SpongeBob - Mermaidman and Barnacleboy 5

On SpongeBob, there were a few episodes that centered around SpongeBob and Patrick's interactions with their favorite semi-retired superheroes, Mermaidman and Barnacleboy. Probably the best episode was "Mermaidman and Barnacleboy 5."

This episode starts off with a crime, the crime of hour-long waiting lines! Oh, to be stuck behind someone who had tons of time to make up their mind but can't decide now that they're at the front. As it turns out, Barnacleboy is fed up with being treated like a child, and when the other characters proceed to make fun of him, he decides to join the dark side, literally. Because Mr. Krabs said, "Why should I waste money lighting the whole store?" Soon enough, Barnacle-Man is committing crimes with two of Bikini Bottom's biggest criminals, Man Ray and the Dirty Bubble. Their crimes range from things like shooting lasers, robbing banks to, brace yourselves, everybody, ding-dong ditching!

Desperate, and out of options, SpongeBob and his friends, Patrick, Sandy, and Squidward decide to help Mermaidman his pursuit against EVIL. That is, after they dawn their appropriate superhero costumes. After a clever montage of them acquiring their powers, they learn of the location of the baddies, Make-Out Reef. They quickly go to the scene of the crime. At first, it looks like the odds are stacked up against them, that is, until their mediocrity starts to show. The villains declare victory and Barnacle-Man gives his final demands.

His first demand is he wants to be treated like a superhero, not a sidekick, number two, he wants to be called Barnacle-Man, and number three, he just wants an adult-sized Krabby Patty. Yep, Barnacleboy decides to give in to his own instincts and go back to being a superhero, and Mermaidman decides to call him Barnacle-Man. The episode ends with Barnacle-Man enjoying his adult-sized Krabby Patty and everyone having a good laugh. This episode is a great example of what makes for good humor. Constantly coming at you with great quality, this episode will start you off laughing and will not stop until it's over. It's especially funny to see the contrast personalities between Mermaidman and Barnacleboy and to see all the superhero tropes parodied. It was hard for me to find a highlight, but I decided to pick two. One, where we see what SpongeBob and the other characters alter egos are, and the IJLSA defeating themselves in a comedic fashion, but other than that, there are just too many. But in my opinion, Squidward was and will always be........

Captain Magma! Get him angry and he's bound to erupt!

Time Squad - "Eli Whitney's Flesh-Eating Mistake"

For my last review for now until sometime this weekend, it's marvelous, it's magnetic, it's magical, it's magno hydro dynamic! Huh? It's Time Squad, created by Dave Wasson. The series premiered during Cartoon Network's "Cartoon Cartoon Fridays" block on June 8, 2001, it is also the final Cartoon Network original series to premiere during Betty Cohen's tenure, as she later resigned due to creative disagreements with Jamie Kellner, then-head of Turner Broadcasting System. But we're not here to talk about the founder's departure, we're here to review the first episode of the show. Let's begin.

In this episode, while trying to find Eli Whitney, the guy who invented the cotton gin, Buck Tuddrussel and Larry 3000, voiced by Luke Skywalker and The Joker himself, Mark Hamill, find themselves in the future, where they meet up with a young kid named Otto Osworth, voiced by Pamela Segall, known more famously for doing the voice of Pajama Sam. Before they could go find Eli Whitney, Buck and Larry break Otto free of his abusive and brutal life at the orphanage where the old nun doesn't like reading. Huh? Anyways, with his impressive historical knowledge  They travel back in time to stop Eli Whitney's flesh eating monsters.

This cartoon is awesome, but, it isn't without its flaws. The only thing I didn't like is that orphanage nun, who was voiced by Dee Dee Rescher. I have nothing against the actress who voiced Peltra, but that's not the problem, the issue is that the nun doesn't like reading, what kind of orphanage nun doesn't like reading?! That's like saying, you're prejudice against Cartoon Network's classic cartoons. But either way, she only appears once in this series, and is likely she never appeared again on the show, good riddance if you ask me. The animation is great, the acting is great, the plot is great, and it's just so futuristic. Tell Squidward to do his future reaction if you could, please?

