Nursery Rhyme Month

Hello there, I know it's been a while since I've anything on this blog but that's because I've been busy with personal products and I've been contemplating life lately. I need something to get me in a lighter mood as well as remember the good old days, what to do, what to do? Well it's a new month so why don't I make it special, but should I do more importantly? I Know let's make this Nursery Rhyme Month!

 Throughout the course of April, I'll be writing posts based on the first poems we ever heard from top ten lists to reviews of how Nursery Rhymes have been adapted into other medias and my first ever editorial. Now you're probably thinking, why would I make posts about kid's stuff? Well no matter how old I and everyone else get, Nursery Rhymes like all songs will always be there. Nursery Rhymes were a huge part of my childhood so I want to represent what they mean to me and everyone else. So stay in touch as I cover these childhood melodies as well as what shaped my perspective on life. See you Later.

A Look Back on Jonas Odell

I love music videos, to me they feel like one of the highest artform in film. There are as many styles of them as they're styles of music. And would you believe it has been a decade since I have been exposed to theses combination of audio and visual, now granted I remember my mother used to watch these and the "Clint Eastwood" video from the Gorillaz was the first one I was ever into but still. The music videos of the last decade are what showed songs in a new light for me and growing up I thought they were imaginative, clever and so full of originality much like movies and tv shows were. One particular artist whose work is everything good about the music videos of that time is Jonas Odell.

Jonas Odell has a strong reputation for his unique techniques at blending live action with animation. He shows that "music video" is infact an illustrative artform, by using computer effects to their full advantage Odell would bring certain designs as well as the song he works with to life. To anyone who wants to create "music videos" Odell is a cultural influence, someone with a distinct style you could recognize. So to show my appreciation I decided to look at the videos I  feel present Odell as an artist.

When Cartoon Network produced a series of music videos based on their shows, Odell directed this wonderful music video "My Best Friend Plank". Based on the show Ed Edd n Eddy, Odell captures everything that made the show so cherished and so heart filled. With it's retro colours, filters and superb scenes, Odell gives so much personality to a piece of wood much like Antonucci did. 

 However he brought himself to the mainstream with the video for artist Goldfrapp's Strict Machine. Though I'm not a fan of Goldfrapp, I can't deny how well Odell has utilized his directing skills; this video proves as a good example of how to introduce your abilities to the public. The use of effects and imagery is done perfectly setting the tone for more creative videos to come from Odell.

If I had to pick one music video that defines Odell's career it would be his music video for Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out". To me everything about this video captures what made indie music video so creative and original, there's so much visual wonders in this video that make the song even more iconic. Admit whenever you think of this song or the music of 2004 this is the first thing that pops into your head. There's so much of Odell's trademark use of combining live action with designs, the animation literally never misses a beat while also having a Terry Gilliam feel. In fact it makes you wonder what it would've been like if Gilliam stayed producing animation instead of moving to motion picture. Still this video is still as impressive and innovative as it was back then.

Another Odell music video I feel captures his unique style is his video for "Bang Bang" by The Audio Bullys. Going for a more modern look this video matches the song perfectly, with it's simple yet bright colour scheme and amazing effects this video is one for every music lover to admire.

Going for a more mature area of style, Odell's video for Feeder's "Feeling a Moment" proves to be even more impressive. I for one consider this to be one of the best songs of 2005 and it's this video that solidifies my opinion. With top notch cinematography and expressive effects this video stays nostalgic as well as timeless. 

His music video for cult artist Ida Maria's "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" goes for a graphic and fundamental vibe. You can sense a Warhol/ Lichtenstein influence here.

Returning to work with Franz Ferdiand, Odell once again creates a creative video much like he did 10 years ago. This shows Odell's ability to use retro imagery and designs and depict through well edited visuals.

But aside from music videos, Odell has also brought his techniques to short films such as Lies. A series of stories from certain people presented in 3 different styles. It's worth a look if you're fan of mixed animation.

