Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Dr. Dimensionpants"

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'm back! Apologies for being on hiatus for so long. It's just gotten extremely difficult to write funny block posts and get them done once a week. I used to be able to write them in advance and then just choose which one I want to post which week, but by the beginning of this year I've been pretty behind. Fortunately, I now have at least eight posts written up and "in the vault". I'm hoping that's enough to get this blog going again.

So, what is Dr. Dimensionpants?

I'd never heard of this show until someone suggested I do a review of it. I don't think it ever aired on TV in the United States, although it did wind up on Hulu here. It's a Canadian cartoon, made by DHX Media for Teletoon, where it premiered on November 6th, 2014. And the show's creator, Brad Peyton, is also the guy who directed Cats and Dogs 2 and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island... two movies that I've never seen.

The theme song gives us the show's premise: in an average town lives an average boy named Kyle Lipton (voiced by Sam Vincent) with average pants and an average life. Then one day a unicorn named Philip (voiced by Richard Ian Cox) shows up and gives him a pair of magic pants that turn him into superhero Dr. Dimensionpants. Now he has all of the powers he ever wanted, including the power to travel to different dimensions. Two seasons consisting of twenty-six episodes, each one consisting of two segments, were produced (IMDB claims that the show is still going, but the most recent episode aired in 2015 so...).

Given my past experiences with Canadian cartoons, I wasn't quite sure what to expect with Dr. Dimensionpants. For every Grojband or Sitting Ducks, there is a Spliced or an Almost Naked Animals. And, alas, Dr. Dimensionpants falls into the latter category. Why do I say that? Well, let's look at the third episode of the show, which consists of the segments "Dr. Dimensionpants Camp" and "Cupcakes at Large". This is Dr. Dimensionpants.

"Dr. Dimensionpants Camp" starts off with Kyle and his dad, Dunley (Brian Drummond), riding through the woods in their Oscar Meyer Wienermobile.

Which is making me hungry for a hot dog... and I'm posting this review at 7:54 in the morning...

Kyle is very excited because he and his dad are going camping. And Philip is there, too! I guess this isn't like Ned's Newt where the kid's non-human best friend is kept a secret. Kyle's dad knows about the talking unicorn and is okay with it. Maybe he's a Brony?

Between this character and Dewitt, Richard Ian Cox seems to be typecast as the
non-human sidekick of red-headed boys a lot...

When they get to the campsite, Philip proceeds to make things difficult by finding a skunk and showing it to Kyle and Dunley, calling it a "whoopsie-dog". He doesn't know what a skunk is? Apparently, Philip is a few sodas short of a six-pack.

The Liptons aren't the only ones camping. Also around is the villainous Glass Skull (also Brian Drummond), called that because he (natch) has a skull made of glass. He is accompanied by his bratty daughter Rebecca (Shannon Chan-Kent), who did not inherit her father's lack of head skin, hair, and eyeballs. Yes, somebody married and had a kid with Glass Skull. Because who could possibly resist such a handsome face?

I like his hat.

Unaware of the presence of one of Dr. Dimensionpants' recurring foes, Philip continues to make things harder for Kyle and Glass Skull. It isn't until he causes a tree he just chainsawed down to fall on top of Glass Skull that he knows the guy is around. Okay, we're only three minutes in and already I'm starting to feel sorry for the villain. I should not be feeling sorry for the villain.

I'm just now noticing that Glass Skull has a laser beam on top of his tent.
I guess that's ONE way of dealing with mosquitoes...

"Enough! I'm going to do what I should have done before!" Glass Skull declares. Philip runs to Kyle, interrupting his dad's talking about marshmallows, and says that he must become Dr. Dimensionpants. Which Kyle promptly does.

He goes to stop Glass Skull... who it turns out is just making s'mores. I guess he DOESN'T plan on doing anything evil today. That explains why he didn't immediately blast Philip after the guy made a tree fall on top of him.

