A blog where I discuss various pop culture things (especially in regards to animation) and share various random ideas and AUs on various pieces of media.
Okay, for the last 16 years, have I been trying to find a video I remember watching back when I was 7.
It was a old amateur flash animation short on YouTube (either original to the site or a transfer from Newgrounds).
It was about this kid who was walking home with a box of Trix.
As would you expect, The Trix Rabbit surprises him, asks for the Trix, and and the kid aays the classic "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!"
But these causes The Rabbit to lose it and decide to not only take the Trix by force, but also just murder the kid as well.
This leads to a chase that leads into a cereal factory (a General Mills one I believe, considering what happens at the end).
After some chasing around the factory, the kid does The Rabbit in by dumping a ton of Trix onto him.
At first, The Rabbit is elated, but slowly realizes just how terrible this truly was when he slowly starts to drown in the cereal.
The kid is relieved that he's finally free of The Rabbit.
But suddenly, a bunch of paste and Cocoa Puffs fall onto the kid, much to his dismay.
As he tries to get the puffs off him, he suddenly hears a faint "Cocoa Puffs", frightening him.
Soon enough, the kid finds himself attacked by Sonny the Cuckoo Bird, who begins to devour him.
The moment Sonny latches onto his head, prompting him to immediately start bleeding, the camera starts to pan, with the sounds of the kid's screams and Sonny's eating still being heard.
With that said, I'm asking anyone who sees this if they know or remember this animation I'm taking about.
And if so....
What's the name of it and who made it?
I really need to know.
This has been driving me crazy for the better of nearly 20 years!
Since it's Pixar's 40th anniversary (which I didn't even know about until just a few weeks ago), I've been thinking about what it would be like if @werothegreat ever did an analysis series on its films just like what he's doing with the films of the Disney Animated Canon.
Specifically with what titles they would get.
As they usually either relate to the main theme of the film, or an aspect of it.
This is what I came up with.
-Toy Story: What is Friendship?
-A Bug's Life: What is Community?
-Toy Story 2: What is Legacy?
-Monsters, Inc.: Why Should We Use Alternative Means?
-Finding Nemo: What Does It Mean to Be a Parent?
-The Incredibles: What is Identity?
-Cars: Why Should We Make Connections?
-Ratatouille: What is Art?
-Wall-E: What Does It Mean to Live?
-Up: Why Should We Move On?
-Toy Story 3: Should We Let Go?
-Cars 2: How Does One Be A Spy?
-Brave: What are Parental Bonds?
-Monsters University: How Do We Deal with Failure? (or Why Do We Retcon?)
-Inside Out: Why Do Emotions Matter?
-The Good Dinosaur: Why Do We Do Alternate History? (or What is Wasted Potential?)
-Finding Dory: Why Should We Look to Our Past?
-Cars 3: When Should We Pass the Torch?
-Coco: Why Should We Remember Our Family?
-Incredibles 2: What are Gender Roles (or Do We Need Heroes?)
-Toy Story 4: What is One's Purpose?
-Onward: What is Brotherhood?
-Soul: Should We Always Strive for Greatness in Life?
-Luca: Why is Acceptance Important?
-Turning Red: How Do We Deal with Puberty?
-Lightyear: Why Does Andy Have Bad Taste? (or Why Does Pixar Hate Buzz Lightyear of Star Command?)
Since it's Pixar's 40th anniversary (which I didn't even know about until just a few weeks ago), I've been thinking about what it would be like if @werothegreat ever did an analysis series on its films just like what he's doing with the films of the Disney Animated Canon.
Specifically with what titles they would get.
As they usually either relate to the main theme of the film, or an aspect of it.
This is what I came up with.
-Toy Story: What is Friendship?
-A Bug's Life: What is Community?
-Toy Story 2: What is Legacy?
-Monsters, Inc.: Why Should We Use Alternative Means?
-Finding Nemo: What Does It Mean to Be a Parent?
-The Incredibles: What is Identity?
-Cars: Why Should We Make Connections?
-Ratatouille: What is Art?
-Wall-E: What Does It Mean to Live?
-Up: Why Should We Move On?
-Toy Story 3: Should We Let Go?
-Cars 2: How Does One Be A Spy?
-Brave: What are Parental Bonds?
-Monsters University: How Do We Deal with Failure? (or Why Do We Retcon?)
-Inside Out: Why Do Emotions Matter?
-The Good Dinosaur: Why Do We Do Alternate History? (or What is Wasted Potential?)
-Finding Dory: Why Should We Look to Our Past?
-Cars 3: When Should We Pass the Torch?
-Coco: Why Should We Remember Our Family?
-Incredibles 2: What are Gender Roles (or Do We Need Heroes?)
-Toy Story 4: What is One's Purpose?
-Onward: What is Brotherhood?
-Soul: Should We Always Strive for Greatness in Life?
-Luca: Why is Acceptance Important?
-Turning Red: How Do We Deal with Puberty?
-Lightyear: Why Does Andy Have Bad Taste? (or Why Does Pixar Hate Buzz Lightyear of Star Command?)
Since it's Pixar's 40th anniversary (which I didn't even know about until just a few weeks ago), I've been thinking about what it would be like if @werothegreat ever did an analysis series on its films just like what he's doing with the films of the Disney Animated Canon.
Specifically with what titles they would get.
As they usually either relate to the main theme of the film, or an aspect of it.
This is what I came up with.
-Toy Story: What is Friendship?
-A Bug's Life: What is Community?
-Toy Story 2: What is Legacy?
-Monsters, Inc.: Why Should We Use Alternative Means?
-Finding Nemo: What Does It Mean to Be a Parent?
-The Incredibles: What is Identity?
-Cars: Why Should We Make Connections?
-Ratatouille: What is Art?
-Wall-E: What Does It Mean to Live?
-Up: Why Should We Move On?
-Toy Story 3: Should We Let Go?
-Cars 2: How Does One Be A Spy?
-Brave: What are Parental Bonds?
-Monsters University: How Do We Deal with Failure? (or Why Do We Retcon?)
-Inside Out: Why Do Emotions Matter?
-The Good Dinosaur: Why Do We Do Alternate History? (or What is Wasted Potential?)
-Finding Dory: Why Should We Look to Our Past?
-Cars 3: When Should We Pass the Torch?
-Coco: Why Should We Remember Our Family?
-Incredibles 2: What are Gender Roles (or Do We Need Heroes?)
-Toy Story 4: What is One's Purpose?
-Onward: What is Brotherhood?
-Soul: Should We Always Strive for Greatness in Life?
-Luca: Why is Acceptance Important?
-Turning Red: How Do We Deal with Puberty?
-Lightyear: Why Does Andy Have Bad Taste? (or Why Does Pixar Hate Buzz Lightyear of Star Command?)
The Nicktoons have given us worlds that will forever remain with us.
Some that were relatively grounded in our reality like Bluffington, Hillwood City, Royal Woods, and pretty much all the settings of the Klasky-Csupo Nicktoons.
Some that had more fantastical elements like Dimmsdale, Retroville, Amity Park, Tremorton, O-Town and whatever the name of the city Invader Zim takes place in is.
And some that just go full on fantastical like Bikini Bottom, The Four Nations, and Petropolis.
But one world that has always fascinated me because of its potential was that of Tak and the Power of Juju.
Tak's world stood out from the other Nicktoons for being a not only being a fantasy world, but a tribal fantasy world.
Which is something that's really seen in media.
Most fantasy worlds are usually European inspired.
But with that, it was really disappointing that we never really saw a truly fleshed-out vision of Tak's world.
The games never really went into depth on anything, despite throwing in some interesting concepts and revealing some interesting lore.
And the TV show didn't even fucking try.
Well, recently, I've been working on my Nicktoons Re-Unite series.
Which I initially gave up on but eventually decided to revamp it into Nicktoon Heroes.
A lot of the elements from Re-Unite will be carried over into Heroes, and among them (specifically on the planned side) was to give more of a focus on Tak.
Particular with a series-long character arc of finding his parents.
Funnily enough, he isn't the only member of the Nicktoons team that has gone through that.
Along with touching on his status as a half-human/half-Juju hybrid.
Which was introduced in the show, and this version of Tak is an amalgamation of the games and the show.
And on the topic of this post, fleshing out his world.
Particularly, I want to give Tak's world more of an identity.
So sit back, grab a snack, stop looking at your drawing tablet, and let's dive right in!
So perhaps the most interesting bit of lore we receive for the Tak world is from The Great Juju Challenge.
Here it's revealed that there are other tribes besides The Pupununu.
Those being The Jibba Jabbas, The Grammazons, and The Black Mist.
We also get two more additions in the Game Boy Advance version with The Mind Raiders and The Zoopians.
Speaking of which, in that version, we also get to see where each tribe lives.
My goal here is to give each of the tribes their own unique identities and more specifically, give them strong cultural inspirations.
Akin to The Four Nations, with how they're each based on a section of Asian and Indigenous culture.
Starting this off we have none than the tribe of Tak himself: The Pupununu.
The Pupununu Tribe would be heavily inspired by the tribal cultures of The Amazon, Western Africa, and Southeast Asia.
The village is comprised of huts, stilt houses, vernacular houses and other types of structures made from wood, mud and clay with either thatched and wooden roofs akin to ones found in Western Africa and Southeast Asia.
The Chief and his family live in a omo sebua, a type of traditional house style of the Nias people from Nias Island, Indonesia
Going back to how they were described in the original games, The Pupununu people are peaceful, progressive and benevolent people.
They typically wear loinclothes, dresses, skirts, tunics and shúkàs of varying colors.
And adorn themselves with cool-colored tattoos, feathers and feathered headdresses, earrings, necklaces and bracelets made of colored beads, seeds, shells and animal teeth, beaded collars, brass neck rings, metal cuffs, ear weights, and headwraps.
As for their way of life.
The tribe practices in the ways of animism and shamanism.
They also perform ancestor worship, hold festivals to honor the jujus, and have community meetings and events in a maloca.
In their spare time, the tribe often make various crafts such as pottery, textiles, featherwork, jewelry, totems, masks, weave-work, metalwork, basketry, wood and stone carvings, and bead-woven accessories.
Although The Pupununu People are peaceful, they aren't afraid to step up and fight back against threats.
Among their weapons, they utilize blowguns and special types of darts with varying effects, swords like macanas and mandaus, spears like assegai, daggers like kpingas and krises.
When it comes to food, The Pupununu are primarily foragers, farmers and fishers.
They don't hunt very often.
The tribe forage and grow rice, plant roots and tubers like yams and cassava, corn, beans like soy, cacao and coffee, peas, grains, sugarcane, spices, and fruits like berries, citrus, coconuts and bananas.
Their livestock include cattle, pigs, goats, chicken, water buffaloes, and of course, sheep.
The Pupununu Tribe lives in The Great Jungle, a vast region of tropical forests, grasslands and wetlands.
