Reviews

Well this was an unexpected addition to the wish list of titles I'd got planned for my reviews, but I say it's a welcome one as I used to be a BIG fan of everything Sonic-related growing up.

And sure, I may not be a gamer nowadays as I've grown out from playing my consoles but that hasn't stopped me from looking back on all the stuff I enjoyed playing as a kid and embracing all the recent video game adaptations we've been getting over the past few years.

With the third Sonic film due to hit the big screens in December and with the recent release of this new mini-series featuring our favourite hot-headed echidna - Knuckles - I figured I may as well check this show out, see what all the talk's about.

Now I must add; if you haven't watched Sonic the Hedgehog 2 before jumping straight into this series, I highly recommend that you do as you probably won't understand the context otherwise. But for those of you who have seen this - and spoiler alert for those who haven't - after having defeated Robotnik in the previous film with some help from his friends, our titular character, Knuckles, is struggling to adjust to his new life in Green Hills due to his warrior-like lifestyle and eventually he teams up with Wade Whipple. Now in case you forgot about this guy, he's the deputy sheriff in Green Hills and a friend of the Wachowskis.

But wait, there's more! While the two embark on their journey to Reno for the bowling tournament where Wade's father will be competing, they are being pursued by two corrupt agents hired by a former subordinate of Robotnik.

And now to state the obvious... the main reason people really dislike this show would be due to it being more focused on the human characters and less so on the Sonic characters... but in all honesty, Adam Pally is hilarious in this role! Seriously, the dude even has movie posters, a cardboard cut-out and a TMNT bed cover in his room. He's a nerd, like me!

Do I consider this the best show of the year so far? Not really. I mean, I have added X-Men '97 to my watchlist as a show I'm planning to binge once its first season has finished, so do keep a look out for that on my page. Putting that aside, don't let the negative reviews stop you from checking out this Knuckles series. If you don't like the show at all, that's fine. It goes to show how our tastes can differ and I respect that.

If you've been a Sonic fan for as long as I have, I'm sure you (and maybe your kids) can find some enjoyment from watching all six episodes.

"The dragon... is power. Once they were our equals, today humans control the dragon. To race, compete, and fight, at nearly 200 miles per hour! Now, dragons are once again ready to be released. And the powerful dragon of legend will choose a young hero to save the planet... a Dragon Booster.

Release the DRAGON!"

If like many you've never heard of them before, Nerd Corps Entertainment was a Canadian-based animation studio based in Vancouver, British Columbia and founded by Chuck Johnson and Asaph Fipke - both of whom had worked for Mainframe Studios as producers before moving on to found Nerd Corps. And while I did grow up on one of their other shows as a kid, Dragon Booster actually was the first animated series to be produced by the company.

The series centers around our young hero Artha Penn who works as a stable boy looking after his dragon, Beau. However when Penn Stables is attacked by the Down City Crews, a gold star appears on Beau's head and he chooses Artha - his owner - to become the legendary hero and titular character, the Dragon Booster - chosen to bring an end to the imposing Human-Dragon War.

But Artha isn't alone, fighting alongside him in the Penn Racing Crew are his young brother Lance Penn; his best friend and know-it-all geek Parmon Sean; the female of the team, Kitt Wonn; and his father Connor Penn, who was the owner of Penn Stables, but upon being attacked he would go on to disguise himself as a mentor named Mortis; allowing for his son to develop on his own without needing help from his father.

As for the main antagonists, those would be Word and Moordryd Paynn. Throughout half of the show their goal is to steal Beau, believed to be the dragon of legend so Word can start another Human-Dragon war. However as the show progressed Moordryd does start to display some heroic qualities and eventually transitions into a more complex anti-hero. I sort of hoped we would get a full-on character redemption arc on Moordryd like we had with Prince Zuko in the Avatar cartoon, like maybe he would have gone from wanting to be rid of our main character to then working alongside them.

Okay, I know it's not relevant to this show in particular but it needs to be addressed. Considering I grew up watching Storm Hawks during my childhood (and this was way before I discovered Dragon Booster), these two shows feel almost exactly alike. Both being done by Nerd Corps of course, there are a LOT of similarities between the two shows; those being found in the anime-influenced art style, sound design, cel-shaded animation that honestly looks better compared to Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks, and a superb voice cast comprised of Matt Hill, Lenore Zann, Kathleen Barr, Lee Tockar, Trevor Devall, Mark Oliver and Scott McNeil to name but a few Canadian actors what really made these characters stand out.

