Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Toony T(en)sday: Ben 10 (2016 Reboot)

Currently, Tara Strong is reprising her voice role in the reboots of  two awesome and beloved cartoons. One of them is awful as all crap. The other? Well, let's say that if CN didn't replace her for the new Powerpuff Girls, she should've (IMO) fired her agent.

Let's also say the Ben 10 franchise is Cartoon Network's prostitute right now. A full decade after the original series' premiere, there's been four more series that, while are varying degrees of good (at best), were pretty much there to make toys and make the CN channels across the globe money. While that makes some sense with me, I can see why a lot of people are annoyed with this.

And now, Ben and his magical watch of aliens are back with a new series that starts all over again. Ben being the big brat, Gwen the gigantic mouthy know-it-all, and Max the cool old grandpa who has to deal with it all. Oh yeah and the watch that helped make the series so memorable.

So let's get to my thoughts on the new Ben 10.


It's...not great, but not bad either.

But lemme get into the bad stuff:

-The fact that this series was a go.
When the fourth Ben 10 series Omniverse aired back in 2012, I thought this would be the last. I liked it a lot, but other people hated it. For both me and those people (in our ways), it was the animation, the many references to the original, having 10-year-old Ben share the spotlight with 16-year-old Ben (and having both even more of an annoying brat), the fluctuating writing quality and some changes to the characters. While I didn't mind some of the changes that much (I wasn't a savant like others), I can understand why a lot of other people didn't. (PLUS, I love Rook (He's really awesome) so there's that).
-I can't stand Gwen. Like in the original, she can nag like Wanda, and her voice is irritating. I have to get used to this if I gotta keep watching. Also, she has a new voice actor . I don't mind that a lot, as long as Gwen doesn't annoy me with either her dialogue or her actions.

But there were some things about the New Ben 10 I did like.

-Max is the same old cool badass of a grandpa that we knew and loved in the original. Sure, he has a new voice () but I still really enjoyed seeing him and being the badass grandpa he has been throughout the franchise.
-Some of our favorite Aliens are back!

They're all still here, they look great (IMO) and they're still awesome at kicking butt.
-I don't mind the animation here. It looks really good, it's fleshed out, and drawn very well (especially the Aliens). The movements are pretty fluid and the colors are nicely diverse. I enjoy what I see from this show.
-The writing does follow up with other series, but is so-so. I don't expect it to be better at least until later in Season One. Although, since it's more for the Teen Titans Go! and new Powerpuff Girls crowd (and since they're all reboots mind you), I'm not surprised here.

I...like this. It's not great, but then again, Ben 10 hasn't been great since at least Alien Force (and my opinion is it's not that great later in it's run), so we'll see where this goes. It's real fun to watch, isn't  much of a Timekiller show, and is worth it if you still love the Ben 10 franchise enough to give this a chance. I suggest this series, and if you don't, that's fine. After Omniverse, there's nothing to trust anymore.

This has been my review of the New Ben 10.
This has been Toony Tuesday.
See you in May and May the good toons be yours...! (that is unless they're reboots on Cartoon Network, then you can not touch with a 20-foot titanium pole if you want.)

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