The jungle is home to various animals including various types of macaws and parrots, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, poison dart frogs, toucans, tortoises, boas, anacondas, various types of butterflies, beetles and spiders, marmosets, iguanas, sloths, armadillos, anteaters, tapirs, river dolphins, crocodiles, caimans, piranhas, electric eels, lungfish, goliath catfish, arapaimas, capybaras, jaguars, harpy eagles, peccaries, river otters, elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, baboons, mandrills, colobus monkeys, lemurs, lions, zebras, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, leopards, gazelles, wildebeests, cape buffaloes, kudus, warthogs, okapis, giant forest hogs, marabou storks, pythons, giant toads, ostriches, jackals, hyenas, vultures, fish eagles, falcons, hornbills, meerkats, bongos, manatees, hyraxes, clawed frogs, orangutans, pangolins, macaques, proboscis monkeys, tigers, bats, cobras, flying lizards, clouded leopards, sun bears, spotted deer, porcupines, turtles, monitor lizards, tarsiers, giant hornets, peacocks, mouse deer, gibbons, and palm civets.
The world of Tak is also home to animals of both the past and of legend & fantasy.
As for the latter; there's Woodies (returning from the games), giant carnivorous plants, Mapinguaris (massive hairy, sasquatch-like creatures with one eye and a massive mouth on their stomachs), elemental serpents (massive snakes that can control the elements; coming in water, earth and fire variants), Iaras (wicked mermaids who use their beautiful voices to lure wary travelers, particularly men, to a watery grave), Yacurunas (a race of fish-like humanoids who protect the rivers and sources of water of The Great Jungle), Curupiras (a race of dwarfs who possess backward feet), swamp dragons (aquatic dragons that reside in the wetlands that possess venomous saliva), Jengus (benevol mermaids who possess the power to use water to heal and serve as protectors along the river), Adzes (a race of vampires with insect-like wings that often disguise themselves as fireflies), Asimen (another race of vampires, that can transform into a ball of light and fly through the night sky to hunt for human prey) The Mat Swindler (a malevolent trickster gnome who always carries around a mat and will grant who's ever willing to snatch his mat rich. If they don't, they'll be cursed with bad luck), Mmoatias (fairies that aid humans, particularly shamans, with finding herbs), Leyaks (shape-shifting practitioners of black magic who roams at night as a floating head with a protruding tongue and fangs, seeking to consume human flesh), Nagas (powerful multi-headed serpents that serve as protectors to the lost and weak), Garudas (a race of half-human, half-bird creatures that possess divine wisdom and intelligence), Tikbalangs (A race of towering, horse-headed humanoid creatures that protect the jungle and its inhabitants), Belus (a race of giant, cannibalistic orges), and Ngepets (a group of boar-headed humanoids who steal from humans and animals alike).
Well that's all for now.
Hoped you guys liked it.
As I said before, I really wanted to give the world of Tak a much more fleshed-out identity, since it clearly had a lot of potential to do so.
Let me know what you guys think about this, and I'd to hear some ideas on what the cultural inspirations for the other tribes should be.
Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera Themed Dinner Ideas (Part 1)
So, going off the themed dinner ideas poll I left, the category that got the most votes was for Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera.
Which I was surprised by, since I figured it either would've been Disney TV Shows, Nicktoons, of Cartoon Network.
But I ain't complaing.
Each dinner will consists of a drink, an appetizer, an entree, two sides, and a dessert.
So without further ado, let's get started!
Looney Tunes:
-"What's Up, Doc?" Carrot Board: A rustic charcuterie featuring honey-roasted and raw tri-color baby carrots, paired with a creamy dill dip, sharp cheddar cheese cubes, crackers, and prosciutto.
-Martian "Space Modulator" Punch: A bubbly, neon-green concoction that's a combination of pineapple juice, ginger ale, and a scoop of lime sherbet. Garnish the rim of the serving glasses with green sugar crystals and a cherry.
-"That's All Folks!" Smoked Pulled Pork: Slow-cooked pulled pork slathered in a tangy sweet barbecue sauce, served on toasted brioche buns with a side of house-made pickles.
-The Tazmanian Devil's Spicy Tornado Tots: Crispy, golden tater tots tossed in a dash of cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika.
-Roadrunner's Zesty Southwest Corn Salad: A classic Southwestern side dish made with sweet corn, black beans, diced red bell pepper, cilantro, red onion, and a lime juice vinaigrette.
-Tweety Bird's "I Tawt I Taw a Puddin' Pie": Individual mini banana cream pies topped with whipped cream, vanilla wafer crumbles, and a candied lemon slice.
Tiny Toons:
-Plucky’s Pimento Cheese Crostini: Crispy toasted baguette slices topped with a pimento cheese spread.
-Elmyra’s Pink Lemonade Punch: A sweet, bright-pink punch combining pink lemonade, Sprite, and a scoop of raspberry sherbet. Garnish the rim of the serving glasses with pink sugar.
-Montana Max’s Loaded Million-Dollar Mac & Cheese: A rich, golden-standard macaroni and cheese topped with crushed Ritz crackers and strips of crispy bacon.
-Dizzy Devil’s Fiery Tornado Slaw: A crunchy coleslaw made with purple cabbage, carrots, and a kick of jalapeño.
-Hamton J. Pig’s Triple-Decker Chocolate Sundae: A sundae piled high with chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, chocolate chips, and a cherry on top.
Animaniacs:
-"Good Idea, Bad Idea" Caprese Skewers: Alternating skewers of cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella pearls, and fresh basil, drizzled with a rich balsamic glaze.
-The "Pinky and the Brain" Potion Punch: A layered mocktail that's equal parts lemonade and sparkling water, with a splash of blue raspberry slushy mix at the very bottom.
-"Hellooooo Nurse!" Chicken Parmesan Sliders: Crispy, breaded pan-fried chicken cutlets smothered in marinara sauce and melted mozzarella, served on toasted garlic slider buns.
-"Wakko's I Love Food" Loaded Mac & Cheese Bites: Individual, oven-baked macaroni and cheese muffins loaded with bacon bits and a crispy breadcrumb top.
-"Anvil" Chocolate Fudge Brownies: Rich, dense, square chocolate fudge brownies shaped like anvils, topped with a shiny dark chocolate ganache and edible silver luster dust.
Xiaolin Showdown:
- "Eye of Dashi" Spring Rolls: Crispy vegetable and pork spring rolls served with a sweet and spicy chili dipping sauce.
-"Water & Wind" Melon Bubble Tea: A refreshing blend of honeydew melon, jasmine green tea, and milk, served with chewy tapioca pearls.
-"Golden Tiger Claw" Kung Pao Chicken & Tofu: A sweet and savory stir-fry with tender chicken and crispy tofu, topped with crushed peanuts and scallions. Serve with a side of Monk’s Fried Rice.
-"Third-Arm Sash" Spicy Edamame: Steamed soybeans tossed in coarse sea salt, chili flakes, and toasted sesame oil.
- "Fist of Tebigong" Sweet Chili Brussels Sprouts: Roasted Brussels sprouts caramelized with a tangy sweet chili glaze.
- "Longhorn Taurus" Matcha Coconut Parfait: Layers of vibrant green matcha cream, coconut flakes, and crushed graham crackers, topped with a star-shaped shortbread cookie.
Yogi Bear:
-Ranger Smith’s Veggie Sticks & Dip: Fresh baby carrots, celery sticks, and cherry tomatoes served in mini woven wicker baskets lined with checkered wax paper, served with a side of honey-flavored ranch.
-Jellystone Huckleberry Lemonade: A sweet and tart blend of fresh-squeezed lemonade and huckleberry syrup, garnished with fresh mint and lemon wheels.
-"Pick-a-Nic" Pulled Pork Sandwiches: Slow-cooked, tender pulled pork slathered in a sweet and smoky barbecue sauce, topped with crispy kettle chips, served on toasted brioche buns.
-Jellystone Baked Beans: Hearty navy beans simmered with bacon, brown sugar, a splash of molasses, and diced yellow onions.
-Boo-Boo’s Sweet Cornbread: Warm, golden-brown, and buttery squares of cornbread baked with a touch of real honey.
-:Cindy's Berry Cobbler: A bubbling, warm cobbler made with fresh blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries, topped with a buttery, biscuit-like crust. Serve with scoops of vanilla bean ice cream.
The Flintstones:
-Bronto Ribs: Baby back ribs slathered in a sticky, sweet, and tangy BBQ sauce.
-Pebbles Punch: A sweet blend of fruit punch, ginger ale, and cherry syrup, garnished with gummy dinosaurs.
-Mammoth Steaks: Thick-cut, bone-in ribeyes seared to juicy perfection.
-Fred's Cobblestone Potatoes: Hearty, crispy pan-fried diced potatoes seasoned with garlic and rosemary.
-Wilma's Stone-Age Salad: A crunchy, sweet, and savory broccoli salad loaded with sunflower seeds and dried cranberries.
-George's Planetary Shrimp Cocktail: Blue-dyed shrimp paired with an interstellar cocktail sauce that glows under a blacklight (use a few drops of tonic water in the sauce).
-The Elroy Orbit-Fizz: A refreshing mix of lemonade and ginger ale, garnished with popping boba, and a glowing LED ice cube in each glass.
-Astro's Atomic Ribeye Steaks: Perfectly seared ribeye steaks served with geometric, star-shaped fried potatoes and an "alien-slime" chimichurri drizzle.
-Spacely Sprocket Squash: Butternut squash and zucchini ribbons spiralized into perfect metallic-looking sprockets, roasted with garlic, and tossed with edible silver shimmer.
-Jet-Pared Stuffed Tomatoes: Roasted Roma tomatoes hollowed out and filled with a bubbling quinoa and melted gruyère mixture.
-Orbit City's Molecular Cotton Candy Cake: A dense, glowing vanilla sponge cake topped with massive, floating domes of pastel blue and pink cotton candy.
Scooby-Doo!:
-Monster Mask Loaded Nachos: A massive, shareable platter of tortilla chips topped with shredded cheese, seasoned black beans, pico de gallo, and guacamole. Use strategically placed sliced jalapeños, black olives, and sour cream to create spooky "monster eye" patterns across the plate.
-The Mystery Machine Punch: A bright, fizzy green punch made by mixing lemon-lime soda, pineapple juice, and scoops of lime sherbet.
-The Scooby and Shaggy Super-Decker Sandwich: A massive, 18-inch sub filled with ham, turkey, roast beef, pepperoni, salami, bacon, American cheese, cheddar, Swiss, Colby jack, lettuce, onions, pickles, tomatoes, banana peppers, and a special mystery sauce (a combination of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and relish), topped with olives skewered with toothpicks.
-Ruh-Roh! Roasted Potato Wedges: Roasted wedges of russet potatoes tossed generously with olive oil, smoked paprika, garlic powder, sea salt, and a pinch of cayenne.
-Jinkies! Jalapeno Poppers: Crispy, breaded fried jalapenos filled with a shredded cheese and cream cheese mixture and wrapped in bacon.
-Scooby Snacks: Peanut butter cookies shaped like dog bones and paw prints.
