The last few Saturday morning posts have been about classic cartoons, so this week instead of discussing one specific show, I thought I would check out whatever was actually on TV this morning on a specific channel. I flipped on the tube and FOX was on, running their Saturday Morning programming block they are currently calling “4Kids TV”, so that’s what I watched from 8:30am to 11:00am.
Here’s what I saw……
8:30 - 9:00 am, Viva Piñata
Viva Piñata is a show about an island of living Piñatas, who frolic and play and work hard at stuffing enough candy into themselves to get chosen to entertain children at parties by letting the kids beat them with a stick until they spill their sugary guts. It was pretty bad all around, but then, considering it is based on a video game it’s no surprise the story was so poorly written.
It also had a lot of references to eating candy helping the creatures on the island stay healthy… which is an interesting message to be sending into the minds of small children. I felt sorta creeped out watching supposedly living things prepare themselves to be brutally murdered by kids at a birthday party, and really don’t see the appeal of this show at all.
9:00 - 10:00 am, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
TMNT was a show I watched when I was younger, and I knew they were doing a new version these days, but I’ve only seen a couple episodes. It’s much darker than the original, and to be frank, a lot less entertaining. The animation style is interesting, and certainly more fluent thanks to advances in technology, but that’s about the only up side I can see.
They seem to be much more focused on the fighting, and less on the humour and story. They did try to make a couple jokes, but they fell flat with me…especially after repeating the same joke 3 times in a row, which was just annoying.
10:00 - 10:30 am, Sonic X
Sonic X seems to take it’s cues from the last 2 shows in that it’s not only based on an older Sonic cartoon, but that original cartoon was based on a video game. I really don’t know what to say about this one….it’s Sonic the Hedgehog, running around really fast…for 30 minutes. There was a vague story involving a couple of Sonic’s friends being held captive and Sonic saving them, but it all basically amounted to going really fast to avoid security, and then it was over.
10:30 am, Dinosaur King
This one is about a group of kids trying to collect cards that transform into dinosaurs and train them to fight each other. If it sounds vaguely like Pokemon, it’s because it’s a DIRECT ripoff. Even the characters look like the characters from Pokemon for fuck sake. I’m not a fan of the whole Pokemon thing, in fact I find the entire concept extremely annoying, but at least its creators tried to be somewhat original. Ripping off a show idea is bad enough….ripping off a stupid show idea that’s been done to death already is just idiotic.
Conclusion
So the lineup consisted of a show based on a video game, a remake of an old show, a remake of an old show based on a video game, and a complete ripoff of a show that’s been ripped off too many times to count. Is it just me, or does FOX’s Saturday morning cartoon lineup have a distinct lack of originally? Oh, and I didn’t stick around to watch the next show, which was “Kirby: Right Back At Ya!”….I though one remake of a show that was based on a video game was enough for one morning…
Are there any good, original Saturday morning cartoons playing these days? If you know of one I should check out, please drop it in the comments, it would be greatly apreciated.
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