Considering this show and Storm Hawks both originate from Canada, I feel the writing, quality and art style that these shows had going dwarfs the quality of other shows that have come either before or after their time. But before anyone takes this the wrong way, that's not to say all Canadian cartoons are bad. I mean sure some of them are pretty mediocre and might not have aged as well, but like everything else there is always going to be that mix of good and bad between the wide variety of animated shows out there. (Also applies to American & Japanese cartoons)

But with that said, it seems inevitable that in the world where most action shows are made purely just to sell toys and fail, Dragon Booster also suffered the same cliff-hanger treatment that some of Nerd Corps other shows also had. I can already picture the uproar this caused with fans of this show at the promise of there being Dragon Booster Academy, whether it would've served as the show's fourth season or even as a spin-off series, it's sad knowing we'll never get to see where the story continued from there.

Also, fun fact! I looked at the show's release date on Wikipedia and it said the show premiered on October 23rd in the year 2004, which means that unbeknownst to myself at that time this show initially came out on my 6th birthday! How cool is that? And this year also will mark 20 years since Nerd Corps got the game started with their first animated show, paving the way for a few others to come.

Anyway, if you're looking for a cartoon that has it all; dragons, racing, war, drama... then I recommend you check out Dragon Booster. I wish there could be a channel on YouTube where each episode is uploaded in high definition like we got with Storm Hawks HD.

Now I had never even heard of this show until I decided to watch it for the first time in October last year, and having finished it last week I can say that this show is sort of a hidden gem among Disney's cartoons.

Long before we had Gravity Falls, Gargoyles was the big 'G' of animated shows and one of the best 90's cartoons along with Batman: TAS. The show is about these intelligent Gargoyles who were betrayed by one of the humans who swore to protect them in Scotland, with them being cursed to remain in stone by daylight. Cut to a thousand years later the Gargoyles are transported to Manhattan and must adapt to their new surroundings while also fighting crime and protecting their clan.

The main character and the leader of the Manhattan clan is Goliath, voiced brilliantly by Keith David. His voice acting was superb even in other projects like Amphibia where he voiced King Andrias. Goliath has definitely become one of my favourite protagonists of all time with his temper and duty to protect others from harm's way.

Alongside him are Hudson; the former leader of the clan who serves as an advisor to Goliath, Brooklyn; the second-in-command with a sarcastic attitude but has a talent for tactics, Lexington; the smallest one of the group who is able to glide like a flying squirrel, Broadway; an overweight and good-natured member who likes to read books, Bronx; a dog-like Gargoyle who serves the role of a family pet, and later in the show we are introduced to Angela; Goliath's daughter who was raised on Avalon like a human and named because of her angel-like nature, eventually filling the role of an older sister to Broadway, Brooklyn and Lexington as the show went on.

Also on their side is Eliza Masa, an NYPD detective who acts as a voice of reason for the clan, guiding them through the ups and downs of the modern world. And with the good guys out of the way let's move onto the villains starting with...

Demona; she is Goliath's ex-mate and a former member of the clan from back in Scotland. She holds a strong hatred for the humans and tried to convince Goliath (and the rest of the clan) to join her side which they of course refused. And then there is David Xanatos; the founder, owner and CEO of Xanatos Enterprises as well as being a member of the Illuminati. When he awakens the rest of the clan from their slumber he convinces them to acquire (as in steal) technology from Cyberbiotics and later attempts to destroy them with the replacements he built, the Steel Clan.

What's fascinating to me about this series is that as well as having more complex story arcs and a darker tone compared to other animated shows from its time, the voice cast for Gargoyles featured a lot of actors who were involved throughout the Star Trek franchise. Some of these names include Marina Sirtis, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, Kate Mulgrew, Nichelle Nichols and Brent Spiner to name quite a few.

Even if you're not into Star Trek I think you'll enjoy the voice acting this show has to offer. I liked the finale where the clan are saved from a last effort execution plan by the Quarrymen - who later attack a train full of passengers only to be stopped by the Gargoyles. And in doing so, the Manhattan clan are no longer feared by the public and have been accepted as heroes.

