Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure: Better Than The Movie!

Content Warning: This blogpost will include spoilers for the series up to the finale. I didn't think to warn for it before, but this is a recent show, and I have a lot of opinions on all its plot twists, more so than Amphibia

Polled people on twitter asking what show I should cover next and most people wanted me to cover Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (which I just finished) sooner rather than later, and as all my prerequisites are done here it is!

 

I've talked about almost every film based tv show at this moment. The only ones left are Tarzan, the Stitch franchise, and if you are oh so inclined to count it, Jake and the Neverland Pirates (I don't because I've seen Hook in enough Disney comics to know he just likes to Show Up sometimes). I don't think I've really talked much about how the shows hold up to their movies. Most of the film based shows take place either after their original series or in an alternate universe, with only Little Mermaid and Jungle Cubs taking place beforehand, and Hercules taking place during.

Of the shows that take place afterwards, the ones that I think are most comparable to what Tangled does are Aladdin, Tarzan, Lilo and Stitch, and The Lion Guard. Of those four, three have a very episodic plot structure, with Aladdin's being the most so, only really telling its after-happily-ever-after story in its sequels. Lilo and Stitch (and various spinoffs) have a degree of continuity, but each episode is usually its own separate thing. Tarzan seems like the sort of show you'd think would have an overarching plot, but once I sat down and watched it it really did seem episodic, save an additional bit of continuity over Lilo and Stitch.

The Lion Guard, the baby show of the bunch, seems to have the most similarities to Tangled, and it makes sense. They were released the closest of the bunch, and people were starting to realize that people loved lore in their baby shows and kids shows. It made them feel justified in their existence because this was a new story that was going on, but still attached to the old one.

Though you have to remember I wasn't a fan of Lion King. Tangled on the other hand... was fine? I guess? When I was goaded into watching the show after I finished the film for the first time I was like. Uh okay. I wasn't expecting a lot out of it, save a pretty and stylized 2D series.

9:07 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "i dont wanna assume anything about the animators of this show but uh... im getting horse girl vibes"

I was wrong.

2:04 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "Tangled theme hypes me up it’s not even the music I like"

I had two of my friends watch this show with me. I watched the film Tangled and about half of season 1 with my friend Noa, and finished up season 1 with my friend Cal. Seasons 2 and 3 I watched on my own, as I didn't want to subject anyone to season 2 and I got so involved by the end of that I needed to continue on my own.

It was a pretty good show, and I really liked how much characters shined through. Rapunzel and Eugene come into their own in this series, a lot more than they are able to in the movie, especially Eugene, who spent a large chunk of the series being my favorite.

9:30 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "eugene is an absolute mess he's a big fave"
2:12 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "Eugene doesn’t eat vegetables"
2:42 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "Eugene king of boyhate"

Boyhate of course, being the opposite of girlhate, and girlhate, being something we will talk about once we get to the Lilo and Stitch franchise. (Specifically, when discussing Yuuna and how she acts around other girls/how other girls act around her. I don't want people to assume I'm a Myrtle Edmunds apologist.)

Anyway, I enjoyed Rapunzel too. I'm usually not one for overly positive characters unless they're done well, and Rapunzel being a literal embodiment of life made her pretty justified

8:42 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "she's so fucked up!!! she's like jigsaw"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2:51 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "Rapunzel is such a silly character"

Though I guess the first downfall you get to in Tangled is that the side characters... aren't all that great.

9:06 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "tangled is one of those rare shows where i love the main characters and the more obscure the character is the more i do not give a shit."
9:13 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "actually nevermind what i said about minor characters i just met lance he's great"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lance Strongbow I am SO SORRY I called you a minor character, I've learned and I've grown and I know that you're more than that now. But Lance is Eugene's best friend and they have really good chemistry between their characters. He also takes care of Catalina and Kiera in the third season for those of you who love the found family dynamic, because Lance delivers there! Though ultimately he's not really the more dynamic characters that's introduced in their show.

Varian is the show's first villain, and as I have called him multiple times in the past week, "The Joker for trans men with gifted kid burnout." And the thing is, he's pretty justified in most of the shit he does. Because. You know. His dad just died.

 

 

Granted, Varian's dad doesn't stay dead, but it's not like I knew he was alive in there way back in season 1. In fact, one of my first scalding Tangled takes was that they should have killed off Pascal because even though he was the funny animal mascot, it would have made it feel like the shows have more stakes. Needless to say I was very angry when they didn't let him die. (But not too much so, he is my favorite of the animal sidekicks.)

 

Seriously though. The show ended with like what? Six funny animal sidekicks? When do we decide that enough is enough. 

Anyway back to Varian. The thing is that he really does turn evil because so many different people let him down. 

2:55 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "the kingdom of corona would never commit crimes against humanity"

Aw shit. But yeah. Rapunzel breaks her promise to help him, not to mention Cass back in season 1 when she got the opportunity to work as a guard. And even when he starts to regret it he keeps going down that path until Rapunzel tells him to stop in season three. Then he has a song about how evil is not the path and it's a downward spiral with Cass...

Oh lord, Cass.