The show only ran for two seasons from 2001 to 2003, and it was obsolete from Cartoon Network! Why? I mean unlike Sheep in the Big City and Mike Lu and Og which they only ran for two seasons because they were the less-liked Cartoon Cartoons, this one has a whole lot to be desired./Creator Dave Wasson described the series as "a C-student's guide to history" I give the people at Cartoon Network for trying to do something educational while and at the same time doing the usual comedic performances.

Time Squad was probably one of Cartoon Network's finest, even if it did run for two seasons. I even liked it when the premiere was hosted by Ed and Eddy on Cartoon Cartoon Fridays. If you want to see the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays segments that introduce the premiere, here's the link, ladies and gentlemen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEalhy3u0rY

Stellaluna Review

All right, folks, we're going to review the 2004 made for video movie, "Stellaluna," based on the best-selling award winning children of the same name by Janell Cannon, who's responsible for making bats look like friendly creatures and making owls into dangerous species, which was all thanks to a suspenseful score by the great Jody Gray, who composed the music for Courage the Cowardly Dog. By the way, I'll will right now mention that Stellaluna, the best-selling book has turned the big 25 this year. And I think now's the right time to review this movie that has stuck with me ever since I bought it at Savers. So let's venture into the Sultry Forest to go see Stellaluna.

Janell Cannon's Stellaluna is in many ways a fabulous 1990's fairy tale. The book aired on the PBS series Reading Rainbow in 1994. On that episode, Anne Jackson narrated the story. It is featured in the 2001 movie I Am Sam. No, not Sam I am. Janell Cannon was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of Burton H. and Nancy A. Cannon. She attended Burnsville High School, and graduated in 1975. After high school she moved to California, and from 1981 to 1993 she was a graphic artist for the Carlsbad Library, also, on that year, Janell Cannon began writing for the idea of Stellaluna. She spent most of the book by building up friendship with some satisfying payoffs. By the time Stellaluna was published on April of 1993, it caught the attention of children and parents and teachers everywhere and to this day, continues to be the most popular award-winning children's book. Back in 1998, Rankin/Bass' ever popular "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was turned into a 2D animated movie directed by William R. Kowalchuk. And when Stellaluna came along a few years later, the instant popularity of the book made a film version a no brainier. That means showing intelligence. But the book just couldn't be contained into a theatrical feature, so Scholastic and MGM offered to buy the rights from Janell, to make Stellaluna into a made-for-DVD movie, similar in format to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. When Scholastic producers Deborah Forte and Martha Atwater, everything was all set, with a script written by screenwriters Rachel Koretsky and Stephen Whitestone, who had previously wrote The Pebble and the Penguin, which was directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldmna. And then a filmmaker was hired, William R. Kowalchuk, a Canadian animator and director who originally made a name for himself as the production manager for MASK produced by DIC Entertainment. Kowalchuk went on to direct the highly underrated made-for-video movies such as Camelot: The Legend in 1998, and Ben Hur in 2003. Okay, enough behind the scenes talk, let's get on with the plot.

One night, as Stellaluna's mother followed the scent of ripe fruit, an owl spied her. On silent wings, the powerful bird swooped down upon the bats. Mother Bat tried to escape, but the owl struck again and again, knocking Stellaluna into the air. Her wings were as useless as wet paper, down down she went, faster and faster into the forest below. She lands in a bird's nest, and the three birds, Flitter, Pip, and Flap mistake her for a bird. Stellaluna tries to fit in, reluctantly trying to eat bugs without being disgusted by them. However, the Great White Owl is on the loose when Stellaluna accidentally wakes him up, he tries to seek vengeance on the bat he knocked down a few days before.

