Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Viva Piñata!"

In 2006, I was in an airport on my way to the Bahamas, reading an issue of Disney Adventures that I'd gotten at a gift shop in the airport. On the back page, I found this ad:

I could be misremembering it, but I'm preeeeeeeeeetty sure that's how I found out about Viva Piñata! being a thing.

I've never actually played Viva Piñata! or any of its sequel games, but from what I can gather the goal is to tame wild piñatas and give them a safe place to go where they don't have to worry about kids whacking them with baseball bats in an effort to get the candy inside of them. 4Kids Entertainment saw potential in the game and agreed to make a TV show out of it before it was even released. Which seems kind of risky if you ask me... I mean, what if the game flops? Then you'd be stuck with a show based on a game that nobody plays. Though there's a chance that the show could stand on its own even if the game it's based on isn't very good, so I guess it's not THAT risky...

Well, anyhow, 4Kids agreed to make a show out of the game and thus, in August of 2006 (at least three months before the game was released), Viva Piñata! premiered as part of the 4Kids programming block, then moved to another programming block known as C34Kids for a while.

The show is basically exactly the same as the game, except you don't actually play it. You've got piñatas, they live on an island, stuff happens. It got two seasons, but now it's just another one of those cartoons people will occasionally bring up in a "oh, hey, remember that? That was a thing" sort of way. But the show did have a fanbase of sorts back in the day. Dunno if it still does. But it did.

Is the show any good, or does it deserve to languish in obscurity? Let's find out! This is another one of those cartoons where each episode is actually two episodes in one. We'll be watching the eighth episode.

The theme song starts with the horse piñata shouting "IT'S PARTY TIME!" and turning on a jukebox, then we get clips of the piñatas partying and shouting "VIVA PINATA! FILLED WITH FUN! FILLED WITH FUN!" before some British guy gives us some exposition: "Welcome to picturesque Piñata Island. In its many gardens, all manners of piñatas live, dance, and dream that one day they will be chosen to entertain at a party as only piñatas can." He conveniently leaves out the part where they're destroyed by candy-craving baseball bat-wielding kids.

He kind of looks like Donkey from Shrek... well, if you were to paint him
in about seventy-five different colors and stuff his body with candy, I mean.

The first segment of this episode (and thus, the first segment that we'll be reviewing) is called "Mad Mongo".

The episode begins with Paulie Pretztail, a fox piñata (voiced by Brian Maillard), and Fergy Fudgehog, a hedgehog piñata (voiced by David Wills), exploring the remains of the previous night's big party. "I'm glad we weren't invited!" Fergy says. A few seconds later, a bear piñata named Franklin Fizzlybear (Marc Thompson) arrives and asks if either of them accidentally took a bite out of his surfboard.

It's not a good idea to make a surfboard out of fondant. Someone is
bound to take a bite out of it eventually.

Paulie deduces that the bite taken out of Franklin's surfboard was the work of a Sour. Fergy freaks out. Franklin, meanwhile, doesn't know what a Sour is, so Fergy gives him and the audience some exposition - a Sour is a wild, untamed Piñata that vandalizes gardens. And they're pretty much unstoppable. But they're still piñatas, so presumably they can still be stopped by someone wielding a baseball bat, right?

I kind of wonder if Fergy's being a hedgehog is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a certain blue hedgehog that A) is one of the most popular video game characters on the planet and B) also had a show on 4Kids. Probably not, considering that Fergy and said hedgehog don't look or act anything alike, but who knows?

Also, if Fergy's a hedgehog, why doesn't he have any quills? I mean, I know he's a PINATA hedgehog, but still...

Without the quills, he looks more like an earless weasel.
With an abnormally-large butt.

As Fergy gives a big speech about Sours and their nasty ways, Paulie is easily able to locate the Sour that munched on Franklin's surfboard. It's a raccoon piñata who kinda looks like the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes.

You know it's a raccoon 'cause its head is sticking out of a trash can.

