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Cartoon Country: “Weaponomics” and “Club Life”

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On today’s Cartoon Country, we’ll be giving our thoughts on the latest (as of this writing) 2 installments of the DC Super Hero Girls web series, “Weaponomics” and “Club Life” (a.k.a. “Clubbing”). We’ve just finished shoveling a ton o’ snow that got dumped on out doorstep over the weekend (thanks, Winter Storm Jonas!) so these will be brief and to-the-point.

First, Wonder Woman tries to make the grade in weapons’ class (with Cheetah once again rearing her jerky head) in “Weaponomics”.

 

And now, for the assorted ramblings:

  • So, are the teachers at this school all blind? This is the second time that Cheetah has screwed with Wondy in plain sight, and no one has noticed?
  • Why didn’t Wonder Woman just bind Cheetah with her lasso so she’d confess? It’s not like Wondy could get into more trouble; she was already in detention. Seems like a very easily solvable problem.
  • So in this universe, Cheetah and Catwoman are buds. Heh. I’m not really a Catwoman fan, but she has a decent design here. Understated, but effective in its’ simplicity. Much better than that thing she walked around in on Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe.
  • I really hope that Cheetah will eventually receive the comeuppance that she’s so begging for. This “Cheetah messes with Wonder Woman and receives no punishment for it” routine is starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

 

-Next up, Principal Waller informs Poison Ivy that she must get some extracurricular credit by joining one of those fancy-shmancy school clubs that I’ve seen so many times in fiction but never in real life.

 

And once again, the ramblings:

  • The daisy with a face was cute. I like how ‘un-grounded’ this series is.
  • I’ve never been a big Poison Ivy fan, but she has a great design in this series, and I can sympathize with her ‘plight’ here, having never been much of a joiner myself. To quote Groucho Marx: “I’d never join a club that would have me as a member.”
  • The Detective Club mentions a landed Kryptonian spacecraft and are looking for its’ ‘female occupant’. We all know who that is. Hopefully this means we’ll FINALLY be seeing Kara/Supergirl on the show.
  • Speaking of, Barbara Gordon is still masquerading as Babs the IT Gal. I know they’re going to address her finally donning her cape and becoming Batgirl at some point, I just wish they’d hurry up and do it already! I wonder why Babs doesn’t want to be a hero? Does she not think she’s worthy because she doesn’t have any super powers? Katana, Catwoman and Harley Quinn don’t have any powers either, and they’re students (unless we’re going by Quackerjack from Darkwing Duck‘s rules and counting wackiness as a super power).
  • I like how the alien (or mythical/otherwrldly, in Wonder Woman’s case) students have their own United Planets Club; being an outer space/outer dimension nerd, I thought that was a nice touch.
  • This is Starfire’s 3rd appearance on the show, but her first speaking appearance. Like Beast Boy, Star has her Teen Titans: TAS voice actor, Hynden Walch.
  • Miss Martian is freakin’ adorable.
  • Rocking out with the band is THE most interesting thing I’ve seen Katana do so far.
  • I really like Beast Boy’s costume here. Where can I get that paw print shirt?
  • For once we see Cheetah in a short not being a jerk to Wonder Woman.
  • I have to say, though the series’ focus is clearly on the girls (it’s in the title, fer cryin’ out loud!), I do like how the boys are portrayed here. When they do show up, they’re just regular characters, not a bunch of FRIs (Forced Romantic Interests). If we must have boy characters in a girl-centric franchise, I’d rather them be portrayed this way instead of just being obligatory boyfriends for the girls.
  • Another character’s design that we like is that of Frost (she’s not called “Killer” Frost here for obvious reasons). It’s a stark contrast to how the character looked on Justice League: TAS; here, Frost looks like a nice version of Icy from Winx Club. If Icy were to do a face turn, that’s probably what she’d look like.

-“Club Life” is my favorite episode of this series so far. More shorts like this (and the eventual appearances of Supergirl and Batgirl), please.