Wacky Races:
-The Slag Brothers' Bouldering Bites: Cocktail beef meatballs slathered in BBQ sauce and honey.
-Penelope Pitstop's Pink Punch: A sweet and bubbly drink that's a mixture of pink lemonade, ginger ale, and a splash of grenadine. Rim the glasses with pink sanding sugar and garnish with a maraschino cherry.
-Peter Perfect's Turbo-Charged Rigatoni: Cooked rigatoni coated in meaty bolognese and top with a generous helping of shredded mozzarella.
-Professor Pat Pending's Potion Slaw: A creamy coleslaw made from shredded green and purple cabbage, grated carrots, and diced green apples. Toss in a dressing made of mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, and a pinch of celery seed.
-Rufus Ruffcut's Pothole Potatoes: Smashed baby red potatoes, tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic Dick Dastardly" Double-Cross Fudge Brownies.
-Dick Dastardly's Double-Cross Fudge Brownies: Fudge brownies filled with dark and milk chocolate chips.
Tom and Jerry:
-Spike's T-Bone Bites: Mini sirloin steaks served with roasted baby carrots.
-The Golden Canary Punch: A bright, fizzy blend of sparkling apple cider, orange juice, and a splash of yellow food coloring, garnished with an orange slice.
-Jerry's Giant Swiss Feast: A Gruyère and Emmental fondue with cubes of bread, broccoli, Granny Smith apple slices, tortilla chips, and bacon-wrapped sausages.
I DID IT
Its 4am but I finally finished this damn piece that has been haunting me for like a year now(I think, at this point i cant remember when I drew it XD)
Anyway, it could have been done better, but Im honestly just happy I finished it.
So recently, I've been watching accounts such as @make_some_dinner_magic and @thefairytalefoodie, which are famous for making family dinners themed around movies.
They're really fun to watch, and they both a really good job at translating the films' theming into food form.
But recently, I've been thinking about the same thing, but with other screen-based media like TV shows, cartoons and video games.
So I'm leaving this poll to see which category theme I should do first for this series of tasty ideas!
As I'm sure many of you know, X-Men '97 is officially returning this summer for Season 2.
And the reactions have been......pretty mixed.
More so than when the series was first announced.
Now there's several reasons as to why that's the case.
But one I want to focus on is the fact that people are starting to worry X-Men are gonna be doomed to nostalgia.
I mean, when it first came out, X-Men '97 was a big deal since this was the first non-movie or comic piece of X-Men media we had gotten in OVER A DECADE!
The last piece of that was with the X-Men anime and X-Men Destiny, which both came out back in 2011!
Not helping was how for most of the 2010s, Marvel notoriously forbid any use of The X-Men outside of the comics, due to their pissing contest with 20th Century Fox, who still held the film rights to the team.
For God's sake, it was this case of corporate theatrics that KILLED Marvel vs. Capcom!
But ever since 2019, The X-Men have been making their way out of The Shadow Realm, following The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of Fox.
And while it was cool to see The X-Men back in animation again, this was not the way to go.
X-Men '97 is a revival of a show that had ended almost 27 years prior.
And on a good note!
So this does beg the question.
If you're gonna make a new animated series for The X-Men, why make it a revival of a long-ended show with a satisfying conclusion?
Which also ties into why a revival for X-Men: The Animated Series specifically?
If anything, X-Men Evolution and Wolverine and The X-Men were more deserving of revivals.
Now X-Men Evolution did have a satisfying conclusion, but famously, there were plans for a fifth season.
It would've saw a major timeskip, seeing the team now as adults.
Plus they would've gotten new members in the form of Iceman, Colossus and X-23.
The season was also gonna see their own adaptation of The Phoenix Saga.
Introduce The Hellfire Club, as well Emma Frost and Psylocke as new major characters.
Magneto would've turned over a new leaf and become a new mentor to The New Mutants.
And Mr. Sinister was gonna make his debut and presumably become the main villain of the season.
And there's Wolverine and The X-Men, which infamously only lasted one season.
The reason why is because while it did do very well critically and in the ratings, it was cancelled due to budgetary reasons, as the show had just become too expensive to continue.
And the reason for that was because one of the show's main investors had pulled out of the project.
While the identity of this investor hasn't been revealed (as far as I know), it's been heavily speculated that it was none other than Fox, since they still own the film rights to The X-Men.
And given when Season 2 would've been in production, Disney would've just bought out Marvel Comics.
And since Disney and Fox were major competitors, it all starts to make sense.
But anyway, Season 2 would've seen an adaptation of Age of Apocalypse, with the eponymous warlord being the main villain of the season.
There would've been two plots.
The first focusing on The X-Men having to stop Apocalypse from conquering the world in their own timeline, and the second focusing on Xavier ending up in the AOA timeline and having to aid the X-Men there.
In terms of new notable characters.
Colossus would've returned to the team, alongside his little sister Magik.
New heroes like Cable, Sunfire, Havok, Jubilee, and Deadpool (who would've definitely been voiced by Nolan North) would've been introduced.
As well as new villains like Bastion, who would've served as the secondary villain of the season.
In the AOA timeline, the characters were planned to sport their looks from the comic.
Speaking of looks, Cyclops and Jean Grey would've gotten new outfits that were essentially modernized versions of their iconic 90s suits, as well new hairdos.
On the topic of Cyclops, Season 2 was planned to finally do him and Storm justice and have them be the leaders of the team again.
And while not much work was done for Season 3, the overall plan was for it to be an adaptation of House of M.
And even then, for a new X-Men series, why not do a new take on the characters.....like most other new animated series based on superhero franchises do?
Now the main problem with X-Men '97’s existence (besides it really having no reason to exist) really arose just today, as it was announced that the series would be receiving FOUR SEASONS!
I thought X-Men '97 would’ve had two seasons and just be over with!
But no, it’s gonna be around for a long while.
And that’s gonna be a major issue.
I’ve noticed that after Season 1 finish airing, people have been way more critical of '97.
And on rewatch, it’s not hard to see why.
The horrendous pacing and just trying to do too much at once, the mishandling of many major characters, questionable writing choices, and glaring continuity issues when considering the original animated series and the much larger 90s Marvel animated universe.
Now a lot of this was the result of…..he who shall not be named.
But there were other major factors like the 10 episode count.
And even with HIM being gone, the second season is very likely still gonna have ten episodes, and possibly still feel bloated.
And that’s a major reason as to why I’ve seen a lot of people so mixed on Season 2.
Now there’s always a chance that things will improve, but you never really know.
But yeah, we’re gonna be stuck with 90s X-Men for years to come.
And let’s be real, there’s only so much 90s X-Men one person can take before it starts to get old……
And me saying that The X-Men are gonna be doomed to nostalgia isn’t just because of X-Men '97 existing and running on much longer than it has any reasons to.
There’s also the fact that the team have yet to receive any new official versions in The Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The only ones we’ve seen are from the Fox Universe.
This has become especially a point of contention since in Avengers Doomsday, which will be coming this holiday season, it was revealed that they’re bringing back the entire team from the early Fox films.
Or at least some of the team.
Which begs the question why are they stalling on introducing a new version of the team into the MCU and just relying on a previously existing version from a different iteration?
It’s been 7 years already!
There’s nothing really holding you back.
You did with The Fantastic Four.
Why can’t you do with The X-Men?
To wrap this up, I wanna leave this little poll right here.
Which X-Men cartoon is more deserving on a revival?
Disney Heroes (TV Series Concept): The Look and The Heroes (Part 1)
@synergysilhouette
So one thing that's been really interesting is how creative Disney has been with stuff featuring their classic characters as of late.
Specifically when it comes to their aesthetics and styles.
Whether it be an action RPG featuring alternate universe versions of their characters that are combat ready and battle hardened.
A racing game with the characters in NASCAR-esque attire.
An RPG with the characters in a pixel art-style.
And even a card game that's basically focused on the Disney multiverse, featuring alternate versions of various characters.
You can't deny that Disney is cooking with this stuff.
But one thing that people are still clamoring for is a proper crossover.
With how crossover obsessed the entertainment industry is, you would think Disney would try to capitalize on that.
Especially given the sheer FUCKload of IPs they have under their belts.
And specifically, one that really sees that characters truly interacting with each other.
However, the only ones in recent history that we've gotten were the LEGO Disney Princesses specials and Disney Chibiverse.
While it is cool to see official Disney media that does allow their characters to interact with each other, is it a little disappointing that it's only being used for primarily comedic stuff.
Which isn't a bad thing, but it would great to see something more plot-focused and story-driven.
Really taking advantage of the vast library of Disney history and the rich lore of many of their films have.
But then remembered my idea for a revival for the long-cancelled and forgotten Disney Heroes franchise, which I admittedly didn't do much with.
And in that idea, I said one of the best ways for it to start would be a TV series.
And since I've been getting into thinking about how shows and other pieces of media could be merchandised, I'd figured I'd give this a shot.
Especially since I've never really done a season plan, but with my idea for an show as opposed to an already existing show.
So sit back, relax, and join me as a I take you on a trip on how I think a Disney Heroes animated series would play out!
To start this off, we need to establish what the tone and look of the series would be like.
Disney Heroes would be an action-adventure series.
Featuring intense and energetic action, and almost cinematic-like set pieces.
But it also have a slight comedic and lighthearted edge to it all as well.
The series would feel like a throwback to many of the action shows that we grew up on throughout the 1990s, the 2000s and early 2010s.
The best way I could describe the feel and style of this show would that it would have the camaraderie and teamwork feeling of Justice League, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shows and movies, the slightly comedic edgings of Kim Possible and Danny Phantom, and the cinematic-style and fast-paced action of Samurai Jack and The Spectacular Spider-Man.
Definitely helping would be the trio that I think could helm this series.
That trio being Greg Weisman, Bob Roth and Bill Motz.
These three have been longtime veterans in the animation industry.
And already have a good history with Disney.
Greg is famously the creator of Gargoyles, the co-creator and producer of Bonkers (surprisingly), was a recurring writer on Kim Possible, and a producer of season 2 of W.I.T.C.H.
As for Bob and Bill, they've been longtime writers at Disney Television Animation.
They wrote for shows such as Darkwing Duck, Marsupilami, Aladdin: The Series, Quack Pack, Hercules: The Series, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, the aforementioned Kim Possible, Brandy & Mr. Whiskers, The Emperor's New School, Phineas and Ferb, and Big Hero 6: The Series.
They also created their own shows for Disney, those being The Ghost and Molly McGee and The Legend of Tarzan.
One thing to note about Disney Heroes would be that it'd be pretty squarely in TV-14 territory.
The characters will swear, there are references to stuff like alcohol and drugs, and the violence would be far more intense and graphic when compared to all other Disney shows.
Now it’s not gonna be a total gorefest like Invincible or Primal, but the characters here are gonna get real fucked up in fights.
But this does lead to the big question on where this show would even air.
I know Disney Plus would be the go-to place to have it run.
But in all honesty, I really don’t want it to.
