Star Darlings: A Supernova of a Failed Franchise

10:57 AM · May 8, 2021 "is that your fucking fursona? that's cringe"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Content Warning: This blogpost will contain spoilers for the special "The Power of Twelve" and the book Leona's Unlucky Mission. I don't know if anyone has interest in this franchise, but considering my interest in dead franchises, it could be possible. Consider yourself warned.

I'm gonna be honest, the way I define shows for the Disney Watch is a little off. I opt not to watch stuff from purchased franchises like Star Wars and Marvel, because I fucking hate them, but Big Hero 6 is still on the table, because it was part of the Disney Animated Canon. I also ultimately decided against including Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur for the Disney Watch, because I don't want that to mean I have to watch other Marvel cartoons, like the Avengers one. But this is the first DTVA Marvel cartoon, so I don't know how to feel.

Another thing I do is I don't watch short series unless they are in a collection, like Marsupilami, House of Mouse, or Chibiverse. Because of this, stuff like the Paul Rudish Mickey Mouse shorts and Baymax are not on my list. But because this had two episodes and a special, this is. So let's get into the quickest show in the Disney Watch, as well as another failed franchise for Disney. (In fact, one I alluded to nine months ago. I could have had a baby in this time.)

The idea had promise, it was a sort of magical girl series about these high school Starlings, which are wish granting creatures who get their power from granting wishes from the planet Wishworld (what they call Earth).

10:34 AM · May 8, 2021 "WISHWORLD"
10:44 AM · May 8, 2021 "Wishers are weirdos"
10:45 AM · May 8, 2021 "They set cakes ablaze and kill fish"

Really, already a good start to worldbuilding for kids. I think it's tacky as hell, but it's important to note that I am 28 and this franchise is not intended for me. I don't even have the "it's media for young children it should be discussed with parents" excuse. There are chapter books in this franchise, and its clearly meant for third and fourth graders.

Unfortunately, wish magic is running dry, so it's up to this band of 12 gifted high schoolers to save the day. I guess it's sort of similar to a Future Problem Solvers. 

11:57 AM · May 8, 2021 "Star darlings will predict the downfall of infrastructure in the United States"

I do like that each of the 12 girls has their own personality and interests (they even have their own profiles in the one book I read). I don't want to describe all of them, but there are a few who come to mind. There's the protagonist of the show, Sage, who is a first year and kind of the hopeful everywoman of the show, along with her roommate Cassie, who's a bit cowardly, but more importantly, the both of them are gay as hell.

10:52 AM · May 8, 2021 "GAY MOMENTS"
10:53 AM · May 8, 2021 "Cassie and Sage huge girlfriend moments"
10:54 AM · May 8, 2021 "“My dream come true is you sage” GAY GAY GAY"
10:55 AM · May 8, 2021 "GAY PEOPLE."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honestly, I really enjoyed Sage, but other than this scene, I was not huge on Cassie.

There's also Scarlet, the punk girl with a heart of gold. She's actually genuinely interested in Wishworld and its inhabitants, more so than any of the other girls, and sometimes it gets her in trouble.

10:32 AM · May 8, 2021 "There’s a goth one"
10:33 AM · May 8, 2021 "Who has my NAME?"
11:34 AM · May 8, 2021 "Scarlet ate 100 year old chocolate"

Leona is sort of the wannabe popstar of the group, and a character of interest, as the Star Darlings book I read was focused on her. She's actually pretty hyperfocused on things like music and fame, to the point where she'll hear that and focus on nothing else.

10:45 AM · May 8, 2021 "Leona is fucking great"

Vega was my least favorite of the girls, acting a bit self righteous, and just not that fun to watch.

10:47 AM · May 8, 2021 "Vega listing all the girls in school with bad vibes"
11:09 AM · May 8, 2021 "Vega: we’re all different from one another that makes us special PLEASE STOP GIVING ME DANCE LESSONS"
11:15 AM · May 8, 2021 "Vega got a smooth star"
11:16 AM · May 8, 2021 "Man I don’t like Vega"
11:54 AM · May 8, 2021 "They’re letting the shitty. Blue one save the day"

And of course who could forget Libby? Straight, heterosexual Libby?

