YMMV / Nature Cat

• Adorkable:
  • Nature Cat himself is brave, enthusiastic, clumsy to a fault, and awkward most of the time. He makes up for it with his love for nature and enjoys helping his friends out.
  • Hal is a happy-go-lucky dog whose innocence plays out like a child's would. He may be ditzy and make random remarks, but he can be smart in his own way and would often get confused whenever he's complimented for it.
• Anvilicious: While admittedly almost every show about protecting the environment like this one qualifies, "Dune Patrol" carries a dune protection message and goes at it with all the subtlety of throwing a cinder block at someone's head.
• Awesome Art: The backgrounds are lush, and are very beautiful to look at. The most beautiful art ever showcased in the show is at the end of "Gimme Shelter", where Nature Cat and co. finally get to watch the sunset they were anticipating. The sunset is, of course, incredibly gorgeous◊.
• Base-Breaking Character: Hal can be this since he's either a hilarious side character with Hidden Depths who's fun to watch and very active when he needs to be or an annoying comic relief who does nothing but constantly make useless quips, demonstrate complete obliviousness to the world around him, and never shuts up.
• Broken Base: This show has pretty mixed feedback; some seem to love it for its upbeat and lively animation style, enjoyably energetic cast, and its sense of humor, while others despise it for being obnoxiously cheerful, phoned-in educational aspects, and completely nonsensical premise, as well as finding the main character to be really annoying. Check any site like TV.com or IMDb; the reader reviews seem to confirm this.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: The promo for "The Return of Bad Dog Bart" shows Nature Cat's long lost sister Gwendolyn as a kitten, and also shows a Pirate Girl who has the same fur color and head shape as her. Surprising no one, said pirate is One-Eared Winnie, who just so happens to be Gwendolyn.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Nature Dog and One-Eared Winnie/Gwendolyn are popular characters despite both of them only appearing in one special each.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • There is plenty of fandom overlap with other mid-2010s series Odd Squad and Ready Jet Go!.
  • Also with Wild Kratts, to the point where a crossover episode was made.
• Heartwarming Moments: In "Mission to Mars," in Squeeks' daydream, she wants to live on Mars. Then, she comes to realize that even though the Earth isn't perfect, she loves it, and it's where she belongs.
  Squeeks: Well, I really, really love Mars. But, sometimes things aren't perfect. But you know what? That's life. And that's okay. Earth's not perfect, but it's my home. It's where I belong.
• Ho Yay:
  • Despite calling him his best friend, Nature Cat is genuinely obsessed with Hal. If we keep track of every time he kisses, hugs, clings or shows any other kind of affection towards Hal, we'd have enough for a whole video. "A Nature Carol" in particular shows quite a bit of this. When the Spirit of Nature Present (Squeeks) shows NC how sad Hal is, it really hits him hard. The Spirit of Nature Future (Hal) visiting NC has by far the biggest impact on him, especially when it was revealed that if NC doesn't change his ways, he'll use Hal's doghouse as a toy storage, causing Hal to move away. However, Nature Cat did change his ways in the end and happily hugs Hal when he finally sees him again.
  • Nature Cat's Nature Movie Special Extraordinaire has a meta narrative about being in a movie. Nature Cat wonders if the movie will be a romcom, and faints into Hal's arms.
• Moe: The main cast may count in their own way, but there are a few good examples:
  • Nature Cat. His appearance may look a bit goofy, but he's very cute due to his high energy, cowardly nature, clumsiness, awkwardness, and him being easily emotional. His implied crush on Hal also counts, as he would do anything for him, even when the gang are caught in comical situations.
  • Hal is easily excitable, innocent and enjoys playing with his own chew toys. His friendliness and cleverness are what make Nature Cat remain affectionate towards him throughout the series.
  • Daisy and Squeeks also have their moments of being cute. Daisy is a sweet, intelligent bunny who loves gardening, and Squeeks is a loud, excitable mouse who loves to go on adventures with her friends and being funny as well.
  • As shown in "A Nature Carol", they were all adorable when they were little. Nature Kitten in particular due to having a lisp.
• Narm: In "Dr. Pumpkinstein," it's pretty silly to see the characters treat a squash as if it's the most horrifying thing ever, and it would not even scare the target audience either.
• Periphery Demographic:
  • Despite being preschool-oriented with a network suitable to match in America, in Canada, it aired on Family CHRGD, the sister channel to Family aimed for older audiences. No, really. Your eyes aren't messing with you. Just see for yourself.
  • Nature Cat does actually have a sizable teen and adult fanbase due to the show's clever writing, catchy songs, and being reminiscent of classic cartoons. It also has the honor of being one of the only "baby" shows that GoAnimate users don't pick on.
• Popular with Furries: The series tends to be a favorite with the furry community due to its anthropomorphic animals.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Nature Cat/Hal is called "Fral," with the "Fr" coming from Fred, Nature Cat's real name.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • In "Houston's Outdoor Adventure", Nature Cat and his friends work out to a song that sounds like "Eye of the Tiger".
  • "The Marvelous, Magnificent Moth" from "Moth Frolic-Fest" sounds similar to "The Hottest Place in Town" from Journey Beyond Sodor. There's even a mashup of the two songs.
• Tear Jerker: "A Nature Carol". Thanks to Nature Cat's selfishness, his friends are miserable and are in a mess of emotions about how they feel about Nature Cat now. Also, the Scrachit family has no place to go home to for the holidays, and have but a single bean to eat for dinner. It gets worse. In the future, Nature Cat stopped caring about nature and rebranded to "Christmas Cat". He gradually drifted away from his friends, much to NC's horror. All this causes Nature Cat to realize how horrible he was being and he vows to change his ways from this point on.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Some fans did not like Ronald being recasted to Chris Knowings in Season 2, but this sentiment faded away as fans got used to it.
  • The show is renowned for its lively animation courtesy of 9 Story Media Group. But starting with Season 4, it's now animated by Yowza! Animation. Compare a Season 1-3 episode with a Season 4 episode and you will notice a significant decline in quality. To longtime fans, Season 4's animation is like Filmation but in Toon Boom.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Hal the dog can read as female to some due to his long furry ears and Tuft of Head Fur.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The show's animation is vibrant, aesthetically pleasing, and a great example of Thick-Line Animation. It can best be described as Looney Tunes in Adobe Flash. The water animation in this show is also lovely to look at.

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