I know what you're thinking - this looks like a knockoff of Kung Fu Panda. And yeah, it does. One of the main characters even IS a panda. But this show came out in July 2007... a year before Kung Fu Panda was released in theaters. However, Kung Fu Panda was ANNOUNCED in 2005. Make of that what you will.
Skunk Fu! focuses on a bunch of animals living in a valley and practicing martial arts. Long ago, the valley was protected by a dragon named... creatively enough, Dragon (voiced by Rod Goodall). Then one day, the heavens decided to test Dragon by sending a drought to the valley. He asked them if he could use his water powers to save the valley from the drought. They didn't reply. So he decided to use them anyway. The heavens saw this as an act of disobedience even though he didn't actually defy them since they didn't tell him that he COULDN'T use his powers, and punished him by stripping him of his water powers, leaving only his fire powers. He blamed the other animals of the valley for this and became EEEEEEEEEE-VIL! The wise panda named Panda (Paul Tylak) - again, very creative - asked the heavens for help, and they gave him Skunk (Jules de Jongh). Guess what kind of animal he is. Panda teaches Skunk martial arts.
Skunk Fu! made its debut in the United States on Kids' WB. Then in 2008 it started airing on Cartoon Network for a while. This is where I stumbled across it. I recall actually becoming obsessed with the show for a while back in 2010. Does it hold up? Well, the show seems to have a mixed reception online. Complaints seem to stem from the fact that Skunk is one of those "lazy idiot who hates doing hard work and constantly messes things up in his attempts to get around doing said hard work" characters. Let's give the show a watch and see whether or not it's worthy of your time. We'll be watching the nineteenth episode, which consists of the segments "The Art of the Dizzy Master" and "The Art of Dim Sum Fu".
First of all, this is another one of those cartoons where the theme song is a horrible rap. Not a good sign.
After that, "The Art of the Dizzy Master" begins with Skunk bragging about how great of a Kung Fu master he is to his friend Pig the pig (Tony Acworth). No, not the one from Barnyard or Pearls Before Swine. This Pig is similar, though - his shtick as a character is that he's an idiot. Also, he sounds like a bad Bobcat Goldthwait impression.
Skunk shows Pig some sort of toilet plunger thing attatched to a rope, which he calls the "Flying Octopus Arm". He stole it from Rabbit (also Paul Tylak). Rabbit is one of those characters who thinks he's the greatest thing since sliced bread and is always acting arrogant and showing off in front of everyone. So, we have a character who steals things, a character with an ego the size of a hippopotamus, and a character with the IQ of a bag of potato chips. Still not exactly filled with confidence.
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| Shouldn't Pig's name actually be "Boar"? He looks far more like a boar than a domestic pig to me. |
Skunk and Pig stumble upon a Ninja Monkey. What are Ninja Monkeys? Well, they're basically your typical cartoon villains' henchmen who are identical to each other and a hive-mind of incompetent idiots. Y'know, sort of like the penguins from Adventure Time or the Watchdogs from Wander Over Yonder. They're monkeys because the animation industry can't seem to realize that monkeys are not automatically funny.
Nor is picking one's nose and eating the boogers, but that's exactly what the Ninja Monkey does.
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| So, is that a ninja costume, or does the monkey actually have black fur? |
Skunk tries to use his "Flying Octopus Arm" on the Ninja Monkey, but fails epically at it. Not only does he wind up hitting a coconut instead and getting himself tied up, but he alerts the Ninja Monkey to his presence, and it summons the other Ninja Monkeys, as well as their leader, Baboon (Paul McLoone). Surprisingly, Baboon ISN'T a baboon as his name implies, but rather a hammerhead shark.
Nah, I'm just kidding. He's a baboon. Though he honestly looks more like a Japanese Macaque than a baboon to me. This is what an actual baboon looks like...
And here's what Baboon looks like (he's the big white-furred one)…
Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure baboons don't live in China (correct me if I'm wrong). Maybe he actually IS a Japanese Macaque, and he just calls himself Baboon for whatever reason. Come to think of it, maybe he's not actually from China, seeing as he has an Australian accent. But there aren't any wild monkeys in Australia, so...
Eh, I'm looking too far into this. It'd probably just be easier to say the show's creators thought that Japanese Macaques were baboons, or they just drew a generic ape and decided to call it a baboon because they think "Baboon" is a funny word to say.
