A Review of Captain Flamingo

I've stated before that I consider 2005-2009 to be one of the darkest times in television animation, next to the 1970s it was an age of cartoons that ranged from mediocre to poor. In fact, I don't think I like this era at all. Unlike most people, I believed that the quality of animated series in the 2000s decade dropped around this time. There were good cartoons during the era, but they were few and far between. Part of this comes from the fact that I did grow out of children's cartoons around this time (as well as children's entertainment in general); I think we all go through a rite of passage where we think the cartoons we watched in our childhood are way better than the ones children nowadays watch. No matter which decade you've grown up in, we all have this notion. Now I'm not going to put the blame on those specific 4 years for the quality of these cartoons, it just so happens that they came out during this time frame to justify the late 2000s as being a "dark period". Case and point Captain Flamingo.

I've also mentioned how they're cartoons that parody the superhero genre by taking it in a more
comedic direction. But there is also this sub-genre in which the heroes are children. Throughout the 2000s, there have been plenty of cartoons that have young characters that fight crime using special powers or gadgets. This trend was popular because of 'The Powerpuff Girls'; while not the first show to use this concept, the original series was such a hit that many animation companies wanted a piece of the super-powered pie of righteousness. Created by Suzanne Bolch and John May, Captain Flamingo is one of these young superhero cartoons that took the concept in a much different direction than you would think. The inception for this idea first appeared in an episode of May's previous show 'Deke Wilson's Mini Mysteries', in which a character wanted to be a bird-themed superhero of the same name. I remember watching this show when I had nothing better to do. It was on towards what I consider to be the end of my childhood, and it made up my decision to give up on the super kid genre. Not many people seem to remember this show; until recently there was not much about it online. But unlike 'Stickin' Around', this was an obscure cartoon I don't have the fondest memories of. It's quite a pity considering Suzanne and John did work on 'Stickin' Around', but I digress. But was Captain Flamingo the unsung hero animation needed at the time, or was it the 'Teen Titans Go!' of its day. Let's all put our birdbrains together and find out how.

The show is about a young boy called Milo Powell, who one day is tired of how much more privileged older people are than children, decides to become a superhero much like his favourite hero Quantum Vigilante. Albeit a bird-themed one, so he takes on the alter ego Captain Flamingo. But what makes Captain Flamingo different from other kid heroes is that he doesn't fight crime or save the town from monsters, instead, he fights in the name of child justice. So with his trusty bag of novelty items and the help of his sidekick Lizbeth, they go on missions to help those children in need. Each episode would start with Milo facing a certain predicament or having to achieve a personal goal. But then he gets called upon to carry out a mission. You know how there are superheroes that have their call of action; Batman has the bat signal, Spiderman has his spidey senses, whenever a kid would be in trouble they would shout "Uh-Oh Flamingo!" He and Lizbeth try to fix the kid's problem the best they can, but the captain ends up making things worse. The Captain then counts on his "Bird Brain" to think of a solution, when really its Lizbeth giving a suggestion. He still assumes that it's his own instinct; but he often misinterprets Lizbeth's advice, it doesn't matter as the captain inadvertently fixes the issue. Milo's actions in aiding the person lead to an outcome for his personal goals. In other words 'Captain Flamingo' has a main protagonist who defends the rights for kids everywhere, it tries to depict the problems children go through as high stake adventures, and teens as the antagonists. Well, I think there's a cartoon that does that concept a lot better. As you can tell; the show is very formulaic, but it barely does anything to mix up the formula or make each episode interesting enough to come back to. In each episode; the captain would come across a kid from his neighbourhood with a problem (big or small). In this case, it's not so much children's predicaments that are exaggerated as large, grandiose adventures, it's that each kid's problem gets out of control and comedically out of proportion. It kind of reminds me of the cartoon 'Hong Kong Phooey', in that it's always the sidekick who comes up with a way to save the day, yet the main hero always takes the credit. Normally in these types of shows, they try to reduce something serious to be silly or add impact to even the most average and mundane of activities. The aim of this show is to solve a series of unfortunate mishaps; however, it makes the dilemmas too simplistic to where it can only thrill an audience that's the same age as Milo. It also tries to leave you in suspense, but once you become accustomed to the formula, the novelty can wear thin for some people. It's not that the stories/scenarios aren't or can't be interesting, it's just they're not as interesting as they could be.