As the Sour jumps out of the trash can and starts acting all ferocious and crazy and blah-blah-blah, Paulie identifies it as a "Macaraccoon Sour". Franklin decides that it's his duty to help the Sour, who he names "Mongo", become less feral. "I betcha I can have this little fella tamed in time to be my guest at the Ballroom Banquet Dance!" he claims. Paulie and Fergy are doubtful, as that is the ritziest, most high-class event of the year, and it's in two weeks. "And anyway, you can't tame a SOUR!" Fergy yells. But Franklin is positive that he can do it.

Say, this is a lot like that one movie... I don't quite recall the name, but it had Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison in it... what was it called again? Oh, yeah - Jurassic Park!

First, Franklin tries to teach Mongo how to tie a tie, but Mongo just gobbles up the ties like they're licorice. And then he burps. Because burping is automatically funny. Oh, wait, no it isn't. Next, he tries to teach Mongo how to recite a tongue-twister about how pleasant piñatas are, but that's a total bust too. "You know what's really easy? Learning how to EAT!" he says, and we then cut to Franklin and Mongo sitting at a table.

Boy, this remake of My Dinner With Andre is a lot stranger than the original...

Franklin tries to teach Discount Stitch the proper way to use utensils, but this just results in the Sour throwing the utensils at the wall. Are you sensing a pattern here? Finally, Franklin decides that this whole "taming" thing might be a tad harder than he expected it to be, but he's not ready to throw in the towel yet. Time goes by, and Franklin still hasn't made a gentleman out of Mongo. We get a gag where he steps in something and groans, "Mongo! You've gotta stop drooling... uh, that BETTER be drool, dude." Eugh...

Still, Franklin isn't ready to give up. That is, until he comes home and discovers that Mongo has made a huge mess of his house AND chewed up a portrait of Franklin's father. And no, I don't know how piñatas can reproduce. It's best that we just don't think about it. Trust me.

However, after Mongo devours an entire bucket of "cluckolates"...

The KFC reference is a nice touch.

He becomes a more traditional piñata who speaks perfect English and acts like a perfect gentleman. He even looks more like a raccoon now.

"Cluckolates": the key to taming a wild beast.

Mongo explains to Franklin that "cluckolates" make Macaraccoons "feel like a million bucks", and that he tried to tell Franklin this earlier but Franklin couldn't understand his growls. He offers to clean up Franklin's house as a way of making it up to him. Alas, Franklin does not say "By George, I think he's GOT IT!"

So is Franklin satisfied that Mongo is finally tamed? Well, believe it or not, NO. As a matter of fact, he ISN'T. He's driven so crazy by the squeaking noise made by Mongo's polishing the furniture and the loud noises that the vacuum cleaner makes (to be fair, the noises that a vacuum cleaner makes are indeed horrific) that he claims he created a monster. Eventually, he is driven insane and starts acting like a deranged wild beast. Y'know, kinda like how Mongo acted before he ate those "chuckolates". OH, THE IRONY!

"You'll have to excuse my friend here. As you can see, he's been driven insane."

At the Ballroom Banquet Dance, two hippo piñata guards tell Mongo that his lunatic friend Franklin isn't allowed in because he's, y'know, off the deep end. This makes Mongo mad, and he turns back into Discount Stitch and attacks one of the guards. And that's how it ends. With Mongo and Franklin acting like deranged lunatics. So essentially all of Franklin's efforts to tame Mongo were rendered pointless in the end. Yaaaaaaaay?

Okay, now on to "Hudson's Biggest Fan".

If the name "Mike de Seve" sounds familiar, it's because he also worked on a couple DreamWorks films like Shrek 2, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Over the Hedge.

So I guess Hudson (Dan Green), which is the name of the horse piñata that acts as the mascot of the series, is a celebrity among the piñatas and believes himself to be the greatest thing since sliced bread as a result. He's at a book signing for a biography that he's just written. First in line to get his autograph is his biggest fan, a badger piñata named Beverly Badgesicle.

"No, I'm not the piñata from Fortnite. Don't worry, it's a common mistake."