Largely because I’d like to have this series to have an actual good episode count for every fucking season.
Plus I’d actually like it for it to air on a weekly basis instead of dumping the whole thing at once and have people wait two fucking years for the next dump.
Instead, I think the best place for it to air would be either Disney Channel or Freeform.
The latter needs no explanation, but for the former.
This would be going off my Disney Channel rebranding concept, where the channel would be made to be for all ages and target all age demographics.
The series would air as part of the Saturday night block: Disney's Action Quest.
Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about the look of the series.
For the animation, that would be done by the legendary TMS Entertainment.
Being animated in a similar style to CyberSix.
As for the art-style, there are two character designers that I think would be perfect for this more action-oriented take on the Disney mythos.
First there's Joe Madureira, best known for creating Darksiders and Battle Chasers, as well his art on major comic books such as Uncanny X-Men.
And the other is Jeff Matsuda, the character designer of comic books like Kaboom, TV shows like Jackie Chan Adventures and The Batman, and films like TMNT.
Now with that out of the way, let's talk about the characters.
But first, we need to discuss about the representation of Disney Heroes.
Disney Heroes would pull from all across the Disney library, from the well-known, to the borderline obscure.
But for the first season, it'll focus squarely on The Disney Animated Canon.
As for the primary films that would be represented in the show and the main cast (as well as the franchise) these would the films that would have very fit in the more action-oriented and adventurous setting.
Mickey Mouse and Friends
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
Sleeping Beauty
The Sword in the Stone
The Jungle Book
Robin Hood
The Black Cauldron
The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
The Lion King
Pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
Tarzan
The Emperor's New Groove
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Lilo & Stitch
Treasure Planet
Brother Bear
Home on the Range
The Princess and the Frog
Tangled
Frozen
Big Hero 6
Zootopia
Moana
Raya and the Last Dragon
Strange World
Wish
Okay, now it's time to OFFICIALLY talk about the characters.
Starting off with the main heroes, these being the characters that you'll see the most on the merchandising and marketing.
And starting this off with we have none other than the main mouse himself: Mickey Mouse, The Brush-Wielder!
Mickey would sport a more lean and angular look, often sporting a mischievous look on his face, as he would be brought back to his mischievous and adventurous nature from his early days.
As for his outfit; he would wear cargo pants version of his trademark shorts, yellow fingerless gloves, and yellow combat boots.
As for what he brings and what he can do in battle.
In addition to being incredibly crafty, fast and agile, Mickey wields a magic paintbrush (just like in Epic Mickey) that allows him to paint anything he can think of, making him a very versatile fighter.
He can create barriers and shields to protect himself and his allies, create stairways to reach elevated areas, make multiple paint shooting guns to attack enemies from all sides, and even create clones of himself.
In the lore on Disney Heroes, Mickey is a trailblazer, always exploring the many worlds of the Disney universe.
As a result, he already knows a decent chunk of characters from the start.
As for his voice, Mickey would be voiced again by Chris Diamantopoulos.
Up next we have Alice Liddell, The Wonderland Paladin.
Alice would wear a light blue armored tunic, featuring a high-collared bodice over a reinforced, chainmail-lined white pinafore apron, white and blue stripped leggings, white padded leather gaiters, sturdy black combat boots, fingerless white leather gloves, and a black headband.
As for what she brings and what she can do in battle.
Alice wields various Wonderland trinkets to aid her in combat.
There's the Eat Me treats and Drink Me potions, that allow Alice to change her size at will, as well as those around her.
The Vorpal Sword, a short sword sharp enough to slay the feared Jabberwocky.
And The Cheshire Cloak, a magical, ragged cloak woven by the Cheshire Cat that allows her to turn invisible.
As for her lore, it's essentially the same as it was in the original film.
However, she made actual meaningful connections in Wonderland.
In addition, her time was actually real and not a dream like in the original.
As for her voice, she would be voiced again by Hynden Walch.
Now we come to Peter Pan, The Never Land Guardian.
Peter would wear the same outfit from the short-lived relaunch of the original franchise, and his hair would be little more spikier than usual.
As for what he brings and what he can do in battle
Peter can fly, is incredibly agile, can manipulate his living shadow, and possesses enhanced senses, with hawk-like vision, keen hearing, and a supernatural ability to sense incoming danger.
He fights with his trusty dagger, and a bow with a quiver full of special trick arrows that have all sorts of effects.
As for his lore, it's pretty much the same.
However here, The Darling Children regularly visit him.
As for his voice, Peter would be voiced again by Blayne Weaver.
Next we have Aurora, The Knight of the Dawn.
Aurora would wear a ruggedized battle-gown featuring a reinforced, forest-green brigandine over a white peasant blouse and matching pink steel-toed leather riding boots and gloves, and gold pauldrons and vambraces (emblazoned with the Three Fairies' crest).
She would also have some braids embroidered in the back of her hair.
As for what she brings and what she can do in battle
Aurora wields The Dawn Lance, an enchanted lance that can deal immense damage to magical forces, and The Aegis of Love, a pearlescent, kite-style knight's shield featuring embossed floral patterns that can deflect magical attacks and project a special sleep-inducing mist.
She can also sprout faerie-like wings on her back to grant herself incredible agility and the ability to glide.
As for her lore, it's essentially the same.
However, after returning home, Aurora developed an interest in jousting, which is a trait that's actually canon, as shown in some storybooks.
As for her voice, Aurora would be voiced again by Kate Higgins.
Up next we have Arthur Pendragon, The Boy King.
Arthur would wear a sleek, royal blue and gold-trimmed knight’s tunic over articulated silver chainmail, brown breeches, maroon leggings, gold gauntlets and sabatons, and a red cape.
As for what he brings and what he can do in battle.
Arthur wields the legendary sword Excalibur and a golden shield with a lion crest.
As for his lore, it's pretty much the same.
Though here, after becoming king, Sir Ector and Kay began training Arthur in the ways of the knights.
As for his voice, Arthur would now be voiced by Haley Reinhart.
Now we come to Mowgli, The Man Cub.
Mowgli would wear a more traditional red loincloth, vine belt, and red leather wrappings around his wrists and ankles.
His hair would also be more messy and wild and cover the upper half of his eyes.
As for what he brings and what he can do in battle.
Mowgli is incredibly athletic and acrobatic, and can seamlessly blend into the jungle, making him usual for stealth-related tasks.
He fights with a quarterstaff and a sling made from vines.
As for his lore, it's really not that different from original.
The only real difference is that Mowgli was able to put up more of a fight against his foes.
As for his voice, Mowgli would be voiced again by Adan Carrillo.
Next we Robin Hood, The Sherwood Outlaw.
Robin Hood would wear an outfit that's essentially a combination of these two from Disney Lorcana.
As for what he brings and what he can do in battle.
Robin Hood is a master archer, a master acrobat, and a master of disguises.
He wields a longbow, a quiver of arrows, and a broadsword in battle.
As for his lore, it's pretty much the same.
As for his voice, Robin Hood would be now voiced by Matthew Mercer.
Now we come to Taran, The Hero of Prydain.
Taran would wear a textured, ivy-green hooded vest worn over a sun-yellow long-sleeve shirt, reinforced with faux-leather bracers and worn, travel-stained breeches tucked into heavy-duty brown combat boots.
As for what he brings and what he can do in battle.
Taran is a skilled swordsman and is able to duel with opponents far bigger and stronger than him.
He wields the mythical sword Dyrnwyn, which allows him to manipulate righteous flames.
As for his lore....
Check this out right here.
Reimagining: The Black Cauldron (1985) — literature by Evilgidgit on DeviantArt. Published: 2023-10-22 · Likes: 17 · Views: 5598 · Comments:
As for his voice, Taran would be now voiced by Malie Flanagan.
Now we arrive to Ariel, The Deep Sea Warrior.
Ariel would wear ornate, iridescent (though mostly cool colors like blue and purple) bio-armor made of enchanted coral and mother-of-pearl, with matching bracers. When on land, she obtains a sea greens skirt.
Ariel is also more muscular.
As for what she brings and what she can do in battle.
Ariel possesses superhuman strength and speed, can unleashed a sonic scream, and can switch human and mermaid forms at will.
She wields her Dinglehopper Trident, a deadly, multi-pronged spear crafted from enchanted shipwreck metals and magical sea-reeds. It functions as a piercing weapon in close combat and allows her to shoot powerful energy blasts and manipulate water in various ways. She also wields a spiked buckler made from coral for defense.
As for her lore, it's not that different from the orifinal.
However, here she was trained in the ways of the warrior by Triton.
As for her voice, Ariel would be voiced again by Jodi Benson.
Now we come to a duo in the form of Belle and The Beast, The Enchanted Scholar and Beastly Prince respectively.
They would both be wearing the same outfits from Disney Mirrorverse.
As for what they both bring and what they can do in battle.
Belle is a skilled sorceresses, a surprisingly good strategist, and is pretty agile.
She wields an enchanted rose staff that allows her to cast magical spells, which she utilizes with a tome full of magical spells.
Beast possesses immense physical strength, speed, agility, reflexes and stamina, has animalistic senses, and can enter a special berserker mode that greatly enhances his physical prowess.
He wields a massive battle axe in battle.
As for their lore, it's essentially the same.
Though here, they were able to break the curse for the servants (in a way), Beast would still remain a beast.
But thanks to the love from Belle, he didn't really mind that much.
And let's be real, he oddly looks way better as a beast than as a human.
As for their voices, Belle and Beast would be voiced again by Julie Nathanson and Robby Benson.
And lastly, for this part at least, we come to Aladdin, The Prince of Thieves.
Aladdin would wear the same outfit from the planned rebrand of the original franchise, but his gloves would be fingerless and his shoes would be ankle braces.
As for what he brings and what he can do in battle.
Aladdin is incredibly crafty and cunning, is a master thief, and is incredibly agile.
He fights with a big scimitar and several throwing daggers.
As for his lore, it's not too different from the original.
However, his mother Zena (who was planned to be a major character in the original) is still alive and served as another major catalyst for Aladdin to find the Genie's lamp, wanting her to no longer live a life of poverty.
As for his voice, Aladdin would be voiced again by Scott Weinger.
Well that's it for now!
I hope you all enjoyed this first part of a long series.
Let me know what you guys think so far!
Also, I'd like to leave this poll here to see who you guys think should do the art-style of the show.
We've come to the final part of this retrospective.
As I said in the last part, it was revealed that Penny and Victor would still be couple in 320 Freleng Avenue.
As you would expect, people braced themselves for cringe.
Given they were still suffering from the PTSD that Matthew gave them from everything he previously did with them.
And the funny thing is......
This is actually the best the couple has ever been in their entire history.
They're still not good mind you, but when compared to how they were in the original CartoonMania and especially the planned reboot, they're a considerable improvement.
For starters, a lot of the problematic elements of the original have either been removed or heavily toned down.
Now there are still moments of Penny either ambushing Victor and/or smothering him with kissing.
But this is to a considerably lesser degree than it was before.
