Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Toony Tuesday Turnaround: Scaredy Squirrel


If squirrels could talk, even they would hate this crap.

Welcome to Toony Tuesday. This time around, I'm taking it back...way back, in a sub-segment I'd like to call Toony Tuesday Turnaround. Today I'm taking a trip to 2010--a year with (outside a few great examples) some pretty bad or mediocre cartoons. And the series I'm reviewing today is one of either.
Scaredy Squirrel. Oy.

Based on the series of books by Melanie Watt--very loosely based, this series features a squirrel named Scaredy, who lives in Balsa, and works at Stash N Hoard, and has wacky adventures with his friends, and gets into strange situations on --...it sucks.

So instead of going on a long-winded rant on the whole series, I'll just get straight to the chase with a few points:
--The plots are pointless, terribly written and grossly obvious,
--The characters are either annoying, stupid, mean or dull and forgettable. Easily, all are not very funny. Fortunately, all are forgettable not at all, so that doesn't matter.
--The theme song is...well...not pleasant. Here, take a look for yourself.
If torture was a thing again, this would be of perfect use for the terrorists. Forget waterboarding and breaking bones;
THIS is the way to get them talking in a second.
(I also appreciate the warning at the end saying this show is barely based on the book series.)
--And finally (again), this show is nothing like the books; only the title character is lifted from them. I've never read them before, but I wish I did. From what I'vs seen now, they look and are written great; that's the talent of Melanie Watt. And that version of Scaredy is so adorable.

I can't stand most of the characters here.
--Nestor is wimpy jerk of a boss with an evil, cold-hearted mother.
--Paddy is a self-centered Casanova wannabe who look like a ferret Nick the Lounge Singer
--Sally is a fat loudmouth with a creepy crush on Scaredy
--Mildred...well, there isn't much I hate about her, since most of the time she drinks soda and burps. (Plus, she's a cool ninja on the side.)
-Then there's Scaredy's retarded best friend Dave.
He's pretty much Patrick Star, Cosmo Cosma, Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin and Randy Marsh possibly all at once in skunk form. AND THAT ANNOYS THE CRAP OUTTA ME! Plus, there's the effeminate voice--with the lisp (as if Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly were good inspirations) and subtle obsessions toward Scaredy that make me think he might be gay for his squirrely friend.

--And Finally Scaredy himself.
---He's manic, weird, quiet (sometimes), loud (sometimes), goofy and easily scared. Not new traits for a character, but cringy and irritating here. And another thing...
---He's got OCD. Extreme OCD. And apparently, what we're seeing from Sparedy's behavior here is supposed to be funny. It's not. Not because OCD is a serious disorder based extremely on order and cleanliness. It's not funny because the people who made this weren't even trying; they just...did what other people in real life usually do under OCD, and expected you to laugh at it. What the hell am I supposed to get from this?? "Ha-ha-ha, the squirrel is cleaning stuff and can't stand messes." No. That's just wrong.
---Also, his voice is irritating. The squeaky, high-pitched noise coming from his mouth should not pass for a human's voice, let alone a cartoon character's voice. It's like the sound of nails on a chalkboard banged the sound of cats yelling in heat, and this is their bastard child. I couldn't stand it for 11 seconds, yet this is constant for nearly 11 minutes! And that's to say nothing about the godawful aforementioned theme song above. (By the way, it's amazing that if you heard it and you're still alive, you've done Good.)
---He looks like a clone of Peri from Spliced and Jimmy Two-Shoes. Seriously, they all look, sound and act alike. Plus, they all have fat, lazy, stupid friends/bad influences. It's definitely no coincidence.
---His name. Who in their right mind would give their son a taunt instead of an actual name? And if I didn't learn on TV Tropes that his book series counterpart was a fearful squirrel, I would've questioned this for all of a minute. Cause I really don't care. 
---Well, he is kinda adorable, but that's all the good stuff.

I'm gonna cut it a little short and just explain a problem this show has; and it's also a problem most Canadian cartoons had throughout this and in the last decade:
There are many stereotypes that they all follow.
-Underwritten characters
-Mean-as-crap characters
-Dumb characters
-Heavy Toilet humor
-Idiotic humor
-Try-hard plots
-Dumb plots
-Overused plots
-Overused jokes with little to no variations
-and little hint of trying 
Mind you, not all Canadian cartoons use any or all of these stereotypes (hell, look at Jacob Two-Two, Babar, Class of the Titans, Jane and the Dragon and Total Drama [at least at the start] for examples), and some of them even use them to subverted returns or used them well. This show took the expected route and look where that went.

Granted the show got marginally better after season 1, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth that'll take me a while to get rid of. Bad characters, weak writing, bottom plots and alright animation; all in this Canadian animated series from the 2010s. Whoda thunk that?

If you like this, that's fine; I won't judge you. But for me, this is too...bare.
Now please excuse me while I am "squirreled away" from this show and the people who still like it.
I have a feeling....

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