Even if you're not a fan of the bands/artists Jonas Odell has worked with, it's hard to deny his unique take on the combination of audio and visuals. He has the ability to adapt an illustrative look to each film he has made, which is high priority for me to find in music videos (as well as film in general) If you're as interested in his resume as much as I am, than may I recommend you check out his Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/jonasodell) and come to your own conclusion. Looking back on his works makes me wonder what he'll make for yet to come but for now may I ask, what music music videos did you grow up watching? and I'll see you next time.

A Bash on The Littlest Pet Shop Cartoon (1995)

Hello there, now normally on my blog I never tend to rant on anything because I want to have a positive outlook on life, but whenever I see crap like "Jungle Junction" or "Bobinogs" I just have to address why they should be avoided at all costs. Now I have memories of watching badly written, badly animated tv shows as a kid, however, I'm forever grateful I never saw the utter embarrassment that is "The Littlest Pet Shop". Now how could I hate such an innocent kid's cartoon, I have a million reasons so there, but before we could get into detail to why it's a such a mess lets go over a bit of history.

During the 80s and early 90s, toy companies thought it was a good idea to adapt their toys to animated tv shows, most of these shows were more like 30 minute adverts than stories and while shows like "My Little Pony" and "Transformers" were a success there were some that were forgotten (for good reasons) like Rubix the Amazing Cube and Pacman. I never really cared for these shows nor did I ever buy most of the toys, so how is the show I'm about to talk about gonna change my mind? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Like many of those show The Littlest Pet Shop started as off as a toy line in the 1990s, these were basically plastic miniature versions of pets you could adopt from a shop (but without the poop). Then 5 years later Sunbow Entertainment (the company that would later produce the much superior cartoon The Cramp Twins) thought it was a "good idea" to give these toys their own animated tv show; the result was this festering sell out I show before you. But just how bad this show is, let's find out.


The series is about a pet shop owned by Elwood P Harvey, and it's really small animals, thus the name "littlest pet shop". However, the pets have their own "personality" and each episode would revolve around them and their "quote on quote" adventures. Now, most shows that have "meh" premises aren't as bad as you think but here it's far worse than you can ever imagine. Not that we expect high quality writing from a show that has a mediocre story arc but this has to be the worst writing I've seen in a show to date. Most of it consists of bad jokes and poorly done slapstick, nothing seems consistent or creative in any way shape or form. It's like the writers didn't care so they pasted together basic ideas and add random slapstick for filler, because they knew only kids would watch it and as long as they're ignorant they had the excuse to put as little effort into each episode. I mean the humour is just a poor attempt at something that gets really annoying. For example in the episode "Encino Mammoth" there's a scene with 2 naked people in the jungle.......and it's not even developed from a comedic standpoint, it's because they had their home and possessions destroyed by a tiny mammoth. Did the writers really think they were writing good comedy.....I mean......WTF.

I don't know anyone who finds this funny, it's simply being silly for the sake of being silly. Aside from bad jokes, I can't find anything that makes these stories the least bit interesting. Every episode has the character in a situation whether in the pet shop or if they are adopted by a one-off character, the rest of the plot tries so hard to like a looney tune cartoon it comes off as stupid and over the top. The plots aren't even that interesting because all there is just lame slapstick combined with pretentious storylines.

If you think the poor jokes and slapstick was the worst part of the show than you haven't seen the animation, which is both choppy and cheap looking. Well, the original "My Little Pony" and "The Garbage Pail Kids cartoon" had bad animation so I'm probably just nitpicking. But my god just look at it! this makes Scooby Doo look like Sylvain Chomet by comparison. The character designs are so odd and uninspired it makes me feel awkward inside, it doesn't help that the movements either looks rushed or stiff most of the time. Oh come on! is this the best 90s animation they could do, yes people this was made in the 90s. I could forgive them for the fact that it didn't have a high budget, but seriously before this show came out there was Ren and Stimpy, Tom and Jerry Kids and Animaniacs. The animation on those 3 shows looked new and zany at their time but this, the animation style was stale before it was even conceived. I mean just look at this image.