It also helps that this time around, Penny and Victor actually feel like equals.
So we're not being forced to watch something that while technically not pedophilia or incest, does give off those vibes.
Also, I do kinda like how here, Penny is shown that she can be flustered by Victor herself, which never happened in the original.
So it's not just him constantly being flustered.
Plus, the couple are actually shown to be able to be causal around each other instead of just constantly lovey dovey all the time.
But even with that, there's still a few issues.
We still don't quite have a good grasp on their chemistry, but at least there's an attempt at actually having some.
And then there's Penny herself.
Now Penny is far better than how she was in the original and especially the planned reboot.
She's no longer a damn predator, and her status as a magician is actually focused on!
However, there's stuff like this.
In 320FA, Penny is deliberately antisocial due to being a sheep (and the stereotypes surrounding the animal) and doesn't like to be around really anyone in general because of that.
Which isn't inherently bad for a personality.
But then you look at her relationship with Victor and this whole thing starts to become contradictory.
And while Penny isn't nearly as obsessed with Victor when compared to her original counterparts, she's still very head over heels for him.
Though Matthew did explain why he made Penny and Victor a couple and gave an in-universe backstory on how they even got together in this version.
And it's thankfully much better.
But while we understand why Victor loves Penny, we're never given a reason why she loves him.
Which is strange since.....
1#) Given what Penny's personality is like now, it seems strange that she would even hook up with....anyone in general, let alone be head over heels for them.
And 2#) It's also a stark contrast to the original CartoonMania, where we're given an explanation why Penny loves Victor but not the other way around.
But besides that, another reason why people still don't like this couple (besides trauma) is also because of just how much Matthew constantly talks about them.
It's pretty clear that Penny and Victor are his favorite characters.
And it's understandable for any creator to have their favorites.
But Matthew constantly takes every chance he can to utterly GLAZE these two!
Not helping by the fact that he hardly talks about or give anything to the other CartoonMania characters, including the actual main characters.
Top that off with how much the couple's reputation was already well into the damn toilet thanks to what Matthew did with them in the past.
On his BlueSky and Instagram, most of his 320 Freleng Avenue content was either about PenVic or random fucking background characters.
Which Matthew has really put a huge emphasis on for this series.
I understand it's because he wants to actually make the world actually feel alive this time and give it some personality, but you know you still gotta focus on your actual major characters, right?
Another major point of contention was in regards to the age of the couple.
Remember, in the original, Penny was 5 and Victor was 4.
Which made the NSFW content Matthew notoriously did with the two.....really fucking bad.
And then in the planned reboot, he made them (and everyone else) ageless.
While this change was largely pointless due to the fact that only 4 of the 321 characters had actual confirmed ages (and those 4 characters just so happened to be single digit minors), it also really felt like a desperate attempt to save his own ass (given he was drowning in controversy during this time) and justify his infamous NSFW antics, which he was still doing at this time, given his history of making excuses for his terrible actions.
But in the info on 320FA, from what I've seen, Matthew has yet to give them any official ages.
And given how Penny and Victor don't look too drastically different from how they did before.....
Hell, Victor's design is literally pulled straight from the planned reboot.
Many people believe that they are still the same ages as before.
And while they don't bring the same level of visceral disgust as they did before, Penny and Victor are still doing some things that they really shouldn't be at their age.
Like going on dates or going to make out in the closet.
Plus he also gave them sexualities, like both of them being pansexual, and Victor himself being non-binary.
However, that may not be the case.
You remember how I've been saying that it seems like Matthew actually aged up his kid characters?
Well, this actually kinda proves it.
Here, he doesn't refer to Victor as a boy.
He clearly refers to him as a man!
So it appears that Matthew is actually aging them up to be actual adults.
How old they are specifically, as far as I know, he hasn't given them specific ages yet.
But if I had to guess.
Even though Penny and Victor are adults now, they're still pretty young.
Penny would probably be like 19, and Victor would be 18.
To wrap this up, I want to talk about two things.
The first is what I believe is the ultimate reason why people don't like or vibe with PenVic.
You know, beyond how they're written and everything Matthew had done with them.
That being that the couple (and Penny and Victor themselves as characters) are reflections of Matthew as a person.
In a way, Penny and Victor were both sort of self-inserts of Matthew.
Just not as obvious as literally Matthew fucking Littlemore!
A lot of the traits of Penny and Victor and how they were depicted correlate to aspects of Matthew's life (going off archived posts, forums and DMs left by people who personally knew him).
The reason why Penny and Victor are so creepy and have so many problematic elements was because Matthew was very sheltered and naive to the world around him.
Plus a lot of the social cues Matthew got throughout his life largely came from movies and TV shows.
Which I don't think I need to explain how that's not exactly a good thing.
Since they're either not really true or are wholly exaggerated.
Not helping was how Matthew had multiple mental conditions like ADHD, and most famously, autism.
The reason why Matthew constantly gushes about PenVic is because of his massive ego, as he was known for taking any chance he got to glaze himself.
The reason why Penny acts more like Victor's mother than a normal girlfriend and constantly tickled him was because Matthew was very much coddled growing up (once again, very sheltered) and he's definitely never been in a romantic relationship.
It's also the reason why Victor is so infantilized as well.
And the reason why Penny is depicted as being antisocial and why Victor himself is a social outcast....
While I initially thought this was done out of pettiness and spite towards his old friends, who remember, left him because the nasty things he did to his characters and them, along with treating them like shit.
I also realized it was because Matthew had spent most of his life being a social outcast among his peers and had a hard time getting along with them.
Largely thanks to his mental conditions and upbringing.
Now we come to the second and last part of all this.
That being my hopes on how PenVic will be portrayed when they eventually make their debut.
Even though I would prefer them to just be friends, if they're still gonna be couple, I'd like to see this.....
1#) Make it clear that they are adults, even if they are short.
2#) Give them actual chemistry.
3#) They can still be in love with each other, but just don't do it to an over the top fashion.
4#) Have them feel like actual equals, even if Penny is more confident while Victor is more timid.
5#) Explain and show in-depth on how they even got together, and more importantly, what Penny even sees about Victor that allowed him to even break through her "I don't need anyone" mentality.
And 6#) Maybe have this led to a character arc where Penny learns that being around others and relying on them isn't inherently bad.
Well that's finally it!
I'm finally done with this retrospective.
Let me know what you guys think about this, and I'd like to hear what you guys hope to see from Penny and Victor when they eventually appear.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually have faith that Matthew will portray them in a way that's actually decent.
I know people still have their reservations about Matthew given everything he's done.
But given how 320 Freleng Avenue turned out and the comments from the voice actors, it does appear that Matthew is trying to be a better person.
Now it's understandable why people still don't trust Matthew, but I do feel like that it often feels comes from people that don't believe anyone can ever change.
Which is complete bullshit.
You may not be able to change your past, but you can still change yourself to be a better person.
Now I do wish Matthew will acknowledge what he did in the past and FINALLY apologize for it, but it does seem like he is starting to put in the effort to better himself as both as artist and a person.
Cartoon Network One Piece AU: The Cartoon Cartoon Crew (Part 1)
This an idea I've had for quite a while now.
Seeing what cartoon characters would be like in the world of One Piece, specifically by different channels and companies.
Which is not only pretty cool, but also just feels....right.
Probably because of how much inspiration One Piece took from Western animation.
And to start this off, we're gonna be doing it with the characters of Cartoon Network.
Largely because it's the channel I've seen being done with this the most, if this art is anything to go
And to kick this series off we'll be looking at the main pirate crew of this AU: The Cartoon Cartoon Pirates!
Before we start this, one thing to note is that I don't fully know what roles each member
Flapjack and Captain K'nuckles:
Flapjack and K'nuckles would look....actually like how they do in the first image above.
As for what they can do.
Flapjack has the power of the Lick Lick Fruit, a Paramecia Fruit which allows him to manipulate, create, and morph his body into candy.
Given he's a head-on fighter, Flapjack uses his power in various offensive ways.
He can coat his limbs in harden candy to enhance the power of his strikes, which will aid his already impressive physical strength.
Give himself a sugar rush to enhance his speed and agility.
And craft himself various constructs to use in battle. He usually crafts himself a cutlass.
Flapjack also possesses Observation Haki, which makes him come in handy whenever danger is close by.
As for K'nuckles, he doesn't have a Devil Fruit.
He's a brawler who tends to fight really dirty.
And despite how much of a bum he looks, he actually has the physical strength and endurance to back him up.
Only aided by his proficiency at Armament Haki.
Finn, Jake, Marceline and BMO:
Finn would wear still wear his iconic white bear hat, which would now be more like a fuzzy, oversized hood, a rugged, ocean-weathered blue tunic under light green padded, quilted leather armor, navy blue jean shorts, a pair of oversized, weathered black leather work boots, and a massive, over-the-shoulder harness.
Jake would wear a simple, unbuttoned, open red vest and a thick, studded black leather pirate belt
Marceline would wear a torn gray crop top, distressed, charcoal-colored jeans, an oversized red flannel shirt around the waist, knee-high crimson leather buckled boots, and a black choker.
And BMO, would actually look about the same.
Finn is among one of select individuals that's a master of all forms of Haki.
He's also a skilled swordsman, wielding his trusty golden sword in battle.
Only aided his superhuman levels of strength, speed and endurance.
Jake has the power of the Gum Gum Fruit, allowing him to stretch and morph his entire body at will.
He often uses these powers for offensive and defensive purposes, from enlarging his limbs to massive proportions to extra strength, to transforming herself into a barrier to protect his crew, to even being able to grow to the size of a giant!
Jake is also skilled in Armament Haki.
Thanks to her half-vampire heritage, Marceline possesses immense superhuman physical strength, speed and endurance, regeneration, flight, invisibility, shapeshifting (being able to turn into all sorts of monstrous and demonic forms), and the ability to absorb the souls of others.
She also utilizes her trademark bass axe guitar as a melee weapon and means to send powerful sound waves, and like Finn, she's also a master of all forms of Haki.
In addition to being a master hacker, BMO also utilizes special cartridges that allowing to take on different combat modes and utilize whatever skills and powers come with those cartridges.
The Powerpuff Girls:
Blossom would wear a pink tailored duster jacket worn open, a ruffled white blouse, and high-waisted light blue jean shorts, black heavy-duty knee high leather boots, and her trademark red bow.
Bubbles would wear a fluffy, light blue sailor-collared top (reminiscent of traditional Navy uniforms but stylized with pastel accents) paired with a layered, puffy sky-blue skirt, white leg warmers, black ballet flats, and her pigtails would be secured with octopus-themed hair ties.
And Buttercup would wear a torn green muscle shirt, dark leather cargo shorts, a studded belt, black worn-out combat boots, and black fingerless gloves.
The girls are.....pretty much the same as they are in their original series.
Yeah, they're just that busted.
And yes, they are still the result of a science experiment gone wrong.
They're also all skilled in all forms of Haki as well, like Finn and Marceline.