If you have been reading my blog much, you may have noticed that I have a lot of problems. Here's the thing though. If you put me next to Cassandra, I seem normal. Like, I don't think any fictional character has made me realize how emotionally stable I actually am like that since Charlie Brown. And it isn't like most of the stuff she does is some sort of mystery either. She's just full of resentment and doesn't really want to communicate, be it talking or listening. And I get that, I really do. But man of all the people to have beef with, you really picked the one full of near-unconditional acceptance.

2:16 PM · Jun 12, 2021 "I wasn’t gonna say anything but Cass and Dijonay....."

During the first season I actually compared Cassandra to Dijonay from the Proud Family (the original series) as both had a tendency toward self-serving over keeping friends, and season 3 Cassandra was all about that explicitly, but I think it's really interesting that she was like that before too. This isn't all that new for Cassandra, she's just doing it guilt free now.

I guess in terms of the seasons, season 1 was the best. It had the greatest dynamics and character moments for me and it didn't really need all the story beats. 

Season 2 was disappointing. Even ignoring the anti-romani caricature, episodes just did not have that proper character dynamic. The caravan especially felt simultaneously crowded and empty. Like of course Lance, Raps, Cass, and Eugene are there, and so are... Shorty... and Hook Foot. Hook Foot, I hardly remembered from season 1, and Shorty of course would be there as the comic relief. Also it's just kind of wild that Tangled has a comic relief character who is very explicitly a drunk old man. It made me yearn for the first stoner Disney character, but we already had that and I'll discuss them once we get to Clerks. (I know I skipped it but it will be after Fillmore.) 

I tried thinking of characters who would have been fun to have on the season trek with my Noa, and we ultimately decided on Monty and Xavier. It would have been fun to have a sort of comical character development with Monty, and Xavier could have brought in the lore dump, which I really loved

Season 3 was definitely good storywise and character wise, but the humor kind of faltered a bit here. I was told season 3 was a response to how season 2 sucked, and yeah there's a lot of jokes that are just Eugene complaining about how shitty season 2 is. He does it when visiting Calliope, The Lorbs, and really it gets old. It's still crazy good story and music wise though.

9:08 PM · Jun 11, 2021 "8 years ago eugene looked EXACTLY THE SAME" 

Season 3 also fixed 15 year old Eugene, which I appreciate greatly.

The thing about Tangled though is that at its worst it's boring, cringy, and nasty, and usually that would lead to Tangled getting a lower rating, but at its best it is an amazing breathtaking show. As lousy as season 2 was, there were some genuinely moving moments in it. I got chills listening to Waiting in the Wings. Honestly a lot of the songs are better than the movie. It's one of those shows that would be in S Tier if not for the fact that the middle season was so lousy. Though as it stands, it's still a top ten show.

Overall Rating for Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure: A Tier

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Lloyd in Space: Two Space Shows in Succession

10:20 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "buzz lightyear x warp darkmatter is catradora for men"

Content Warning: This post has allusions to police brutality, sexual harassment, and school shootings. This is only in the Buzz Lightyear section.

A few of the shows we've talked about so far are shows I watched a bit of as an adult before the Disney watch. Pepper Ann and Teacher's Pet fall neatly into this category, and looking at today, Buzz Lightyear and Lloyd in Space do as well. As a result, I don't have a lot of old tweets to place around about either.

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is the objectively better show. It's got great characters, villains, and jokes, and naturally, it's by Tad Stones so it must be good. (Hercules cartoon do NOT interact.) Honestly, my biggest issue with it quality wise is that sometimes the chemistry is off, which is a little disappointing as these are all great characters.

I watched a good chunk of the 13 episodes I usually watch with my friend Alice, and we had a lot more fun with it than we did with say, PB&J Otter. I also spent a lot of my adulthood in general memeing on this woman.

Like geez, she looks sooooo Deviantart. It's funny. I also think this woman is responsible for the first time I have heard the word "himbo" in the Disney Watch.

Really I only have one big comment on Buzz Lightyear, and it's kind of haunting me.

10:31 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "this show is really copaganda..... buzz lightyear called star command "the thin green line""

At the end of the day, Buzz Lightyear is pretty much just a space cop, and he is very willing to identify himself as much, what with the thin green line comment. Of course Star Command is a fictional world. All the people who turn bad are kicked off the force, and anyone can be a cop if they're a good person. A janitor? If he works hard, he can be a cop. A princess? She can be a cop if she has the ability. A robot? Yeah of course!. One of the dudes who got into Homestuck kin drama at my 19th birthday party? Fucking yeah I guess...

And I'm not bringing this up to "ruin your childhood" or anything. I still really enjoyed Buzz Lightyear. I still do. Talking about Buzz Lightyear had me reflecting a lot. The year is 2022. Five years ago, I was super aggressively told by a cop that I would be nowhere without the police. Four years ago, I almost got arrested because I mixed up two different stores. Two years ago, someone with very close police ties threatened to call the cops on me for something I didn't do, but did nothing when that same something happened to me. Less than two weeks ago, I was scolded by a cop at a pride event.

I'm a fairly unassuming white guy who tries to not invite trouble, and yet I cannot think of a single instance where the police have been helpful to me. But without trying, I can think of four where they've talked down to me, scared me, and/or refused me deserved justice. I couldn't even imagine what I'd have to deal with if I wasn't white.

