Let's Watch This: An Episode of "The Save-Ums"

I was gonna do a review of Chop Socky Chooks this week, but then I decided to look up one of the companies that produced the show, Decode Entertainment. To my surprise, one of the other shows that they had a hand in was a little something called The Save-Ums, which I remember watching a lot when I was younger. So I'm going to review The Save-Ums instead. Don't worry, all three of you Chop Socky Chooks fans out there - we'll look at the show another time.

Now, before I talk about The Save-Ums, I should probably talk about the channel that it aired on here in the United States, Discovery Kids.

Discovery Kids was launched in October 1996 as part of four new Discovery cable channels (it also had a Saturday morning block on NBC starting in 2001). The channel aired a mix of live action "tweencoms" and cartoons like Tutenstein, but I always watched more of the show's "Ready, Set, Learn" preschoolers' block myself - along with Playhouse Disney, PBS Kids, and Boomerang, THIS was mainly what I watched when I was a toddler. Most of the shows that aired as part of this block, including The Save-Ums, are pretty obscure today, but I might unlock a few core memories in my readers' heads by mentioning them: ToddWorld? Hi-5? Peep and the Big Wide World? Animal Jam? Any of these a-ringing a bell? Surely you're familiar with the character who was for all intents and purposes the block's mascot, Paz the Penguin?

I'm not the only one who had a Paz plush, right?

Alas, in 2010 Discovery Kids became The Hub - which later on became Discovery Family. And so Paz, the Save-Ums, Peep, and the characters from ToddWorld wound up kicked to the curb, replaced by shows created to sell Hasbro toys. Fortunately, you can find episodes of The Save-Ums on YouTube for those of you like me who'd like to engage in some nostalgia.

So, what exactly IS The Save-Ums? Well, the premise is that a group of strange creature children known as the Save-Ums head out to help somebody, usually an animal, out with their problem. Sometimes they travel to a mountain-topped island called Rock World, sometimes they travel to another island with a volcano on it called Lava World, and sometimes they travel to the underwater location known as Wave World. No problem is too big or too small for the Save-Ums, who consist of...

- Jazzi, with her purple skin and pigtails
- Foo, who appears to be what happens when a penguin and a fish have a baby
- Noodle, presumably called that because he is (or at least looks like) a giant noodle
- Ka-Chung, a bombastic hippopotamus-esque fella
- Custard, who kind of looks like Chowder
- And the smallest and youngest of the Save-Ums, Jazzi's little brother B.B. Jammies

The show was created by Dan Clark, Don Asher, and Dave Pressler (who went on to create Robot and Monster for Nickelodeon) and premiered as part of the "Ready, Set, Learn" block on February 24th, 2003. It received two seasons, making for a total of thirty-nine episodes, each consisting of two segments. We'll be watching the fifth episode of the show, which consists of the segments "Save That Little Tree!" and "A Rock in Winston's Garden!", today because I want to see if the show holds up. This is The Save-Ums.

"Save That Little Tree!" starts off in the Save-Ums' home base (apparently the Save-Ums had the same contractor who built Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse), where Custard is teaching B.B. Jammies and these little fuzzy creatures called the Puffs how to do yoga. We hear the bones of one Puff crack, which A) is pretty disturbing and B) is also pretty surprising seeing as I didn't think the Puffs had bones. I have so many questions about Puff anatomy.

Think of them as being the Tribbles of The Save-Ums.

Actually, the Puffs are surprisingly good at yoga for creatures that don't have limbs. But their little yoga session is interrupted by the Save-Um Screen going off, prompting Jazzi to pop in and see what's going on. We also get a look at the planet that the Save-Ums call home - either Earth or a very, very similar planet that just so happens to have anthropomorphic noodles and fish/penguin hybrid babies living on it. I've seen the Save-Ums called aliens online, but I'm not sure if it's ever specified just WHAT, exactly, they are. I also don't recall it ever being specified where their parents were, either.

Did you know that you can see the Great Pyramids of Giza from space? Hey, if I can't be
funny, I think I should at least try to be educational...

Did you know that you can see the Great Pyramids of Giza from space? Hey, if I can't be funny, I think I should at least try to be educational...

As the Save-Ums gather around the screen, it's revealed that the call is coming from Lava World - specifically, from these two glum-looking monkeys. Maybe they're blue because they can't find their noses.

It must stink to be a monkey without a nose. You wouldn't be able to smell the bananas
you eat.

These two are Oscar and Tina, and they're worried because their friend Sally is in big trouble. Who is Sally? Not another monkey, but a tree. Not a sentient tree, just a regular tree. Presumably, there aren't many other residents in Lava World - which makes sense, because who wants to live on an island with a volcano on it? - so Oscar and Tina have decided to befriend a tree. The problem? The volcano is erupting, and the lava is headed right for Sally!

