Category: Television

Violent Shows versus Baby Shows

Friendship, NHL, Television

The other day, NHL confided something to me.  He said that some kids were making fun of him because he was watching “baby shows” and not shows that those kids liked.  I asked him what made those other kids’ shows non-baby shows. He said that their programs were violent and since he didn’t watch violent shows, he watched baby shows.  I calmly told him that the kids that told him this were wrong on many levels.

First of all, I let him know that he *does* watch some shows that are young for his age.  Notably, Oomi Zoomi, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and other Nick Jr and Disney Junior programs.  When programs are trying to teach simple patterns, colors, letters and numbers, it isn’t age-appropriate for an 8-year-old.  However, there’s a catch.  I reminded NHL that he has a younger brother.  He can’t just watch 8-year-old appropriate shows all the time.  Sometimes, he’ll need to watch 4-year-old appropriate shows.  This means that sometimes he’ll need to watch shows that are too young for him and sometimes it will mean that his brother will watch shows that are too old for him.

Next, I told NHL that he does actually watch shows with violence.  He’s a fan of Avengers, Batman: The Animated Series and has recently discovered Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.  These shows aren’t exactly violence-free.  In fact, in many ways, they are more violent than the benchmark show his school friends watch (Power Rangers).

Still, even considering these, I told NHL that he shouldn’t equate violence with age appropriateness.  He likes science shows like Mythbusters (which, though containing some violence in the form of explosions, also has a lot of science), The Looney Tunes Show (which resembles a sitcom with Bugs and company) and Family Game Night (a game show).

In addition, I pointed out to NHL that he isn’t defined by TV.  He has other interests.  He likes video games, music (including some very grown-up selections like Train, Lady Gaga, and Black Eyed Peas), reading, and playing on the computer.

In the end, I let NHL know that he couldn’t let his classmates define whether or not he was “acting like a baby” by a few of his actions.  If they were going to be so narrow minded as to not want to be his friend because he doesn’t like the exact same TV shows that they do, then it is their loss.  However, you can’t let yourself be defined what someone says is a negative aspect of your interests.

DVR With a Mind of Its Own

Technology, Television

Our DVR has really changed how we watch TV.  In the dark ages, aka the days of the VCR, if we wanted to record a show we needed to first find a VCR tape with enough space for the show.  Then, we needed to set the time and day.  After recording, when we wanted to watch our shows, we would need to remember which tapes held which shows and then would need to fast-forward to just the right spot to begin our show.  If we completed a show in the middle of the tape, we often needed to wait for more shows before and after it to be watched before the tape could be reused.  It was so inconvenient that we would often simply opt not to watch a show at all.

When we got the DVR, that all changed.  We could pick a show to record from a listing, hit record and have it ready to go.  We could even tell the DVR to record all new episodes of a particular show.  When we were ready to watch, there was no tape-position-juggling.  We just selected it from the list and we were watching it.  When we were done, we could just hit delete and the space was available for new shows to record.

Recently, however, our DVR has developed a mind of its own.  It started slowly, recording a rouge program here or there.  It wasn’t consistent and, frankly, I thought it was NHL trying to record new shows to watch.  Then, the DVR began recording old episodes of shows when we had told it to only record new episodes.  Finally, it started branching out into completely new shows.  The shows wouldn’t appear in any listing, but would wind up being recorded anyway.

I’m not too sure what our options are.  Check that.  I know exactly what our option is and I don’t like it.  We’ve had DVRs go bad before and they were replaced.  This is nice, but it means that we lose all of the recordings that we had before.  Apparently, there is no way to transfer them from one box to another and no way to export them.

I’m not worried about the average recorded show, but there are some recordings on there that have sentimental value.  Things that won’t ever be replayed, released on DVD or streamed via Roku.  I’d rather not lose those if at all possible.

So, until we figure out a solution, it looks like we’ll have to put up with our crazy DVR.

A Crossover of Animated Proportions

Cartoons, Internet, NHL, Television

I’ve been thinking a lot about fairies.  You see, NHL recently discovered The Fairly Oddparents thanks to Netflix/Roku.  And by “discovered”, I mean I showed it to him knowing full well that he’d be hooked.  Of course, being the TV geek-in-training that he is, he immediately went on a quest to watch all of the episodes there are.

