*insert new name here* talks about almost every Nicktoon in existance

[Slippin' Freddy]

Well, there's already a topic about Cartoon Network originals and I barely remember most Disney cartoons so I may as well make a topic myself that I'm totally not ripping off dman. And since I have most of these shows already on my computer for a Nicktoons stream I created, I figured "why not review these?"

 

That's right: I'm gonna talk about each and every Nicktoon from 1991 to 2017 (when I stopped watching altogether)! Some of these I haven't ever watched yet so this will be a new experience for me. 

Spoiler

1. Doug
2. Rugrats
3. The Ren and Stimpy Show
4. Rocko's Modern Life
5. Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
6. Hey Arnold!
7. KaBlam!
8. The Angry Beavers
9. CatDog
10. Oh Yeah! Cartoons
11. The Wild Thornberrys
12. SpongeBob SquarePants
13. Rocket Power
14. As Told by Ginger
15. The Fairly Oddparents
16. Invader ZIM
17. ChalkZone
18. Jimmy Neutron
19. All Grown Up!
20. My Life as a Teenage Robot
21. Danny Phantom
22. Avatar: The Last Airbender
23. Catscratch
24. The X's
25. El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera
26. Tak and the Power of Juju
27. Back at the Barnyard
28. The Mighty B!
29. The Penguins of Madagascar
30. Fanboy & Chum Chum
31. Planet Sheen
32. TUFF Puppy
33. Winx Club
34. Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness
35. The Legend of Korra
36. Robot and Monster
37. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
38. Monsters vs. Aliens (6/11/25)
39. Sanjay and Craig
40. Breadwinners
41. Harvey Beaks
42. Pig Goat Banana Cricket
43. The Loud House
44. Bunsen is a Beast
45. Welcome to the Wayne

Just like dman's thread, I will only be talking about the first episode of each show. And just like dman's thread, I will be using Wheel Decide to decide for me which show I'll review next. So what do we start with? Will it be the first Nicktoon, Doug? Maybe a popular one like Avatar or Hey Arnold? Hell, maybe it'll give me an easy target like SpongeBob. O Great Wheel, what is your decision?

Spoiler

....huh. What a choice.

 

[4EverGreen]

You know you're doing SOMETHING wrong when you can ONLY make a TV show based on a popular movie last only ONE season; even "Breadwinners" managed to last for two seasons. The first episode of "Monsters Vs. Aliens" was okay, but it just didn't live up to what it SHOULD have been!

[Slippin' Freddy]

#38. “Welcome to Area Fifty-Something” – Monsters vs. Aliens [March 23, 2013]

 

Well, this is gonna be an odd way to start off my series. First, unlike the other two DreamWorks movies that Nick made shows out of, I haven’t watched the one this one was based on. I only remember three things:

1. One of the promos had a parody of “Rock This Town” by the Stray Cats

2. The blob was voiced by HUE HUE HUE guy

3. This godly scene

And that’s all I know about the movie. Maybe someday I will give that one a full viewing but for now, let’s give the series a shot.

The episode begins with a giant ass UFO crashing, with the episode title welcoming us to Area Nineteen Eighty—I mean Area Fifty-Something. Then General Whateverhisnameis points out to his group of monsters (Giant Lady, BOB, Dr. Cockroach, Frog Dude) that the unidentified object has landed in Australia. Then the President points out the damage these aliens caused (to his approval ratings, not the Golden Gate Bridge) and calls upon the monsters to fight these spacemen.

The gang then travel to Australia to investigate the UFO crash. Oh right, the name of Frog Dude is Link (as in Missing Link) and he is voiced by Diedrich Bader of Hoss Delgado and Office Space fame. Think I’ll remember more of these characters the more I go on. Naturally, this tough alien suggests going fisticuffs on the aliens but Giant Lady (her name is Susan) decides against it. Susan then touches the object and it absorbs her quantonium (AKA she shrinks down to the other monsters’ size). Conversely, the object targets one of the ants and mutates it into a giant, even freaking out the arrogant yet confident Link.

We cut back to the base with the General (his name is General Monger) pointing out the size of the ant. The President also shows up at the base because despite being the President, he isn’t brave enough to stay in DC and shelters in to the base.

Back in Australia, the monsters are attacked by the giant ant. Dr. Cockroach attempts to figure out how to defeat the ant while it pummels Link to a pulp. He succeeds by using brains instead of brawn and the machine shrinks the ant back into its original size. The machine then goes kablooey but thankfully (?), our main characters survive.

Back at Area Fifty-Something, Monger and President encounter the UFO and the latter person is too cowardly to do something about it. Monger points out that it’s in the Constitution for the President to face the alien. Said alien then pops out of the UFO falling off of the steps. And he uses notecards to deliver his “take me to your leader”. Funny.