11:10 AM · May 8, 2021 "Another Libby’s gun episode"
11:11 AM · May 8, 2021 "Everyone: one of the star darlings has a serious problem
Everyone: it’s Libby she’s straight"

There's also MO-J4, a robot who shows up to introduce the shorts and does little for the plot, and has a crush on Sage. 

11:31 AM · May 8, 2021 "MO-J4 is queering heterosexuality"

The shorts and episodes focus on all the girls, with some getting more attention than others. In particular, Sage, Scarlet, Libby, and Vega got a lot of attention, while characters like Piper and Adora didn't really.

11:29 AM · May 8, 2021 "Oh each of the shorts is about a different girl. You don’t see any of piper but she’s just doing her thing"
11:32 AM · May 8, 2021 "Adora made a picrew"

Honestly, the shorts collection is pretty cute, and has really good setup. A lot of my problems actually exist in the special, The Power of Twelve, an animated adaptation of Gemma and the Ultimate Standoff, and the 12th book in a series of 14. Absolutely no context is given for anything that happens in the special, we're given a collection of shorts about how the girls prepare to go to Wishworld, and then we're thrust several books into the future.

11:38 AM · May 8, 2021 "What?????? The hell is going on????"
11:47 AM · May 8, 2021 "Oh shit? Random woman entering the special is the villain"
11:49 AM · May 8, 2021 "Grandma Badvibes"
11:50 AM · May 8, 2021 "Behold the power of my rancid vibes"
11:52 AM · May 8, 2021 "Why is this special called the power of twelve if only five of them are fighting"
11:52 AM · May 8, 2021 "GRANDMA YOUR VIBES ARE ATROCIOUS"
11:55 AM · May 8, 2021 "She’s dead"

Clearly a lot of heart was put into it, but I'm still a bit lost as to why they only adapted the 12th book. The whole time, I was convinced they had all gone and granted their wishes in the first part, except Gemma, who was still there. Turns out this part 2 was more of a part 12.

But yeah, speaking of the books, by a stroke of luck, I found one of them in one of the community library boxes in my neighborhood! So back in June of 2022, I read Leona's Unlucky Mission. 

Immediately, I felt the terminology was tacky, as mentioned before (but again, it's not for me). There was a side plot about the roommates starting to hate each other, and it was particularly bad with Leona and Scarlet. Leona actually didn't go to Wishworld until halfway through the book, during which she helps a boarding school girl compete in her school's talent show. Of course, the wish itself isn't about the talent show, but about the girl getting close to her sister. The second half of the book was a lot more likeable than the first half, but I found myself wondering "Why is it called Leona's Unlucky Mission?" Anyway it essentially ended with Leona's Wish Pendant burning. SO I GUESS THAT'S WHY. Was it a good book? Not at all. Did it give me context for The Power of Twelve? A little. I'm still confused.

And really it's that confusion that makes Star Darlings, an overall decent show, fall flat.

Overall Rating For Star Darlings: B Tier

The 7D: Oh? This Show Is Good? Certainly There Are Other Disney Shows That Are Good! (Idiot)

Well folks, here we are. The show that started it all.

And some of you may be thinking. "Hold up. Shut up. Die. Scar from the Disney Watch. Didn't you start with like the Wuzzles or something?" And yes. I did. But this was the show that inspired me to begin the Disney Watch.

See, 2020 kind of sucked ass. There was a pandemic, I almost got killed, I got accepted to a new university, but it was in another country and the border was still closed, so I was at my parent's house for a pretty long time. I binged a bunch of shit during this era, with four things sticking with me: Community, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Old Time Radio Anthologies, and The 7D.

I don't actually remember what specifically got me watching the 7D but I'm pretty sure my friend Tabs is to blame. And I got hooked pretty quickly. It has a lot of the ingredients for success that Fish Hooks had: colorful characters and a really impressive writing crew, but unlike Fish Hooks, The 7D really stuck the landing for me.