I don't really know how the story would have continued after this but as a first timer I enjoyed watching this series and definitely recommend it if you're looking for an underrated 90's cartoon that adults and teenagers will enjoy.

Ah yes, now this is a show I've been wanting to both revisit and review for quite sometime. If someone was to ask me 'What's your favourite cartoon based upon childhood memory?', Honestly I'd have to go with this one.

Storm Hawks is a computer-animated television series that was created by Asaph Fipke and produced by Nerd Corps Entertainment - a Canadian-based studio that was known for specialising in 3D animated action cartoons. I'll be covering another one of their shows soon.

The series takes place in the fictional sky-based world of Atmos; home to a variety of towering land-masses called terras. Each one is protected by a squadron which in turn is led by a sky knight. Our titular protagonists - The Storm Hawks - are a group of young bandits determined to take on the Cyclonian empire and restore peace to the skies of Atmos.

In honesty I didn't think much of it at first seeing it through TV promos, but when I did start to watch the show I became attached and I even remember watching a marathon of episodes one day.

The first episode I ever saw and the one that got me hooked to the series was Best Friends Forever (episode 6 out of season 1), which followed Piper - a knowledgeable crystal expert and the only girl on the team - getting swept into a storm and rescued by a mysterious girl named Lark as they became friends. Later in the episode Lark lures her into a trap revealing herself to be Master Cyclonis (the antagonist) in disguise.

I know this sounds mad but as a little kid I had a crush on Piper. I saw her as this cute teenage girl fighting evil forces alongside her group of friends. As well as Piper the other members of the team are Aerrow; the sky knight of the team and the main protagonist, Finn; the immature wise-cracking guy who fights with his sharpshooter, Junko; the strong one of the team who is part of a race of human-rhino hybrids called the Wallops, Stork; the carrier pilot for their ship and Radarr; a rabbit-lemur like creature who is Aerrow's co-pilot.

Having re-watched this show in my 20's, Stork has now become one of my favourite characters as well. He's just so over the top with his paranoia and pessimism that it's hard not to love him. Often times he'd look at a grim situation and utter the phrase "We're doomed". He belongs to a race of green-skinned creatures known as Merbs, we never know much about Stork's home-planet other than the fact it was attacked by Cyclonians.

Speaking of which, I remember thinking the villains of this show were the best. To me this show was just unlike any other I had seen before. In my eyes Storm hawks was like the combination of anime and video games put together into a whimsical, action-packed adventure series filled with a great story and excellent worldbuilding.

With all that said I still don't get why Cartoon Network felt they needed to pull this show after season 2 when there was still so much more that could've been done. For instance we never found out the reason why Dark Ace pulled an Anakin Skywalker and killed the former Storm Hawks squadron in the first place before joining Cyclonis' side. And what else is there on the other side of Atmos?

If there was any way for this show to be brought back without it ending up like TTG, I wish we could have just one more season to fully wrap up the story with Cyclonis defeated. Maybe give us a TV movie or even a prequel series about Stork, and the origins of his home terra before becoming the team's carrier pilot.

Despite it not being properly finished, Storm Hawks is just a fun ride with a lot of twists, turns, good humour, great voice acting and some of the best CGI animation I've ever seen. If you haven't seen this show before luckily you can watch it all for free on YouTube, thanks to channels like Storm Hawks HD if you want to see good quality episodes.

Now before I go into full detail about what a masterpiece this show is, let me address that while I had heard of this show way back in my teen years I never actually considered watching it until earlier this year.

At the time I honestly was more interested in comedies and sitcoms over action, adventure or fantasy shows... pretty much watching whatever my mates or people at school were talking about. It wasn't until I reached my 20s that I wanted to rekindle my passion for other cartoons, ones that have a story to tell and cool action scenes that put me on the edge of my seat.

Now if you've never seen or heard of Generator Rex, then let me be the one to tell you that this show is GREAT! I went into this show blind, expecting it to be just your generic action hero cartoon with a character already made famous through comic books, games, films, etc.

Rex is NOT just an ordinary teenage protagonist. He's sort of like the result of a human-Transformer hybrid done right. And if that doesn't sound cool then I don't know what does.