And it's been getting worse. Rise in police driven hate crimes, true crime podcasts where you essentially figure out the killers have police ties, plainclothes cops packing in schools without telling anyone so people think there's a school shooter, cops absolutely refusing to help children when there's an actual shooter. It's increasingly evident that cops only exist to protect the people they like. Usually the rich bigoted assholes who let them shoot freely.

Perhaps I'm wildly speculating, but I can imagine a big rich company like Disney that's super protected by dumb laws to think "Hmm. We did push all these movies that got people hyped for the US military with funny comic book superheroes the mainstream likes. We could do it for cops, but what popular mainstream character would we use?" And that's how we get a gritty Buzz Lightyear movie for adults.

Granted, I haven't seen Lightyear yet. It doesn't show up in theaters here until tomorrow. But a space cop is essentially what Buzz is, unless you want to refer to him as a space soldier, but is that much better?

Honestly, it's kind of depressing to think about, and with the Teacher's Pet posts I made in January of this and last year hitting harder than normal, I just get kind of tired and upset. So to lighten the mood, I decided to bring up, uh, the show that has 4 times as many war crimes in its universe.

11:35 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "WORLD WAR NINE??????????? HOW MANY WORLD WARS HAVE THERE BEEN"
11:36 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "nine!!! apparently."

 

Another middling show, though I'm surprised that it is. Lloyd in Space was a show I watched a lot as a kid, and not really in a "nothing else is on" sort of way. I genuinely enjoyed it. But I wonder if that had some consequences. 

I rewatched some episodes throughout adulthood like "Neither Boy Nor Girl" and "Caution: Wormhole!" But when I was watching Lloyd in Space for the Disney watch, I became incredibly aware that I'd seen these episodes so much when I was a kid. I could quote upcoming lines in "Daydream Transceiver," "Incident at Luna Vista," "Nerd from Beyond the Stars," "Cheery Theerlap Lloyd," and of course "Kurtlas, the Symbionic Boy." I have to wonder if it was just played so many times in my childhood and I finally grew tired of it.

Instead of talking about the gender episode which everyone has talked about, let's talk about Kurtlas actually, because his episode is fucking insane.

11:56 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "god this is the stevonnie ep"

The episode is about how Kurt and Douglas have to deal with bullying, but essentially "fuse" to combat it once they learn about symbiosis in school. Things go great for a while, until Kurtlas (is this Disney Channel's first he/they?) realizes they can bully others, and decide to get really creepy with it

 

wew. Fortunately everything gets solved by the end, but imagine they went the whole rest of the series like that. Dang. The gritty Lloyd in Space reboot needs me.

I actually had a hard time finding episodes I didn't know almost by heart, but finally I found one... "A Place For Larry." Larry, of course, being an alien voiced by Eddie Deezen who sucks absolute shit, and yet the kids still care about him losing his job for some ungodly reason.

12:26 PM · Jan 6, 2021 "eddie deezen alien fills me with so much rage and this randomly selected episode is ABOUT HIM"
12:27 PM · Jan 6, 2021 "they keep calling him "our friend larry" i dont think he should be anyone's friend"

I think "A Place For Larry" might be the one thing that solidified my opinion on Lloyd in Space being not just.... whatever the opposite of nostalgia bias is. I definitely don't remember watching this episode as a kid, and it's very decidedly... not that great. Not to mention to Deezen-y for my tastes.

Speaking of Deezen, the show does have a pretty recurring cast, with this being the third (and final) show where Courtland Mead plays a protagonist.

11:01 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "im never not gonna hear gus or ned when lloyd opens his mouth and im never not gonna hear patrick or broadway when large blue friend opens his mouth"

Fare thee well Courtland Mead, you were such an essential component to the One Saturday Morning era. 

Also there's a character named Boomer.

11:05 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "ok boomer"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall Rating for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: A Tier

Overall Rating for Lloyd in Space: C Tier

Teacher's Pet: A Show I've Already Discussed At Length

Have you ever found yourself wondering what would happen if My Gym Partner's a Monkey was made by the guy who made your favorite childhood game and had more trans metaphors and quotes from Jean-Paul Sartre? Of course not. You're normal. Anyway, Teacher's Pet.

It's very much a show that doesn't know what it wants to be, and I think that's bound to happen when a show has both Scott Leadready II and Ian Wazselewski. It's very weird. They're set up to be foils, but they're essentially opposites in every way, with Scott's humor coming from clever wit, and Ian's coming from being the nastiest motherfucker on earth. At the same time though, they do dip into the other's style of humor every so often. Normally I'd find something like this an interesting exercise, but it kind of just clashes horribly.

5:29 PM · Jan 3, 2021 "i think ian is like. a leftist. but like. a shitty leftist."
5:32 PM · Jan 3, 2021 "teacher's pet is a little grossout but i think it stands out for a plethora of "almost-dick jokes""

A lot of other characters don't really stick out. The background characters never really stood out. There was the dog hating principal, but other than him, Scott, and Ian, the only characters worth pointing out are Leonard and Mary Lou Helperman.