10:09 AM · Mar 20, 2021 "Fish hooks is interesting because it has a star studded crew working on it but you can say the same of the 7D. And both shows have Noah z Jones and mr warburton on them. But on one side you have the guys who made Harvey beaks gravity falls and billy and Mandy"
10:09 AM · Mar 20, 2021 "And on the other it’s just the crew of the og animaniacs. And I think it says something about cohesion and teamwork bc 7d is like. Inherently better than fish hooks"
10:11 AM · Mar 20, 2021 "I think there’s also more women on the creative team of the 7d but I would not call either show a masterpiece when it comes to gender they just have their weird girls in fish hooks and have weird girls and girl bosses in 7d"
10:13 AM · Mar 20, 2021 "7d has like. A positive energy with an insidiousness underneath it. Fish hooks might be the other way around."

The humor in the 7D is a lot less mean than that of Fish Hooks, with a lot of the rudeness being subtle and directed toward characters in a way that works. It also has a lot of cartoony slapstick in it and more wordplay than Fish Hooks, which I think can be pinned on the people working on the show. (Worth noting, a lot of background characters, especially in the second season look like Warner Bros rejects, which I found kind of neat.)

I also kind of wonder how much of the kindness came from The 7D being a show intended for young children. Much like Elena of Avalor, this show suffered a bit of an identity crisis, and you can kind of tell from the first few episodes. The show seems a lot more oriented toward littler kids, and more pointed toward older kids as the show goes on. It's a flaw, but one that gives the show a bit of charm.

The characters are also a lot of fun. This show is probably the first (or second if you count Tron: Uprising) show that focuses on relatives of a Disney property, and even beat out the Descendants franchise by a year. The dwarves are about what you'd expect, but they still have a bit of charm to them and a little more character than their one dimensional names suggest. The villains, Grim and Hildy Gloom are also a lot of fun, being this sickly sweet young married couple who are also gothic evil sorcerers out to take over the kingdom. I actually didn't realize until embrassingly recently that they were supposed to be ancestors of Queen Grimhilde. There's also Queen Delightful and Lord Starchbottom, who I don't think have anything to do with the Snow White canon, but they're very fun characters too, with Queen Delightful being the one to move along the plot, and Lord Starchbottom being Paul Rugg playing the show's straight man (at least when Grumpy is busy).

The dynamics in the show are also hilarious. My favorite being the dynamic between Grumpy and Bashful, who have this really sarcastic but close sibling-esque relationship.

 

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the relationship between Grumpy and Happy, especially considering they're the two dwarves who get the most screentime, and spend a lot of it serving as foils to one another. Are they gay? I didn't read them that way, but I know a lot of people who did.

I do kind of wish the show did more with its potential dynamics, but then again, it got canned in the middle of its second season, so I can see why that didn't really happen.

Also, as this show was created by Noah Z Jones and came out in the 2010s, it is a little bit obsessed with 2010s meme culture. For example, in the season 2 episode "Take Me To Your Grumpy" has Doc away most of the episode because he's trying to chase down a double rainbow, quoting the meme constantly through the episode, to the point where "all the way" becomes a catchphrase of his for the rest of the series. There's also references to things like lolcats. So like. I suppose be prepared for that.

I do wish this show had more to it, it took a while to find its footing, but it was still a charming show, and I would definitely say it had merit, if it got me to see if any other Disney Cartoons were good (spoiler: not that many were)

Overall Rating for The 7D: A Tier

Sheriff Callie's Wild West: The Show You Think Of When I Say Baby Show

7:59 PM · Apr 22, 2021 "i now lucas grabeel is like. a disney name in this era but at the same time i see his stupid fucking name in sheriff callie and i'm like. food boy? fucking food boy?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of these shows I go into knowing some information. For others, I go in completely blind. A lot of which one ends up being the case comes from how popular a show is, and what official images are on Wikipedia. For Sheriff Callie's Wild West, it's a logo. Also have... have you ever actually heard anyone talk about Sheriff Callie's Wild West?