This show is another installment from Man of Action, the same people known for making the Ben 10 franchise. And I'm sure some of you reading will agree when I say this, but man! This show is BETTER than Ben 10 by a landslide! Honestly, I also like this show a bit more than INVINCIBLE. Which is funny considering not only how similar Mark Grayson and Rex Salazar look, but J. K Simmons has voice roles in both of these shows. What a time to be alive...

As for the main plot, the show is set in a fictional depiction of our universe where a massive explosion has infected the world with little microscopic machines called nanites. These nanites turn even the most fragile of human beings into these monsters called EVOs, some are good and some evil. And while Rex himself is also an EVO he has this unique power gifted to him. As well as being able to generate whatever bio-mechanical powers he wants out of his body (that being robotic arms, a motorcycle, a jetpack, even a CANNON of all things), Rex is able to cure people who have been turned into EVOs.

Fighting alongside him at Providence are his caretaker; Agent Six, leading scientist; Doctor Rebecca Holiday, his EVO-chimp sidekick Bobo Haha, the leader of Providence; White Knight and his best friend Noah Nixon.

As for the main antagonist of the show, that would be Van Kleiss. Man do I LOVE this villain! Where Rex is able to cure EVOs, this guy does the opposite and turns living beings into new ones. Later in the show it becomes revealed that he was responsible for the deaths of Rex's parents by trapping them inside as the nanite reactor exploded. He saw the Nanite event as a new golden age for mankind and seeks to create a planet populated by nothing but EVOs regardless of their weaknesses.

As well as being made by the same crew what did Ben 10, this show also had a crossover episode with it during the UA saga. I watched that and it was honestly better than any other crossover I've seen in animation history (Yes, even better than Simpsons guy). I'll have to talk about that episode soon....

Having just finished this show recently, I am shocked at how underrated it is for its time. And for a 7.6 star ratio, I really think this show should be up there with the likes of Avatar: TLA and Gravity Falls, it's just THAT GOOD! It had a great voice cast, banging soundtrack, fascinating story, nice visuals, worldbuilding...

Do I think this show deserved better though? Yeah, I mean even with that ending I think there is still a lot more they could have done. Maybe give us a half-hour long movie of this show... suppose it just became overshadowed by some of Cartoon Network's other shows that were on at the time.

If you're looking for an animated show that has it all; action, drama, comedy, fantasy and romance then I definitely recommend you watch Generator Rex.

*puts on Muscle Man voice* You know who else really loves to watch Regular Show?

MY MOM!!!! *laughs*

No seriously, if you happen to know about my taste in cartoons (or in this sense, modern animated shows) then let me tell you that this is one of my all-time favourites growing up.

I remember the exact year Regular Show had come out, at the time I was turning 12 but being so young I hadn't actually watched it until a couple years after in the year 2012. I can't quite remember what the first episode I ever watched was, it might have been either Fortune Cookie or Weekend at Benson's (both were of season 3), but from that point I became instantly attached and even today it still remains as not only my favourite Cartoon Network series, but my favourite animated show of the 2010's overall.

The series was created by JG Quintel and revolves around Mordecai (a blue jay) and Rigby (a raccoon) - two groundskeepers who work at a local park along with their boss Benson (a gumball machine with some serious mental issues), Skips (a yeti), Pops (Rest in Lollipops, my friend), Muscle Man and High Five Ghost. Through the course of the series our two protagonists are given a job to do, with Benson stating that he'll fire them if they don't do what they've been asked. Mordecai and Rigby of course will try and find ways to get out of doing their work through slacking off or doing other activities - often resulting in the plots escalating to extreme measures.

The show was originally aired on Cartoon Network from September 6th 2010 until wrapping up on January 16th 2017. It had a great run consisting of 8 seasons and 261 episodes as well as a series of shorts and even a movie which released in November 2015 during the show's seventh season.

Having just re-watched this as an adult, there are definitely a lot of great jokes, running gags, sprinkles of creativity and a lot of relatable moments which made you feel some sort of emotion with the characters as the show went on. Like, it was one of those cases where even though the jokes did seem a bit dirty it was never done in a vulgar fashion, compared to some adult sitcoms that a lot of you might know. It wasn't just a case of 'Oh, all they do is sit around, refuse to do work and play video games all day, that's it'.