The Save-Ums don't seem to be too worried about this. Instead, Noodle cheerfully explains to the other Save-Ums - and the audience - what lava is. I mean, to be fair, it's a TREE, but if the monkeys are distressed by this, it's pretty insensitive of you guys not to show any concern. "Everyone in Lava World knows to stay away from the Hot Lava when the volcano is erupting!" Oscar claims. "But Sally is just a plant!" "She can't think for herself, or get out of the way, or ANYTHING! She's stuck in the ground!" Tina adds. Ah, so they DO know that Sally isn't sentient? I wasn't sure...

I bet Ka-Chung goes through a lot of ChapStick.

"Tell Sally we're on our way!" Noodle declares - and by "we're", he means himself, Ka-Chung, and Foo. For some reason, only two or three of the Save-Ums go on the mission in each episode. Wouldn't it make more sense if they ALL went? After all, if two heads are better than one, surely SIX heads (or five, since B.B. Jammies is just a baby) is better than THREE. What, does Custard have a dental appointment or something? Ah well, I'm glad Noodle is coming along - I think he was my favorite Save-Um. Probably stems from the fact that I love pasta...

Noodle suggests that they take the "Sub-Chopper", which can fly through the air and get them to Lava World quickly. Ka-Chung then says that his "Ka-Drill" could come in handy too, to which Noodle says that they can use the Sub-Chopper's robo-fingers to carry the Ka-Drill to Lava World. And so, with a shout of the team's catchphrase "Small is powerful!"...

"Beam us up, Scotty!"

The three Save-Ums going on the mission are on their way, with Noodle and Ka-Chung traveling in the Sub-Chopper and Foo using a jetpack. I love how when they get to Lava World, Ka-Chung says, "That volcano really IS erupting!" Well, obviously. Did he think that maybe the monkeys made up the "volcano erupting" thing just for the heck of it?

Yeah, the CGI in this show hasn't aged particularly well...

"We need to move that tree out of danger and replant her someplace safe!" Noodle tells the monkeys. Fortunately, Oscar knows of a great place near the beach where they can replant Sally. "Kaaaaaaaaaa-CHUNG!" Ka-Chung explains, because he couldn't think of a better catchphrase than just shouting his name whenever he's excited. "I can use my Ka-Drill to dig a comfy hole to plant her in!" And Noodle can use the Sub-Chopper to fly her down to them. But wait - how are they going to get Sally out of the ground? They'd have to somehow uproot her. Fortunately, Foo gets an idea after seeing some coconut shells on the ground nearby... she can just dig the tree out of the ground with the shells. Y'know, because apparently nobody thought to bring a shovel.

I bet Sally's not exactly DIGGING the situation she's in right now. Get it? DIGGING?
Ha ha ha ha ha... I amuse myself.

The lava is getting closer, so it's a good thing that Foo, Oscar and Tina are just about done digging. Now Noodle can use the Sub-Chopper's robo-fingers to lift Sally out of harm's way. Two questions about the Sub-Chopper: one, why is it called that? The prefix "Sub" means "underneath", so does the Sub-Chopper have the ability to go underneath things as well as over them? Did they ever show this in an episode? And two, where can I get one?

"Let me give you a HAND! Get it? HAND?



Hey, if the writer of this blog post can make bad puns, I don't see why I can't."

Noodle lifts the tree out of the lava's path, then Ka-Chung uses the Ka-Drill to dig a new hole. Zhe day, it is, how you say, saved! And it only took, like, three minutes!

Staring at Noodle makes me hungry for pasta. I still can't tell if he actually IS a walking,
talking noodle or if he just LOOKS LIKE one...

Now that Sally is safe and sound, the Save-Ums bid the monkeys farewell and head back to their headquarters. Foo tells Custard and Jazzi that they learned a valuable lesson about plants and how they need love... which doesn't really have anything to do with what happened. The problem wasn't that Sally wasn't getting enough love, it was that a VOLCANO WAS ERUPTING AND THE LAVA WAS FLOWING TOWARDS HER. So if anything, the moral is "don't plant a tree near a volcano, idiot". Who planted Sally anyway?

We end with the Save-Ums all doing more yoga. On to "A Rock in Winston's Garden!"!

Foo takes some pictures of herself and the Puffs (this was before the days of cell phones with cameras in 'em, so no, the pictures that Foo takes do not qualify as "selfies"), then the Save-Um Screen starts going off. Who's calling them this time? Somebody from Wave World - their pal Winston the blue whale!