Dexter and Dee Dee:
Dexter would wear a white canvas lab coat, wore open over a dark purple button-up shirt, dark pinstripe trousers tucked into heavy, black steel-toed leather boots, and his trademark black-framed glasses.
While Dee Dee would wear a pink layered, fluffy sundress, pink high-laced leather sandals with soft, white worn-in leg warmers, and a small woven straw hat.
Dexter still has his intelligence and utilizes The Omnitool Staff, a high-tech bo staff that can morph into all sorts of weapons and gadgets to help with any sort of situation.
And when going up against bigger threats, Dexter can utilize The Robo-Dexo 2000.
He also has Observation Haki.
Dee Dee is skilled at the art of Okama Kenpo, only aided by her superhuman strength, speed, agility and proficiency at Armament Haki.
Samurai Jack:
Jack would wear a structured, white open-front cotton yukata featuring a bold geometric pattern, thick, light blue decorative heko-obi sash, tan wooden getas, and an indigo boro cape.
He wields his trusty katana, which was still crafted by three deities, being completely indestructible and can harm dark, spiritual, or supernatural beings.
Jack's also skilled in various forms of martial arts, possesses immense physical prowess, and is skilled at all forms of Haki.
Johnny Bravo:
Johnny would wear an unbuttoned, open floral Hawaiian shirt layered over a tight, black muscle-tee, wear baggy, blue high-waisted sailor trousers with thick suspenders that would be cuffed at the ankles, held up by a heavy gold-buckled leather belt with gold marine anchors pendants, black leather boots, and his trademark sunglasses.
He wields the power of the Love Love Fruit, but due to his unique personality, Johnny turns his enemies to stone not by having them fall for him, but instead making them utterly baffled by his pick-up lines.
Johnny also possesses immense physical strength and is skilled at Armament Haki.
He often uses it on his hair to deflect attacks from above and protect it.
But if it does get messed up, Johnny will enter into a rage mode that exponentially increases his strength.
The Park Crew:
Mordecai would wear a light-blue, sleeveless, unbuttoned martial arts gi, baggy blue-striped navy cargo pants, black fingerless gloves, a crimson headband tied around his forehead, and a black belt around the waist.
Rigby would wear a frayed, torn-up, sleeveless orange gi top, worn open with nothing underneath, cropped brown, worn-out trousers tucked into oversized, customized wooden geta sandals, black leather wrist cuffs, and a crimson headband just like Mordecai.
They would both be sporting mullets as well.
Benson would wear a maroon structured waistcoat with a high ruffled collar, beige trousers, and black leather boots.
Pops would wear wear a black tailcoat, a white cravat, a beige long-sleeved dressed shirt, a black bowtie, dark gray breeches, and black wingtip brogue shoes.
Skips would wear blue trousers and black martial arts sash around his waist.
Muscle Man would wear rugged gray denim shorts held up by a massive chain link belt, a tied black kerchief, and a black pirate's vest. He would also be dropped out with chunky rings on his wrists and three tattoos, two on his arms that say "My Mom", and one on his chest that says "Starla".
Hi Five Ghost would wear would a navy blue bandana.
And Eileen would wear a rugged lavender canvas sundress over light blue leggings, sturdy tan traveling boots, and her trademark chunky glasses.
Mordecai and Rigby are both skilled at Death Kwon Do, allowing them to perform martial arts that unleash powerful waves of force.
They both also possess Observation and Armament Haki.
Benson has the power of the Heat Heat Fruit, allowing him to heat his entire body to extreme temperatures.
He often uses it to boil his gumball and shoot them out as explosives.
Pops is a master wrestler and possesses immense physical strength and durability.
Skips also possesses immense strength and is skilled at pressure point fighting, allowing him to paralyze his opponents with his strikes
Benson, Pops and Skips are all masters of all forms of Haki.
Muscle Man possesses immense strength and endurance and utilizes both a brawler style of fighting and his classic "My Mom" jokes to throw his enemies off their game.
He's also possesses Armament Haki.
Hi Five Ghost is a skilled swordsman, wielding a cutlass in battle and utilizing his natural ability of intangibility to avoid attacks.
And Eileen utilizes various Dials in battle, along with possessing Observation Haki and being pretty fast and agile.
Well that's it for now.
Let me know what you guys think about this.
About to start working on part 2 to this.
Also, I'd like to hear who you guys think will be making up the rest of The Cartoon Cartoon Crew.
So recently, I've been thinking about Disney Channel getting a major rebranding.
Largely for two reasons.
1#) Disney Mirrorverse. As I was working on it, I kept thinking about where it would air if it was a television series. And I thought of an interesting place for it to air was, believe or not, Disney Channel! You're probably wondering why though since Disney Mirrorverse would be like, TV-14, not exactly what DC usually puts out. But take a look at this.
This is a line-up promo from the Disney Channel of Japan. As you can see, it has a lot of shows and movies you wouldn't really see on the Disney Channel here in the states. It's clear that they're bringing much more diversity to their programming, specifically when it comes to age ranges. And I figured this new Disney Channel rebrand would do that. Having programming that can cater to all demographics.
2#) The new Disney animated series Dragon Strikers, which will be premiering next month.
You would expect this series to being airing on Disney Channel, right?
Since pretty much all of Disney's animated shows from the last 9 years have been exclusively running there.
Plus, the show is airing on Disney Channel internationally.
But here in the states, it's gonna be premiering and running on Disney XD!
I don't think this is controversial when I say that Disney XD just needs to fucking die already.
It has literally no purpose anymore.
Its literally why it no longer exists in most of the world, except for The United States and Poland!
Not helping is its history.
The channel's existence is pretty much a dark spot in Disney's television history.
Disney XD was purely created out of misogyny.
Since the higher ups at Disney believed that Disney Channel was more for girls, due to it having a considerably higher female viewership when compared to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
So their answer to that "dilemma" was to create an all-new channel made exclusively for boys.
Plus having to slaughter a channel with an actual meaningful purpose (and was still doing largely fine as it was) in order to do so!
And looking back at its early marketing, it's so clear just how misguided and desperate Disney XD really was.
With how extreme everything needed to be.
While Disney XD started off strong, it would gradually start to wither by the time the 2010s rolled around.
The original shows they were offering just didn't really leave much of an impact on people nor interested them that much.
Hell, to this day, I still hear people talk more about the shows Disney Channel had than Disney XD!
People had their favorites of course like...
But they just never reached the same levels of popularity and memorability like Disney Channel.
Not helped by the fact that Disney XD was a pay television channel, meaning that it wasn't automatically available like most TV channels for kids with cable packages.
If you wanted Disney XD, you would have to pay for it.
And to a good chunk of people, that just wasn't all that enticing.
But Disney XD became especially detrimental to the animated shows of Disney.
Look at every animated show that had its entire run on Disney XD.
None of them lasted longer than two seasons.
Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil: 2 seasons.
Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja: 2 seasons.
The 7D: 2 seasons.
Pickle & Peanut: 2 seasons.
Penn Zero: Part Time Hero: 2 seasons.
And they were the lucky ones.
All the other original shows only lasted ONE season!
Tron Uprising, Motorcity, Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer!
And things got even more baffling in the mid-2010s.
In 2014, Disney decided to move all the original animated shows that were currently airing on Disney Channel to Disney XD.
Gravity Falls, Wander Over Yonder, and Phineas and Ferb.
This was done in order to solidify Disney XD as an boys channel and help boost ratings.
Since there's unfortunately a mindset in the industry that animation is exclusively for boys.
This didn't work as well as they thought it would.
For example, Gravity Falls did get good ratings on the channel, it was significantly lesser when compared to its time on Disney Channel.
But things got even worse in the late 2010s and early 2020s.
Now things didn't start off bad at first.
Starting with Tangled: The Series, Disney would start running their animated shows exclusively on Disney Channel again.
Moving shows that originally premiered on Disney XD to Disney Channel.
DuckTales, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Big Hero 6: The Series, and Milo's Murphy Law.
But in 2020, for some God-forsaken reason, Disney decided to move DuckTales and Big Hero 6 back to Disney XD for their final seasons.
'cause like, why?
What was the purpose of doing that?
A few days ago, I stumbled upon an interview from longtime animation veteran and the co-creator of Phineas and Ferb and Milo's Murphy Law Dan Povenmire from around May 2020.
There he briefly talked about MML's treatment by Disney.
And he made one thing very much clear.
Pretty much all the creatives (specifically on the animation side of things) HATED Disney XD!
And it's not hard to see why.
Their original animated shows were forced to be stuck on a channel that only a minority had.
And even then, the shows only got the bare minimum marketing and promotion.
Not helped by the heavy merchandising pressure Disney constantly pushed on them.
Hell, Dan said himself that Disney XD was basically "a bastard stepchild".
So yeah, with all that said, you're also probably wondering why the hell Disney is putting their newest animated series on a channel that has long stayed past its prime and relevance.
Once again, it only exists in two countries now.
But for this rebrand, Disney XD would FINALLY be put down.
As for Disney Channel itself, this rebrand would see a wide variety of programming.
From animated to live-action.
I believe one of the biggest draws of this rebrand, besides just the variety of shows it would possess, would be the fact that it would feature of shows that famously still aren't on Disney Plus or have any real legal means to watch them.
Marsupilami, Aladdin: The Series, The Weekenders, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, House of Mouse, Lloyd in Space, The Legend of Tarzan, W.I.T.C.H., A.T.O.M., Get Ed, The Buzz on Maggie, Yin Yang Yo!, and much more.
As for some of the programming blocks this rebrand would see.
Disney Junior (everyday except for Saturdays and Sundays from 6-11): The standard little kids block, featuring broadcasts of their old and new preschool shows.
Marvelous Mondays (every Monday from 11-2): A programming block featuring Marvel animated shows from all across the decades.
The Disney Afternoon (everyday except for Saturdays and Sundays from 3-6): A reboot of the classic programming block, featuring a rotating roster of animated shows from the original Disney Afternoon run (alongside other 90s animated shows like The Little Mermaid and Marsupilami) and the late 2010s-2020s.
On a Sunday Far, Far Away (every Sunday from 2-5): A programming block featuring Star Wars animated series.
One Saturday Morning (every Saturday from 9-1): A reboot of the classic programming block, featuring new episodes of their current animated shows and reruns of their shows from the the late-1990s and early-2000s.
Worldwide Wednesdays (every Wednesday from 11-2): A programming block showcasing the animated foreign co-productions of Disney like Stitch!, the four European-made Marsupilami shows, Spirou and Fantasio, Dude, That's My Ghost!, Doraemon, Rolling with the Ronks, and Harry and Bunnie.
Action Quest (every Saturday from 7-12): A programming block featuring the action-oriented programming of the channel, along with new episodes of Dragon Strikers, Miraculous Ladybug, and Disney Mirrorverse.
Disney/ABC/Fox Rewind (every night from 6-6): A programming block showcasing the classic sitcoms and animated shows of Disney Channel, ABC and Fox.