I like how even though Mordecai's a bird and Rigby's a raccoon, despite them being animals they are portrayed more as 20-something year old adults rather than your typical cartoon animal. For instance, in the season 4 finale 'Steak Me Amadeus', Mordecai takes Margaret (a robin and his former love interest) out on a date hoping he can ask her to be his girlfriend. Unfortunately, during the middle of a shoot-out Margaret breaks the news to him that she got accepted into a college and as much as she really liked him, she just can't be with him.

Mordecai is left completely heartbroken by this news and even as we progress onto the next season he still has a hard time getting over the experience. He came this far just to be with the girl of his dreams and it just wasn't meant to be in the end. I really like how Regular show dealt with these themes, of depression and moving on with one's life.

Seasons 3 & 4 are definitely my favourite ones out of the entire series, even the seventh season where we got some more focus on Rigby, and his journey in trying to graduate from college. I also didn't expect this show to end the way it did, with the main crew, Eileen and also the park going up into outer space.

"You know who else didn't expect the park to go into outer spa-"

Now I'll be honest; season 8 of Regular show (and their final season) did start off a bit rough but thankfully it managed to pick itself up around the halfway point especially as we near towards the finale... and that ending.... each time I hear David Bowie's song 'Heroes' I immediately think back to this finale and I just.... MAN I love this show so much!!

The animation was great, the voice acting was superb, we even got a few celebrity cameos now and then, some of my favourite episodes included Exit 9B, Steak me Amadeus, Think positive, The Thanksgiving special, Skips' story, The Brilliant century duck crisis special, Rigby's graduation day special and the Terror tales of the park (these were pretty much their version of the Treehouse of Horror episodes in The Simpsons).

Thank you JG Quintel and Cartoon Network for this masterpiece and for pretty much making my teen-hood. If you're looking for something to watch that's been done by CN, I definitely would recommend you watch Regular show.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!

Good show, jolly good show!

TEEN TITANS!!!

Now this is another show that I had seen quite a few times as a kid, but even then I never gave it my full attention up until now having just finished the series and moving onto the TV movie which I'll get to later.

Well what more can I say about this one? It's definitely one of the most iconic animated shows to have spawned from Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network. Even today it still has a catchy theme song that when you listen to it once, chances are you won't forget about it. It's got a great voice cast, the animation is spectacular, the soundtrack is a banger, the characters themselves feel like real people in some situations, there's a lot of struggles they have to deal with in each episode and you can start to relate with them at one point. See how good this show is? I love when a cartoon feels relatable, makes me feel glad I'm not the only one trying to get about through the cons of life.

It's also one of those rare animated shows that feels almost like an undercover anime (sort of like the Avatar cartoons for example) and if you were to tell me 'Teen Titans is not a cartoon, it's an anime' most people would likely believe you. I can't even argue with that honestly.

This show came out around 2003 and went on until 2006 - spawning a run of 5 seasons and 65 episodes plus a television movie and a lost episode because... okay, I watched the lost episode last night and it was good, but my question is why was it called the lost episode? Was it never aired because it was shorter than the rest of the other ones? If someone knows why, please tell me. I'm curious...

Moving on from that, the series itself is just great. Mind you I've not long gotten into DC and this show is already one of my favourites so far. Robin is just an excellent leader and a good protagonist (picking up from his old master ain't he?). Starfire is like a mother-figure of the group and she just carries it with her bubbly attitude despite being an alien from the planet Tamaran. Raven is honestly one of my favourites out of the gang, she's a goth chick who's shy and likes to spend time to herself yet she does care for her friends and will do whatever she can to protect them at any cost. Cyborg is the muscle of the group, a half-man, half-machine (like the DC equivalent of Cable from the X-men). And lastly there's Beast Boy, another favourite of mine. He may be the show-off in the group and he likes to tell dumb jokes (just my type of humour) yet he can get serious when fighting evil forces and his power is that he can transform into any animal he wants (Octopus, bear, elephant, tiger, you name it) and if you know me in real life, you should know that I LOVE animals. Who wouldn't want to have that kind of superpower, you know you'd want it.

I think some of the best episodes in the series have to revolve around the conflicts between Robin/Slade, Beast Boy/Terra, Raven and her father Trigon, and of course the Brotherhood of Evil. It's a shame though that we couldn't have gotten a season that's focused more on Starfire since most of the seasons focus on the rest of the team.