I highly doubt that Janell Cannon wasn't at least partly inspired by the infamous killer wolves in Beauty and the Beast when creating this vicious owl who abandoned Stellaluna from her mother.

The success of the made-for-DVD movie relied heavily on the casting of Stellaluna. The producers landed on Canadian voice actress, Chiara Zanni, who originally made a name for herself as the voice of Poky Little Puppy in the 1989 TV Special, Little Golden Book Land, and has spent her career doing usually tomboy related characters in roles like Alex from Camp Candy starring John Candy, Mimi Morton in What About Mimi?, Petunia in Baby Looney Tunes, and the colorful Daring Do on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. So, to me, Chiara Zanni will always be Stellaluna, it sounds like she's having a ball doing this energetic and cowardly character.

During the film's production, director William R. Kowalchuk impressively orchestrated two entirely separate group of actors. American actors and Canadian actors of a bunch, which is no easy task. Flitter, Pip, and Flap were played a group of virtual unknowns while the other characters were played by who's who of recognizable Canadian actors from film and production. Lee Tockar played Askari the Superhero Spider, he would later go on to voice George in 2007's version of George of the Jungle as well as the voice of Snips on Friendship is Magic. Scott McNeil portrays Horatio, a toucan who tries to make Stellaluna look like a real bird. McNeil was also part of the cast of Dragon Ball Z, Friendship is Magic, and Johnny Test, Brenda Crichlow who played the birds' mother, had other roles like an Office Co-Worker in Will Ferrell's Elf and Zecora in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and Kathleen Barr, who played Kasuku is a popular Canadian heartthrob for television, starring in shows like Ed, Edd n Eddy as Kevin and Marie Kanker, Dragon Tales as Wheezie, Kid vs. Kat as Millie, Littlest Pet Shop as Mrs. Twombly, and my personal favorite, Trixie from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Of course, the most recognizable voice among these guys is Blu Mankuma as the voice of the Great White Owl, Mankuma also starred in numerous movies and animated shows, as well as the voice of the red dragon in the Friendship is Magic episode, "Dragon Shy."

Here's a fun fact:  This version was panned by some fans of the original book as "truly unfaithful" and received mixed to negative reviews. Now despite what the critics say, I love this film, but I won't deny that nostalgia is a major factor. While I have read the book before I saw this, I appreciate the movie was able to accomplish, given it's a made-for-DVD. While I will admit that the film is not without its flaws. Specifically the addition of Askari the Spider and the bigger role of the Great White Owl, and the cheesy songs, even though I do like Stellaluna's song before Askari comes onto the screen. I think the filmmakers did all they could with the resources they had, for me though, I've seen this film a lot of times that it doesn't even matter.

It's seems like when it goes for the small scares, it goes really well, like the Owl dodging at the herd of bats, many of these scenes contribute to the film's atmosphere, as does the highly underrated musical score composed by Courage the Cowardly Dog composer, Jody Gray. Gray's compositions give the film an appropriate African tone right from the opening credits. The entire score is exciting, gloomy, and emotional, and you know the Great White Owl is lurking right around the corner, when it starts to become cold, wet, and heavily filled with bass drums and strings. I constant criticism I've noticed suggests that for such a blood-thirsty owl, he doesn't too much out of hooting and laughing at the bats and birds. Scholastic's standards didn't allow the filmmakers to be too severe with showing child birds in danger, which is ironic giving the source material. But they found away to dance around that rule. The Great White Owl corners, hoots, and threatens some of the main characters, but rarely goes in for the kill. This forced the filmmakers to be extra creative with the film's exciting, and some of what they ended up doing was pretty exciting stuff. Sure, the movie is practically "The Goonies" or "Courage the Cowardly Dog" compared to child friendly nature of the original book, but I kind of like it for that.