Y'know what always bothered me about Winston? Why the heck does he have EARS? HUMAN ears? It's just so OFF-PUTTING. Is he a mutant? Does he live in one of those parts of the ocean where people test atomic bombs?

And where on Earth does a blue whale find a pair of pants big enough for them to fit in?

Winston demonstrates that he is a Woody Allen parody by fretting to the Save-Ums about how it's time for his "Silly Sea Sammies" - which are a kind of underwater flower that suddenly pop up out of the sand and giggle - to bloom. The problem? A big rock fell on top of his Silly Sea Sammies, so when the flowers bloom they'll hit their little flower heads.

I hope this episode features an appearance from that baby dinosaur who looks like a giant
Larry the Cucumber. Save-Ums fans, you know who I'm talking about.

Noodle suggests that they take the Sub-Chopper, which in addition to flying through the air can also travel under the sea (so THAT'S why it's called a "SUB-Chopper"). In addition to Noodle, Jazzi and Foo - fitting, seeing as she looks like a fish - are coming along as well.

How many Save-Ums does it take to remove a rock from a whale's garden? I don't know,
ask the chicken who crossed the road.

Off the three of them go, Noodle and Jazzi in the Sub-Chopper and Foo in her jetpack. When they arrive at Wave World, Winston leads them to his garden - and the rock that's taking up residence in it.

"It's not just a boulder! It's a rock! It's a big, beautiful old rock! Oh, the pioneers used to
ride these babies for miles! And it's in great shape!"

The Save-Ums better hurry, because the Silly Sea Sammies are getting ready to bloom any minute now. Noodle says he can use the robo-fingers to push the rock off the flowers. Unfortunately, it doesn't work - methinks Noodle isn't very strong. He's high in fiber and carbohydrates, but he's pretty weak. And to make matters worse, everyone can hear the giggling of the Silly Sea Sammies from under the rock.

...actually, now that I think about it, has WINSTON tried to lift the rock? He's a blue whale. Blue whales have strong muscles.

Odd that Jazzi has pigtails but otherwise no other hair on her head.

Jazzi gets an idea - if the rock is too big for them to move, they'll just have to smash it into smaller pieces. So Foo opens up the Sub-Chopper's tool box and, sure enough, there happens to be something in it that could help them - a sledgehammer!

"I wanna be... your sledgehammer... why don't you call my name?"

Foo isn't sure that she's strong enough to smash the rock since she's so small - and judging from the fact that she's having difficulty lifting the sledgehammer, I'd say her fears are justified. "Remember, Foo - small is powerful!" Noodle claims, giving Foo the strength of ten Save-Ums plus two. She hits the rock with the hammer, and sure enough, cracks start to form and the rock falls apart into smaller pieces. Now they can just lift up the pieces and move them so the Silly Sea Sammies can do their thing.

So flowers are sentient in this world, but trees aren't?

Winston thanks the Save-Ums for their help - the giggling of the Silly Sea Sammies is music to his weird human ears (yes, I'm still harping on that). It's back to Save-Um headquarters, where Foo puts the photos she took earlier in her album.

What's the Verdict?

So, that's The Save-Ums. And yeah, it's obviously aimed for little kids, the ones who are more into stuff like Paw Patrol and Dora the Explorer than, say, Gravity Falls. But it manages to avoid falling into the same trap as something like Cave Kids by not being too sappy and cutesy-wootsy. The Save-Ums all have really appealing designs... with the possible exception of B.B. Jammies. He's a bit off-putting (probably because he's the only one with pupils). Maybe they're not the most complex characters, but they're likeable and the child voice actors all do a good job. And it manages to get you genuinely invested in the problems that the characters have to solve without making them too scary for kids. I'm not sure if I would recommend it to anyone over the age of five (unless you watched it when you were little and want to engage in some nostalgia), but it's a great cartoon for you to show your kids.

I'll probably tackle the other Discovery Kids cartoons another time. It was never as iconic a channel as Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network, so pretty much anything animated that aired on the channel is pretty obscure nowadays. Oh, yeah - and remember the Discovery Channel STORES? Remember those?

I remember they had one in Baltimore at some point in the 2000s. Good times...

Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Lilo and Stitch: The Series"

NOTE: Please do not take any of the little nitpicks in this review (or any of my other reviews, for that matter) seriously. I write these reviews in the hopes of making people laugh. Those nitpicks are really just dumb little observations that I'm attempting to make jokes out of, not complaints that add to whether or not I like something.

NOTE #2: No disrespect is meant towards anyone who worked on the show I am reviewing today. I'm sure they are all very nice and talented people.