Unlike Ian, I think Leonard works pretty well as a foil to Scott. Unfortunately, it's pretty formulaic in that Leonard plays the role of the straight man and tries to prevent Scott from outing himself to his mom. The thing is, Leonard's mom, Mary Lou, is actually a huge sweetheart. If she knew her dog could talk and went to school, I can't imagine she would have any other opinion than him being the specialest little boy who ever existed. She's kind of a shining light in the show, and I found episodes where she was the focus the best.

11:13 PM · Dec 30, 2020 "my heart goes out to ms. helperman"
10:13 PM · Jan 1, 2021 "i think teacher's pet is fine when the episodes aren't centered around leonard... like if ms. helperman has an episode i will probably love it. scott is hit or miss."

Family is a huge theme in the show Teacher's Pet, with Scott constantly referring to Leonard and Mary Lou as all the family he'll ever need. He's very much treated with love, and you'd really wanna see him succeed. Maybe with a finale-type film where he finally gets the nerve to tell Mary Lou the truth and is accepted for who he is?

Bad news, I watched the Teacher's Pet movie, and that very much does not happen...

8:16 PM · Jan 1, 2021 "feeling very uncomfortable with the implications of this brought on by the movie...."

I'm not gonna rehash my feelings on it though, as I reviewed it in length here. (Content warning for transphobia, incest, and detransitioning in this review and the rest of the blog post.)

Anyway. The rest of the tweets. 

4:12 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "teacher's pet the movie is rated pg for crude humor. now you could argue this is on the beginning end of giving films a pg rating so they can be edgier, but let us not forget what this movie is about."
4:12 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "also i think if the movie got a PG rating leonard should at least be allowed one "crap" or "sucks""
4:14 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "this movie starts out with some pinocchio stuff, and as it is in disney's library, we're going straight into the real boy shit and it's authentic, with that cranium style."
4:31 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "it's so hard to read this as anything but straight transphobia"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4:37 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "the thing about the teacher's pet movie is it actively retcons so much of the show. leonard is a lot crueler in it, and though you can argue his motivations as someone hoping this shall pass, you can smell the transphobia on him so bad. scott just wants his friend to accept him"
4:37 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "not just friends. they're family. we'll get to that later."
4:43 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "we got mr jolly saying the christian lord's name in vain which is ah... all i can ask for"
5:34 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "so ivan krank is gender non conforming."
5:36 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "like this is not a joke ivan krank canonically does not gender conform. i dont know the specifics of this but it's worth pointing out in watching this movie and considering the themes of becoming a boy against the laws of nature, and this being seen as a bad thing"
5:40 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "i went on gary baseman's twitter and it's entirely crossposting"
5:43 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "she's trans and i want the best for her"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

5:45 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "adele just adds so much to the trans narrative as a dysphoric trans woman, which is fucking insane bc dennis is an absolute scrimblo bimblo"
5:48 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "and now we leave the world of gender and metaphors and go straight to the world of THAT IS NOT ONLY HIS TEACHER BUT ALSO HIS ADOPTIVE MOTHER."
5:53 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "the funny cartoon plot of "you're gonna out yourself to MOM" (this would be really funny if gay ppl in cartoons were common enough to write straight people and were really bad at it so it'd be mostly this plot)"
5:55 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "ok so scott is having the absolute gender euphoria of his LIFE and mary lou just thinks this is a stranger"
6:04 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "this is so crazy like scott sees marrying mary lou as an arrangement so he and leonard can be besties again, and leonard's whole argument is YOU ARE MY DOG (transphobia) but no one mentionthe elephant in the room that scott sees leonard and mary lou as family and this is incest"
6:05 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "transphobe has a point"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6:17 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "am i crazy to say that some of the artists on this movie were just an eensy teensy bit horny for mary lou like not overwhelmingly so but just a LIIIIIITTLE bit?"
6:26 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "from an anti-trans lens this rlly goes into the contagion of it huh"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6:30 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "ivan krank did not need to be a villain and scott did not need to detransition but at the same time, in this movie, these things have to happen due to the core thesis statement."
6:33 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "things scott does not understand
-money and various coins
-the concept of incest"
6:35 PM · Jan 2, 2022 "scott really just lampshaded how he hasn't quoted shakespeare yet. geek."

And as for that thesis statement I mentioned... It's right here.

Going through this post, it kinda hurts more now than when I watched it at the start of the new year. The gender metaphors in Teacher's Pet, much like in shows like Teenage Robot and Danny Phantom, are likely unintentional, but the fact that you could swap out something like gender for this bums me out horribly.

So I'm gonna take my frustrations out on Leonard some more.

Overall Rating for Teacher's Pet: D Tier

Weekenders: I Talk About Cartoon Network a Surprising Amount in This One

Weekenders, despite being obscure feels like a show that everyone who has seen it has sung the praises of, and it's not without reason. It's a really good show. The fourth best Disney cartoon in my opinion, and the first of the top 5 we get to cover.

Of course, those who are looking at the Disney watch tiermaker may think "Hey now? Why are 3 of the 7 S-Tier Disney shows in this early aughts era? This feels like a bit of nostalgia bias." And here's the thing. I absolutely did not expect Kim Possible to be as good as I thought it was when I was a kid. I assumed it was gonna be another okay cartoon. I also did not watch Fillmore as a kid. As much as I loved Fillmore, it's very much a show I could only enjoy as an adult.