Cartoon Country: Web Premiere Toons – Hong Kong Phooey

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Today Cartoon Country looks at a Cartoon Network Web Premiere Toon circa 2001. Imagine if 70’s cartoon crime fighter Hong Kong Phooey (aka bumbling janitor Penry Pooch) had graduated from the Dragon Ball Z/Street Fighter/Naruto school of martial arts. Check it out.

 

-One YouTube poster said of this short: “So glad that did not fly or my childhood would have been ruined.”

Ah, no.

For one, I’m pretty sure this was never meant to be anything more than a one-and-done short (I do recall there being plans for a live-action HKP movie years ago, but evidently nothing came of that), and for another, even if that weren’t the case, how exactly would the mere existence of 1 new cartoon adaptation which you’re not even required nor obligated to watch ruin your childhood when your childhood has already come and gone? Cartoons and cartoon producers aren’t dicks with time machines, after all. Quite frankly, if you’re that resistant to change, it’s a wonder you haven’t tried to off yourself the instant you hit puberty. Personally, I thought this short was awesome, and I enjoyed the original series as a kid.

The original Hong Kong Phooey hasn’t gone anywhere. He’s still around, and his intro still rocks.

 

 

If there ever is to be a new Hong Kong Phooey TV show, movie or anything, I think it should be a mix of both: the silly slapstick combined with the ultra-stylized, over-the-top martial arts mayhem.

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“Step into my dojo, mo-fo!”

 

 

Cartoon Country: Early Impressions of “DC Super Hero Girls”

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Back in April, Twinsanity did a Peeks on the DC Super Hero Girls initiative, a new franchise devoted to ‘girl power’ and female empowerment, which just got under way this fall. Now that we’ve seen some of it, I figured I’d give you all my early thoughts on what we’ve seen so far. I’ll let the web series explain the premise so I don’t have to:

 

And here’s the first webisode (there’s also a full song version of that “Get Your Cape On” number, but I’ll spare you that):

 

OK, now for my rambling thoughts:

  • Of the 7 characters DC has designated to be the lead characters here (Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl, Harley Quinn, Bumblebee, Poison Ivy and Katana), I admit that I’m only really interested in 3 of them: Wondy, Babs and Kara. I’m not an avid comic book reader (most of my comic book superhero knowledge comes from TV and movie adaptations, internet research, fan sites and general nerd osmosis) so I admittedly don’t know much about Katana, and frankly, what (admittedly little) I’ve seen of her here isn’t leaving me hungry for more. Katana just seems to be kind of, there, like window dressing that you don’t really notice. I’ve never been a big Poison Ivy fan (I like Ivy’s design here, but that’s about as deep as my enthusiasm for the character gets) and I’m already a little tired of Harley Quinn. The latter’s a shame, since I’ve been on kind of a pro-clown kick lately and so I wanted to like Harley more, but even more so than Madeline Hatter from Ever After High, this version of Harley just reminds me way too much of Pinkie Pie, and the Pink One is best taken in small doses for me. Harley could easily become annoying if overdone, and I really hope that doesn’t happen here. As for Bumblebee, eh, I’m just not feeling her. Bee is basically just DC’s equivalent to Marvel’s Wasp, and like Wasp I’ve always found her powers, well, silly. Shrinking and bee-blasts, whoop-de-smegging-doo. Plus, I wish the artists had stuck with Bumblebee’s Afro-Puffs; I don’t know what that brown and gold thing on her head is supposed to be. I’ve said this before, but if DC just wanted an African-American face among the crowd, I personally would gone with Vixen.
  • The Good: the characters and art style look very nice. The bright colors, soft hues and tones are decent. The characters look like living dolls, which isn’t surprising, given that this series is meant to promote a doll line. The Not-So-Good: its’ principle setting is a high school…again.