The show also tries to mix action with comedy, again there's another cartoon that does that much better. You might notice that the show tries to throw in any joke it can at any given moment. I know 'Mucha Lucha' has a similar style and tone of humour, but the jokes in that show I can actually remember and they managed to make me laugh. Whether they're verbal or visual, the jokes aren't that funny and even as a teenager I heard them all before. I assume younger viewers may find the gags amusing; there might be a joke that might lead them to ask their parents to fully get it, but they are mostly low-hanging fruit on the writer's part. The jokes can also be very lowbrow, but not done in a way that's clever or worth a smirk. When it comes to the action, it's mostly slapstick based. Much of it comes from the captain trying to fix the problem, resulting in a lot of havoc to break out. These gags involve the Captain and the other characters having to go through these shenanigans, as well as the effect it has on the people around him. Even so, the physical humour doesn't have enough of an impact; it would have worked if the set-up was made more gripping to give the more humorous gag a stronger result. I've stated this before in my review of 'Teen Titans Go!' but an action-comedy still needs to capture the weight and feel of its genre, that way the punch lines have more of a punch. There are also moments in which the captain fantasizes the predicament or the antagonist as much more threatening. But the fantasy also finds its way into the real world, they're bizarre occurrences that appear as either a random gag or a plot point. If the show wanted to be internally consistent, the fantasies should either be a figment of the main character's imagination or be a part of its world; you can't have it both ways. I know in cartoons like this they like to blur the line between what is real and what is not, but this show jumps from one side to another. I can accept a show taking a plot in an 'out there' direction, so long as it runs with the potential. These surreal occurrences feel like a deus ex machina or they can be pulled out from nowhere. Once again there's another cartoon that does a better job of showing things through the imagination of a child. How is it that someone that isn't interested in superheroes, understands how to parody the genre?

The animation for this series was done at Atomic Cartoons, a Canadian company who were one of the earliest pioneers in Adobe Animate (or Flash as it was once called) during the 2000s. And like a lot of Canadian cartoons, the visuals here haven't aged very well. The whole look of the show contains very generic designs that have been seen in plenty of other cartoons. Nothing about the show looks or feels unique or inspired, neither the designs on the characters or the backgrounds leave much to the imagination. I guess it's trying to go for a retro style, but the muted colour scheme makes it plain looking. I could see where it's going with the pulp styled title cards though. It doesn't help the character's movements are pretty minimal and automated; it follows the typical criteria of any Flash cartoon from that era, which makes it look even cheaper. Contrary to what you may think, I'm not opposed to Flash animation. I'm well aware people have done impressive things with the animation software, and that it has heavily evolved since then. The show seems to have the humour as the main driving force rather than the visuals, but as a superhero show, the action should be an important tool. Even if the show is primarily a comedy, the action scenes need to feel dynamic enough (at least in this day and age). When it tries to display all the slapstick or mishaps, it doesn't do anything to make it stand out from its contemporaries. I mean the movements are passable the animators did a decent job, not that it's anything remarkable. Atomic Cartoons had the potential to make interesting looking shows, but they have been affiliated with mediocre flash animation, and even now they've yet to push their own boundaries. On that note, this was also a co-production in the Philippines, so it predates 'The NutShack' by a year.

Characters and heroes in comic books are universally recognised, to the point where many see them as the modern-day myths. So how do the characters in this show fare? Let's start with our hero, Milo. He tries his best to prove himself as a hero, while also having to go through his own hardships. He also has to balance his responsibilities at home and duty to help kids in need. There's a quixotism to how he sees life as a comic book adventure, with a utility bag of his father's novelty items, he takes these predicaments on with a wing and a prayer (so to speak). Even with these items at his disposal, he doesn't get it right the first time. I suppose he's meant to be a protagonist the younger viewers can relate and look up to. But he can get so clueless to what's going on, and that habit of him misinterpreting things with his own "strategies" can get old pretty quick. But you can't argue with results. I consider Tabitha St. Germain an underrated voice actress, but the spunky little boy voice she gives him becomes a little too much. He sounds like a prepubescent Ryan Reynolds. I can't help but to imagine what Milo will be like when he's older; will he grow out of the superhero persona, or will he continue to live in his own delusions. I mean we all used to imagine ourselves as heroes, so you cannot fault him for that. I know I used to have fantasies at that age, but I grew out of it just ask my imaginary sister Helena. Lizbeth is the captain's sidekick and neighbour from across the street; she also has a crush on him even if he's unaware of her flirting. She's actually the more levelheaded one, so she's one of the more tolerable characters to me. Even though she has to put up with the captain ignoring her. Like Spot from 'Hong Kong Phooey' Lizbeth is the one who comes up with the ideas, yet she rarely (if ever) gets the appreciation she deserves for helping to solve the conflict.

