WesternAnimation Terminally bland with a side of apathy
Ah, Cartoon Network studios. Up until 2006, they had a pretty consistent track record in terms of quality - whether it was TV-Y7-rated Dead Baby Comedies, cleverly-written shows about rebellious kids fighting their adult adversaries in spoofs of classic sci-fi, fantasy, spy and adventure movies, a show about a boy genius and his stupeed seester, or an epic about a time lost samurai... Then they made this show.
Squirrel Boy, however, is not actively wretched. No, it commits a far greater sin - it's boring. Despite having the always-hilarious Richard Horvitz voicing the titular rodent, it wastes his talent for outright insanity. The show apes the ugly Klasky Csupo look, but lacks any of the charm of Klasky-Csupo's shows. The show is just terminally bland, and was one of four shows introduced by CN in 2006 - the unexpectedly good superhero show Ben 10, the decently funny My Gym Partners A Monkey, and the sadly Too Good To Last Class Of 3000. Not only does it fail at being as funny as even Gym Partner or the disappointing yet decent Camp Lazlo, it wasted the talents of one of the funniest voice actors in doing so.
I don't mourn this show, but it still wasn't the worst thing Cartoon Network has ever aired. As I've stated, it isn't actually bad - it's just boring. You'd expect a lot more from the studio who gave the world the oft-hilarious escapades of the Grim Reaper and his Enfante Terrible and Ralph Wiggum masters, or the misadventures of three misfits in their quest for jawbreakers, and the story of a nervous pooch, his kindly Scottish owner, and her Jerkass husband. These shows, and many more by CN studios, all had a certain spark to their humor - CN's censors have always been noticably lax, so why was this show so lacking in comedy? Maybe Everett Peck just doesn't know how to do more "kid-friendly" humor, or maybe he was just never all that funny to begin with.
WesternAnimation First Episode, First Impressions: "A Line In The Sandwich"
Hello TV Tropes! This is the second in a series of reviews I'll be doing where I watch the first episode of a show that I don't want to binge-watch to get an idea of it. I'll then give out my first impressions of it based on the episode. As they say, the first impression is the best impression. If it's a poorly-made review, that would be because it's really biased (I'm basing my entire opinion on one episode FFS!) and it's kinda meant to be quick, so take a grain of salt.
I remembered sorta enjoying Squirrel Boy, so I wondered: Why do people hate it? So out of Bile Fascination, I decided to see why everyone hated Squirrel Boy. Unfortunately, I could only find the first half of the first episode.
A Line In The Sandwich: I...............was actually kinda enjoying it. The jokes were Actually Pretty Funny and the writing wasn't too bad. Andy and Rodney reminded me of Mac and Bloo respectively. The only other character with significance in the episode was Mr. Johnson (Andy's dad), who isn't treat him very well, but it was still funny. The plot wasn't the most original ("Become business owners to get expensive toy" happens all the time on TV), but I got a few laughs.
Overall: I'm still unsure of why it's so hated. The visuals aren't too shabby, the writing and jokes are watchable, and the characters have some worth. However, I did notice that it definitely wasn't funny in comparison to other CN originals, but it did make me chuckle. It was So Okay, It's Average show to me. Maybe the hatedom is related to its inferiority to most other CN shows.
I would like to see you guys' opinions and why you think that way too!