NOTE #3: If you like this show, that is great. Go ahead and like it. I'm not judging you.

I remember when Lilo and Stitch came out. I remember seeing it in theaters. I remember the bonus features on the DVD. I remember my sister having a Lilo doll. Lilo and Stitch was one of the only Disney movies of the 2000s to be considered (by the company itself, at least) a box office success. And you know what THAT meant, right?

ANSWER: it meant that they had a new cash cow.

And boy howdy were they going to take advantage of that - ESPECIALLY at the Disney theme parks. Well, at Walt Disney World anyway, I don't know if they did this at Disneyland too. Stitch received his own attraction in 2004 at the Magic Kingdom, Stitch's Great Escape. I never went on it, but apparently it was really bad, and it has since been shut down. Disney, however, was really proud of the attraction, because they promoted it perhaps more than they've promoted any other attraction in the resort's history... there were signs all over the park, Stitch stickers were pasted on the windows of the monorail, they even vandalized Cinderella Castle. Look at this:

And on top of THAT, somehow Stitch became the sixth member of Mickey's group of friends. On merchandise, he'd be included alongside Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto and he stuck out like a sore thumb. Eventually, the company calmed down on Stitch, but he was practically the mascot of Disney for a while.

Outside the parks, Disney kept the Stitch train a-chuggin' along with merchandise and direct-to-video sequels. He received three, the first of which was Stitch! The Movie. Kind of a weird thing to call a film's direct-to-video sequel, seeing as the name of the first movie was Lilo and Stitch. So this one is just Stitch? It's like if they made a sequel to Turner and Hooch and called it Turner! The Movie.

I've heard that the ACTUAL Lilo and Stitch direct-to-video sequel that came after
this one, Lilo and Stitch 2: Stich Has a Glitch, is better. The fourth one, Leroy and Stitch,
is apparently the weakest of the Stitch movies.

The name makes a little more sense if you know that Stitch! The Movie was actually just a feature-length pilot for the Lilo and Stitch TV show that Disney was making, which was going to be called Stitch! The Series at first before they decided to call it Lilo and Stitch: The Series instead.

This show, developed by Bobs Gannaway and Jess Winfield, premiered on September 20th, 2003. It was basically Disney's answer to Pokemon - Stitch's name, before Lilo found him, was Experiment 626, right? So that means that his creator, Dr. Jumbaa Jookiba, made 625 experiments BEFORE he made him, right? Thus, the show had Lilo (once again voiced by Daveigh Chase) and Stitch (once again voiced by Chris Sanders) chasing after all the other experiments that Jumbaa (David Ogden Stiers) created, which were stored in tiny ping pong balls that would free them when contact was made with some sort of liquid. Along for the ride were Lilo's big sister Nani (Tia Carrere), Jumbaa, and the one-eyed former Galactic Federation agent Pleakley (Kevin McDonald). The show received two seasons, making for a total of sixty-five episodes.

I remember watching the show when it was on, but to be honest, I don't think it holds up very well. Apparently, executive meddling resulted in the charm of the film it was based on being tossed out the window in favor of zany, more lighthearted antics. The original film was pretty mellow and laid-back. You're not gonna find any tender moments like Stitch's speech about his family here. Nope, we have episodes about experiments that turn people into babies, crossovers with Kim Possible and American Dragon: Jake Long, and... well, just look at this:

This episode, by the way, has a really heavy-handed moral about healthy eating.
Yes, it's one of THOSE shows...

The characters got Flanderized as well, most notably Pleakley. In the original movie, he was intelligent (he just didn't quite understand humans) and tried his best to keep the bombastic Jumbaa in line. In the show, he's now a massive idiot who exists so that the writers can make jokes at the expense of gay people. I shouldn't have to say this... somebody being gay is not a joke. Making fun of people for not being straight is wrong, okay? In fact, television shows' mockery of gay people is likely a reason why homophobes are still a thing.

All right, all right, let's get on with the actual review. We'll be watching the third episode, "Clip". As they say in Hawaii, E hoʻomaka kākou! Thank goodness for Google Translate...

The episode begins with Lilo and Stitch at a spa, where Lilo explains to Stitch that if he wants to fit in on Earth, he has to obsess over how he looks like everybody else. Wow, that's some pretty biting social commentary for a show where the main running gag is "hurr-dee-durr, this male alien is dressed like a female". Then they get into a mud fight, sending the stuff flying everywhere and making a mess of the salon. This makes the salon's owner MAD, and she kicks Lilo and Stitch out.

I do like that the show has watercolor backgrounds like the original movie. Downside: it
makes the lower budget TV animation of the characters stick out even more.