If you aren’t up to date on your NickToons, here’s the quick run-down.  Timmy’s a little boy who has it rough.  He’s unpopular in school, has parents who frequently ignore him and has a babysitter who terrorizes him for fun.  Luckily for him, he’s assigned two fairy godparents – Cosmo and Wanda.  Their job is to help him be happy until he’s good enough to not need fairies anymore.  At that time, he loses his fairies, loses his memories of them, and they get re-assigned to a new miserable kid.  They grant him wishes with comical results while trying to keep their existence a secret.

At one point, while listening in on one of the episodes, I wondered about the guy who did the voice for Timmy’s dad.  It’s a pretty distinctive voice and I wondered if I had heard it anywhere else.  Being a TV Geek, I loaded up IMDB and browsed on over to the Fairly Oddparents page.  I didn’t see Timmy’s dad right away, so I looked up a few of the other voices.  That’s when I noticed two things.

First of all, Timmy’s parents and godparents are voiced by the same people.  Cosmo’s voice and Timmy’s Dad’s voice are by Daran Norris while Wanda and Timmy’s Mom come from Susanne Blakeslee.  This adds quite an interesting wrinkle to the show since his fairy godparents often act as replacement parents (for better or worse) to Timmy.

Secondly, I began to notice a pattern with some of the voice actors.  A few of them also voice characters in another series that the boys like: Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

This series, aimed at a younger set, is about the adventures of a yellow being (exactly what he and his friends are isn’t clear) named Wubbzy who likes having fun, his friends Walden (who likes reading/studying/science), Widget (who likes building things), Daizy (who likes gardening).  All of these characters, except for Widget, share voice actors with Fairly Oddparents characters.

Vicky2 wubbzy

Wubbzy might be fun loving on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy, but on The Fairly OddParents, Grey DeLisle plays Vicky, the babysitter from hell.  While Wubbzy would love to play a game of kickety-kick ball, Vicky would love to play a game of kickety-kick Timmy.

Timmy_Turnerdaizy 

Timmy Turner is your average kid with a miserable life (save for his fairy godparents).  He likes the usual boy activities such as watching TV, playing video games and reading comic books.  His voice actor, Tara Strong, also voices Daizy, the aforementioned gardening lover who also likes rainbows and lollipops.  They do seem to share an affinity for pink, however.

MrCrocker walden

Carlos Alazraqui voices Denzel Crocker, Timmy’s fairy-obsessed teacher.  Mr. Crocker, when a boy, had Timmy’s fairy godparents.  Since growing up, however, he’s become a man obsessed with 1) proving that fairies really exist and 2) using their magic to take over the world.  He’s deduced that Timmy has fairy godparents and constantly tries to lure them into traps.  He’s actually been successful a few times, but Timmy always prevails and Mr. Crocker’s memory is wiped, though the crazy remains.  Meanwhile, over on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Carlos plays Walden, a well-adjusted figure interested in books, science and art.  No sign of craziness at all.

I debated whether or not to share this information with NHL.  On one hand, he would surely appreciate the linkages between the two shows.  On the other hand, would it spoil the magic of the shows to know that people give voice to these characters?  I decided to tell him.  As expected, he loved the linkups and was curious what others there might be.  Given his recent excitement over seeing the “last” Fairly Oddparents episode (the last one available on Netflix, at least), it hasn’t reduced his enjoyment of the show at all.

Have you spotted any interesting cartoon crossovers?

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Phineas and Ferb Go 2D

Disney, Phineas and Ferb, Television

455px-Phineas_and_Ferb_Across_the_2nd_Dimension_official_poster Friday was the long awaited day.  No, not anyone’s birthday.   It was the premiere of Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension.  The boys had been looking forward to this movie since the commercials first began airing.  They are huge Phineas and Ferb fans and the prospects of a Phineas and Ferb movie excited them.  (NOTE:  If you haven’t seen the movie, I’ll try to not give away the ending, but you really should watch it before reading this.)

As the movie opens, Phineas and Ferb begin to have just another ordinary summer day.  Of course, in this case, “ordinary” means “building a pair of giant Platypus shaped launchers and a giant shuttlecock they can ride in to propel themselves across the city.”  Something goes wrong and they crash into Doofenschmirtz’ latest inator.