Weekenders... I have no excuse for this. It's purely nostalgia. But it's one of those shows that's been with me, you know? 

People who know me well know I've always been an incredibly big fan of the Cartoon Network series Sheep in the Big City and how it got me through my teenage years, college, grad school, grad school, more grad school, and it'll probably get me through my post doc and academia job searching. It, along with Mo Willems as a creator, has served as a great inspiration for me, and whenever I force people to watch Sheep in the Big City with me, they mention my own writing has this sort of style, which is an insanely high compliment to me. I bring all this up because Weekenders was sort of in the same boat, but to a lesser extent. It's not my favorite show of all time, but it is up there. And still, it's an early aughts show I watched as a kid, rewatched as a teenager, continued to rewatch to this day, and I'll probably watch more moving forward. I've also taken a lot of inspiration from this show in my writing. I personally see more of the blunt snark and nervousness from Weekenders and Doug Langdale's works reflected in my writing style than I do the hipster wordplay and sad anger of Sheep in the Big City and Mo Willems' works. (Though honestly, I think the Doug Langdale I see reflected most in my writing is Dave the Barbarian, which I find very hit or miss, and I'll talk about when I get to that show.)

Anyway, Weekenders has a bit of a past for me. My sister and I as kids were pretty infamous for not getting along at all. We had very different tastes on just about everything. When we agreed on something, it was usually taken as a universal truth. In terms of cartoons, there were probably three we agreed on. First was The Powerpuff Girls, and we still disagreed on who was the best one. Second was Time Squad, which we both found funny but was still ultimately my thing. Finally was the Weekenders. Honestly, Weekenders was kind of her thing for the most part, and my mom and I would jump in too because it was good (worth noting my mom wasn't super big on the cartoons we watched either, usually going for this or Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends).

We do get along better in the present day, but our tastes are still immensely different. The last show I recall us enjoying together was American Vandal. Though to be fair, due to us being adults with jobs who live in different countries, I do not have a fucking idea what she's watching these days.

I think something else about the Weekenders worth pointing out is that other than maybe Pepper Ann, it's probably the most normal of the slice of life shows. The only notable thing that would set Weekenders apart from other shows is the fact that characters break the fourth wall to address the audience. And it's less done in some self-aware way that you might expect, it's more just Tino saying hey and letting you know what's going on this weekend. It's pretty similar to how the fourth wall is broken in some children's cartoons. Unfortunately, Henry Hugglemonster is the first show that comes to mind in this regard. Henry'll say hey and tell you what's going on, and then ultimately leave you alone unless he has a question. That's kind of how the Weekenders is too, albeit a lot less interactive. The most you may get is some hypothetical "What would you do in this situation?" or a "Please don't change the channel!" during a two-part episode.

All the characters have pretty active imaginations like Doug as well, though it's considerably toned down. Usually it'll be Tino having a stress dream where Martin Van Buren shows up, or Carver grossly exaggerating a bad thing that happened to him.

It's a pretty chill show, notably saved from being too boring by having a good layer of snark, goofy antics, and relatable characters and problems, which is why I love it so much.

Overall Rating for The Weekenders: S Tier

Rolie Polie Olie: This One Has Children Swearing in It

4:07 PM · Dec 30, 2020 "alice and i watched four eps of rolie polie olie today.... it's really simplistic but the last ep we watched was a mighty casey parody that had michael cera in it lol"

Alice is back. Honestly we watched this and PB&J Otter around the same time. Frankly, we had a lot more to say about Rolie Polie Olie. Overall, these are the thoughts.

1:12 PM · Dec 30, 2020 "Alice told me this person who made this worked on meet the robinsons and robots and like based on how the mom looks alone. Ya I get it"
6:29 PM · Jan 1, 2021 "the show is starting to grow on me but it still feels impossibly long?"
11:12 PM · Jan 3, 2021 "God rolie polie olie makes you feel like eternity has gone by"

First off, Meet the Robinsons. My thoughts on it are pretty basic. It's not my favorite Disney Movie of all time, but I can only think of one Disney related thing I cried harder at than the scene where Goob leaves his journal with Wilbur and Lewis and the next thing on his to-do list is "????" (Fun fact, the one thing I cried harder at is something I will be discussing in this blog pretty far down the line.)

But yeah, Meet the Robinsons is a solid Disney movie. The issue with Rolie Polie Olie, I think, is likely similar to my problem with PB&J Otter but more extreme. The aesthetics are amazing (more so as I am a huge fan of the atompunk/50s retrofuturism scene), but the show is slow almost to a halt.

What does make Rolie Polie Olie better than PB&J Otter in my eyes is charming characters. While I could probably tell you what kind of characters exist in PB&J Otter, I don't really know any of their names without looking them up. Until then, they're the annoying beaver. The even more annoying duck. The Poodles who are basically just the Dinks from Doug but snootier.

