YMMV / The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder

• Broken Base: Some fans were against the idea of a live-action Kid Com and feeling like it only furthers the decline of the franchise after the poor reception of the last few seasons of the show. While others consider the show one of the better offerings from Paramount+ with it being more reminiscent of older Nick live-action shows such as The Secret World of Alex Mack and Clarissa Explains It All and appreciated that it reversed the major Flanderization that Cosmo and Wanda had in the last few seasons of the original show, with their characterizations being a lot closer to the early seasons of FOP, as well as fixing some of the mistakes the live-action movies made (such as Vicky and Crocker being the main antagonists like in the original series rather than just mere side villains). At the very least most agree that this show is better than some of the later seasons of the original (most notably characters like Poof, Sparky, and Chloe are never brought up).
• Character Rerailment: Despite the show getting some adverse reactions, some fans did respond well to the show dialing back the Flanderization that Cosmo and Wanda had in the last few seasons (with Wanda being depicted as a nagging shrew and Cosmo as stupid beyond reason and miserable being married) of the original show, with them now being closer to their characterizations in the early seasons.
• Cliché Storm: One complaint some fans have of the show is that it follows just about every average Nickelodeon Kid Com cliche, but with a slight Fairly OddParents flavor to it.
• Funny Moments: When Roy wishes for "Roy day", Rachel goes into a long story about his birth (it involved a barn having to be burned down) which all of his friends have horrified reactions to by the time it's over with.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In "Back to the Scooter", when Viv and Roy promise not to do any more time travel, Roy says "At least, not this season". Less than a year after its premiere, the show was taken off Paramount+ and Nickelodeon's website with no words of a second season being made.
• Heartwarming Moments: The fact that Timmy was willing to give away his Fairy Godparents to his cousin is this, given how he had done plenty of loophole abusing schemes just to keep them as his Fairy Godparents and announcing dismay to sharing them with anyone else. It seems that now, finally, he's letting go and allowing someone else to experience the same joy he once had.
  • In "Fairies Away! Part 2", Roy and Viv both admitting their insecurities to one another (Viv over needing to wish for her talk show just to get the kind of praise Roy does every day and Roy over feeling guilty about his selfishness after watching Viv being so generous) and both apologizing over their actions to one another.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Vivian and Roy having to share fairies has reminded a lot of people of the original series' Season 10 premise of Timmy having to share his fairies with Chloe. Since some fans blamed that for the original cartoon's cancellation, they wondered why the formula was replicated in the first place.
• Memetic Mutation: Front-facing Crocker in "Fairies Away, Pt. 2", which contains an animated sequence featuring Mr. Crocker facing forward (rather than the usual 3/4 angle), which some found very unsettling.
• Moment of Awesome: In "Fairies Away! Part 2", Roy and Viv using their laser whips to defeat Fire-Demon Vicky.
• No Yay: Vicky having a crush on Mr. Crocker was immediately met with disgust by fans. While Vicky is 24 in this show and thus a consenting adult, that didn't stop fans from being vehemently against the idea, primarily due to the still massive age difference between them, as Crocker is a middle-aged man somewhere in his late fifties or early sixties. Fortunately, it's strictly one-sided as Crocker shows no romantic interest in Vicky.
• Older Than They Think: This isn't the first time a 2D Cosmo and Wanda were featured in live-action. The first time was in the Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide episode "Daydreaming", where they guest-starred in an Imagine Spot of Ned's who calls on their help to solve a situation.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Fairly Odder winning the "Favorite Kids TV Show" award at Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Awards in 2023 has been met with contempt, as many people felt it was an undeserved win due to Fairly Odder being met with mixed-to-negative reception, and that the show no longer being available to stream on Paramount+ by that point, making its removal from the streaming service all the more well-deserved in the eyes of many fans who were critical of the series.
• Sequelitis: Much like Planet Sheen and Rugrats Preschool Daze before it, this is a Sequel Series to a beloved Nicktoon that fans near-universally agree is vastly inferior to the original.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • Butch Hartman's art style doesn't translate well here, as Cosmo and Wanda look like cut-outs that were glued onto the camera lens without even trying to make the fairies believable; They also move a bit too much but change too little when compared to the show's stiffer yet expressive animation, and, when they do move, bounce with obviously weighted physics — both things that further emphasize that they're animated in a software package, rather than make them look more present in the scene.
  • In the released opening clip from the pilot, Cosmo's arm and bullhorn clip deep into his face. Thankfully, this was fixed in the released episode.
  • The rushed animation is put on full display in Season 1's final scene, which takes place in the animated fairy prison. The character movements are very stiff and abrupt (sometimes missing several frames of animation), resulting in a scene that heavily resembles an early Flash cartoon.
  • Viv's wish to be tall has the actor just being zoomed in over the surface she's standing on, rather than any actual effect to make her look taller.
  • In "The Most Popular Person", towards the end of the episode when Roy's dog, Buddy, bites Vicky's bottom, you can see it's a stuffed animal that does not resemble a real living dog.
• Tainted by the Preview: The trailer didn't exactly inspire faith in the series: along with being live-action (which the original Drake Bell films were already divisive over, but at least had the excuse of being an Alternate Continuity), many weren't happy with the Kid Com approach the show was taking, looking like a mashup of virtually any sitcom-filmed show on Nickelodeon now with Fairly OddParents characters thrown in, mainly as the 2D Cosmo and Wanda stick out like a sore thumb.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Two notable examples:
  • The premise alone caused plenty of controversies, as the switch from animated to live-action wasn't well-received by fans who were hoping for an animated continuation of the series.
    • The switch to live-action deserves special elaboration. Due to the shift from animation to low-budget live-action, the show's unable to capture the more out-there, imaginative magic that the original show offered. Instead, it only makes everyday use of magic, usually with Special Effect Failure in play as listed above. Even the opening shows shades of this limit to creativity in comparison to the original, with the large list of wishes near the end being changed to more mundane stuff that could easily be presented with basic costume changes or props.
  • The theme song has been cut in half, and the above-mentioned switch to live-action makes the visuals just look off. As a result, it's not anywhere near as epic or over-the-top as the original opening. Plus some episodes have a weird tendency to play the theme song late into the episode (in some cases at the halfway point).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Many fans have pointed out that having Vicky take Crocker's role as the teacher could have been an interesting idea, considering that she now can torment a whole group of kids at once instead of just one at a time. Instead, she is effectively a clone of Crocker, removing any originality from the role.
  • Wanda and Cosmo are also a heavy case of this, as unlike their tight-knit godparent relationship with Timmy, the two barely interact with Vivian and Roy outside of granting or reversing either kid's wish and an occasional warning about said wish, with the show instead of focusing a lot more on the kids' relationships with other human characters as a result of their wish rather than their relationship with the fairy duo.
• Uncertain Audience: One of the biggest criticisms of this show is that it doesn't seem to have any clue who its target audience is supposed to be. On one hand, there are a lot of references to the original show that will go over the heads of most younger viewers, as well as a lot of jokes involving outdated memes and references to media aimed at adults (most notably a reference to South Park). On the other hand, there are several newer pop culture references that older viewers are put off by, and the long since grown up fans of the original cartoon were already put off from the word go due to the low budget sitcom aesthetic and how the final seasons of the original cartoon had already left a lot to be desired anyway. Unsurprisingly, the show was ultimately cancelled within a short period of time after a single season and subsequently purged from the air entirely the year immediately after its cancellation.

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