Over the years, Stellaluna has become the made-for-DVD movie that could. It might not be as well received as other adaptations like Arthur, The Magic School Bus, or Franklin, but from what I've seen, it's a movie that I love despite all the flaws it had. I even put The Great White Owl right up there with the others like the Killer Wolves from Beauty and the Beast, Him from The Powerpuff Girls, and Queen Chrysalis from Friendship is Magic. At the end of the day, the DVD of Janell Cannon's Stellaluna is a great but flawed release of a great but flawed film, and is deserving of a 4 out of 5 stars recommendation, buy it if you run across it.

The Powderpuff Girls (2016) - "Power of Four"

Ugh, the Powerpuff Girls reboot, before I get into the review proper, let me tell you everything wrong with this reboot.

1. The girls voices being recast
2. The character design of the characters look more like characters like Clarence
3. The lack of crime fighting and humor
4. The lack of Narrator
5. The Professor turning stupid
   and worst of all
6. The memes.

I don't even think this is the Powerpuff Girls, this is the Powderpuff Girls, but, I'm not hear to rant, I'm here to review this sort of hour long episode, "Power of Four," like I promised in my "Happy New Year" review.

The story is that the girls "supposedly" fourth sister had been missing for ten years, and surprise of all surprises, Bubbles plays with her while she's invisible, but yet, Blossom and Buttercup are oblivious about her existence. It wasn't until Earth Plow comes out of nowhere and destroys the people at the movie theater, and that is when the fourth sister reveals herself, her name was Blisstina Francesca Francia Mariam Alicia Utonium, but let's call her Bliss for short.

As the episode goes on, we learn about Bliss' backstory and how much it contradicts the original Powerpuff Girls origins, stating that the Professor had created her to get even with another professor who created the perfect little boy. The kicker, The Professor used Chemical W. But anyways, while the girls show Bliss around and try to get her into the superhero spirit, Mih (pronounced "Me") comes along and seduces with Bliss, until after a bit of shape-shifting, it was revealed that it was Him the whole time! Kind of an interesting plot twist. If you watched Shadow Streak's reviews of "Secret Swapper of Doom" and "Electric Buttercup" which will be linked at the very end, he said that he wanted Him to do something truly evil instead of these bland unfortunate schemes that never went anywhere, not this time. They made Him do something evil for once, he fuses with her, transforms into this gigantic monster, and fights with the girls in a battle of good against evil.

The special was okay, it didn't blow my mind or anything, but it wasn't that bad. But, let me bring out my complaints. Tom Kenny is never heard in this episode, I mean, I understand you got rid of the narrator in the second season here, but that's no excuse to under use Tom here, and when Tom Kenny isn't in any of these episodes, it's just the girls monologue-ing to themselves, it loses a lot of the charm. And if you don't believe me, the best parts of the reboot are the parts that Tom Kenny is in. I guess it would've been too much work to have Tom Kenny in session for the Power of Four. Also, I never like these news reporters that you see in that screencap, they're so captain obvious, and they just seem to happy to even be in any danger. Whatever happened to Stanley Whitfield? Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Bliss was voiced by Olivia Olson, yep, the singer of "Happy New Year."

Okay, all nitpicking aside, as we predicted, Bliss leaves Townsville to fix Saturn and put it back in its place, and it's certainly likely that she won't be coming back, unless of course, there is a season three, but there's still no word about it during the writing of this review. Let's just hope that season three doesn't happen, my only hope is that the Powderpuff Girls reboot can end relatively soon and at least stop making reboots in general. Because the original Powerpuff Girls show was awesome, but now, this reboot is just so bad that they even made twerking a thing on this show, not even joking. Oh, and one more thing.

"Let the fight begin" says random girl. Anime William Shatner method acting, council gives......100%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=091KbzLmr7Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2swEb2qXXeQ&t=900s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvXVeG9pIKg&t=727s

Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside Review

Hello, and good evening. I'm delighted to welcome you to another review. Tonight, I'm happy to review my favorite computer video game from Humongous Entertainment, "Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside." Yeah, I never reviewed a video game before, but I thought it's worth a try. Let's begin, shall we?