2:21 PM · Dec 30, 2020 "I love the way the Bevels look. Goth family"

You have little kid Olie, silly baby Zowie, bumbling dad Percy, Meet the Robinson's character Polina, the eerie grandpa, square shaped Billy Bevel and his goth family, even more eerie Gloomius Maximus, and of course. Uncle Gizmo, Percy's brother who looks like Elvis and acts like the kindest man you've ever met. I want to be friends with Uncle Gizmo.

6:37 PM · Jan 1, 2021 "i love uncle gizmo so much. he's cool. he's nice to children."

I'm gonna be honest, for a bit I kind of actively searched for Uncle Gizmo episodes because I thought he was so great. Though they aren't too hard to find. He shows up quite a bit.

Alice and I also had some bigger running gags with this one than with PB&J Otter, most notably our dark theory that Percy and Polina's marriage was on the rocks.

Eventually I got bored of the early episodes and started to skip around.

12:38 PM · Jan 1, 2021 "i should not have skipped. there's a girl. and a pirate."
12:40 PM · Jan 1, 2021 "weird pirate alien robot with depression"

Yeah we landed on "Give It Back Gloomius," an episode with Pollie Pi and Gloomius Maximus. The thing about Rolie Polie Olie is that it lasted quite a while. The early episodes were something I watched as a kid, being around 4 or 5 at the time and in that sweet spot demographic, but I never watched the movie. I think the latest episode in my childhood memories is "Round and Round and Square We Go," the episode where the Polies and the Bevels try to learn about each other's cultures in order to make their barbecue more fun for the other family. 

So yeah it was a bit disorienting. I did enjoy Gloomius though. He was a fun character who just needed to learn what it was like to be happy, which I think is fitting for a Rolie Polie Olie villain. Pollie... I had to look up her name which I think reflects well my thoughts on her.

Anyway let's talk about "Dinglie Danglie Doodle," the episode where Zowie swears like a sailor, because I had a LOT to say there.

6:22 PM · Jan 1, 2021 "alice told me today about an episode of rolie polie olie where zowie learns to swear so that'll be the next one i watch"
6:26 PM · Jan 1, 2021 "billy bevel does fucking nothing."

 

    

 

6:29 PM · Jan 1, 2021 "zowie when she swears"

6:31 PM · Jan 1, 2021 "rolie polie olie human au olie: Mom mom! did zowie just say fuck?"
6:33 PM · Jan 1, 2021 "she's PISSED..... percy is about to get those divorce papers"

 

 

 

 

 

Much like all the shows I've mentioned, I think Rolie Polie Olie has some adult appeal to it in it's designs as well as if you're a William Joyce fan, but it does kinda cancel itself out with being as slow as it is. The show is kind of in the same boat as Gummi Bears was for me. It's a show I would want to like, and on paper, it's great. Just in practice.... eh...

Overall Rating for Rolie Polie Olie: C Tier

PB&J Otter: The First Baby Show (if you ignore the other three I already talked about) (Also a fun Quack Pack Tidbit)

12:03 PM · Dec 30, 2020 "finn the human"

 

 

 

 

 

As we've seen a lot of shows of this era aimed toward older kids, everything else kind of just... aired on the preschool block now, despite not really being meant for kids. It's kind of fun, even as of the last time I sat down and watched cable (mid 2020s), Disney Junior has played stuff meant for general audiences. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing though. Every toddler is gonna watch Tom and Jerry, so why not watch Goof Troop and uh... the 80s Charlie Brown Cartoon?

Of course, Playhouse era's first show was... Bear in the Big Blue House. Not a cartoon so we don't get to talk about it here (although when I watched the 2nd annual puppet camp stream and saw Bear and Crow interacting, that was pretty cute).

Playhouse Disney's second show however, was a cartoon. And since Doug had set off something with the young adult crowd, why not get Jim Jinkins to do baby shows.

He did three of them, and I certainly have not the constitution to talk about all of them at once. But if you want my opinion beforehand, they are all mid at best.

PB&J Otter was one I (Evil Lincoln Loud) watched with my friend Alice (i know more about ag than scar)

We both grew up with this show. I remember watching a ton of it as a child, and I very vividly recall, not only the Noodle Dance, but Peanut's insistence that he simply would not do it this time, before ultimately giving in.

She remembered it being incredibly cute, which, yeah, it was. The setting was incredibly relaxing, which unfortunately lead into boring at times.

8:37 PM · Dec 29, 2020 "i wonder if im being too hard on it bc it's a baby show but there's a lot of baby shows i like and think are quality.... pbj otter just doesn't have much other than a fun aesthetic."

Then the characters.... were never that great. In particular, we could not stand Flick's voice. Or most of the voices for that matter.

1:14 PM · Dec 29, 2020 "Alice and I hate this Duck"
1:41 PM · Dec 29, 2020 "I hate every background kid in this show so much but the music is funnnnnnn"

Also, there was one episode, "El Dorado, Seat of Gold" which very much stood out to me for being about a toilet seat, which feels just a little bit out of place in a baby show. I'm certainly not complaining, but it does feel a little bit jarring to the tone

8:18 PM · Dec 29, 2020 "why do these ppl care so much about toilet seats..."

Every show I've covered so far has been meant for children or general audiences save some out of order shows: My Friends Tigger and Pooh, The Lion Guard, and The Chicken Squad. I didn't really care for any of them, and of course, you'd probably think "Duh! These are baby shows! They aren't meant for you!" But I don't think that is the reason why.