 

I get that this is aimed at kids, I get that the obvious inspiration from Monster High is obvious, and I also understand that the producers needed some way to bring all of these characters together, but come on. Apart from Harry Potter, UBOS, Monster High, Ever After High and Star Dreamers, the use of high school as a principle setting is beyond tired. I hated, Hated, HATED school as a kid, so the last thing I wanted to see when I came home and switched on the tube was a bunch of shows about kids going to school. I probably would have just made Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl roommates in a high-tech clubhouse or something, but that’s just me.

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“Can someone think outside the friggin’ box?!”

-That said, I do like some of the fun the writers seem to be having with the concept, like the numerous cameos (Miss Martian, Cyborg and Starfire, cool!), Amanda Waller as Principal and Gorilla Grodd as Vice-Principal. VP Grodd reminds me of Beast from X-Men. I also like how none of the students and teachers are avowedly villainous; everyone is basically gray here. This series’ idyllic take on Metropolis as this beautiful place where Supers and Normals peacefully co-exist appeals to me, I hope we get to see more of it outside of the school walls.

  • I like how Superman and Batman are decorated alums who have already graduated from Super Hero High. Makes sense, since few people would pay much attention to Batgirl and Supergirl if BatMAN and SuperMAN were around. I still find it a tad strange that DC went with Wonder Woman rather than Wonder Girl, though I understand why:

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Wonder Woman is THE most popular and well-known super-heroine in the DC Universe, and as such DC likely figures that a) it would be insane to not include her as one of the main characters, and b) Wonder Woman will sell more dolls off the shelves than Wonder Girl would. After all…

 

 

And now, some of the web shorts (so far), and my thoughts on them:

-As previously stated, I feel the high school setting has been done to death, but the edifice geek in me does like the design of Super Hero High.

-The “She’s shy” bit with Miss Martian was cuter than the button on a teddy bear’s nose. I hope we get to see more of the alien students in future shorts, hopefully they’ll finally get some dialogue.

-Greg Cipes returns to voice Beast Boy. Nice. I know he’s not a girl, but I’d like to see more of him here, so long as he’s not portrayed as a moron like he was in the 2003 series.

-OK, so Babs is hiding her super identity here…why? I was under the impression that everybody could just be who (and what) they are here. I’m sure this’ll be addressed later on.

More Wondy/Harley shtick. Blah blah blee blah. Not much to see here, let’s move on.

OK, writers, can we spotlight some other characters besides Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn now? When do we get to see Barbara as Batgirl? When is Supergirl going to show up? And was that really how the short ends? But hey, at least we get Tom Kenny as Crazy Quilt.

Kind of odd that no one caught on to the fact that Cheetah was sabotaging Wonder Woman there; kind of flies in the face of the producers’ claim that DCSHG would have “no mean girls or mean girl cliques”. However, anything that features the talents of Maurice LaMarche is worth watching.

-These latter 2 shorts bring to mind another nitpick I have with these shorts: they don’t seem to have logical satisfying endings. They don’t end so much as they just…stop. It’s not because they’re just webisodes, shows like Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse manage to fit in a lot of jokes, character and story in just 3 to 5 minutes, so it’s not like such a feat is impossible. This bring me to another nitpick: these shorts aren’t as funny as they could be. They’re not unfunny, but the writers could be pushing the zany envelope a lot further than they have been so far. Again, I get that these are made for young girls and all, but they’re too restrained. Maybe I came in with the wrong expectations, but I was expecting something like a girl-centric Super Hero Squad Show.

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Now that’s comedy!

I have no problem with the shorts being comedy focused over action, but if you’re gonna do that, be funny! Don’t hold back.

My overall rating (so far):

Meh

I don’t hate DC Super Hero Girls by any stretch, but it’s not exactly wowing me either. Of course, things are still very early; the producers have said that they already have about 20 or so episodes in the can and are said to be working on more. Maybe the show will find its’ legs and improve as it goes on, here’s hoping. This is an ambitious undertaking, I’d hate to see it go bust.