The story is that Sam is fed up with his fear of the dark and decides to conquer his fear by going into the Land of Darkness inside of his own closet. After getting his items stolen by Custom Trees, you help Sam retrieve his stuff around the Land of Darkness, along with meeting new friends like Otto, King, and Carrot. Along the way, you come across waterfalls, gold mines, a game of Cheese and Crackers, as well as a game of The Brain Tickler, and spoiler alert, you finally come across Darkness hiding in his closet only to realize that this Darkness guy is a lot more friendly than you can imagine. And with that Sam isn't afraid to sleep with the lights out anymore, good on him. Now, let's talk about what this game brought as a major upgrade from Freddi Fish and the Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse.

The people at Humongous Entertainment must've had a much larger crew the entire time they were making this game, because all of the improvements are properly represented here. For example, in the cut scenes, the characters' lip-sync movements match perfectly, however, there are still a few scenes where the lip-sync is off, but still, it's pretty good. Pamela Segall also doing the voice of Sam is also a treat to listen to, you don't even want to skip his dialogue because it's just so interesting to watch. Also, the music in this is pretty good, even the songs in Darkness' kitchen. Go back and check the character animation on Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon and check it against this and you'll see what progress was made between 1993 and 1996, three years, boy it took them three years to learn that.

So, bottom line, this video game is a game that is meant for everyone, for young and old alike. Just keep in mind that the dark is nothing to be afraid of, we think of it as our little companion. Having slept in the dark, I should know.

I'm not sure if I'll review more Pajama Sam games in the future, but overall, I'm not going to give up on the review industry

Dexter's Laboratory - "GIRL Squad."

Once upon a time, there were three little girls who went to school, and they each were assigned very hazardous duties, but I took them away from all that, my name is Veston. That's right, we're reviewing my favorite episode of Dexter's Laboratory, and perhaps my personal favorite in the entire series, "GIRL Squad!"

After learning some lessons about neighborhood criminals from McBark the Crime Hound, a parody of McGruff the Crime Dog, Dee-Dee, and her friends, Mee-Mee and Lee-Lee, decide to form their own neighborhood criminal spy team! Simply known, as Johnny Bravo puts it, G - Glamorous, I - Investigators, R- Ready to, L, Lick Crime, GIRL Squad! Following a brief lesson from Dexter on "licking" crime, Dee-Dee and her friends come across a criminal in silhouette lurking around the neighborhood. Who are you gonna call? The GIRL Squad!

Will these girls stop this mad man? Stay tuned to find out!

Now, this episode is a clever set-up to Charlie's Angels and it sets up who the girls would be, Dee-Dee for example would be Farrah Fawcett, Mee-Mee would be Kate Jackson, and Lee-Lee would be Cheryl Ladd, and if you want to technically add Dexter into the mix, he would have to be David Doyle. Except, Dexter's appearance was quite brief and temporary, so I consider it its own separate category, it's fine if you do though. Even their chances to catch the crook are so silly it's hilarious! Like tying shoes to the truck and tail the bad, and apparently, Coca-Cola is a thing in this universe. That's interesting.

So, overall, aside from the fact that the crook was actually just the gardener, sorry, but I had to spoil the twist ending, the episode gets pretty much everything right. It's got a decent parody, a decent plot, and a weird twist, so overall, in between those scenes and the interesting character of McBark the Crime Hound, this episode is definitely a good one.

Also, as for the GIRL Squad, this crimes been licked.

The Powerpuff Girls - "Power-Noia"

Let's take a look at some of the later season 4 episodes of the Powerpuff Girls, this one is called "Power-Noia." But first, I would like to give a shout out to Phoenix Pen and PIEGUYRULZ for reviewing this episode during a listing of episodes from Seasons 4 through 6.

Here's the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q074ll9WE8U

Now, with that said, let's take a look at this episode which was the last one that was directed by Craig McCracken.

