Jungle Cubs: Mid, but Enjoyable

6:32 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "these are the most disgusting creatures i've ever fucking seen"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uh. Hi. I said I was gonna cover Madeline next but I've been having some problems with images appearing and disappearing depending on the day. So I wanted to do something with fewer images.

You'll notice some of the dates on these (and Doug, when we get to that one), are Christmas day. What a way to spend Christmas huh? I think  decided to stay in while family went out due to COVID-19 and travel concerns. Actually it wasn't all that bad. It's a lot easier to get ironic enjoyment out of some of the lousier One Saturday Morning cartoons.

This one is weird. I don't particularly like to act like something is underrated and no one has heard of it, but this is the first show I'd only heard of through the Disney watch. Which is weird because this was a show I probably would have grown up with. I watched a lot of Disney in the day and the late 90s were around the time I watched Playhouse Disney, when this aired, but I don't have a single memory of this show. I didn't really know what to expect.

1:34 PM · Dec 24, 2020 "2 eps into jungle cubs and i realize that yeah this is kinda exactly what i should have expected."
1:34 PM · Dec 24, 2020 "it has a lot of the innocence of little mermaid, but more contemporary qualities as well like quack pack or goof troop"

Yeah it's more hip 90s and also a kid AU. 

1:13 PM · Dec 24, 2020 "everyone looks and sounds different except for kaa"

But... We did this with Jungle Book before? Maybe Baloo was just that popular at the time?

I'm gonna be honest, I hated the Jungle Book movie, but I had a lot of fun with this show. It's generic and tries to be hip, but for some shows it works well.

Baloo is the same sort of character he is in the movie, a lazy fun loving kid. He's also the main protagonist of the show. Bagheera is the local goodboy and second in command. I remember the least about him. Louie is also the same, a prince and a partyboy, who loves human things. Hathi is very militarily minded, but he also has crazy anxiety. Kaa is a bit of a peanut allergy character, discussing various ailments of his at length, and probably the most consistent comic relief (or at least, he's the character I personally got the most laughs from).

Shere Khan is... well...

5:58 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "shere khan acts like that gay prep girl in life in the dreamhouse"
6:20 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "i really like shere khan's character but it's one i've seen before. like this show you could just watch a compilation of shere khan sassy moments i think"

There was also Winnifred, who I guess was the girl, though she only showed up in a few episodes and was a love interest for Hathi. Mahra too, though she was a lot more of a villain... Maybe I never watched it because it was a bit of a boy's show.

3:49 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "KING LOUIE SAID FEMALES...."
6:13 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "louie and hathi keep calling women females......."

The show is about the characters all hanging out and being friends, even though a lot of them hate one another in the movie.

3:17 PM · Dec 24, 2020 "jungle cubs are all friends despite their political leanings."

It's pretty generic, but I think that works out for the show. The episodes can go back and forth between typical cartoon fare, something Kipling actually wrote, and whatever "The Coming of the Wolves" was.

6:52 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "what's going on?????? this feels so much more serious???? like. implied adultery?"
6:58 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "it keeps going back and forth between funny kaa moments and escaping an abusive relationship????"
7:10 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "THE PREGNANCY EPISODE OF JUNGLE CUBS?"

It's got a very back and forth nature of escaping an abusive leader and uh... Kaa getting stuck in a wall. Nothing ever comes off as bad or too mature for young children, but the whiplash is definitely something.

I think the other episode I wanna talk about from the first season is "Mondo Mungo," which is just the My Gym Partner's a Monkey episode "Mongoosed" done over a decade earlier. And also with Kaa instead of Slips.

5:34 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "THIS IS JUST THAT ONE EPISODE OF MY GYM PARTNER'S A MONKEY..... EXCEPT INSTEAD OF SLIPS IT'S KAA."

I get a huge kick out of specific episodes that overlap like that. I feel almost certain that this was just two different writing crews finding out this same snake fact and making a cartoon out of it.

Honestly, Kaa seemed like the forefront of the show when I watched it, but that may just be the episodes that were available to me. It's a bit of a harder show to find.

There's also a lot of songs. They're not all that good.

1:05 PM · Dec 24, 2020 "baloo sing"
1:19 PM · Dec 24, 2020 "why does every ep have a song..."

Most of my watch of Jungle Cubs was the first season. It had a lot more to it, and I had a lot of fun with it. Season 2 on the other hand...

7:33 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "THIS IS SO DIFFERENT...."
7:33 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "DIFFERENT STYLE DIFFERENT VA I FEEL LIKE IM WATCHING A DIFF SHOW"
7:35 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "congrats on the puberty...."
7:54 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "season 2 has a different art style and vas.... everyone looks older w the exception of baloo and kaa. half the main cast got diff voice actors that sound more mature. and instead of the "cool" contemporary music, we have some more generic cartoon sounds."
7:55 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "overall i prefer season 1 due to ironic enjoyment, but i think cree summer as louie was an improvement!!! sorry jason marsden...."

The show lost a lot of the hip edge I noticed in the first season, which was really sad. Granted, I only watched one episode, "The Ape Who Would Be King," which was about Louie and Shere Khan fighting to be king of the jungle, and all the other animals choosing factions.

7:45 PM · Dec 25, 2020 "KAA TRIED TO ASSASSINATE SHERE KHAN????"

I didn't get as much out of it as season 1 episodes, probably due to it being a lot flatter, but oh well, that was the end of Jungle Cubs for me. Onto Doug.

Overall Rating for Jungle Cubs: C Tier