Lilo complains about how the salon owner made them clean up all the mud... what is she talking about? That didn't happen. Immediately after Stitch threw mud in her face, we saw Lilo and Stitch fleeing the salon as the owner shouted at them to stay out. Well, anyway, there's no time to dwell on the salon owner being a grouch, because a bald guy runs out of the salon screaming about how something ate all his hair. What is responsible for his baldness? A mutant hairball who Stitch recognizes as one of his "cousins".

Boy, does she need a manicure.

Lilo and Stitch chase the mutant hairball as it runs around wreaking havoc, either making people bald or just giving them stupid haircuts. Eventually, they trap it in a hatbox, and Lilo decides to give it the name "Clip". Presumably because it likes to CLIP hair.

Little do Lilo and Stitch know that they're being watched. Everybody, say hello to Gantu (Kevin Michael Richardson), the show's main antagonist. In the movie, he was captain of the Galactic Federation, assigned to capture Stitch and bring it back so they could hold it prisoner. He was competent, he just didn't count on Stitch by that point becoming a good guy and escaping his clutches, then going back to save Lilo. So what did the TV show do? They turned him into a bumbling idiot, of course! He now works for Jumbaa's old lab partner, the evil Dr. Hamsterviel (Jeff Bennett), who wants to capture the experiments because... I don't recall, they probably explained this in Stitch! The Movie. In every episode he tries to capture the experiment that Lilo and Stitch have found this week, only for them to take him down via WHACKY SHENANIGANS. He's basically the Dick Dastardly to Lilo and Stitch's Yankee Doodle Pigeon, except Dick Dastardly is more fun to watch.

Gantu's mad because they rejected his audition for Street Sharks.

Gantu receives a call from Dr. Hamstreviel, who screams at him to get the experiment. That basically sums up Dr. Hamsterviel in a nutshell - his purpose in the show is to screech at Gantu, act like a bad impression of the French guards from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and be mistaken for a hamster (though he looks more like a jerboa to me).

"I blow my nose at you, so-called Gantu Captain! You and all your silly alien experiments!"

Lilo and Stitch head back to the house and meet up with Jumbaa, tells them that the experiment they found (Number 177) is very dangerous. He created it years ago to eat an alien fuel source called Uburnium. Unfortunately, he made a mistake and wound up creating a creature that eats HAIR - and it promptly ate HIS hair, which explains why he really wanted to try on Pleakley's wig in the movie.

Yeesh, Jumbaa really does not translate well to this show's lower budget art style.

And then who should walk in but Mr. Non-Straight People Are Funny himself, Pleakley, who contributes nothing to the scene but at least we don't have any jokes at the expense of the gays thrown at us. Lilo says that they need to find the one true place where Clip belongs. How about as Chris Rock's pet? Then she can go around eating people's hair and Chris Rock can make mean-spirited bald jokes at their expense.

Anyhow, they go back to the salon because Lilo thinks Clip can live there and eat all the hair that falls to the floor when people get their hair cut. But then who should emerge from the salon but Lilo's arch-rival, Mertle (Liliana Mumy), and her posse, all of whom have been practicing the DreamWorks Face.

That one with the pigtails has really gotten the hang of it.

Mertle makes fun of Lilo's completely normal-looking hair, presumably for no other reason than to demonstrate that she is an unlikable brat. As soon as she and her posse walk off laughing, Lilo declares that Mertle needs to be punished. Uh oh, I smell a lesson about how revenge is bad flying our way!

Dressing up as cat burgulars, Lilo and Stitch sneak into Mertle's house and leave Clip under her pillow. Lilo tells her that tonight, she will dine on Mertle's curly red locks.

She's like an evil tooth fairy.

After an encounter with Mertle's dimwitted mom, Lilo and Stitch return to their house, where Lilo says like an idiot that nothing about their get-back-at-Mertle plan could possibly go wrong. Dang it, Lilo, haven't you ever seen another cartoon? Saying "nothing could possibly go wrong" ALWAYS causes something to go wrong. It's just common knowledge.

And sure enough, something DOES go wrong. Unbeknownst to Lilo, Mertle is at a sleepover that night. So not only is Lilo's plan an epic failure, but Gantu shows up at Mertle's house to capture Clip, only for her to make a getaway and head off into the night to wreak more havoc. The next day, Lilo goes to her hula class and is shocked to discover that Mertle still has all her hair, and that her mother saw Gantu reaching in through her window just before she was attacked by a "flying yellow furball".

Oh, and Pleakley has supplied Jumbaa with a rainbow afro wig. Nyuck nyuck nyuck nyuck nyuck.