Here's the thing: I'm 28 years old. I may not have preschool aged kids, but a ton of people my age do. In an ideal world, you'd want to make a series your kid can enjoy with their parent and maybe talk to them about it. 

Every show I've discussed so far does a good job teaching life lessons. My Friends Tigger and Pooh and PB&J Otter in particular are incredibly focused on teaching problem solving skills. In the world of educational television, you'd want a parent to help direct some of those ideals into one's daily life. That meaning, the show has to be something they'd sit down and watch and be at least somewhat engaged during.

They all do have adult appeal though. Nostalgic adults would love to sit down and see adventures of the Pooh or Lion King gangs. Chicken Squad is a lot more thoughtful than some other baby shows I've seen. PB&J Otter has a relaxing nature atmosphere that one can just chill out to.

Unfortunately, I'm a city slicker with no strong opinions toward Pooh, hatred of the Lion King franchise, and also Captain Tully has in my eyes has committed unforgivable sin. So maybe that's why none of the baby shows have been for me yet.

There will be though. :-)

Overall Rating for PB&J Otter: C Tier

Oh! Also! It's Donald Duck's Birthday, so I wanted to show off something I forgot to put in the Ducks posts.

 

I PK   61-1, also known as "Paperinik e i crimini virtuali" (Paperinik and the virtual crimes) is, as of June 9, 2022, rated on inducks as the 14th worst Donald Duck comic of all time. This is the only time I know of that Huey, Dewey, and Louie have appeared in an Italian comic in their Quack Pack forms. I would like to believe that this, specifically, is why it is the 14th worst Donald Duck comic of all time. I've talked about this on tumblr and twitter before, but I need as many people as possible to know this fact, and I cannot believe I forgot it.

The Demigod's New School: One Dogshit High School AU and One Okay One

8:43 AM · Dec 29, 2020 "hero rule 42069: die."

The Emperor's New School Hercules is a sequel midquel-slash-high school AU of the film The Emperor's New Groove Hercules. It focuses on Kuzco Hercules and all his friends and enemies from the movie, along with some new friends in the form of classmates such as Malina Cassandra and Guaca Icarus and teachers such as Mr. Moleguaco Daedalus.

Jokes aside, I was kind of expecting the Hercules cartoon to be better. It had some crew members on it I had come to respect, such as Tad Stones, but alas, it started pretty boring and went downhill quickly. Now, a show going downhill isn't uncommon with the Disney watch, but it usually goes from A/B tier to C/D tier... Not C to F tier.

Even characters like Hades, who was my favorite part of the movie, or Zeus, who was my favorite part of the show due to what seemed to be a degree of awareness that he was in a shitty cartoon, couldn't save it. Maybe part of it is that they gave Hades a thing for Aphrodite.

10:49 PM · Dec 27, 2020 "why is .... hades straight????"
8:54 AM · Dec 29, 2020 "zeus gets a song and it isnt good... none of the songs are good in this show"
9:23 AM · Dec 29, 2020 "zeus said he was sexy i hate this show."

The show is surprisingly straight and surprisingly horny. Like sure it's a show about hormonal teenagers, but you get a lot of Icarus being an absolute creep to Cassandra and it's a matter of "why does she hang out with him? why do any of this trio hang out for that matter?"

4:18 PM · Dec 27, 2020 "french stewart is here..."
10:51 PM · Dec 27, 2020 "i really hate icarus and cassandra"

It's very weird because the relationship between Malina and Kuzco is pretty opposite. Like Icarus and Cassandra, they're very much the couple pushed by the series. But unlike Cassandra, who has a personality (plagued by visions and bummed about it because no one believes her), Malina is very much the "girl" character. Malina's very type A and very much the one who rounds out the boys and has to get them back in line. But on the other hand, the relationship between Kuzco and Malina is a lot better than that of Icarus and Cassandra, because although Kuzco is quite insistent that Malina is a, and I am quoting here: "Hottie Hot Hottie," they do have a dynamic other than that. Malina exists to be a foil to Kuzco, and they balance each other out in ways not always meant to be romantic, one sided pining, or creepy.

I think for the most part, Emperor's New School does a lot more with its characters. I like Yzma in her series more than I like Hades in his, and considering they're both goofy technicolor villains who made the movie they're in, I think that says more than enough. Most characters in Hercules do keep their characterization. The problem is most characters in Hercules aren't all that fun, and they ones they did add for comic relief aren't that great. Emperor's New School has the opposite problem. The characters in the movie are great. They're what you came to see, but the side characters they add are pretty middling. No one is watching Emperor's New School for the kid who screams "Kuzco rules!" in every episode, but they don't have to this is a funny show with Kuzco and Kronk and Yzma and Pacha.

Also, I don't know if it's a lack of composition or what, but Phil looks super pale in the Hercules show

10:39 PM · Dec 27, 2020 "why are you white"

I think Emperor's New School also lets itself be a comedy better than Hercules. Hercules is pretty much driven by jokes about Greek myth and jokes about things teenagers have to deal with, like romance, and I haven't been a teenager in nearly a decade, but it doesn't hit well with me.

