Monday, December 30, 2013

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 never 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 I 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 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 it's 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 it's 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 let 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 flavor 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 cartoons.



"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 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!
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