Many of the child citizens the captain has to help have certain traits that the writers like to exploit. There's Max who's the youngest with a speech impediment, Owen Only who has a really overprotective mother, Avi who is cursed to cause an accidental chain of mounting disasters, Rutger the boy who puts himself in bad situations he can't get himself out of. Tabitha is an overachieving honour student who gets really stressed whenever things don't turn out for her, Otto is the strange foreign child who has an interest in the science of machinery and rocks (as well as picking his nose). The rest are more or less similar to one another, like having vague nationalities. Considering this is a superhero comedy, you'd think it would have a vast rogue gallery. But there aren't a lot of recurring villains. There's Warrior Monkey, the captain's arch-nemesis who is a regular monkey who Milo imagines as an anthropomorphic one in samurai armour. I've kept making comparisons to other cartoons; but some of you might think he's a copy of 'Mojo Jojo', now just because the characters are the same species that doesn't mean they're alike. But when the show is about a young superhero and the main villain is a primate, it's hard not to see the parallels. He just comes off as a wild animal that harms kids and causes mischief. Wendall, Milo's cousin brags about being an eighth of an inch taller than him. Whenever he makes an appearance, he and Milo are shown competing with each other. There's also Megan, who's a bossy teenage babysitter; she doesn't come off as that intimidating, as she ends up joining the kid's side in the end. Milo's parents have significant roles; with the mother who's caught up with errands and Milo's toddler brother Thor, she can also be quite firm with Milo. The father owns the joke shop where Milo gets his items from, he has a monotone voice and average mannerisms in contrast to his son's innocent roleplaying. Though Milo might have inherited his heroism from one of his parents. This show also has a narrator, and he does that thing in which he addresses the characters. I had a super dramatic announcer once I wonder where he went? The missions revolve around these recurring characters, and all of them are not badly written, but they're only memorable by their traits and the predicaments they get into. I mean would you want to spend the day helping them?

Bottom line, Captain Flamingo isn't much of a super show. The stories use the same formula without doing anything unique to the kid hero concept, the animation leaves a lot to be desired, the humour is by the numbers and the characters are one-note. Whatever it tries to do has been done better in other shows, it's like it tries to take aspects from such similar shows and put them together in order to make the "ultimate kid show". But it wasn't put in the right hands. Much of it is not as compelling or as funny as it could be, the main joke is that it makes mishaps out of simple dilemmas. Do I think this show is as bad as 'Teen Titans Go!' No not by a long shot. I wouldn't even say this killed the 'kid hero' trend; I believe that 'Fanboy and ChumChum' has that distinction. My recommendation for it is to see how it compares to other 'kid hero' cartoons, even though this trend may have been overhyped. Don't expect it to play the action genre straight, or parody the conventions, that is if you're big. If you're little; you might like this for the slapstick humour and characters. If you were a fan of this as a child, then more power to you. But if you were one of those teens who looked down on children for liking it, it's not like you were any better at that age. I'm sure this little flamingo tried to join among the likes of other comedic superheroes, but the only merit I can give him is a 3/5.

For the record, I'm not blaming this show for the state of cartoons during this era, not at all. Maybe it's not that I was too old to be watching these shows, maybe it's because my tastes and understanding of topics were developing, so this show didn't appeal to me. And if you were a child during this era, you may have grown out of shows like this, or you may have not. I should keep in mind that not every show from my childhood is as good as I remember it to be, I mean when was the last time you've even watched The Powerpuff Girls? But this is one hero that I'm too big to call for his help. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to......

*heavy breathing* I'm terribly sorry I'm late, *heavy breathing* I was stuck in traffic.
Well, the review is over now announcer guy, besides I haven't needed you for the past 6 years.
Then I guess you don't need my assistance anymore, good day.
Wait, Wait, don't take it the wrong way. It's just; when was the last time I did a review in this fashion?
You never even do one, all you ever touched upon was the more funny superhero shows, not the serious ones. I wasn't even used when you reviewed 'Teen Titans Go!
Those are really out of my comfort zone.
Don't you think it's your responsibility to review anything, regardless if you like it or not?
It's not like this blog is my lively hood.
Look mister; whether you review more superhero shows, or I'm out of here.
Fine go. Who needs you anyway? I don't, and I don't need this cartoon either! Goodbye.
*slams door* I knew I should have worked with that Mr Enter guy.

Man, I might have been too harsh on him.