about Power Rangers. But that's a live-action property mostly. Why do cartoons always have to have grittier reboots? Why can't they be more like the Popeye live-action movie, which was stupid but felt like they were trying for a Popeye feel to it? Why is it that the original gets tossed to the side. Minus the characters and some ideas they borrow from the original. Why not just make Powerpuff girls, but live action. Have the fun campiness, and cool action. Why does it have to be dark? Hell, if you wanted to you could still make them adults. Yeah, a Powerpuff show where they live normal adult lives, but they still kick all sorts of evil butt. I have no problem with dealing with adult themes or targeting a different audience. But it just seems they are forgetting why Powerpuff Girls has so much appeal to it. It's cool they're making their own thing with it, but it feels like they threw out what made the show so special and pick up an audience to begin with. You can still make your own thing with the premise and capture the magic of the original show. I don't know. Like I said the premise alone isn't enough to say this'll fail or be bad. But it certainly doesn't get me interested in this show. I'm sure someone will like it. After all, the CW is pretty much doing what they did with the Archie comics when making Riverdale. And that has a decent audience that loves it. I never saw it, because I wasn't particularly interested in Archie to begin with, but I heard mixed things. Some people genuinely love it though. And I'm sure this show will have its audience. It's just...why can't we have fun. There's a place for more serious and gritty things, but there's also a place for more fun and lighthearted stuff as well. I know I'll always have the original show, and this has no bearing on the original whatsoever, so maybe I shouldn't care. But it just feels sometimes like people disregard animation and that's why these live-action adaptations disregard trying to capture the feel of the original work. Which is just bull. Animation is just as important and artistic as any other medium even if it mostly targets kids. Lots of love and passion still gets put into it to craft the perfect story. But even with some of the most renowned pieces of animation, like Avatar (which is considered one of the best shows ever even outside the animation community). Heck not just Shyamalan's version, but the live-action version that's currently being produced just lost the support of the original creators for trying to take a darker and edgier route. Like I said there's room for this stuff, but what's wrong with light-hearted fun as well. After all, you don't see people making something like Breaking Bad into a lighthearted romp through the flowers. That'd be dumb. It's kinda how I feel about this. Why is animation not considered a mature medium? Well, because people don't take it seriously. Hell, even the creators don't take it seriously sometimes. That's why I created this blog to begin with. To show animation has more potential than it's given credit for. To show the things you like have nothing to do with maturity. And to sometimes laugh at the crap that doesn't care. I'll give this new show a chance when it comes out, but as of right now I'm not excited. I'm sure there is some effort and talent behind it. And like I said it will have an audience. There can still be fun in darker more realistic stuff, but not the same kinda fun Powerpuff Girls provides. I don't know. It all mostly feels like a wasted opportunity.
Anyway, end of rant. Hopefully in the next week or so the Cybersix review will go up. That's a show with some good episodes that I think will show what I'm talking about. But we'll get to those later. This review will be over the first episode. Either way, have a good day. I'll see you later. Bye-Bye.