After a typical fight with a giant monster, as the Girls prepare for a good night sleep, Buttercup argues to Bubbles about her yelp when the monster laser zapped the three girls. In the process, Buttercup sees something on her pajamas, which kind of looks like a spider, but brushes the smudge of her dress. Anyways, after that stunt, The Professor tucks them in and tells them to prepare for the big test tomorrow which Blossom unfortunately was unprepared for. Once the Professor leaves, the nightmare starts when Him places nightmares on all three of the girls, mainly on what we fear.

Blossom's nightmare is all about failing her final exam and thinking it could be the end of her life, I've had that experience before. But you should know that it's not the end of the world if you get a C, a B, or even an F, but grades are important. Miss Keane was pretty creepy. By the way, tell Olga that about getting a B+ is not the end of the world, okay? And Bubbles nightmares are kind of Tim Burton like with the toys attacking her and Bubbles almost being suffocated by a snack, and Buttercup's nightmares, the best part, are all spider related and the CGI backgrounds kind of look like Pablo Picasso paintings or something. If I didn't know better, I'd say Buttercup just fell into the fly of despair.

This episode is pretty unique for it's dark tones, and even Him's fiendish plan to make the girls too scared to fight back. In my opinion, Him's evil schemes were the best part of the original series. Ranging from turning the people of Townsville against the girls in "Tough Love" to taking over the world in "Speed Demon." I felt bad for the girls in this episode, all those terrible nightmares they have, even going so far as to not wake-up themselves. I wonder if that's how Princess Snorebucks came to be, and I wonder if that's where the Justice League episode, "Only a Dream," got this from. If that's the case, then I won't say it's stealing.

I thought it was a straight-forward episode, I thought it was good. But PIEGUYRULZ didn't think it needed to be 22 minutes in he and Phoenix Pen's review of these episode. But in my opinion, it needed to be 22 minutes so we can explore more of the Girls going through their bad dreams and how they came to be.

I also like Him's evil spider-like form! But in the end, the Girls manage to defeat him, somehow. And it ends with The Professor in their bedroom because he had a nightmare. Ironic, isn't it?

If you still wish the reboot was canceled, go watch this episode, please?

Dexter's Laboratory - "911"

Huh, I really don't have much to say about this episode. Except, it's a pretty cute episode. All right, all right, I'll give you the basic premise, my opinions, and my final thoughts. afterwards, this will be my last review until this Thursday night. So,, let's uh, let's begin.

While watching an episode of Action Hank, Dexter gets interrupted by the Emergency Broadcast System. This results into Dexter solving emergency after emergency, but the signal doesn't stop going off. By the end of the episode, it was revealed that it was just a test, and if it was an ACTUAL emergency, the signal you would have heard would've been followed by information. The test took so long, it skipped over to the end of the Action Hank episode. Poor Dexter, okay, enough with that. Let's talk about my opinions.

What I do like about this episode is that it's cute, very cute. I especially like Dee-Dee's appearance here, She has quite an overactive imagination. For example, laughing for no reason at the TV as if it were a comedy, Dee-Dee becoming scared as if she was watching a horror movie, and even getting up to the point to where Dee-Dee is offended by someone named Jeffrey doing something to Marsha. Even Dexter thinks this is just crazy. Heck, she even thinks the ending of the test of the Emergency Broadcast System was a sad ending. She's not stupid, she's just energetic and quite ditsy, for Dexter's taste at least.

Okay, let's wrap things up with my final thoughts. Even though the beeping on the Emergency Broadcast System got annoying at times, I must say, it is pretty much a good episode. The comedy is cute, especially Dexter mistaking boy babies for girls, as well as Dee-Dee's overactive imagination. It's pretty much just a cute, cute episode.

Not much else to say except, join me Thursday night when I'll review the Johnny Bravo episode, "Cookie Crisis."