I think the last two-parter we had was awesome to watch (a bit like Infinity war and Endgame). The Brotherhood of Evil were watching the titans every move and capturing each supporting titan one by one, then in the next part the rest of them all band together to defeat the bad guys and... man the hype must have been real back when this came out.

Then we get to the last episode of the series 'Things change', Beast boy is convinced that Terra is back living on earth and the rest of the episode is him trying to jog her memory, hoping she'll remember being the girl that he fell in love with, but they never explain if this girl actually is Terra or even how she came back to Earth since her statue is gone in the finale.

I do wish they could have just delivered us a sixth season of the original Teen Titans series instead of just slapping us across the face with... Teen Titans Go! (Eugh!). But, I am not writing this review to tell you how you should feel about a certain animated spin-off show that looks nothing like the original. If you want to watch TTG, go right ahead. If you happen to like it more than the main series, good for you. At least you're able to enjoy something that I can't stand watching without losing any of my brain cells.

Anyway, I think I've rambled on long enough with this title. If you're looking for a good DC cartoon with good action, teenage drama, a good soundtrack, nice animation and voice acting, then I highly recommend you check out this show, the real Teen Titans!

AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!

I'm going to be completely honest here, back when I was little and first discovered this show... I hated it. So much so that I remember arguing with someone at school who liked the show.

Yeah I think you can tell from that I wasn't really as nice back then as I am now. And wouldn't you know 13 years later.... I take back every bad thing I said about this cartoon.

I mean it you guys, Phineas and ferb is one of the coolest animated shows I have had the privilege of watching from start to finish. I never thought my opinion on the show would have changed, from hating it as a kid to then liking it now as an adult. This show is just so incredibly formulaic and relatable that I wish I'd appreciated it more during the time it was on.

The plot in each episode is pretty simple, if repetitive:

Our two protagonists, Phineas and ferb are looking for ways to spend their summer by building all sorts of crazy contraptions in their backyard.

Their teenage sister Candace takes notice of her brothers' activities and tries to get them busted by their mom, only for it to backfire when the contraption disappears and their mom arrives home.

While all of this is happening, their pet platypus Perry - who lives a double life as a secret agent - is sent out on a mission to stop the evil Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz from trying to take over the tri-state area with his many inators (Okay if you're planning to write a dictionary, please put this word in there).

For me Doof and Perry really are the highlights of the series for me, I honestly laughed more times during the sub-plots with these two (especially when it comes to Doof and his backstories) than I did with everything else. That's not to say the other characters aren't interesting. Isabella I think is a really good supporting side-character to our protagonists, with her catchphrase being "whatcha-doin?". She's just so cute I do not understand how you can't love her as a character.

Buford, Baljeet, Vanessa, Norm, Stacy, Jeremy and rest of the cast are pretty good too, and there's a lot of funny jokes and running gags throughout the series that adult viewers might get but their kids won't. As I've mentioned in the title this is a show that's good not just for kids and teenagers, but a show that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Although I've grown to like the show there are just a few things I don't quite like about it as much (and these cons don't impact my overall opinion on the show but just something I need to address).

1. The repetitiveness

I know this is more of a duh complaint, but it needs to be said nonetheless.

A lot of people I know seem to dislike this show mostly because each episode follows the same plot: the boys build a contraption in their backyard, candace is aware and tries to get them busted, Perry the platypus gets sent out to stop Doofenshmirtz, he thwarts his evil plans but gets captured, he breaks free and stops his inators, candace gets her mom to bust the boys but then the contraption disappears before she gets the chance to do so, Perry comes home to the boys and.... that's about it.

Of course this premise is not for everyone, and as an ex-P&F hater I completely understand where you people are coming from. But the thing is like any other animated show they do try and change it up now and then. All you have to do is look at episodes such as Mission Marvel, the Star wars special, Phineas and ferb get busted, Where's perry, Night of the living pharmacists, Dude we're getting the band back together, the chronicles of meap, act your age, and so on and you'll see what I'm talking about. These episodes are actually really good and among some of my favourites since I got into the series.