HOLY SMOKES! WHAT IS WITH THAT CLOSEUP! could you honestly say with a straight face that this is well animated! Sweet Christ All Mighty!!! I mean I don't have a problem with wide angle shots but with the way it's animated, Who Would Find that Particular image Funny? If you don't believe how un-appealing the animation is, just.....just look at that image and tell me if that doesn't look awkward!!!
Naughty Naughty Pets isn't an excellent show but it's animation looked more original and colourful, even if you don't like it at least that had a better art style, unlike this garbage.

As much as I don't really want to talk about this show any longer, I'm afraid I have to talk about the characters. The "so-called glue that keeps this show together" but really they're what make this show even less bearable......... First, there's the first character I mentioned Elwood P Harvey, the owner of the shop who makes Johnny Test's dad a more fully dimensional character, Mumsy Elwood's British mum an explorer who helps bring in the tiny animals. Because I don't give a crap about the human characters, let's move to the tiny animal characters, first there's Stu, the dog main character who encourages his friends to go on adventures he also has a big appetite, there's nothing much to talk about him so next! Chloe the intelligent cat who seems like she's a fan of the arts and literature so that pretty much makes her the only descent character with any common sense (but that's not saying much) Viv, a bunny who has a passion for music and is not funny. Chet a muscle-bound horse who's like Buck from "Disney's Home on the Range" (minus any once of charm) Squeaks, a hyperactive monkey who doesn't speak, I also don't care about so moving...There's also the side characters like Delilah, Sarge, Harriet and the rest who I don't give a crap about because they're so bland.

So now ladies and gentlemen it's time I shared with you the episodes I was brave enough to sit through, so you don't have to watch them yourself.

The first episode I watched was "Chet the Dream Horse" Chet is trying to get away from his crazy obsessed pony stalker Sabrina, just like I do with this show. I know it was intentional but Sabrina is just plain unlikeable and not well designed, she makes the G1 My Little Pony character look like G4 by comparison (where's Minerva Mink when you need her) But all comparison aside a little girl named Merline and adopts Chet for her "stable" which Chet in turn thinks is a real one, but little
does he know the horrors that await him!

No no, not that! But he does suffer something much more terrifying, as he is tortured by the show's targeted audience! So after being tortured by the Barbie obsessed demons Chet goes ape and nearly wrecks the house which results in what Chet should have done in the first place by exchanging himself for Sabrina. This episode was not funny and unbearable, to say the least.


Another bad episode I watched was "Bunny Beat" ok this is the last episode because I'm gonna talk about because I don't know how much I could take! Viv is singing horribly to her favourite rock song when an old rock singer Willy Van Aldan comes in. The singer turns out to be Viv's idol so she plays a song for him on the piano, Willy is impressed so he plays it on an ad (with a bad actress btw) even so that he calls Viv over to write more songs. It's not long till Willy's manager comes to the picture and is also impressed by Viv's music and WOULD YOU STOP SHOWING THAT IMAGE PLEASE!

Oh and this the episode where you see that face so don't bother trying to find it, IT'S STILL NOT FUNNY!

Anyway, he's so impressed by Viv's music that he hires her to be play on tour with Willy. So yeah it's one of those "character becomes famous" plots but don't worry folks, this one has blatant pop culture references and gags that show that the writers are trying too hard to be funny!  references that the younger audiences won't get like ripping off Robert Palmer or 2 boys that sound like Beavis and Butthead. With all that said there was a scene that showed a map with carrots growing, now you would think that would represent Viv's popularity, but actually, there were giant carrots literally growing out of nowhere. Okay, I'll give them credit for trying to attempt an unexpected joke, but it's not enough to save this episode.
 Also they actually had the nerve to add a fake censor bleep....okay writers listen, if you think you can appeal to an older audience than you're mistaken because your show isn't good enough to appeal to an older audience, and it's obvious you're desperate to put in those types of jokes without any thought or effort. In other words you're taking what is adult humour and not using properly at all.