8:05 PM · Apr 22, 2021 "anyway since im watching henry hugglemonster w liv im gonna skip to sheriff callie.... i had no idea she would look like this....."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There might be a reason for that. Perhaps it's because the show is from 2013 and people who watched it might JUST start making Discord accounts this year (this is something I actually take into consideration when watching these shows, I'm excited to see which ones will be targets of nostalgia, but I digress). It could also be because it's not that great.

8:21 PM · Apr 22, 2021 "this show kinda blows chunks"
6:24 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "sometimes i do feel bad ranking baby shows low bc i am not the target audience but fact o the matter is.... henry and callie just kind of suck."

And while I hated Henry Hugglemonster because the characters and stories grated on me, I think I wasn't too keen on Sheriff Callie because it was pretty generic. A lot of the jokes people might make about other baby shows are seen pretty clearly here, from silly little cartoon animals learning morals, to very in your face point out the obvious storytelling. And the latter... Is done with singing chipmunks who explain the plot at least once an episode? Though they sometimes show up more than that.

7:19 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "the chipmunks in sheriff callie are terrible.... and they show up like every few minutes"
6:00 PM · May 4, 2021 "[stupid fucking chipmunks voice] peck wants in on the actionnnn"

Honestly, the characters in Sheriff Callie aren't all that strong. That isn't to say they lack characters, Callie serves as the role model. Peck is a dorky little bird who is easy to flatter and twice as easy to deceive. And Toby's a sweet little kid who sometimes ends up getting into shenanigans.

The episodes are pretty basic: "Toby's Untrue Achoo" is about Toby seeing Callie get attention because she's sick so he fakes being sick himself. "Horseshoe Peck" is about how the townspeople's worship of Peck for being decent at horseshoes gets to his head. "Peck Takes It Back" is about Peck calling Toby a pinecone?

3:26 PM · Apr 25, 2021 "toby is the target of a microaggression"

Honestly though, only a few episodes really stood out to me. "The Good, the Bad, and the Yo-Yo" focuses on a background character, Tio, who we discover used to be El Yo-Yo, a yo-yo player who retired after hurting a child, and how the guilt was eating Tio alive. Ultimately, the episode ends with Tio confronting the child he hurt, who had ultimately forgiven him, as it was an accident.

"Bandit Toby" was a prototypical episode where there's an evil version of a character, but I also thought Kit Cactus was a really funny character, especially since he didn't even look that much like Toby other than being a cactus.

5:53 PM · May 4, 2021 "im finishing sheriff callie right now and so far the only characters i have liked are the following one offs
-a wolf dentist everyone is fantasy racist towards
-evil toby"
5:55 PM · May 4, 2021 "evil toby's name is kit cactus and he's transmasc i think"
5:57 PM · May 4, 2021 "they're completely different hues"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, there's "Peck's Bent Beak," an episode that seems like it's going to be about fear of going to the dentist, but turns out to be about not being racist while using an animal metaphor. Honestly, I'm a little upset Dr. Wolf didn't show up in the 13 episodes I saw past that one.

Overall, it's a pretty simplistic show, but you're not gonna get much enjoyment out of it if you're over the age of 7. Maybe this isn't one of those shows that a kid could discuss with parents, but at the very least, it tells kids morals and conflicts pretty clearly via those goddamn chipmunks, so perhaps it needn't be?

Overall Rating of Sheriff Callie's Wild West: D Tier

Wander Over Yonder: Full of Fun Little Components

Wander Over Yonder is... a weird show to talk about. I think out of everything on the Disney Watch, this is the one show that really stuck with me. I really enjoyed it while it was airing, and I still enjoy it, which is more than I can say for shows I fell off of like Gravity Falls, but the thing about Wander Over Yonder is it's got a huge fanbase. To this day I see people talking about these characters and shipping them. I've even seen a lot of comparison and crossovers with Kid Cosmic. That's to be expected of course. Craig McCracken created both, and there's little hints toward the world of Wander Over Yonder taking place in the same universe, albeit maybe a different galaxy.