"Why do I have sudden urge to sing that annoying song from Madagascar 3?"

Jumbaa doesn't like the wig, so Pleakley decides to get the hair follicles woken up by dancing on Jumbaa's head. Apparently Jumbaa would rather risk Clip eating the three remaining hairs that he has than deal with Pleakley, so he agrees to help Lilo and Stitch capture Clip. They go to Mertle's house and interrogate her mother, who actually ISN'T mad about Clip eating her hair. "Remember, a haircut doesn't make you who you are," she says, "YOU make a haircut what it is." Which makes Lilo realize that it's not a big deal if people tease you over your hair... your completely normal-looking hair. The moral probably would've worked better if the episode had started off with Lilo getting a legitimately lousy haircut, because now it just seems like Mertle decided to pick on Lilo for no reason (which, let's face it, she totally was).

Also, she calls Jumbaa handsome, apparently because she has a thing for big purple-skinned aliens. And that makes Jumbaa happy, and his head doesn't feel "clenched" anymore, so...

Remember, all you bald people out there - all you have to do is feel happy and your hair will grow back! Trust me, I'm a hair expert. Also, pigs have the ability to fly, they just don't do it when people are looking.

I will say this, Jumbaa's shout of "I! HAVE! HAAAAAAAAAAAAIR!" is legitimately pretty funny. He, Lilo and Stitch head out to find Clip, and after an encounter with a hairless squirrel they discover that Clip has eaten so much hair that she has become gigantic. Lilo and Jumbaa make it through the encounter unscathed, Stitch not so much.

Wah wah wah wah waaaaaaaaaaaaah...

Oh, and Gantu is there, too - running away from Clip. He is subjected to WHACKY SHENANIGANS as he tries to get away, culminating in him being forced to hula dance. I think I'll let Starscream sum up my thoughts on this scene...

Lilo laments that it's all her fault Clip is running amok. "Who knew life would be full of such hard lessons?" she moans. "I'd never use a hair-eating monster on someone when you're unhappy with yourself." Then she remembers that Mertle gave her a bottle of hair conditioner yesterday - hair conditioner with "FOR TAMING WILD AND UNRULY HAIR" on the label. Hmmm...

"Stitch, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"Stitch thinks so, Lilo, but isn't that why they invented tube socks? Narf!"

They go to the hair salon and find Clip rolling around terrifying everybody. Stitch squirts her with hair conditioner, which causes her to shrink down to her original size. Lilo talks about how she learned that revenge is wrong and blah-blah-blah. Now Clip can get a job at the salon giving haircuts, and Jumbaa asks her to get rid of the afro because it doesn't fit an "evil genius" like him. As for Gantu, he's still hula-dancing - now in drag, because Pleakley didn't dress in drag at any point in this episode and we need to get in a "drag queens are funny" joke in there SOMEWHERE.

"Ha ha ha! The male character is doing a non-masculine thing! How hilarious that he
does not fall into traditional gender roles!"

What's the Verdict?

Lilo and Stitch: The Series is mediocre. At the very least this episode didn't have a lot of "LOL gay people" jokes, presumably because Pleakley wasn't in much of it. As I've said before, the charm of the movie is nowhere to be found, replaced with Flanderized characters and unfunny jokes. The animation as a whole isn't bad, but the art style seems cruder and the characters all look strange. And I know somebody's gonna say "Oh, you probably just watched one of the weaker episodes" - to which I say, after watching "Clip", I watched another episode of the show (the one where Lilo enters Stitch in a dog show). It was just as bad - in fact, it was even worse. Or I could've reviewed the episode with the experiment that makes people fall in love. That episode alone perfectly summarizes how hilarious the show's crew thought gay people were.

It's too bad, because a Lilo and Stitch show had the potential to be good. Maybe if they scrapped the "find all the other experiments" plot and just focused on Stitch learning about life in Hawaii. Oh, but don't take MY word for it. Here's a Lilo and Stitch fan's Tumblr post that sums up all the show's problems. My recommendation would be to just stick with the original movie.

There are far worse cartoons based on movies, though. In fact, I sincerely doubt it's worse than those Stitch animes where Lilo was replaced with other, similar girls.

Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Will and Dewitt"

What's the only thing weirder than a cartoon starring a studio logo? Well, for one thing, a two-headed rhinoceros playing an accordion while balancing on a gumball machine. Obviously. But another thing that's pretty weird is a cartoon series starring the mascot of WIPES. Are you familiar with Kandoo?

Kandoo is a line of children's personal care products - wipes, body wash, shampoo, hand soap... all of it featuring this green frog, on the packaging. In the 2000s, somebody said "Hey, what if we gave this character his own cartoon show?". I guess the mindset was that giving the frog a cartoon show would increase sales of the wipes? I don't know if it did, but they made that cartoon show.