Kids Next Door Review - Operation: TRAINING

Since it's still winter, let's review my favorite episode of the Kids Next Door from the third season, "Operation: TRAINING." But before we begin, I want to give a shout out to Arthurengtine's Review Jungle for reviewing this episode along with the episode it was paired with "Operation: BUTT." Here's the link the his review.

http://arthurenginereviews.blogspot.com/2015/12/codename-knd-s3e05-operation-butt.html

Okay, let's get started.

The plot is that Numbuh 2's little brother, Tommy Gilligan is part of the Cadets Next Door, or CND for short. And during some training in the Arctic Base, an emergency mission has been called forth because of Father. Once they leave, the cadets, Tommy, Sonia, and the soft-spoken Lee try the simulation anyway despite the orders not to touch anything. And, here comes the big shocker, on Level 3, it was revealed that Father, voiced by Maurice LaMarche, made the entire mission for the KND just a false alarm, and by the time the real operatives realized they've been fooled, it'll be too late, because Father plans to steal the code module. So, it's up to the cadets to save the day.

The funny thing is usually whenever none of the main characters appear in this episode, it would usually make it not a good episode, a good example being The Powerpuff Girls episode, "Custody Battle," where those girls don't appear at all. But, this episode does the exact opposite. Instead of doing an episode without the main characters that would disappoint me, they instead brought me an episode that really good, and hey, it features other Kids Next Door operatives, so, there's no need for me to complain. My favorite character in this episode has to be of course, Sonia, who would later become Numbuh 83 after the events of Operation: GRADUATES. For those who don't know, Sonia is voiced by Janice Kawaye, who's been featured in several other cartoons like Captain Planet, Dorothy Meets Osma of Oz, Invader Zim, HiHi Puffy AmiYumi, and the voice of Jenny Wakeman on My Life a s a Teenage Robot. I think Sonia was one of Janice's cutest characters. She is just so afraid of everything, the cuteness even goes so far when she winds up in the darkness, shaking with fear, proving to me that Sonia is a nyctophobic. In fact, Father threatens to throw the three, including Sonia into a "terrible, scary," dark little room, which caused Sonia to freak out, and she beats up some of Father's minions to the point of them surrendering, Sonia then says, "What? I don't like the dark." This expects me to believe me that Father probably knew about Sonia's weakness. But aside from all that, this is pretty much a Tommy story.

So, the bottom line, this episode is so awesome, it never tried to disappoint me at least once. A nice slice of life episode, It gives us more information about other operatives outside of Sector V, and it also has an interesting story. All I know is that the Kids Next Door never ceases to amaze me. You could find this episode on the second volume, Codename: Kids Next Door Super Hugest Missions File 2 DVD. I'm not sure if you would find it on Amazon, but you'd probably find it on eBay by now. But don't find a copy that's TOO pricey. You have been warned. Anyway, enjoy the episode all you want. It's perhaps one of the best.

Pokemon - "Tentacool and Tentacruel"

Before I begin talking about this episode I like, I must first off begin by saying that I'm not in the know about what's been going on with Pokemon lately. It's just one of those shows that pass by my radar sometimes, I don't know, it's just one of those shows that I kind of forget exist, but I use to be a fan of it, and followed it during its 4Kids Era and the Battle Frontier season. Okay, with that out of the way, let's begin.

The plot centers around Ash, Brock, and Misty stranded in Porta Vista, the only town on the island with varies to the main land. During the next three hours, Misty captures a Horsea and they ntoice that a boat has been destroyed by Tentacool and paralyzed the sailors. Nastina, voiced by Kayzie Rogers, wants to exterminate the Tentacool, but Misty is so disgusted by this that she refuses. Once the town rallies to volunteer to exterminate the Tentacool herd, Team Rocket steps in and tries their best, except, their stun sauce causes a Tentacool evolve into a giant 50-feet tall Tentacruel, and with him being giant, he sends his army of Tentacool to attack Porta Vista as revenge for the people their destroying their home, the coral reef, where the hotel is built. How will Ash and his friends handle this? Stay tuned to find out!