But really, at the core of it, Kid Cosmic and Wander Over Yonder have a lot of the same themes, writing style, and humor going for them, which is great. Both were fantastic to sit through. Wander Over Yonder telling a more Looney Tunes esque story while Kid Cosmic goes harder into the superhero comics genre. Wander Over Yonder also has these goofy archetypes it delves into, while Kid Cosmic's characters are very fleshed out from the start, and, you know. Human. But the thing is, they're treated the same way. All of this to say, Kid Cosmic is not the only show that came after Wander Over Yonder that I would say shares those qualities with it.

A lot of the Ducktales 2017 crew came from Wander Over Yonder and it shows. Like Wander Over Yonder, but unlike Kid Cosmic, Ducktales looked a bit more into its goofy characters, particularly Glomgold. When you dealt a whole season (of your life) to Lord Hater's introspection, dissection, subversion, and inversion, it's always fun to see some of that similar energy again. Honestly, the way the Ducktales reboot does characters in general, is pretty similar to how Wander Over Yonder does its characters. Not necessarily overlapping like Hater and Glomgold, but opts for goofy characters and tells you more about them. (Which, to be fair, is pretty easily done with the world of Disney Ducks).

The other show that reminds me a lot of Wander Over Yonder is another reboot, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Laugh all you want, I am aware this is one of those shows on the same level as Voltron, and Steven Universe to some, but personally, I find it better than the other two. But yeah, ND Stevenson was also a writer on Wander Over Yonder, and you can really see it in how he does humor and story. Yeah. That's my hot take. Season 2 of Wander Over Yonder and the entirety of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power have the same sense of humor to me. Both are very goofy and character driven jokes, usually coming from exaggeration of character traits. And I'll be honest, that sort of style comes through in my own writing too!

There's not a lot else to say about Wander Over Yonder that hasn't really been said already. There's a lot of gay subtext in it, to the point where if it came out 10-15 years before it did, I would argue it was actually a gay show with hidden subtext. Hell, "The Big Day" compares Hater destroying Wander to a wedding pretty hard, and depending on how you view it, "The End of the Galaxy" may even have Peepers be revealed as a last episode gay (depending on if you count heart eyes as gay love, and also whether you count literally everything else about Peepers as gay love).

I guess my hottest take (besides the She-Ra thing) is that I prefer season 2 over season 1. Season 1 certainly has a lot of goofy cartoon stuff, but season 2 is where they play with the formula a bunch. Hater becomes the main character rather than Wander, and while I do prefer Wander to Hater, seeing Hater as this almost protagonist is a lot of fun! Episodes like "The Cartoon" and "The New Toy" are absolutely hilarious in how they poke at cartoons and 80s marketing, respectively. Episodes about Wander also start pushing him to his limits, such as "The Heebie Jeebies," where he deals with fear, and "The Flower," where we see him at his lowest point. Of course, I still enjoy season 1. Episodes like "The Gift" and "The Day/The Night" work off each other and show events from different perspectives, and episodes like "The Void" are so creative!

I think of the Craig McCracken shows, Wander Over Yonder is my favorite. It's got goofy, heart wrenching, experimental, and visually appealing all rolled up into a fun package! I'd recommend you watch it, but I feel like this is one you probably already have.

Overall Rating for Wander Over Yonder: S Tier

Proud Family Louder and Prouder Season 2: Probably for the better I watched the whole thing!

Usually when it comes to shows like this, I have a rule. I either watch majority of the series, or I watch 13 episodes. Since Louder and Prouder currently only has 20 episodes, I could have watched just "Old Towne Road Part 2." Hell, if I wanted to be done with it (if the show is getting a third season), I could have watched "Grandma's Hands" and "Curved." It's probably really good I didn't do that because season 2 starts off pretty weak.