I guess it's good to consider however, that this was the era of shows like Doug and Pepper Ann, later down the line we'd have Kim Possible and The Proud Family. It does fit that fantastical teen show, but I do wonder if teenagers really enjoyed it that much.

Emperor's New School very much focused on parody. This show wasn't about teenage girl problems. It was about turning into a different animal every week and making self aware jokes and recurring gags. Maybe it's the nostalgia but it was a very familiar thing, and probably what kept me coming back when I watched it during my high school days at 5 in the morning getting ready for school.

Overall Rating for Hercules: F Tier

Overall Rating for The Emperor's New School: B Tier

Recess: Elementary Schools, Ensembles, and The Most Annoying Girl In The World

Darkwing Duck was the first show from the Disney Watch chronology I watched in full. The second? Recess.

It's kind of hard to talk about Recess in particular. I watched the show and have incredibly fond memories of it, buuuuuut so has everyone else. Like Proud Family, it's a show I've seen a lot of hot takes on online. (Worth noting, Amphibia also has a lot of hot takes online, but for the most part, I pretend I do not see them.) 

The show plays hard into the theme of the adults just being big kids, which fans are aware of. The show has a lot of focus on class structure and denying authority, which people caught wind of and are aware of. The show also has a major racism problem, with the kindergarteners acting as anti-indigenous stereotypes, which people are also very aware of. Though I would like to point out that a lot of that is inspired by actual shit done in kindergarten classes. I'm obviously not going to yell at a bunch of 5 year old kids doing a school assignment, but it might be worth thinking about, if it's still done in schools.

As a show, Recess does a pretty good job at showing what it's like to be in a school. You have all the kids with the same first name referred to with their last initial, teachers of varying quality (for every Miss Finster there was a Miss Grotke at my school), even Menlo, whose whole thing is being a student working in administration, is not uncommon (though admittedly, it's usually staff kids or shy kids who want to feel like they're helping by alphabetizing library cards or turning on projectors more than a child with an actual job).

As for differences, I am immediately drawn to the episode "Teacher's Lounge," which shows the kids curious of what goes on in there, and it turns out to be a fantastical place disguised as boring. Yeah it was always boring. And often students would have to get something from the teacher's lounge at my school because it was adjacent to the mail room. The best my elementary school's teacher's lounge ever got was the era where there would be a pile of free day old Panera Bread for the teachers, which, yeah, Panera Bread, but it's a day old.

The other thing I would want to focus on with Recess is the ensemble cast. We've had a few already, with Wuzzles, Gummi Bears, Pooh, Rescue Rangers, Gargoyles, Mighty Ducks, and 101 Dalmatians, but... I like Recess a lot more than any of those shows.

And its weird. I usually love ensemble casts. But the only ensemble casts where I liked more than one character in it were Gummi Bears (Sunni, Gruffi, and Grammi) and Gargoyles (Brooklyn and Broadway). I think the reason Gummi Bears and Gargoyles characters appealed to me so much was that they were multifaceted. In Gummi Bears, each Gummi Bear had a different way they treated their culture, and my favorites bounced off other characters well in particular. Gargoyles on the other hand thought deeper about character motivations, for Brooklyn in particular, this struck with me, because he had mixed feelings about protecting the humans, but ultimately knew it was what was right. Brooklyn was also fucking hilarious.

Recess is also a show where I liked most of the ensemble. Spinelli, like Brooklyn was incredibly multifaceted, with several episodes focusing on her relationship with femininity, vulnerably, and authority. TJ and Vince are also big favorites of mine, due to how well they bounce off other characters, and as they're the leader and right hand man, you see their responses to various societal metaphors. Of course, this isn't uncommon for the others too. Mikey episodes like "Stand Up Randall" and "Bonky Fever" were very much favorites in the lessons they taught. Gretchen was a character that I could relate to, being the "smart one" in school. Also Gus was there. I don't actually hate Gus, and he does show off his tough side every so often but man... He fucking sucked in "King Gus."

Characters in Recess are pretty one dimensional on the surface, but it allows for some interesting interactions and directions for the characters to go into. I'm not certain, but it may have inspired me somewhat in the way that I write characters. When you take a character like Lawson for instance, you start out with "Vince's dimwitted rival" and you may not go too far, but you go far enough to create a character who is envious and seeks to do something about it. A character who helps people, though it's ultimately in a selfish way (See "Lawson as His Crew"). And Lawson works as a foil to Vince (and even TJ) in that regard as it makes them wonder if they are selfish people.

Considering how nostalgic it is, it's not a surprise that it was popular, and soon later came Detention, which my friend just described for me now as "recess but mid." And yeah. I honestly had a hard time getting past the first minute or which, which says a lot as I have watched every Disney Cartoon (up to like Mickey Mouse Funhouse). But from what I can tell, it has similar one dimensional characters, a Randall like (Shelley Kelly aka The Most Annoying Girl In The World), and a school setting (though it's elementary instead of middle school). From what I saw it was really just characters sort of doing parodies and getting into trouble, rather than the themes of it all and why kids may get into trouble. Anyway Recess is better bye.

Overall Rating for Recess: A Tier