Produced by Cookie Jar Entertainment (or, as it's called nowadays, WildBrain) and Two Presidents Productions, Will and Dewitt aired on Kids' WB in the United States and YTV in Canada starting in September 2007. It starred the frog, now given the name of Dewitt, and paired him up with an eight-year-old boy named Will. The show only received one season, and according to TV Tropes that's because...

1) It was a preschool show made for Kids' WB, a block consisting mainly of comedy or action-based shows (such as Loonatics Unleashed, Xiaolin Showdown, and Krypto the Superdog). The target audience wasn't there - especially since the show aired at 7:00, when most kids would still be asleep.

2) This was during the time period where Kids' WB was just limping along until shutting down in 2008.

Does any of this mean that the show is bad? Of course not. Maybe it was a good show that was just the victim of bad circumstances. So, let's watch an episode of Will and Dewitt to see just how good or bad it is. You can find a couple episodes on YouTube, among them the first episode, which consists of the segments "Things That Go Flump in the Night" and "My New Boots". That's the one we'll be looking at today. Let's hop to it! Y'know, since the show's about a frog...

"Things That Go Flump in the Night" starts off NOT with Will and Dewitt, but rather a purple frog with hair who sounds like an Elvis impersonator, flirting with a bunch of girl frogs who ALSO have hair (and makeup) for some reason. Apparently he's the emcee of a frog nightclub where Will is a singer. And already I've got a lot of questions.

Since this show aired on The WB, I suppose I should make at least one Michigan J. Frog
joke. Maybe he's the one who greenlit the show?

Will (voiced by Connor Price) starts singing, with Dewitt (voiced by Richard Ian Cox) and a turtle getting a verse as well, and the girl frogs all swoon over him... which is disturbing, seeing as he's A) a human being and B) a kid. The song isn't particularly good - sorry, Will, but you're not much of a lounge singer.

After the song, Will returns home to find his dad (Richard Binsley) cleaning out the garage. Apparently, they're going to turn the garage into Will's new bedroom. Why anybody would want to sleep in their garage, I don't know (I've always preferred having a bedroom on the second floor myself. Just feels safer to me). From my experience, garages are usually hot and dirty. Unless you're Oscar the Grouch, I don't think a garage would make a particularly nice bedroom.

Will's older brother, Fred (Billy Rosemberg), decides to be Mr. Mischevious and tells him that he's gonna hear creepy "alone noises", but he doesn't give any indication as to what those "noises" will be.

"Hey, Will, guess what? Your show's been given a lousy time slot. We're only gonna get
one season, tops!"

As soon as Fred leaves, Dewitt pops out of Will's clothing like that creature from Alien and expresses excitement over him and Will having their own room. I wonder if Dewitt considers himself a pet - he can talk and seems pretty anthropomorphic, though he doesn't wear clothes, so it's kind of a grey area.

No, Dewitt isn't picking his nose.

Once the garage has been converted into a bedroom for Will, it's bedtime for him and Dewitt. Unfortunately, Dewitt decides to get in on the "scare Will" game too and suggests that the house has "boogely-sharks" in it. What the heck is a "boogely-shark"? Dewitt decides to show us.

Ah, yes, I should mention that Dewitt has the ability to shapeshift. How did he get this power? I don't know. Maybe there's another episode that explains it. Maybe he ate a fairy because he thought it was a bug. Maybe Will fed him some Zippo Newt Food.

"I don't get no respect! Nyuck nyuck nyuck!"

Will's apparently not the sharpest tool in the shed, because he actually buys Dewitt's claim of "boogely sharks" being a thing. The main sign that your house is infested with "boogely sharks", Dewitt says, is creaking in the floor - made by them trying to burst through the floor and eat your toenails!

Suddenly, what looks like a shark fin pops out of the floorboards. Could Dewitt be telling the truth about "boogely sharks" being a thing?

Cue the Jaws music.

Will frantically starts banging the floor with what looks like a washboard (maybe he's hoping to join a jug band?), causing his dad to come in and ask him what he's doing. He claims that there was, uh, some dust on the floor, and he was trying to flatten it out so he doesn't trip on it. I guess he doesn't think his dad will believe that there are sharks in the floorboards.

Later, when Will starts hearing different noises, Dewitt claims that the cupboards are filled with "cupboard monkeys". I don't know if Dewitt actually believes these strange creatures exist or if he's just messing with Will, but he claims that "cupboard monkeys" sneak out of the cupboards while you're asleep and sing in your ear until you go bananas. Then they eat you. And sure enough, some "cupboard monkeys" appear - NOT in the cupboard, but rather in Will's chest of drawers. So shouldn't they actually be called "chest of drawers monkeys"?

