TV Blogging
Jan. 2nd, 2006 05:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teddywolfIt's a brand new year, and brand new shows are coming out on various channels. Today, though, I'm concentrating mostly on Cartoon Network.
First item of note: Cartoon Network is starting their own Saturday Morning Cartoon lineup. This is significant. Currently, the Saturday Morning landscape has precisely none of the channels that carried them when I was a child. There's Fox, UPN, and ABC Family (formerly Fox Family). With the addition of Cartoon Network this makes a solid plurality of channels.
I have watched a sneak preview of one of the shows, called Zixx. Premise: Boy in junior high, who lives with his uncle, misses his missing archaeologist mother. Oddly enough, some bum on the street gives him a crystal that she'd dug up - and knows him by name. He and his friend discover a different world, a cyber-world, by passing through a portal. There's a conspiracy to take over the Universe that they uncover. And they meet Zixx, a cute teenage girl who knows the other world quite well and does her best to persuade them not to go back...
The show is produced in Canada - you can tell by the accents, despite some voice coaching. The animation for the other world bits is quite good, and reminiscent of first person shooter games. The acting is a little wooden in spots. Not Shakespeare, no indeed. This show is geared toward boys in the 8-14 range with some lesser appeal for the girls, and looks to be wholesome enough. It's not joining my lineup, but I'm way outside the target demographic and feel no loss. Second season is already airing in Canada on YTV, but the ratings will need to be good for CN to sign it up past the first season.
Another new show on Cartoon Network is in the Adult Swim lineup: Ranger Smith. Yes, the character from the old Hanna-Barbera Yogi Bear cartoons. This new edition is done by John K and Spumco. The voice work is quite good as a rule, with only minor deviations from the original HB characters. The old sound effects and music are all included and done extremely well, and they have generally done the bears quite well.
Despite those touches, though, it felt more like a Ren and Stimpy cartoon, albeit one of the lower-key ones.
The difference in animation style and the addition of usual Spumco sound effects made this cartoon a bit disconcerting for me. It's not like I go looking for Yogi Bear cartoons, but they have a particular look and feel for me. The Spumco additions, done as often as they are, jar me out of the story. The jokes are good, the story is good, the voices are good although it's strange to hear Boo-Boo sound like Ren Van Hoek, but the Spumco touches are not so welcome for me. I enjoy them in Spumco original material, but it really messes far too much with Jellystone. If they happened less often I expect I'd like 'em more. When they want to they are able to capture the essence of older style HB animation while maintaining the usual Spumco high quality, and as a rule I enjoyed those visuals the best. Top visual, though, was pure Spumco, and ivolved Boo-Boo and Daisy in the bushes with bees. I will say no more.
If you've never watched Yogi Bear cartoons before then you should like this. If you have watched Yogi Bear before you might have the same reaction I did. Or you might not. I do think it's worth a looksee, and I'll give it another look another time.
Lupin the Third is returning to CN tonight; The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are back for a new year on Comedy Central. The TiVo will have much to watch tomorrow.
First item of note: Cartoon Network is starting their own Saturday Morning Cartoon lineup. This is significant. Currently, the Saturday Morning landscape has precisely none of the channels that carried them when I was a child. There's Fox, UPN, and ABC Family (formerly Fox Family). With the addition of Cartoon Network this makes a solid plurality of channels.
I have watched a sneak preview of one of the shows, called Zixx. Premise: Boy in junior high, who lives with his uncle, misses his missing archaeologist mother. Oddly enough, some bum on the street gives him a crystal that she'd dug up - and knows him by name. He and his friend discover a different world, a cyber-world, by passing through a portal. There's a conspiracy to take over the Universe that they uncover. And they meet Zixx, a cute teenage girl who knows the other world quite well and does her best to persuade them not to go back...
The show is produced in Canada - you can tell by the accents, despite some voice coaching. The animation for the other world bits is quite good, and reminiscent of first person shooter games. The acting is a little wooden in spots. Not Shakespeare, no indeed. This show is geared toward boys in the 8-14 range with some lesser appeal for the girls, and looks to be wholesome enough. It's not joining my lineup, but I'm way outside the target demographic and feel no loss. Second season is already airing in Canada on YTV, but the ratings will need to be good for CN to sign it up past the first season.
Another new show on Cartoon Network is in the Adult Swim lineup: Ranger Smith. Yes, the character from the old Hanna-Barbera Yogi Bear cartoons. This new edition is done by John K and Spumco. The voice work is quite good as a rule, with only minor deviations from the original HB characters. The old sound effects and music are all included and done extremely well, and they have generally done the bears quite well.
Despite those touches, though, it felt more like a Ren and Stimpy cartoon, albeit one of the lower-key ones.
The difference in animation style and the addition of usual Spumco sound effects made this cartoon a bit disconcerting for me. It's not like I go looking for Yogi Bear cartoons, but they have a particular look and feel for me. The Spumco additions, done as often as they are, jar me out of the story. The jokes are good, the story is good, the voices are good although it's strange to hear Boo-Boo sound like Ren Van Hoek, but the Spumco touches are not so welcome for me. I enjoy them in Spumco original material, but it really messes far too much with Jellystone. If they happened less often I expect I'd like 'em more. When they want to they are able to capture the essence of older style HB animation while maintaining the usual Spumco high quality, and as a rule I enjoyed those visuals the best. Top visual, though, was pure Spumco, and ivolved Boo-Boo and Daisy in the bushes with bees. I will say no more.
If you've never watched Yogi Bear cartoons before then you should like this. If you have watched Yogi Bear before you might have the same reaction I did. Or you might not. I do think it's worth a looksee, and I'll give it another look another time.
Lupin the Third is returning to CN tonight; The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are back for a new year on Comedy Central. The TiVo will have much to watch tomorrow.