The Wonderful World of Disney (every Friday from 8-12): A reboot of the classic movie programming block, where two movies are played back-to-back.
And to wrap this up, another big draw of the network would be it's promo and bumpers.
Largely because it would see the characters from the animated shows actually crossing over with each other.
Similar to what Kids WB! and Cartoon Network did with their own bumpers.
The setting would be the real-life Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California.
Yeah, like the old Cartoon Network bumpers of the late 1990s and early 2000s, these bumpers/shorts would be live-action animation hybrids.
In terms of how the characters would be depicted.
-Mickey Mouse adjacent characters would all be in the same classic style, though they would have their own unique quirks. Like Huey, Dewey and Louie wearing their outfits from DuckTales reboot, and Max and P.J. being teenagers like in A Goofy Movie.
-All the characters from the five Marsupilami shows would be associated to each other (sometimes in fun ways like Norman and Bring M. Backalive being brothers) and Marsupilami himself having both the personality of his Disney counterpart, and the family of most of his other iterations.
-The Lion Guard characters would be in the classic Lion King style.
-The Marvel characters would be in a generalized style.
-The 101 Dalmatian Street characters would be in the style as 101 Dalmatians: The Series.
-The American Dragon: Jake Long characters would be back in their Season 1 designs (though most of them would have their outfits of Season 2), and the characters introduced in season 2 would be redesigned to fit the same style.
Since I'm working on my Disney Mirrorverse reboot, I figured I'd start this little series where I go in depth on a particular episode and give some backstory on the choices I made, along with some fun facts.
And for this part, we'll be looking at the very first episode: Ball Bash.
If you want to check it out before reading this post, here's the link to it.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
If you've read the my original Disney Mirrorverse series, then you'd know that lot of the elements from that series got carried over into the new series.
-The Guardians have a tower headquarters in Mirrorforge Crater.
-A few of the Disney villains being heroes in this universe.
-The Star Crystals being sought after magical objects with immense power.
-The action-adventure tone, being reminiscent to those of the 2000s.
As for the characters featured.
Starting off with our main group of Guardians.
They look pretty much the look the same as they did in the game.
Though as I said in my Meet the Guardians and Villains series, Rapunzel and Merida are more muscular here.
However, I also decided to give them casual attire for them to wear when they're not on Guardian duty.
Because it's always nice to know that heroes do have lives outside of their duty.
I also decided to have Buzz's original look be his normal form while his Mirrorverse look is the action form he can transform into at will.
And like I did with the original version of Meet the Guardians and Villains, I added some expansions to their in-universe powers and abilities.
-Belle's spells being in different languages, which she has to read out loud in order to cast them with her staff ala Zatanna.
-Rapunzel possessing immense solar energy manipulation and physical prowess to compliment both the lore of The Sundrop (as seen in Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure) and her status as a melee-focused warrior.
-Jack Sparrow carrying various swashbuckling weapons to use in battle like a cutlass, throwing knives and bombs.
-Baymax's armor still granting him incredible strength and durability.
-Oogie Boogie being able to send out the insects inside of him to bite, sting and terrorize his enemies with unimaginable nightmares
-Scar being physically superior to a normal lion.
As for the Cinderella characters (minus Cinderella herself), this is where things get interesting.
One of the biggest goals for this reboot was to see what the Disney characters who didn't get to make it into Disney Mirrorverse would look like in that game.
As for the Cinderella characters in that regard.
Jaq, Gus and Charming have a knightly look to them to match with Cinderella.
Anastasia, Lady Tremaine and Drizella wear armored aristocratic dresses.
And The Fairy Godmother wears a set of cosmic-themed robes.
But even then, I still added some unique quirks.
Like Jaq and Gus utilizing everyday items as makeshift weapons.
Or Anastasia wearing a seashell and rolling pin pendant, serving as nods to her redemption and friendship with The King and her romance with The Baker.
Speaking of him, I decided to give him the name Robert, as an nod to his voice actor: Rob Paulsen.
As for how their powers, abilities and weapons.
Like with the other Mirrorverse characters; they're either expansions of their already existing skills, somehow compliment their characters' new roles, or are essentially being reflections of who they are.
Jaq, Gus and Charming all wielding weapons to match their new knightly looks.
Anastasia wielding a broken shard of Fairy Godmother's magic and using wildly unpredictable magic as a expansion of haven found the wand originally in Twist in Time and representing her odd and eccentric nature.
Drizella utilizing glass and metal shards as projectiles and having a shell supersonic scream to compliment her general sharpness and serve as a nod to the fact that she's canonically a terrible singer.
Lucifer basically being a mini Scar to represent his cunning and sneaky nature.
My favorite was definitely Lady Tremaine having mental powers.
As I felt that they fit her PERFECTLY, due to her status as a skilled manipulator!
For the setting the episode, I decided to have it set in the Cinderella world since this year does mark the 55th anniversary of The Magic Kingdom.
And I wanted to make episodes of this series either based around movies featured in the park, or locations from it.
And what better way to start it than with the world that inspired the symbol of the the park itself: Cinderella Castle.
As for the name of the kingdom, Perrault, that was pulled from Charles Perrault, the French author responsible for the most well-known version of the Cinderella story.
I also featured Main Street USA in the prologue, as well The Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor (from the Disneyland version), where the Guardians hanging out at before they're called into duty.
As I'm sure many of you noticed, the worlds in the Mirrorverse have numbers to them ala Marvel.
But these numbers serve as references to when the characters first made their debuts.
For example, Mickey and Friends' world number is Earth-111828, referencing the release date of Steamboat Willie.
But for the Main Street USA, the world number is actually a reference to a real life person’s birthday.
That being Earth-12501.
That number references the birthday of none other than Walt Disney himself, who was born of December 5th, 1901.
As for why I used his birthday as the basis for the world number, I figured it’d make sense given how Main Street USA was inspired by Walt’s childhood.
Throughout the episode, I decided to establish a few characters quirks.
Like Rapunzel and Oogie Boogie having huge appetites.
Magic users being able to catch onto things like mental manipulation quicker than others, as well has having a strong resistance towards it.
And Gaston being a butt monkey ala Johnny Bravo.
As for the voice cast, it primarily consists of the current VAs for the featured characters.
Though there are a few changes.
Gary Anthony Williams voices Oogie, replacing the late Ken Page.
Prince Charming is now voiced by Sam Riegel, replacing Christoper Daniel Barnes, which I figured would be pretty funny since he’s also voiced Spider-Man.
And Grey Griffin voices Drizella, filling in for the late Russi Taylor.
Funnily enough, not the first time Grey’s had to do that.
And lastly, for this series, I’m planning on featuring comedic post credit scenes at the end of every episode.
As an homage to a lot of the Disney animated shows of the mid-to-late 2000s and early 2010s, which also featured those.
Kim Possible, American Dragon: Jake Long, The Emperor’s New School, The Replacements, Phineas and Ferb, Fish Hooks, Kick Buttowski, and Gravity Falls.
Well that’s all for now!
I hope you all enjoyed this!
Episode 2 should be out later today.
And you can all be expecting a behind the scenes on that pretty soon as well!
Since the 10th anniversary of Hanna-Barbera Beyond is just a week away, I wanted to start a series of modern redesigns of Hanna-Barbera characters, complete with some info on what they’re like now.
And to start this off, we have arguably the face of Hanna-Barbera himself and the first of the company's big three: Yogi Bear.
For this modernized version, Yogi isn’t very different from his original counterpart.
He still hangs out with his best buddy Boo Boo, and constantly drives Ranger Smith crazy with his daily schemes to steal food from visitors at Jellystone National Park.
For his design, I wanted to make Yogi look more like a real-life grizzly bear.
Or at least a cartoonish version of one.
Hench why he has a more board-shouldered and bulky build.
When doing the design, I utilized images of real-life grizzlies for references, as well as some animated bears from Disney.
Particularly Baloo from The Jungle Book and Kenai from Brother Bear.
As for Yogi's outfit, I kept it pretty much the same since let's be real, it's so simple that it doesn't really need any sort of updating.
To end this off, here's some images from the process of making this piece.
The Powerpuff Girls (2016): The Reboot That Crashed and Burned (Part 3)
Continuing from where we left off, we finally come to the second-most awaited part of this retrospective: the villains!
The Powerpuff Girls has one of the iconic rogues gallery of any cartoon.
Not only that, but also one of the most iconic superhero rogues gallery outside of DC and Marvel.
In terms of the most prominent and recurring villains.
There's Mojo Jojo, a hyper-intelligent, green-skinned chimpanzee that speaks in a pseudo-Japanese accent, and has a convoluted, repetitive manner of speaking, who desires to destroy the girls and take over the world. He's the main antagonist of the series, having the most appearances of all the villains and being the girls' arch-nemesis. This is made even stronger as it's eventually revealed that Mojo was originally Professor Utonium's reckless lab assistant and pet Jojo, before he created the girls, and it was he who caused The Professor to accidentally add Chemical X to the mixture, thus making him responsible for their creation. The reason he hates the girls so much is out of envy of the affection they received from The Professor that he did not.
HIM, who's basically this world's version of The Devil, being the ultimate embodiment of evil, always speaking in a chilling and constantly echoing voice. He lives to spread as much chaos and misery as he possibly can in the world. He's by far the girls' most powerful villain, due to his reality-warping magic.
Fuzzy Lumpkins, a pink-fur hillbilly monster who lives in the woods right outside of Townsville, wanting people to stay off his property, utilizing his immense physical strength and super-powered shotgun Boomstick to make sure of that.
Princess Morbucks, a spoiled rich brat who attends Pokey Oaks Kindergarten as well, who utilizes her immense wealth to commit villainous plots against the girls. She primarily wants to be a Powerpuff Girl, even though she doesn't have powers. The reason why she wants to be one is for the sake of the glory.
The Gangreen Gang, a gang of green-skinned teenage delinquents who are genuinely more of a nuisance to the girls than a legitimate threat, just going around Townsville to actively cause crime because they think it's fun.
The Amoeba Boys, a trio of human-sized anthropomorphic protozoan gangsters that wish to be seen as great villains, but don't really have the brainpower for that. They're barely a threat to anyone and are even more of a nuisance to the girls than The Gangreen Gang.
Sedusa, a mistress of disguise who uses her cunning and her sex appeal to trick powerful men into doing her bidding and has incredibly prehensile hair.
And The Rowdyruff Boys, the male doppelgangers of the girls created by Mojo in order to destroy them, being more powerful and way more violent then they are.
Each of these villains struck that perfectly balance between being genuinely entertaining and fun to watch while still being legitimate threats.
Well except for The Amoeba Boys....
Even the one-off villains are pretty memorable in their own right.
Mr. Mime, The Broccoloids, White Kitty, Roach Coach, The Boogie Man, Abracadaver, and Lenny Baxter.
Just to name a few.
Now let's look at the villains in the reboot.
Starting off the returning ones.
Mojo is still the arch-nemesis of the girls and the most prominent villain.
But in the reboot, he's been so butchered.....
