Toony Is a Tuesday: Bunsen Is a Beast

Butch Hartman is definitely the Dan Schneider of  Nickelodeon's Animation Studio. Yeah, it's a stretch; but with three great successful series already under his belt, it's no coincidence that he's been a favorite creator with the slime-filled network. And now, he has a fourth cartoon to his name, just released last month. Don't get your hopes up, folks; it's nothing entirely new.
But it's beastly good fun. (heh heh...)
It's Bunsen Is a Beast.


Hey everyone. Another Toony Tuesday for ya.
This time...another cartoon I'm not entirely excited about.
Another Nicktoon that's not too great but has a concept that is great and some good laughs. A beast in a human school, with a great human friend and a bad human classmate whom wants him gone forever?? It's brilliant!

Here's the backstory: Bunsen is a beast (...well, I'm pretty sure), and goes to a human school--Muckledunk Middle School, becoming fast friends with Mikey Munroe along the way. Also attending Muckledunk is Amanda Killman, who does not like Bunsen or his kind, and wants him and it extinct.

Ehh...it's alright.

Since Hartman has made three other cartoons before this one, many of his classic associated tropes are also featured here. The long, somewhat-related sight gags, the random one-liners that have nothing to do with the episode, the way characters look at the camera (and therefore the viewers) and say something, the bits of music we hear over and over and others I can't list but have seen hundreds of times before. While I didn't expect anything new from this, I would've loved something new.



On the other hand, I really do love the animation style. It's significantly different from the other Hartman hits; it's more bright, colorful, smooth and fluid. The characters are drawn great and their designs are simple and very nice. Especially Bunsen, who looks so cute, you'd wish he was real so you give him a hug. Or at least until you see a costume mascot of him at a Nick-hosted event.
Although, there are similarities between the human mains; (Apologies for the umpteenth mention here, but...) Mikey looks a bit like Adam Lyon, They both have orange-ish red hair, are both short, have x-shaped holes in their ears, are smart(ish) and both have red sneakers. And most especially, both boys are friends with creatures (Bunsen to Jake Spidermonkey). And as for Amanda, she's just a younger version of Vicky or Mr. Crocker. And for a funny thought, she's voiced by Kari Wahlgren; considering she also voiced Chloe Carmichael, it's hilarious how much of a contrast there is between them.
Just look at them!

Also funny: Bunsen is voiced by Jeremy Rowley. If that name is familiar to you, that's because he's also best known as Bushwell Plaza's loud, annoying, icky, wart-faced lobby manager Lewbert on iCarly.


(I'll give you a minute to pick up your jaw)



(heavy, obvious contrast is heavily obvious.)
I just realized: after T.U.F.F. Puppy, the Hartman/Schneider/iCarly connection is super strong.

I really like the concept of this one: It's (seemingly) all about inclusiveness with a human boy and a beast...boy becoming good friends and enjoying one another's company, despite (or even because of) the other's different species. Amanda being against Bunsen's acceptance into human life (and, by extension, his existence) gives the series a nice edge and makes it more interesting. In fact, this series could be a reflection of the race relations going on in the U.S., where many Black, Latino, Hispanic and Asian people are suffering pain, terror and real racism from ignorant white people (especially), and ever since last year's general election (and even before then),  it's become more widespread and more glaring. But this series makes inclusiveness and inter-species friendship happy and hopeful.

This series definitely has the Hartman-flavored touches that are ever-present in his works (most especially from Fairly OddParents) and does give it a nice charm. I can appreciate that.

The only memorable characters in the series itself are Bunsen and Amanda. Bunsen's goofy and odd yet kind and lovable personalty really struck a nice chord with me and I enjoyed most of his behavior and antics so far; while Amanda's actions to stop Bunsen have been hilarious and her failures from such are even more hilarious (and she deserves them by the way). Mikey is an okay character, but almost nothing about him sticks out, other than him being Bunsen's human best friend who is very kind and to his beastly buddy and open to his species and their cultures, which I really like. But I'm sure, in future episodes, Mikey will grow to a better-written and even-more-likable character.

One thought of mine is while I love Bunsen the way he is, I was curious of a plot later on in the series in which Amanda finally makes an evil scheme that actually gets Bunsen angry, with him later causing destruction across town; Mikey tries (and/or fails) to stop him and bring back down to Earth, and it's up to only Amanda to save the day. This could be super interesting, and with good writing, funny jokes and some characterization from all three main characters, it can work and be one of the best episodes of the series. (And I wouldn't care if they go back to where they were at the start, I would still love this so much).

Well, this series isn't too great or too original, but is written alright and is very fun to watch. I will say it's not for me, but I'm very happy it does have an audience at the moment. And since it's a Nick show, I darn sure believe it won't be as popular as The Sponge or The Loud House (and by the way, Nick should stop with that. Not every show is gonna reach SpongeBob levels of popularity, not will it sell as well in marketing and merchandise. So please stop believing in this mentality, because many great shows have been cancelled because of it. It's not even gonna be the next Fairly OddParents).

As indirectly mentioned earlier, Bunsen is a Beast airs on Nickelodeon. It's not a show for me, but it's pretty good so I'll watch it every once in a while, and I think it'll get a good audience soon.

Thank you everybody for joining for the second Toony Tuesday review of the week and I'll see you guys next week. Bye!!