Beverly is one of those fans that is waaaaaaaaaaaaay too obsessed with whoever it is that they're the biggest fan of. For one thing, she asks Hudson to sign her face as opposed to her book. Hudson's agent, a monkey piñata named Simone Cinnamonkey (Rebecca Soler), drags her out of the book store, but she promises to see Hudson in her dreams. Creepy, right?

Then we cut to Hudson out for a walk with Paulie and Franklin, who I guess regained his sanity at some point in-between episodes. He's talking about how great his book is and how everyone's going to buy it and stuff like that, only for the three of them to get stopped by Beverly again. Franklin and Paulie are just as freaked-out by her as I am, but Hudson says, "Aw, she's completely harmless! Besides, she just has great taste... in ME..."

"TELL ME MOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE ABOUT MY EYES!"

It isn't until Hudson sees Beverly building a statue of him that he starts to get freaked-out.

Next, we cut to Hudson on a call-in show hosted by a parrot piñata named Pierre Parrybo (Eric Stuart). Take a wild guess who calls in. No, really. Guess.

If you guessed "Beverly", you're right!

Iago, is that you?

Hudson isn't even safe taking out the garbage, as he soon discovers that Beverly regularly goes through his trash AND his mail. He has a security system involving multiple locks and a large electric fence installed. In addition, he also has Franklin and Fergy dig a moat filled with quicksand. Of course, since the episode's not over yet I think it's pretty safe to say that these things won't stop Beverly. Case in point...

Hudson, I have some advice for you - get a restraining order and get it NOW.

Do I even need to say why this is disturbing? She's literally sitting in his bathtub WHILE HE'S TAKING A BATH. Methinks Beverly might be a bit of a psycho.

How did Beverly get by the security system and the quicksand-filled moat? Well, apparently she's been living in his attic for a week and a half. Eventually, she vanishes under the bubbly water, but then Hudson gets a phone call... not from Beverly, believe it or not, but rather from Simone.

"Where the heck did that Photoshop gradient-filled cartoon explosion clipart
with my agent inside of it come from?!"

Simon tells Hudson that his idea for a "Win a Week With Hudson Contest" is brilliant, much to Hudson's confusion. He correctly guesses that Beverly had something to do with this - and promptly discovers on TV that, indeed, she's the creator, sponsor, promoter, and judge of the contest. And she's announced that the winning essay was written by HER. And apparently, she's put in all the papers that they'll be going to a beach resort for the whole weekend where she presumably hopes to... do whatever the piñata equivalent of getting it on is (which brings us back to the "how do piñatas reproduce?" question the show brought up earlier). If Hudson doesn't go through with it, it'll ruin his image. Franklin suggests that Hudson just be honest with Beverly. I dunno, I think Hudson's been pretty honest with her already (it's not his fault she doesn't get that he doesn't want her around).

At their romantic dinner for two, Hudson being honest with Beverly actually works - she decides that maybe it WOULDN'T work out between them and cheerfully leaves. Unfortunately, now HUDSON has become obsessed with BEVERLY and her worshipping of him. Yep, it's another "AIN'T IT IRONIC?!" ending.

"CURSE YOU, IRONY!"

WHAT'S THE VERDICT?

I really didn't know what to expect when I went into this show. But, honestly, it's another one that I'm gonna have to put in the "meh, it's okay" category. I really like the character designs, they're nice and colorful and despite the CGI animation being about on par with that of Father of the Pride, they were able to make them look very much like actual piñatas with the texture and all that. They could've actually made piñatas out of these guys and sold 'em at party stores. Did they do that? If not, why didn't they do that?

However, the show itself isn't particularly funny. Neither episode ends in a particularly satisfying way, although I found the ending of "Hudson's Biggest Fan" worked better than that of "Mad Mongo". The characters are tolerable enough, I suppose. I don't think this show is bad, I mean if nothing else it's a lot better than something like, say, Spliced. I just can't really get into it.

Thank you for joining me for another edition of "Let's Watch This". Next time we'll be taking a look at a cartoon looked down upon by many a cartoon reviewer on the internet - Breadwinners.