All those gags aside it appears Viv has over-shadowed Willy as she becomes a world-wide musical sensation, well the 90s had stranger pop stars just look at Vanilla Ice. This frustrates Willy as tries to destroy Viv in an act of jealousy resulting in his contest literally becoming a smash hit while also leaving his reputation as a star in the dust.

 Huahahahaha ruining people's careers is funny 

There is it so hard to make a Beavis and Butthead reference 

So Viv gets back to the shop and is greeted to the spirit of doing chores, oh thank the lord we're done because I felt dumber watching these episodes.

Bottom line The Littlest Pet Shop is an awful cartoon that has "sellout" written all over it!

The animation is subpar, the jokes are just terrible, the writing is corny and obnoxious and the characters are just copy-pasted and lacklustre. I never saw this as a kid and I'm glad I didn't because I hate this show in every way. If you seriously like this then I guess I have nothing against you but please, please tell me in great detail why you like it. If you haven't seen it then don't, even if you like crap like "Pound Puppies The Movie" I wouldn't recommend this to you.

I can kind of see where it could have been a hilarious series, but as it stands it's a 30 min toy advert made by hacks. The fact that the people behind this had high hopes for this really blows my mind, granted this looks like it had the budget of a turkey sandwich but still. As far as shows based on toy lines go this is really the worst, I couldn't find anything redeemable about this show and was just felt underwhelmed by how corny it was. One thing is I promised myself is that I would never watch this ever again, the only reason I saw these episodes again was for research purposes and I found it even less entertaining than before. But despite this being a failure, Hasbro decided to create a new animated tv show based on this toy line, why? I would much prefer My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic over this. Final score: 1/5 I'm gonna wrap this up before I get a headache pass off this off and buy your kid a goldfish, I bet they would find more enjoyment from that than this litter box of wasted paper.

 SWEET JESUS! Let it haunt your nightmares!

A Review of Pet Squad

 "The last time we saw the reviewer he gave a positive review on an animated show that surprised him in quite a pleasant way. But wait! it seems our hero has come in contact with another animated show he overlooked! Will he find this particular show to be just as entertaining? or will he regret his decision from encountering something he knew was bad in the first place?"

We get it! now can you let me narrate please!

"Sorry"

 Superheroes seem to very popular, over the years these bold heroic titans have become staples of not

only justice but to the comic industry. But as long as superheroes have existed there have always been superhero parodies; since Mighty Mouse many cartoonist and comedians have taken this serious concept and make fun of it. The idea of more cartoony superheroes is very interesting, many cartoons and sketch shows use this formula, representing the action genre while also satirizing it just to make us laugh. As someone who is personally not a fan of superheroes, I turn a blind eye for this concept because to be honest they are some good superhero parodies that take advantage of the fact they're comedies. But then they are some that are not funny and the show I'm talking about falls into that category unfortunately, and that is Pet Squad.


As a fan of the animation genre I believe that cartoons were much funnier in the old days, however since the course of the new decade I've noticed quite a few good cartoons that have lots of effort put into them and are well received among audiences alike. Sadly Pet Squad is not one of those newer animated shows I've been invested in, and after looking at it I could see why. Now when this show came out in 2011, I avoided it for the same reasons other people my age did. But then I thought was not seeing the signal in the sky, or did I make the right choice for the sake of the world, well To the Blog!

The premise can pretty much be explained in the theme song, a scientist's pets a dog named Dodge, a cat named Sheeba and a guinea pig named Bingo are being chased by a crazy goose when suddenly they end up in the professor's machine that gives the animals (as well as every animal in P Town) super powers. So the 3 pets become Pet Squad and its to them to save P Town and the world from the clutches of the goose who has become a super villain called Mother Goose. Now a premise this crazy would normally have a good execution but in this case, the stories of Pet Squad really fall flat and loses all its powers.