Kyle returns to his campsite, where his father tells him that Philip ate all the marshmallows. Now they'll have to forage for berries. Alright, y'know what, I've decided that I don't like Philip. Could he at least go five seconds without doing something stupid or obnoxious?

"Funny guy, sending me off to chase a totally harmless bad guy while YOU get to chill with my dad!" Kyle tells Philip. But then Philip says that he just saw Glass Skull poisoning the lake. He recreates the scene via a puppet show. I'll give him this, for somebody without fingers he's pretty good at puppetry...

"It's The Muppet Show, with our very special guest star, Dr. Dimensionpants! YAAAAAAAAAAAY!"

For obvious reasons, Kyle is skeptical, but Philip insists that he's right this time and that it's Kyle's duty as Dr. Dimensionpants to save the day and blah-blah-blah. So Kyle becomes Dr. Dimensionpants again and discovers that Glass Skull IS poisoning the lake with some sort of strange sprayer. He destroys the sprayer, only for Glass Skull to tell him that he was actually spraying organic lavender essence in the lake. Dang it, Philip.

"Philip, you are totally ruining my camping trip!" Dr. Dimensionpants complains. Then he and Glass Skull start fighting each other for some reason. Why are they not beating the crap out of Philip? HE'S the one ruining their camping trips. Dr. Dimensionpants just said that! While this is going on, Rebecca is floating in the lake in a raft, but the fight sends her raft drifting towards a waterfall. Y'know how all rivers in animation lead to waterfalls? Apparently, that goes for lakes now too.

So now Dr. Dimensionpants and Glass Skull fight over who gets to save Rebecca. Dunley shows up to ask them if they've seen his son. He knows about the talking unicorn, but he doesn't know about his son being a superhero? Go figure. Anyhow, now HE'S heading for the waterfall as well. And Dr. Dimensionpants and Glass Skull are too busy battling to do something about it. And Philip doesn't attempt to save Dunley or Rebecca himself because I have no idea.

Okay, I'll say this: I do like how Rebecca is just nonchalantly reading a book while she's
in danger. That's kind of funny.

While they fight, Dr. Dimensionpants and Glass Skull summon portals to other dimensions, reminding us of why the show is called Dr. DIMENSIONpants. Dr. Dimensionpants summons an opera-singing alien that shatters Glass Skull's head, then Glass Skull summons a giant mouth from the Garlic Breath Dimension to incapacitate Dr. Dimensionpants. And eventually, Dunley manages to save himself and Rebecca... while putting Philip in pain at the same time, which he totally deserves.

Glass Skull and Rebecca head off to the outlet mall, and then ANOTHER recurring villain of the show appears in a canoe. Philip does something smart for once and decides to pretend he didn't see him so Kyle and his dad can spend some quality time. Okay, I hate Philip slightly less now. Next segment!

"Cupcakes at Large" begins with Kyle's sister Amanda (Kazumi Evans) flying a toy airplane... which seemingly kills a seagull, that's pretty gruesome.

Well, maybe it just shreds off the seagull's tailfeathers. It's not clear what the implication
is. Either way, poor seagull...

Even though, according to Dunley, it's a perfect day out, Kyle and Philip are inside watching TV. After flipping through the channels for a while, Philip decides on a show called Dingo the Bounty Hunter, but then their attention is grabbed by a tasty smell from the kitchen.

Kyle's mom, Ann-Mary (Kathleen Barr), has made cupcakes! But she won't let Kyle have any before dinner because it'll spoil his appetite. We get a montage of him attempting to get his mother out of the house so he can sneak a cupcake, but none of his attempts work. But then Ann-Mary remembers that she needs to go to the store and get the stuff to make dinner. As soon as she leaves, it's cupcake-eating time for Kyle.

I suppose, since Philip is a unicorn, I should make a reference to that one My Little Pony fanfiction...
but I won't. Seems too obvious.

After eating all the cupcakes, Kyle realizes that when his mom returns, she's going to be really mad. She has a habit of overreacting, you see. He and Philip must get MORE cupcakes, and instead of, I don't know, going out and buying some (you can get 'em for cheap at Target), Kyle becomes Dr. Dimensionpants and they go to a dimension full of giant cupcakes.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now I'm hungry for cupcakes. It's 8:04 now.