Before I talk about what I like about the episode, let's talk about the temporary banning of this episode in America. The reasoning behind this was mostly because of the fact that 9/11 happened back in 2001, because of this, Kids WB flatly refuse to air a rerun of this episode for their block, it was also banned for a couple of weeks due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, due to the flood, if that was the case, then how come all The Powerpuff Girls were never banned due to 9/11? Oh, well, we'll never know. besides, if they were banned, we wouldn't have Powerpuff Girls on Cartoon Network, speaking of which, despite these disasters, Cartoon Network reran this episode a couple of times in 2002. Okay, enough of that jabber, let's say what's great about the episode.

This episode is just great, it has a lot of action and danger kind of like my previous review, the comedy was spot on, like James' line "Oh, it's a Tentacruel world." Team Rocket's lines are good, and with all that aside, it's a Misty story, It focused more on Misty more than Ash and Brock, mostly because these Pokemon are water type. I also kind of like how Tentacruel uses Meowth to speak through telepathy, but Brock prefers to it as using him as a puppet, doesn't he know the difference? Anyway, I especially like the fight where Pikachu, Pidgeotto, Butterfree, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Starmie, Staryu, Goldeen, and Zubat do their best to out do the Tentacool, but Tentacruel stops them in their tracks because according to him, they were battling to save the "destructive" humans. Only one person can stop him. That person being Misty.

So, bottom line, this episode is great despite the temporary banning in the US for 2001 and 2005. My only complaint is the fact is that it's not on Hulu. It's not anywhere on Hulu! Mom, if you're reading this, don't look for it for me. Besides you can watch it on DVD or online. Go ahead and check the episode out if your a big fan of Pokemon.

The Powerpuff Girls - "Uh Oh Dynamo"

Now, tonight, I'm going to review one of my other favorite episodes of The Powerpuff Girls, which coincidentally, is the last episode of the first season, "Uh Oh Dynamo," One day, when I was streaming with Shadow Streak, I asked him if he liked this episode and he said he did, it's one of his favorite season one episodes too. Go check out his reviews of the PPG reboot if you haven't already, if you like my stuff, you're gonna love his. Now, onto the review.

The plot of this 22 minute episode is that after an encounter with a fish balloon, desperate to protect the girls, Professor Utonium creates the Dynamic Nano-Techronic Monobot, or DYNAMO for short. While the girls are unsure on whether or not they want to use it, one Saturday in Bonsai Garden's Park, during an evening paper boat race, the Fish Balloon comes back, but only with a much bigger companion who's too big to even beat up. How will the girls stop him? Well, I'm not telling! You just have to watch and see for yourself. Because I'm going to say what I like about this episode now.

The episode as a lot of cool action scenes, especially with the big battle with that seven-eyed fish balloon. Of course, this show had a lot of violence and comedy, as the Powerpuff Girls usually do.. This kind of reminds me of that Pokemon episode, "Tentacool and Tentacruel," and yes, I will review that one at some point, also, it reminds me of the Dexter's Laboratory episode, "Last But Not Beast," where Dexter and his family use a giant battle robot to stop Badaxtra, the evil giant monster from Japan, but the major difference here is that in "Last But Not Beast," there was no cheering crowd when the monster was defeated, but here, there was. So, if I had to choose between those two episodes, I'd probably pick this one. The irony is that both Craig McCracken and Genndy Tartakovsky who worked on "Last But Not Beast," directed this episode, like all of the other episodes that Don Shank storyboarded.

The final verdict, it's an awesome episode, and it really helped put the first season to the end and gear everyone up for the second season that would air a month later in 1999. It's exciting, full of action and danger, it's funny, has great visuals, and has fun with a monster battle! If you haven't seen or heard of this, please, at least check this one episode out, it really is worth your time. But, I'll bet you to watch Dog the Mighty first before this one.