Okay, back to the episode. Pig frees Skunk from the ropes binding him, but in typical cartoon fashion Skunk winds up spinning around like a tornado, in the process knocking out each of the Ninja Monkeys surrounding them like a pinball. "I've found the perfect unstoppable fighting technique!" he declares. He is now...
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| For what it's worth, Skunk, it's really hard to make the word "Dizzy" sound cool. On the list of words that are impossible to make sound cool, it's right next to "QUACK". |
Later, Skunk meets up with Panda. Panda is basically Master Shifu except with a stereotypical bad Chinese accent. You know, the kind that makes anyone uncomfortable just by listening to it?
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| I wonder if the creators of Yin Yang Yo! were miffed when they discovered this other cartoon show that had a panda as a teacher of Kung Fu. |
Today, Skunk will be mastering his "Evil Claw". I don't know if that's an actual Kung Fu move. And he will be practicing against Rabbit and Pig.
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| "Say 'What's up, doc?' to me one more time and I'm gonna put you in a world of hurt." |
Skunk arrogantly declares that he doesn't need to train because he has developed an awesome new fighting technique called the "Dizzy Master", which he attempts to demonstrate. This time, it only succeeds in making him... well, dizzy. But Pig is still impressed, because as we've established, he's an idiot.
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| So, we have a skunk, a rabbit, and a pig... swap out the panda for a duck or a rooster and we'd have some sort of weird Looney Tunes anime. |
Rabbit attempts to fight Skunk, but Skunk stupidly stumbles out of the way whenever Rabbit tries to throw a punch. Panda claims that "Without balance, a warrior would be like a cloud trying to grasp the morning mist." That means that Skunk should not rely on a gimmick. Skunk says that Panda's just jealous.
Funny how we have the main character of a show where the villain turned evil as a result of being punished for his "arrogance" acting arrogant and nobody seems to have a problem with it. I'm sensing a double standard here.
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| In fact, I dare say that Skunk is acting even MORE arrogant than Dragon supposedly was... |
Skunk declares that now he's going to go steal Dragon's beard to prove how awesome he is. He and Pig dash off, and Panda tells Rabbit that he's not going to do anything about it so that Skunk will learn the error of his ways. I smell a moral coming on!
We get a montage of Skunk and Pig traveling to Dragon's cave, more unfunny jokes about Pig being a moron, and eventually they get ambushed by Baboon and the Ninja Monkeys. Skunk manages to avoid each of the boulders the monkeys send falling his way due to his "Dizzy Master" technique (aka dumb luck), and it's PIG of all characters who takes most of the monkeys out.
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| Also, Baboon can't seem to decide in this scene if he has an Australian accent or a British one. |
Baboon attempts to pummel Skunk himself, but the "stupidly stumbling out of the way" thing keeps working out in Skunk's favor. After dealing with Baboon, Skunk and Pig make it to Dragon's cave. "Finally, I get to see what this 'Dizzy Master' fuss is all about!" he snarls.
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| You gotta admit, the dragon's design is pretty cool. |
Okay, there are two ways that this scene can go down. One is that Skunk will get himself horribly injured (or at least burned to a crisp) and learn a valuable lesson. The other is that Skunk's "stumbling out of every attack's way in a daze after being spun around" thing will save him again and he'll learn nothing and continue to act like he's the greatest thing ever. I'm expecting it to be Number One.
Oh, wait, never mind. Skunk's spinning around somehow prevents him from being roasted by Dragon's fire breath. And it ALSO somehow causes the fire breath to ricochet off him and fry Dragon. Yeah, I'm calling bull. I know bringing realism into a show with talking animals in it is kind of pointless, but I'm pretty sure that's not how spinning works.
Skunk tries to climb up and snip off Dragon's beard, but his lack of balance results in the scissors falling out of his hand. Master Shifu... I mean, Panda's voice reminds him that a warrior must have BALANCE and blah-blah-blah. Long story short, Skunk manages to save himself and he and Pig get away.
Back home, Skunk admits to Panda that his "Dizzy Technique" is indeed just a stupid gimmick. And because it was Pig - not Skunk - who did most of the work, Panda dubs HIM - not Skunk - a new Kung Fu master. I probably shouldn't find this so satisfying, but you know what? I do indeed find it satisfying.
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| Which of these two idiots is more competent? The answer might surprise you. |
Next segment.