Now think of a cartoon like TUFF Puppy, Bolt and Underdog, remove all originality and charm and this is what you get. For a show where anthropomorphic and humans exist with each other through a lab accident, the plots are very generic and not very interesting. To me it follows the superhero formula in a basic way without any creativity or spontaneity whats so ever. They go like this, the pets live mild mannered day with their scientist owner, they turn into their superhero egos, they go on their mission, fight the villain and go back to their regular pet lives. But the unfortunate part with Pet Squad as a whole is that it doesn't seem to make the plot interesting by adding anything new or unique. Well even if there is an attempt at that I feel there's a lot of missed opportunity, I feel like there were some interesting ideas but they were not executed well.

However the kryptonite of Pet Squad's writing is the lack of humor. You think for a show like this, at least they would have made an effort in the humor, but sadly they didn't. It seems this show is missing the all important element that makes a superhero parody work and that's it's humor, sure there's an attempt but it's not funny to the older audience. The reason why Sheep in the big City works is because the humor was well executed and it appealed to both children and adults, Pet Squad on the other hand feels often forced and extremely mediocre, I'm serious I watched a few episodes and not once did I laugh, chuckle or smirked. While I wouldn't say the writing and humor is awful I just think it could have been funnier.

Another thing in Pet Squad that doesn't appeal to me the least is the animation. Now I know that not

all animation has to be Warner Bros quality, and that every animator has their own style. In fact many animated shows like Beavis and Butthead, Regular Show, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Salad Fingers and South Park relay more on humor more than visuals and it works because it translates it to the crude design. However because Pet Squad doesn't have that distinction than the animation becomes a big issue. As it stands the animation hits like a middle ground to me, it feels like it want's to be cartoony but the designs goes for a crude style that would again only work if the comedy was more mature. The best way to describe it is imagine you made a kid a coffee cake for his birthday, but the cake didn't have enough flavour so it wouldn't please everyone. I'm not saying that the designs are bad but on it's own I can't seem to get into it. The animation may not be super but at least it's not 12 Oz mouse.

But a cartoon isn't a cartoon without the characters, so shall we. As you know Pet Squad consist of 3 members and their robot, Dodge is the stereotypical beagle leader of the group with the same heroic mannerisms that we've all seen, Sheeba the feline-female (or fefe) member who obsesses for cat stuff and "shiny stuff" and she sounds like Rainbow Dash's generic cousin, Bingo the Guinea Pig who's the fat one. Their character traits remind me of another forgotten cartoon series what was it, oh yeah "Patrol 03" anyone remember that? Only difference is Pet Squad has a robot assistant name Pepe who is just being lighthearted and whimsical for the sake of lighthearted whimsey. There's Professor Eureka who's a living cloning experiment of every cartoon scientist ever.

The main villain Mother Goose is a psycho gone even more psycho who...........

 OF COURSE!

 wants to take over P Town, it's enough that I'm not invested in her schemes but her voice is off-putting to me. It's like they wanted to give her an American accent but with how lackluster the script is it sounds pretty pretentious to me, even I could do a better voice. While I wish her henchducks were funny enough, but like everything else they weren't. There are other characters like the Mayor, the Chief and the supporting villains but they're just stereotypes that you see in any other cartoon.

"So reviewer what is your opinion on this work of animation"

Well sir, all I can say is that while Pet Squad may not be the worst cartoon I've ever seen I still don't think it's that good. Even if there are still talented people working in the animation industry; Pet Squad proves otherwise. For a show with surreal and scientific elements Pet Squad lacks any creative stories, humor, characters and animation. I could understand the direction they were going for but there's nothing that catches me off guard or makes me turn a blind eye, well maybe it was trying to do so but the final project wasn't executed well that's all. If you're looking for an animated kid's show that's also appealing to adults, this is not the one, but still watch Sheep in the Big City it has better comedy and more original animation. Or if you're looking for a recent cartoon series with animal heroes, check out TUFF Puppy. That aside I give Pet Squad a 2/5.

"Well thank you young reviewer, once again you've cooked us a delicious sandwich of thought provoking speech and opinions"

I'm honored, I guess

"Of course you are, "toon" in next time when our reviewer takes on the task of looking at the most cheesiest, cheapest, stupidest, most horrifying thing he has ever seen in his entire life!"

Wait! What!