If any of those monkeys are voiced by John Tuturro, I'm ending the review.

Dewitt advises Will to put on a pair of headphones - that way, he'll only go NUTS, and monkeys don't like nuts as much as they like bananas (actually, monkeys DO like nuts, I looked it up, but maybe "cupboard monkeys" are the exception). But he'll still have to worry about "Madagascar swooping lamp-shrimp" trying to eat his bellybutton. "How come everything in a bedroom at night is so hungry?" Will laments. All of these weird creatures actually DO appear in his room, so maybe Dewitt is on to something. Or maybe Will's just hallucinating. Must be caused by the weird smells you usually find in your garage - another reason why sleeping in your garage is a bad idea.

Will goes to see his parents, who suggest that he sleep with Fred for a couple more nights. But Will fears that Fred will mock him for being a coward, so he decides to head back to his room. He still doesn't say anything to his parents about the "boogely-sharks" and "cupboard monkeys" in his room. I would ask why, but he probably thinks that if he does he'll wind up with a one-way ticket to a mental asylum. Oh, and Dewitt STILL isn't through freaking Will out - now he's claiming that "pillow woodpeckers" are coming in to eat Will's ears. Fortunately, Will finally realizes that Dewitt is full of crap.

I know I've already made a Ned's Newt reference, but Dewitt is giving me huge Newton vibes.

Oddly, though, I don't find Dewitt as obnoxious as Newton.

"I've got an idea that'll solve both our problems!" Will declares. It's not feeding Dewitt to the "boogely-sharks" so they'll leave him alone, but rather giving Dewitt a helmet and some headphones. Thus, Will and Dewitt get a good night's sleep and we end with another musical number. Next segment!

"My New Shoes" starts with - what else? - another musical number, this one about bare feet. Who wrote this song, Mort from Madagascar?

The song is interrupted by Fred calling out to Will about how he has something that Will doesn't - new boots! Boots that Will can't have because they have zippers and straps and all sorts of things like that. Way too complicated for a little kid like Will. To be honest, I've always found shoes with LACES to be the most complicated... I still have difficulty tying them.

Also, I've never found getting new shoes to be all that exciting. Make of that what you will.

Will has his mom take him to the shoe store to get him some cool new shoes like Fred's. He and Dewitt find another pair... which turn out to be sentient. They can talk and everything. Will isn't too fazed by this, for some reason. Maybe it's because he hangs out with a shapeshifting talking frog.

I don't think I could bring myself to wear talking shoes. It'd be like wearing tiny people
on your feet.

Dewitt does an Albert Einstein impression for some reason, then describes the boots as being "like video games for your feet". So they get the talking boots, but Will has difficulty putting them on and working the buckles. Dewitt's not helping matters at all.

What does being a football coach have to do with putting boots on?





Dunno.

After some more of Dewitt's WHACKY SHENANIGANS, Will winds up having to get instructions from Fred on working the boots, which frustrates him so much that he takes off the boots and leaves them in a puddle. To prove that he doesn't need them, he's going to jump into a puddle in his socks. Makes sense to me, I don't know why YOU'RE confused...

But then he decides not to jump in the puddle after all and that he just needs patience. Again, I don't know why. He finds the boots on a bench, waiting for the bus to take them back to the store, but he convinces them to let him try them again. Using PATIENCE (apparently this episode's moral was about being patient), he manages to put them on correctly and it's time for a fourth musical number!

And that's about it.

What's the Verdict?

I can see why Will and Dewitt didn't catch on. This isn't an AWFUL show, but I would hesitate to call it good. The characters aren't very engaging, with Will being your typical kid protagonist and Dewitt honestly being kind of annoying. The animation is pretty bad, typical bad 2000s Flash animation that moves in a herky-jerky fashion... it legitimately looks like something made with GoAnimate. Most of the jokes fall flat. The songs are lousy. And the show, quite frankly, is too weird for its own good - just because it's a cartoon doesn't mean you can throw anything at the wall and see what sticks. WHY does Dewitt shapeshift? What does that add to the show? The voice actors all do a good job, with Richard Ian Cox clearly making the best of the weak material he's been given, but as a whole the show doesn't have much going for it. I'm sure little kids would like it, but there are better preschool shows out there.

And in case you're wondering, yes, they're still using Dewitt on Kandoo packaging today. I doubt anyone who sees those wipes in stores know that the frog on the packaging once had his own cartoon show.