I guess Kyle is hoping that his mom won't notice that the cupcakes are now much, much larger when she returns from the store. They also only bring back two, so either way I think she's gonna realize that you ate some.

Anyone else notice that all four members of the family have different hair colors? Kyle is
a redhead, the mom is a brunette, the dad has black hair, and Amanda is blonde.

And this is where the episode takes a turn for the bizarre. Not that a talking unicorn and a dimension with giant cupcakes isn't already pretty bizarre, but things get stranger from there. The cupcakes turn out to be ALIVE, and they promptly EAT Ann-Mary and Dunley. Philip runs in and explains that he's discovered the dimension they went to is a prison for the criminally tasty. The cupcakes trap Kyle, Amanda, and Philip in a giant pile of icing and declare that they're going to use their house as a secret hideout. You just HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD to eat the cupcakes your mom made, didn't you, Kyle? You couldn't have just waited until after dinner?

...is anyone else wondering exactly what crimes these giant sentient cupcakes have commited? Do they regularly go around eating people? Do they even have digestive tracts? One of the cupcakes threatens to digest their father, so I guess they do, but that just raises further questions...

Suddenly, I'm not hungry for cupcakes anymore.

And apparently Kyle, Amanda, and Philip are powerless against the evil cupcakes, because the next day Kyle is walked to school by them and nobody questions the fact that his parents have been replaced by giant sentient cupcakes. Here's an idea, Kyle: just EAT THEM. Take a bite out of them until you find your parents in their stomachs. Actually, now that I think about it, why don't the cupcakes just eat Kyle and Amanda too?

Adding to the confusion, the cupcakes give out normal, non-sentient cupcakes to Kyle's school chums and teacher. So these cupcakes are encouraging the consumption of their species? They must be really good cupcakes, too, because all they have to do is give one to the mayor and he gives them THE KEY TO THE CITY. Okay, is EVERYONE in this city incredibly stupid?

Eventually, Kyle and Amanda get an idea. Kyle dresses up like Dingo the Bounty Hunter and chases the cupcakes out of the house, where they are dive-bombed by Philip riding on the toy airplane, which Amanda is controlling. Eventually, the cupcakes vomit up Ann-Mary and Dunley, and now that they're safe Kyle becomes Dr. Dimensionpants and sends them back to their dimension.

Or you could just eat them. But this works, too.

"I'd say those cupcakes got their... ahem... JUST DESSERTS," Dr. Dimensionpants quips. You'd think that Ann-Mary and Dunley would be traumatized by the whole experience, but instead they assume it was all just a dream. So for breakfast, they serve their kids... broccoli. And Kyle faces no repercussions for eating the cupcakes after his mom told him not to, unless having to eat broccoli counts as a repercussion. The end.

Is the indication here that they regularly serve their kids cupcakes for breakfast?

What's the Verdict?

Just because something is weird doesn't mean it's GOOD. I've noticed that's something you can say about a lot of Canadian cartoons. Stuff like Yakkity Yak, Ned's Newt, and Spliced are certainly UNIQUE in how strange they are, but being bizarre does not a fun cartoon make.

Dr. Dimensionpants is another cartoon that assumes all it needs to do is be weird and it'll entertain the viewers. It does not. The characters are uninteresting, the jokes fall flat, the animation is THIS CLOSE to looking like something made by GoAnimate, and they don't even take advantage of the show's premise. You've got a superhero who can travel through different dimensions in the blink of an eye. Great! There's potential there. And what do they do with it? Nothing, outside of the occasional unfunny gag. Heck, even the presence of GIANT EVIL CUPCAKES isn't used very well.

So, no. I don't recommend watching Dr. Dimensionpants. The good news is, there's another cartoon show from the 2010s that focuses on a kid traveling to different dimensions and fighting evil. And it's much better than this.

But we'll look at that one another time.