And I can't really blame any of these problems on the reboot because the show nonetheless stays seamless. Mostly.

I think the biggest difference between the original series and "Louder and Prouder" is that in the original series, I preferred Penny's family. Here, I think I'm starting to prefer Penny's friends, which may be due to "Grandma's Hands" and "Curved."

The former is absolutely distressing. Penny sneaks out a bunch going on dates with her boyfriend Kareem and spends a good half of the episode getting disciplined by her mother, Suga Mama, and to a lesser extent, Bobby. The second half of the episode turns things around a bit, showing Penny taking care of Suga Mama (and to a lesser extent Bobby), but it's upsetting to watch, and I do wonder if that was the point? I did notice Penny taking after Oscar a lot more this season, in terms of snark, wacky hijinks, and being the butt of the joke. Though I don't know if Penny has nearly as much hubris as Oscar does, especially in the reboot. Like she certainly has it. Even episodes like "A Star is Scorned" from the original series have it. But for Oscar, it's his core point. Penny it's just something we see in her from time to time. But "Grandma's Hands" did not give me good hopes going in, which were soon proven wrong.

Meanwhile, "Curved" is sort of the obligatory "Dijonay is a jerk" episode. It isn't nearly as bad, but it was incredibly hard to follow the initial plot of the episode. Especially when Darius came back as Dijonay's sort of recurring love interest. I'm still holding out for the bi Dijonay theory, but Proud Family already has a sizeable LGBT cast.

Speaking of the LGBT cast, Michael was a lot more fun a character this season, and I'd like to say he's no longer my biggest problem with the reboot. It feels like they extended his character a bit past the sort of stereotypical mean gay digs, and we get to see him be a bit more gender-non-comforting. I'm also not certain if Michael now canonically uses he/they, but I heard him refer to himself as they once, so if that was intentional, that's pretty cool.

This season also tackles race a lot. There's discussion about things like reparations (which is the debate topic in "Curved"), racial preferences, the history of racism in the US, descendants of slaveowners, police brutality, and Juneteenth. Honestly, the episode "Juneteenth" was by far my favorite of the bunch. We got to see Maya and KG a bunch (the latter of which didn't really show up much this season), and the episode really explored Maya as a character. In the episode, Maya meets a mysterious girl named Emily who leads her to find out the history of her town. Particularly that it used to be a plantation, and she finds out that her father (Barry, not Randall) was descended from him. You get some really good scenes within the family too and how they respond to it. I don't want to give too much away, but it's amazing. It has a great message, great comedy, and great character writing. Definitely the Proud Family at its best!

Some of the characters that were missing from season 1 show up as well. In particular, Omar and the Chang triplets. Really not of interest; they only get one line each. But what is of interest is how Penny and her friends basically have a completely different circle of guy friends they hang out with. While in the original it was Sticky, Omar, Frankie, and Duke, in this series it's Kareem, Darius, KG, and Billy. Also I think Michael is dating Makeup Boy? Idk I think he could do better. I guess Myron is there more in the main friendgroup in the reboot as well. 

The Gross Sisters also show up a lot less as well, only appearing in the bizarro episode "Us Again" (really crazy ret-conny episode by the way), where Olei (yes, Olei) tells Penny all about cryptocurrency.

I don't know how I feel about all these Disney cartoons where kids talk about cryptocurrency if I'm being honest, but at the same time, it is Disney, and this show had its episode about racial preferences and its episode about flaunting its Disney Princess IPs be the same episode. It's actually kind of crazy, coming from a huge Elena of Avalor fan, that the show kind of just paused for 9 seconds to play the Elena of Avalor theme song. But also, I don't think that should detract from how Zoey's ignorant to Noah's preference for white girls, and how that preference really upsets the other girls, especially Dijonay.

Season 2 didn't have as much of Maya and LaCienega being friends, or Oscar Proud selling Proud Snax at pride as I would have hoped, but I don't mind too much. The season was still really fun to watch, and honestly, I don't know if there's been a show as consistent in its reboot than this one!