For starters, he doesn't speak in the third person anymore nor does he do his iconic, overly long repetitive speeches anymore.
Which just doesn't feel right.
Not only that, but he's no longer depicted as the legitimate threat he was in the original.
Instead, he's depicted as being fairly incompetent and treated as more of a nuisance than an actual menace, similar to The Gangreen Gang.
Plus, he also works a lot more with the girls in order to take down a villain.
Whereas in the original, Mojo only worked with the girls ONCE, and that was in the season four episode "Forced Kin".
But in there, it was because they were going up against a very powerful alien threat that was even too much for the girls to handle on their own.
So they needed some help.
But I guess it does make sense why Mojo would help the girls with taking down villains in the reboot, given how incapable they are of taking down villains on their own.
One thing I will give Mojo is that he's at least funny.
He's responsible for some of the VERY few jokes in this reboot that actually WORK.
Next we have HIM.
HIM is largely unchanged from the original, though he doesn't have his echoing voice anymore.
But while he is still portrayed as being threatening, he sadly doesn't appear too much in the reboot, whereas in the original, he was the second-most prominent villain!
Hell, even in the episodes he does appear in, he's usually always in disguise and not in his true form.
The most notable thing about HIM is that in The Power of Four, it's revealed that for the 10 years Bliss was away on that deserted island, he was actually with her with the whole in the form of a creature known as MIH.
This makes no sense since given how he regularly he fights the girls, he would've had to leave the island and Bliss' presence in order to do so.
And Bliss would definitely take notice of this.
Now given his hodge-podge of powers, it could be argued that he he simply duplicated himself into order to trick Bliss.
But he's not shown that kind of ability in the show, nor is it stated that he can do that.
Plus it's very strange how HIM doesn't seemed to be intrigued by the girls, especially given his time with Bliss and trying to get her power.
You're telling that after spending about a decade with her, he wouldn't be interested by a trio of super-powered girls who look exactly like her?!
And then there's Princess Morbucks.
Morbucks here is more prominent than in the original, even rivaling Mojo as the most prominent villain.
And by God, I really wish that wasn't case.
Morbucks in this series will make you feel like you're The Powerpuff Girls.
She is INSUFFERABLE.
And it's funny since this version was intentionally made to be less bratty than the original.
But in an ironic twist, they made her more annoying.
And it's for two reasons.
1#) Her voice. Even though it's much more smoother and less bratty when compared to the original, it's ironically more irritating. Probably because the original Morbucks was a love to hate characters, whereas reboot Morbucks is a character you can't help but straight up hate. It's also probably not help that Morbucks sounds more like a stereotypical mean teenager as oppose to a bratty little girl. Which is what she canonically is.
2#) Morbucks is responsible for most of the show's infamous attempts at being hip and trendy. Which as I (and just about everyone else has) said before, is not done well at all!
And like Mojo, Morbucks' menace and competence is heavily reduced.
In the original, Morbucks utilized technology that allowed her to fight toe-to-toe with the girls!
In the reboot, she also never takes on the girls head-on.
She usually just has her new posse handle them: The Cash Money Crew.
Very creative name I know.
As for the crew themselves, there's literally nothing to them.
They barely talk and none of them even have real names!
But anyway, let's see how the reboot handles the rest of the OG villains.
Yep!
Infamously, the reboot essentially phased out all the other OG villains.
Fuzzy Lumpkins is reduced to receiving random cameos and barely gets any lines.
The Gangreen Gang aren't much better, though at least they get one episode where they're the main villains.
Probably because they were off doing things worth their actual time.
Sedusa is completely GONE.
The Amoeba Boys only have one appearance in the entire series.
But unlike the other villains, the reason for their phasing out was understandable.
As their actor Chuck McCann (who voiced them in the original series) would be on the brink of retirement.
And would sadly pass away in 2018.
But anyway…..
Even The Rowdyruff Boys, hands down the most popular villains of the original series, get this.....
Yep!
That's their only appearance in the entire series!
A brief cameo where they get taken down immediately and they don't even talk.
So why were the OG villains mostly phased out?
In order to make room for the new villains!
And in all honesty, they're a total mixed bag.
Starting off with the ones that are actually decent.
First there's The Fashionistas, a pair of fashion-obsessed criminal sisters.....even though one's a human and the other is a gorilla.
They're honestly one of the very few villains that could actually work in the original series.
Given their balance between being comedic while still being actually competent in their villainy.
Something that most of the other villains sorely lack.
Plus they allow for some pretty good digs at the fashion industry.
Then there's Manboy, a lumberjack-style villain who's half-man and half-boy, who believes Townsville has lost its manly ways.
Like The Fashionistas, Manboy is another of the few villains that could work in the original series.
Being both comedic while still being competently villainous.
Plus it's hard not to like him for both his voice and his various pun-based manly henchmen.
Next there's The Gnat, a mutated gnat that grew to large size after being bit by a middle-aged man who was irradiated from being stupid enough to stare at an active microwave. He seeks revenge on the girls after being swatted by them in the past.
The Gnat takes The Ameboa Boys' roles as the resident joke villain of the series.
Being seen as nothing but a nuisance and a joke by the girls and the other villains.
Like Mojo, he's actually consistently fairly funny.
Which for this reboot, is a feat in itself.
And while I think Gnat could work in the original series, unlike The Fashionistas and Manboy, he would have to be heavily redesigned.
His design is not only just overly grotesque, it just wouldn't translate well to the angular style of the original.
And lastly, we have the most interesting villain: Silico.
In contrast to every other villain, he's played completely serious and is consistently shown to be a legitimate threat.
Plus he's constantly hidden in the shadows, so we never get to see what he truly looks like.
Overall, while Silico is a pretty solid villain (especially for this series), and he actually had the potential to be the best villain in not only in this reboot, but even the franchise as a whole.
But at alas, it never really happened because of two reasons.
1#) His follow-up plans. Throughout his five appearances, Silico's goal was consistent. He wanted to either destroy the girls or at least ruin their lives. series. But at the end of each of his episodes (except for the last one), it was revealed that Silico had another scheme up his sleeves. However, these schemes were never followed up on at all.
In fact, that's a major issue in the reboot, as they set stuff but never really follow up on it.
For example, this is Sapna Nehru.
An Indian-American arachnologist who transforms into a giant spider when she feels love, which becomes a major issue as she's dating The Professor.
At the end of her debut episode, we see The Professor getting ready to start trying to find a cure for Sapna's condition.
However, despite of her making two more appearances afterwards, this plot point is never brought up again.
And 2#) Most infamously: his backstory. Now the general gist is pretty solid. Silico had lived a very lonely life, so he created robots in order to keep him company. But one day, after the girls took down a rampaging monster, the monster fell on Silico's house, just as he was on his way back to the store. And there, he found home and his friends complete destroyed, much to his devastation. And from that day, Silico vowed to bring down the girls no matter what.
Doesn't sound too bad, right?
Well, the problem comes with the flashback establishing this motivation.
It's made pretty clear that this took place years in the the past.
We're never given how long ago specifically, especially since we don't really know how old Silico is.
But the flashback shows him as a child, and given his vibes, voice and build, I would assume Silico is in his early 20s.
So we'll put the flashback at about 10 years before the present.
And that establishment is the main problem.
There's no way the girls have been around that long.
Especially since they still look exactly the same as they always did.
And despite not being technically human, the franchise has shown that they can still age like normal humans.
With that logic, in the present, they should be teenagers now!
Like 15-16.
This gets even more muddled when taking in the existence of Bliss, who actually would've been around when Silico's tragedy happened.
But there's no way she could've caused it.
And going back to the girls, it could be assumed that they've been around for at least a year.
Especially since the first episode (in production order since the series was infamously aired out of order) establishes the girls going back to Pokey Oaks Kindergarten for the new school year.
I have no clue how the crew let such a glaring oversight just slide.
Especially given how much they would use Silico in the future.
And once again, when taking in Bliss' existence, this becomes even more of a clusterfuck.
One last thing to note is how Silico's is taken out for good.
In his last appearance Lights Out, Silico sees his defeat after Bubbles uses a Bugley (a device that can make anything a person asks for come to life) she programmed to put him in a neverending dream where he successfully manages to destroy the girls, while he himself is actually locked up in an insane asylum, where he'll spend the rest of his life in.
This is very shocking since for a show that's about as toothless as the reboot, for them to give one of their villains such as a dark defeat was quite the surprise.
But anyway, outside of those five villains, everyone else leaves much to be desired.
First there's Allegro, a party-loving panda with strange, cosmic powers.
He's by far the second-most annoying villain in the entire series, only surpassed by Morbucks.
He's also just a generic doomsday villain with his only motive being trying to make every citizen in Townsville overly cheery and just party all the time.
But even then, he really isn't that much of an actual villain.
Even though he only appears in three episodes, you really feel those appearances.
He does get somewhat interesting in his final appearance, Largo, where it's revealed that used to be one half of a whole being by the name of Cosmic Bear, alongside the titular Largo.
Allegro was his positive half, Largo was his negative half.
Plus it was kinda funny to see Allegro showcases other emotions besides obnoxious joy, particular with him being annoyed by Largo and not wanting to be around him.
Next there's Jemmica Thrash, an Indiana Jones wannabe girl who's always on the hunt for rare and powerful ancient artifacts.
She's probably the most boring of the reboot villains.
That is until her final appearance Total Eclipse of the Kart, where it's revealed that she's actually Jemoire, an ancient powerful sorceress who once ruled over ancient Townsville. But she was eventually defeated and had her power removed from her, turning her into a human girl cursed with immortality (in the Samurai Jack fashion, where she remains looking like a girl). And so, Jemoire spent centuries roaming the Earth, looking for some kind of way to break her curse and get her power back.
This was honestly a pretty solid reveal, and elevated Jemmica from being such a basic bitch villain.
However, I do think it would've been more effective if there was some foreshadowing prior.
Then there's Pug Face Pauly, a mobster pug that often acts cute to pull off his heists.
I hardly remembered he was even in the show and I literally have nothing to say for him.
And lastly, there's Packrat, a mutant, human-sized rat that lives in the Townsville dump who likes to take shiny things and hoard them.
Packrat might be the most shit villain in the whole reboot.
Not because he's annoying or cringe-worthy, but because he's just such a nothing villain.
His gimmick is fine, but they don't really do much with it.
And although almost all the villains have this issue, Packrat is probably the least intimidating of them all.
Like bro, even The Gnat feels more dangerous than this loser.
But what truly makes him so shit is his lack of presence.
Like Allegro and Jemmica, Packrat only makes three appearances in the series.
But whereas theirs were decently spaced out throughout the series, Packrat made his first two appearances in season 1, back-to-back, and didn't appear again until SEASON 3!
Not only that, but he wasn't even around for most of his appearances!
His last one is by far the worst, as he only has one line, gets taken out not even halfway through the episode, and doesn't appear again until the very end!
And it's so funny since Packrat was being pushed as one of the big villains of the reboot.
But then he went on to barely be used in the series.