Panda wakes Skunk up one morning and tells him that he's going to learn how to cook. Skunk protests that he already knows how to cook - one time he made a sweet and sour pizza. It looked like this...
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| I bet that mouse's name was literally just "Mouse". |
Teaching Skunk how to cook will be Duck (Jules de Jongh). "I'm spending the whole day with Duck?! She's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOSSY!" Skunk complains. But when he actually meets up with Duck, we discover that she's... actually pretty laid-back. And she makes great dumplings, too.
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| I hope those aren't PORK dumplings. If Pig showed up, things would get kind of awkward... |
The smell of Duck's cooking attracts Ninja Monkeys... but we're just going to ignore that, apparently, because we get a montage of Duck teaching Skunk how to cook. Skunk, of course, has difficulty getting the hang of it. Eventually, the Ninja Monkeys finally DO sneak in. Took them long enough.
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| The monkey is sitting in the dough... Skunk looks weirded-out... there's a joke here, but I just can't think of it. |
I was expecting some sort of battle scene where Duck demonstrates that she's actually some sort of Kung Fu master with cooking utensils which causes Skunk to start worshipping her, but nope. Instead the Ninja Monkeys return to Baboon with full tummies, and Skunk goes to tell Rabbit, Pig, Bird, and Ox that he and Duck are cooking and he needs their help.
Ah yes, Bird and Ox (both Tony Acworth)… they're the stereotypical "smart-aleck tiny character and large but simple-minded character" duo. Think Timon and Pumbaa minus the charm.
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| I don't know what kind of bird Bird is. He's just a generic cartoon bird. |
Rabbit, Pig, Bird, and Ox laugh at Skunk's cooking and wearing a pink apron, only taking him seriously when he takes the apron off. "Looks like it's time for a little pest control!" Rabbit says, and then we get another joke about Pig being perhaps even dumber than Patrick Star.
When they get to the kitchen, Duck tells them that the Ninja Monkeys are too stuffed to fight. So instead Rabbit, Bird, Ox, and Pig wheel them out in a wagon. Then Rabbit gets an idea... if they fatten up more Ninja Monkeys, they won't be able to cause them trouble anymore and they can finally take back the mountain. So they head up to the mountain and fatten up the Ninja Monkeys with sticky buns. This makes Baboon MAD!
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| And Baboon still can't decide if his accent is British or Australian. |
Baboon goes to tell Dragon about the situation, so Dragon whips up some sort of magic cream that will make the Ninja Monkeys lose all interest in Duck's cooking.
The next day, Baboon informs Panda that his troops have become "dumpling-loving sloths", so Panda agrees to a temporary cease-fire. And as a gesture of reconciliation, Panda declares that he will host a feast for their troops. There is only one condition - no tricks. Yeah, uh, Panda...
However, at the feast, Skunk and Duck notice that the Ninja Monkeys aren't eating their delicious food. And wouldn't you know it? It IS a trap. But Panda and the other residents of the valley (except for Skunk and Rabbit, apparently) were expecting this, and as such they're prepared for a good old fashioned FOOD FIGHT!
After Baboon and the Ninja Monkeys are defeated, Panda congratulates Skunk. "You have mastered the Art of Dim Sum Fu!" he declares.
And now that Skunk knows how to cook, he can cook food for Panda. Because, y'know, Panda's fat. And all fat cartoon characters are obsessed with eating. Nyuck nyuck nyuck nyuck nyuck.
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| It's funny because he's FAT! |
What's the Verdict?
Skunk Fu! is mediocre. The animation is okay and the character designs are pretty good (particularly Dragon's), but the show has its fair share of problems. For one thing, there's a lot of Asian sterotypes - Panda in particular is bound to offend a few folks with his "stereotypical wise martial arts teacher" personality, his stereotypical Chinese person mustache, and his accent that sits at the halfway point between a Chinese accent and a Japanese accent. Problem number two: the characters are flat. Skunk spends most of the first segment acting like an arrogant tool. Rabbit as a whole IS an arrogant tool. Pig is a moron, and not the kind of moron that's fun to watch like, say, Patrick or Homer Simpson. Baboon doesn't have much going for him outside of his being an incompetent buffoon. Dragon is kind of cool, I suppose. I could forgive the characters being uninteresting if the show were at least funny, but very few of the jokes work. It's definitely not the worst show I've ever seen, but there are far better cartoons worth your time.
Okay! Enough negativity, I promise we'll do a more positive review next time. Here's a teaser:
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