Phineas and Ferb fans know, of course, that Doof and the boys never really meet.  There are a few close calls here or there, but the evil scientist and the boys are from two separate identities that Agent P/Perry the Platypus possesses.  Perry is forced to hide his Agent P identity (as revealing it would mean being taken away from the Flynn-Fletcher household that he loves so much).  As such, he can’t stop the boys from helping Dr. D (as they call him) from repairing his Otherdimensioninator and opening a portal to another dimension.

This dimension contains a warped world where Doofenschmirtz rules with an iron fist, the boys are conformists who don’t know what summer is, Perry is a cyborg working for Doofenschmirtz and Candace secretly runs the rebellion.  The Evil(er) Doofenschmirtz is intrigued with the idea of a whole new Tri-State Area to conquer and the boys seem unable to return to their home dimension.  This sets up the bulk of the plot.

Meanwhile, Perry’s cover is blown leading to something amazing in a cartoon aimed at kids: actual emotional progression.  Phineas goes from angry and hurt to accepting.  The progression never feels forced.  The emotional resolution is very touching as well.

Of course, there’s action too.  Tons of action.  Candace-2 takes out a dozen or so Norm-Bots (the evil robot minions of the second dimension’s Doofenschmirtz) with some help from Perry and the boys.  Our gang is forced to confront a Goozim (giant, hairy beast the size of a two car garage… if not bigger).  And, of course, there’s the ending battle back in Phineas and Ferb’s home dimension against thousands upon thousands of Norm-Bots in which…

Well, you’ll just have to watch to see what happens.  I’ll just say that the boys and I were practically jumping up and down on our couch with excitement during this scene.  I believe this annoyed B quite a bit but it’s an amazing climatic action scene.  Did she think we’d sit unemotionally still?

We’ve already watched it two or three times.  (Thank you DVR!)  I purchased the soundtrack and the boys and I rocked out to the songs from the movie.  I might even pre-order the movie on DVD for them.  I always recommend the Phineas and Ferb series to people and this movie is no exception.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll blare “Robot Riot” a bit.

Voldemort vs. Papa Smurf

Geeky Pursuits, Harry Potter, NHL, Smurfs, Television

Thanks to reruns of the old Smurfs cartoon and the new Smurfs movie (which they saw advertisements for when we went to see the Winnie the Pooh movie), my boys have suddenly found an interest in the Smurfs.  My oldest has already memorized when they’re on and will want to change the channel when the airing time approaches.

NHL has also formed an interest in Harry Potter.  We caught some of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on TV one day and was transfixed.  So we took Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone out of the library and watched it with him (and JSL too).  NHL loved it from the first moments of Harry discovering his talents to the ending battle.  We think he’s developed a crush on Hermione as he specifically begged us to get him the Lego Harry Potter set with her in it.

Anyway, while shopping this past weekend, NHL spotted a Smurfs activity/coloring book.  He looked through it quickly, spotted the evil wizard who tries to capture the Smurfs and commented to me that Voldemort was in the book.  After prompting from me and a bit of rethinking, he recalled that Gargamel, not Voldemort was actually the Smurfs’ foe.

Being the geek that I am, I began picturing what would happen if Voldemort happened upon the Smurfs.  At first, it might seem a slaughter fest as Voldemort Avada Kedavra’s Smurf after Smurf.  (Perhaps Cruciatus-ing a few for fun.)

Of course, in Harry Potter’s world, love seems to be a magic in and of itself.  Love prevents Voldemort from killing Harry when he was a mere infant.  Love protected Harry long after his mother’s death.  Love was the one magic that Voldemort couldn’t quite understand.  Given how lovey-dovey the Smurfs tend to be, maybe the battle wouldn’t be so cut and dried.

In a one-on-one duel, Papa Smurf would be toast, but, in a guerilla war against Voldemort, they might just stand a chance.  The Smurfs seem especially good at hiding and Papa Smurf knows his way around magic.  He would undoubtedly consult various magic texts and have his army of Smurfs help him assemble some potion to affect Voldemort.  Perhaps a pair of shoes that force Voldemort to dance forever while the Smurfs sing?  Truly a fate worse than death!

And yes, I’m aware that I’m a huge geek for even contemplating this whole scenario due to my son’s misstated name.

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