2. Songs

If you've watched this show all the way through as I have, you'll know that there are plenty of songs and musical numbers throughout. As such while a lot of them are good and very catchy, some of them... aren't quite as good. Often times if I'm watching an episode and I'm feeling tired I tend to just skip through certain songs and go straight to the action. Aside from some films (like the Lion king for instance) I'm not really mad on musicals as such and usually it depends on just how I feel when watching some episodes.

And finally my third con with this show is.... Phineas and Isabella's RELATIONSHIP.

Now I don't know whether this was intentional or what (and it probably is), but often times when we see Isabella trying to engage with Phineas, she's often just ignored while Phineas is focused on his & ferb's contraptions. It makes his character come off as selfish and I can't help but feel bad for Isabella sometimes.

It's obvious that she has a crush on him, and its been hinted several times throughout the series that the two are clearly made for each other. Like surely it wouldn't hurt to at least pay her some attention let alone spend time with her just for one moment.

IDK maybe I'm being a bit over-dramatic with this, but it does annoy me a bit not gonna lie.

That being said though, I really love the interaction they had as teenagers in the episode "Act Your Age" where we get to see our main characters all-grown up. It's definitely one of my favourite episodes and it could have even worked well as the series finale (yes, even more so than Last day of Summer).

Oh, speaking of which; did you know Phineas and Ferb is actually coming back??? I'm not joking! Disney actually announced earlier this year that this series is indeed coming back for two more seasons on Disney plus.

And while I am happy to hear about that, I am hoping they don't end up bringing this show downhill as has happened to other cartoons like The Simpsons or Family guy. But who knows? Maybe they'll turn out as good-looking as the previous four seasons (& the TV movie which I'll get around to reviewing later this week).

Anyway I think I've gone on long enough with this review. If you haven't watched this show already, please do. You'll love it, your kids will love it, I certainly had a blast watching this show and will be coming back for more.

Good night Tri-State Area!

Whenever we think of the TV kids channel Nickelodeon, the one show that often comes to the minds of most is SpongeBob SquarePants. And while that show continues to remain a big hit with kids and adults alike, of course there are plenty of other shows that the channel has to offer, from cartoon classics like the Fairly OddParents, Rugrats and The loud house to teen sitcoms like iCarly or Victorious.

However, I was a little more sceptical when I noticed just how much people seemed to rave over a particular cartoon known as 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'. I mean, this show happened a VERY long time ago during the mid-to-late 2000's era. And for a while, it did have me wondering "How is this show still as popular with people today than it was back when it aired? And why is everyone going crazy about it?".... there was only one way to figure that out.

So for the first time in adulthood, I recently watched this entire series from start to finish. And in case you didn't know the story, Katara and her brother Sokka - who are members of the Water Tribe - end up finding a boy named Aang, believed to be the new Avatar - master of the four elements (Water, earth, fire and air), and the one destined to bring an end to the war and restore peace to the nations.

Season 1 of course starts off a bit silly and slow-paced (as is the case with most TV shows I guess) but as we get into Seasons 2 & 3, this is where the story exceeds and it just keeps getting better & better! While the first season introduced us to our main cast: Aang, Katara, Sokka, Appa, Momo, Zuko and Iroh, the second season introduces us to some new characters like Toph; an Earthbending master who is blind but can use her feet to feel vibrations and fight her opponents.

I won't spoil the rest of the story for you, but for an action cartoon this show just does everything RIGHT - from the colourful visuals to character development in the later seasons. For example, Sokka starts off as just this cocky, stubborn, kind of this show-off character who's just along for the ride cracking jokes and all, but he really does become a better character, even teaming up with Zuko (a bad guy turned good guy) to rescue his girlfriend from a Fire Nation prison.

And I love that show reminds me somehow of one of my favourite childhood shows - Storm Hawks - probably because of how their universes are crafted as well as the villains and how well written they are compared to other fictional bad guys.

I would argue that it is one of those shows that you should watch from the beginning like with the Clone wars, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead (maybe?). But overall, it really is a show that must be seen and watched from start to finish in order to truly appreciate what it has to offer!

Avatar is probably my new favourite cartoon of all-time and I can definitely recommend it to anyone who's interested in adventure, fantasy, action, worldbuilding or if you just like anime but want to watch something similar. I'm definitely going to be watching this show again and again in the years to come!

10/10... that is all!