Back on the plane, Susan is still small and Cockroach points out that there’s still traces of quantonium in her blood meaning that she’s slightly taller than before (lol). But Susan can’t take this since she’s supposed to be Ginormica. Link comes in telling Cockroach and Smallermica that another alien has been spotted back at where they started from.

Back at Fifty-Something, the President encounters the alien and to his surprise, the alien is a lad and offers him an apology. Unfortunately, the President’s wife keeps calling him to the annoyance of the alien. He then cuts off the signal to his phone using special alien technology, as cutting off access to technology is the only way for them to achieve diplomacy. At the end of the scene, we finally get to hear the alien’s name (which is great because I’m grown tired of this vague bullshit), which is “Coverton”.

Back on the plane, they attempt to travel back to the base but the frequency has been jammed after Coverton cut off all the signals. Dr. Cockroach uses his alien-seeing goggles to spot Coverton and the monsters think the alien’s got the President trapped in a giant bubble, and if his girlish screams are any indication, he’s in danger.

….okay, he’s not in danger, that was just a scream of joy! I honestly do love this President more than our own, can we have him please?

Anyways, Team Monster, still thinking the aliens are a threat, attack him despite the General telling them to stop it. Cockroach says aliens are controlling him to say that and they continue beating him to a pulp. This, of course, lands the monsters in hot water by the President and General.

Coverton, distressed by the actions done by the monsters, deems the Earth unsafe for him to live there and considers coming back in a century. Knowing he won’t be alive by then, the President decides to fire the monsters in favor of the alien. Honestly a good decision.

After being fired, the monsters roam the streets being reduced to simple outcasts. However, the President fucks up when he activates the alien ship’s self-defense system (THE SECURITY SYSTEM TAKES CONTROL OF THE ALIEN’S SHIP) and the only way he can stop it is by saying the code, which is written in an alien language he can’t comprehend. I have a feeling this is gonna be something Dr. Cockroach can solve but we’ll get there.

In the event that the President doesn’t make it, Coverton suggests becoming the new world leader instead. But the monsters come back and fight the security system with BOB’s indestructability and Link’s muscles. General Monger suggests Coverton help the monsters but he’s too much of a selfish shit to want to be involved with their antics. Frustrated, he flings Coverton into a cactus, so it looks like he has no choice but to help them!

Coverton finally shows up in his ship to describe what the ship’s defense system is. First one’s a trap that slams the gang against the wall, which of course, BOB gets enjoyment out of. Even though Cockroach is able to evade them by climbing up walls, he gets thwarted and tossed out of the ship. So I guess he didn’t save the day after all.

The others successfully evade them all and Link breaks off one of the traps to open up the door. Unfortunately, even his brawn couldn’t save him from being paralyzed from the security system’s immobilizer ray. BOB, in a once in a blue moon moment, comes up with an idea to have Susan use him as a shield against the ray. With his sacrifice, it is now up to Susan and Coverton to save the President.

They enter the room he’s trapped in but the floor is a motion sensor trap and Susan can’t step on there. She then comes up with a clever idea to tell the President his approval ratings are dropping, causing him to let out a scream that shatters the unbreakable glass. As Coverton tells the President to climb onto his lap, his glasses fall down and trigger the floor trap causing the ship to blow up.

The monsters think they’ve all died in the explosion but to their surprise, they are greeted by this giant hand…..of Ginormica! That’s right, the atomic explosion gave Susan back her powers. She also has the power to manipulate her size by thinking specific thoughts. For example: She’s able to shrink down by thinking of tiny objects.

The President also welcomes the monsters back to work, under the condition that Coverton works with them! Of course, now that he has the approval of the President, he plots to take over Area 51 and, of course, the world.

Final verd—ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

…okay, I wouldn’t put it quite like that. In fact, I didn’t hate this show as much as I thought I would. Out of the characters, I’d have to say the President and Link are my favorite ones from the show. They definitely have my favorite moments from the show. Some highlights including the President screaming and then blaming it on a different person, the owner of the diner turning over the Help Wanted sign when they see the monsters, and while I found him too irritating, the running gag of BOB confusing which news he should boo or cheer made me laugh.

That said, this isn’t exactly a series I would want to revisit in the near future. It’s the textbook definition of an “eh show”. Also, the name of the next episode is called “Danger Wears a Diaper”, so I don’t have any plans on binging this one in the near future.

VERDICT:

4/10 (Not the worst I’ve seen so far but I would prefer watching the movie instead…….and I never even watched the movie.)

Well, that was a snore. Maybe the wheel could give me a better show? One that's an original IP? One that's, you know, good? 

Spoiler

Sure, let's go with that!