Saturday, August 02, 2003
MORE CREEPY CARTOON TALK: Started the day by catching My Life as a Teenage Robot , a repeat of last night's debut. Yes, I'm on cartoons waaaaay outside of my target demographic again. On top of that, it's one of those Nicktoon things, and posting this review just a few lines up from a South Park callback. Smell the transmission for me, because I think I shifted gears too fast.
The title's also nine-tenths of the setup. Jenny is one of those world-saving androids that's somehow developed the mind of a teenager, and as a result just wants to live instead of that dull death-defying-adventure stuff. After a couple of neighbor kids accidentally discover the secret of her existence, they share amazing adventures and sometimes just hang out, trying to avoid the wrath of Jenny's creator, Mrs. Wakeman. Simple setup, no steep learning curve, but how does it PLAY?
I always approach a new Nicktoon with extreme caution, since the ones that aren't in the wall-to-wall entertainment/product tie-in mode tend to be about junior high kids learning valuable life lessons in stories that run slow as molasses, it's a 50/50 prospect as far as which type you'll be getting. Thankfully, Teenage Robot is the baby of Rob Renzetti, who wrote and directed for Dexter's Laboratory and the Powerpuff Girls, and had a hand in Samurai Jack and some of the Family Guy episodes. Nowhere is the Cartoon Network pedigree more apparent than in the second episode, where Jenny's body is taken over by hyperintelligent lab mice that look like the type of vermin you'd find in a silent movie cartoon and whose leader speaks with a thick Eastern European accent. Since Nickelodeon probably won't be allowing out-and-out violence, at least against organic lifeforms, you should adjust your expectations accordingly.
Producer Fred Seibert also helms The Fairly Oddparents and Chalkzone, so there's a solid Nick pedigree behind this series.
Teenage Robot is a bit talkier than the shows on that other cartoon channel (most Nicktoons tend to be), but works pretty well in terms of the Nicktoon lineup. Kids'll dig it, and grownups probably won't be driven to distraction by it, which is above average for what passes for family entertainment these days.
The title's also nine-tenths of the setup. Jenny is one of those world-saving androids that's somehow developed the mind of a teenager, and as a result just wants to live instead of that dull death-defying-adventure stuff. After a couple of neighbor kids accidentally discover the secret of her existence, they share amazing adventures and sometimes just hang out, trying to avoid the wrath of Jenny's creator, Mrs. Wakeman. Simple setup, no steep learning curve, but how does it PLAY?
I always approach a new Nicktoon with extreme caution, since the ones that aren't in the wall-to-wall entertainment/product tie-in mode tend to be about junior high kids learning valuable life lessons in stories that run slow as molasses, it's a 50/50 prospect as far as which type you'll be getting. Thankfully, Teenage Robot is the baby of Rob Renzetti, who wrote and directed for Dexter's Laboratory and the Powerpuff Girls, and had a hand in Samurai Jack and some of the Family Guy episodes. Nowhere is the Cartoon Network pedigree more apparent than in the second episode, where Jenny's body is taken over by hyperintelligent lab mice that look like the type of vermin you'd find in a silent movie cartoon and whose leader speaks with a thick Eastern European accent. Since Nickelodeon probably won't be allowing out-and-out violence, at least against organic lifeforms, you should adjust your expectations accordingly.
Producer Fred Seibert also helms The Fairly Oddparents and Chalkzone, so there's a solid Nick pedigree behind this series.
Teenage Robot is a bit talkier than the shows on that other cartoon channel (most Nicktoons tend to be), but works pretty well in terms of the Nicktoon lineup. Kids'll dig it, and grownups probably won't be driven to distraction by it, which is above average for what passes for family entertainment these days.
|| Eric 11:57 AM#