Also they made BeBe autistic.

Overall Rating of the The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder: A Tier

Henry Hugglemonster: The Show That Took A Month To Watch

6:01 PM · May 26, 2021 "oh henry hugglemonster how could you let this happen"
6:05 PM · May 26, 2021 "henry hugglemonster when he doesn't find a way"
6:08 PM · May 26, 2021 "oh henry hugglemonster there is something wrong with you"

I hate to say this one was unpleasant when it didn't even get into F tier.... But you know what. It was still unpleasant. I had a month where I had to watch this show with my good friend Gwen, so it was at the forefront of our minds for quite some time...

Thing is, I don't remember a thing about it now.

And now I'm faced with having to make these post with some of the most contextless tweets possible from two years ago.

4:47 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "ROARSOME"
4:48 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "Daddo"
4:49 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "Thirsty little flower"
4:50 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "Nano is in this show"
4:52 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "Henry Hugglemonster is a flat earthier"
4:56 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "Summer gets cancelled"
4:58 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "“This is called Chekhov’s gun” -Gwen when the see saw from the beginning of the ep came back"
5:15 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "ANOTHER SUMMERS GUN EPISODE"
5:44 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "MR GROWL THEY THEMMIE"
5:59 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "They keep calling him a fuddy duddy"

Wow that was a good way to get those out of the way.

But yet, I'm reminded I need to make this post. I also have one in waiting for Louder and Prouder, which I finished the second season of, but I find myself tired. Tired because of work? Likely. Tired because I have to make a blog post about Henry Hugglemonster? Also likely.

Might as well get this one over with and see if it's the case!

First thing to note is this one is kind of weird. It's like Bob the Builder in that it has an American Dub and a British Dub. Anything you find from official sources uses the British Dub.

6:11 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "all thee clips of this show i can find are uk clips but here's the ep we just watched imagine all the dialogue is the same but the blue one sounds like hamtaro, the pink one sounds like starfire, and the yellow one sounds like a gremlin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd5lS6QQ_Wc"

So naturally you don't quite understand what I'm going through unless you go and find the show through illegal means.

As this show is British and from the 2010s, that also means there's an X Factor episode.

5:40 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "the X factor??????????"
6:34 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "one more thing. i decided the x-factor episode of henry hugglemonster is just like the clint eastwood episode of gummi bears"

But let's get into the show itself. The show focuses on the city of Roarsville, particularly Henry and his family. Henry Hugglemonster's your pretty basic kid show protagonist. Full of childlike wonder. Speaks to the audience. Works as a good role model most of the time (unless he's learning a lesson).

5:57 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "Henry is a centrist"

Unfortunately that leaves him a biiiit generic.

Summer Hugglemonster is the devil. 

 

3:40 PM · May 13, 2021 "this ep is just henry and summer harassing a hoh man"
3:47 PM · May 13, 2021 "I hate this show so much"
6:04 PM · May 21, 2021 "I hate summer"

 

 

And finally, there's Cobby, the oldest sibling and the best one, known for his inventions, and uh... being a cop.

5:06 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "Cobby is trans masc and that’s why he’s the best one"
5:58 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "Cobby is kind of justified"

 

also fucking ivor the baby i guess.

5:12 PM · Apr 24, 2021 "Henry: now we need to turn on Ivor’s nightlight [removes roof] Gwen: what if it rains?"

Honestly, the thing we remember most from the show is that it had multiple episodes in which the Hugglemonsters had to move their house, to the point where it's become an inside joke. It's kind of wild that we didn't make that many jokes about it, because it's something we talk about to this day, while I have a hard time remembering the show itself.

One thing I do remember though is one episode, "The Mighty Heromonsters," which was my favorite episode. The kids started making their own fan comic, and a lot of the episode was in 2D and I specifically remember going "man. I wish the whole show were like this."

Overall, a pretty painful and forgettable show to get through, but like. It did have its moments. sometimes. Still..

Overall Rating for Henry Hugglemonster: E Tier