Pig Goat Banana Cricket

mr3urious

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This is a new Nick series I'm mixed on. On one hand, I do like the intertwined plots used for the four characters, and the Ren & Stimpy/Gary Baseman-esque art style. But on the other hand, its insanity isn't as structured and refined as something like R&S or Uncle Grandpa. Plus, while the gross-out factor isn't as high as Sanjay & Craig, there was least there was some nice subtext to the grossness in the latter show as both the creators had mothers who were nurses who would often tell them gross stories. In PBGC, it feels kinda forced.

Hopefully as the show goes on, it will come into its own with more defined characterization and refined plots. For better or worse, one more cartoon on the network means one less cookie-cutter sitcom.
 
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Drtooth

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By all means I should be very mixed on this show. I am, but there's just something about it being that incredibly stupid that made me laugh. I can't tell why, I can't put my finger on it... sometimes it has to take something really stupid to get me to laugh. I mean, the other day I saw the uncut version of the Simpsons episode "Duffless" for the first time and laughed for a good 10 minutes on Selma sticking her head in a Tupperware container. There's something about this show that's too goofy for me not to laugh at.

But quality wise, I feel this show can go either way. It's clearly a stupid cartoon, and with cartoons having so much depth and drama lately (by no means a bad thing, but the right night on CN, you can become an emotional wreck), it's actually refreshing to see something a little more throwbacky. I could easily see this as a Nick show from the late 90's, just before they went all "slice of life-y." But in the episode and a half I've seen I can clearly say it's much more fun and playful in its stupidity than My Gym Partner's a Monkey (extremely forced and easy jokes), yet not quite as transcendent that it comes all the way around and becomes brilliant like Cow and Chicken (and moreso Baboon and Weasel). Seems that if it pushes itself just the right way it can become transcendent, but at the same time it can get lazy and obvious if they're not careful.

But there are a couple things I do find the show has going for it. Obviously, the voice cast is excellent, though it seems that 2 of the characters almost come off as expies due to the choices made. Pig seems kinda Hectory because they share a voice actor and some personality traits, and Cricket is Paul Rugg doing something similar to his Gweelok voice, which might be a little intentional. Candi Milo is excellent as usual. And obviously, I've nothing but high praise for the art style. Shows seem to have an Adventure Time or Regular Show look about them now, so it's nice to see something more Illustrator-y and vaguely underground Comix-like. Even if I didn't like this show at all, I'd LOVE to have a print of it hanging on the wall. It's like Baseman meets Everett Peck somehow. I love it. But the most subtle thing I enjoyed is that it feels like it's a full episode made of short vignettes about the subjects and less like the obvious A and B stories. And they all seem to start off together at the beginning, split up in the middle, and come back together at the end. Almost Pulp Fiction/Inglorious Basterds style. That seems to be the show's biggest strength.

So all and all I enjoyed it, but feel mixed about it. It's no Sanjay and Craig or Harvey Beaks. But at the same time, I've always said the worst Nicktoons of all time were Fanboy and Chum-Chum and Rocket Power. Nothing as terrible as either of those. Plus, I find it far more engaging than most of the slice of life shows they had in the late 90's/early 00's. I can dig "As Told by Ginger" and I found some enjoyable moments in the All Grown Up series (not many, and I still find it was a stupid idea), but I'm not going to actively seek out watching them ever again.
 

mr3urious

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I must say, I do like the use of call-backs and running gags in this show. I found it pretty funny when Goat kept getting interrupted by a jackhammering construction worker no matter where she went whenever she tried to perform one of her songs.
 

Drtooth

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While I woke up and was not really in the mood for this series, I really liked this new episode about the Super Powers, and felt that it was a mark improvement over the other two (which were alright, but it felt like something was missing). Seems they hit on some recurring super hero parody notes, but managed to give interesting twists on them. Loved Lipstick Horse and Time Donut. Only a show like that can get away with brutally slaughtering the ridiculousness of parody villains by making them just nonsense. The whole thing felt not like a super hero parody, but a super hero parody parody. Special mention goes to Cricket being disappointed in not getting a super power and just getting a surgery and Banana's story arc making fun of Spider-Man's symbiote suit arc.

But if there's one thing I love about this show, it's clear that they're doing something interesting with the storytelling. I said it before, but the fact that it starts out as a story about all of them, changes into smaller vignettes (almost like little cartoons all their own) and turns around to connect them again really manages to change up sequential storytelling. This show is surprisingly innovative like that.
 

mr3urious

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Once I saw Cricket's super-sneezing abilities, I immediately thought of this Superman panel. :smile:

http://www.superdickery.com/super-sneezing/

This episode also seems to be making fun of superpowers that seem useless at first, but turn out to be useful after all. And was Banana being a jerk to those people who cried for help referencing the trope of Superdickery, or was it just Banana being Banana?
 

mr3urious

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I enjoyed yesterday's episode a lot more than I should have. Fart jokes were utilized in a more tasteful way with Pig needing them for self-defense, and Goat's fear of Thomas Jefferson leaping out of nickels not only got a nice comedic payoff, but contributed to the plot in the end. If only Cricket's fear of lemonade stands got the same treatment.

And there seems to be a recurring theme in PBGC of Banana pushing Goat's buttons. I like that animosity between the two.
 
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Drtooth

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The nickle bit was inspired. Any cartoon could have a Ralph Wiggum/Sticks the Badger crazy one off line, but they had the drive to take a goofy line and push it for all its worth. And turning it into a Checkov's Gun of sorts as well.

This show is really coming around to divine stupid with that one. But I'm always getting lost in that artwork. I feel like I could just take printouts of screenshots and frame them. It really has a distinct 1990's illustration look to it. The computer animation here is what I love seeing and wanted to see more of in these cartoons. Making them look like wacky kid's books (or candy advertisements, or something) come to life. I don't think the show would have looked half as good without it.
 

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What in the world is this thing? It looks like some pathetic attempt to redo REN & STIMPY, only with an even grosser art style, and COW AND CHICKEN-type characters.
 

Drtooth

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The only pathetic redos of Ren and Stimpy were the later Games animation episodes (which weren't very Ren and Stimpy like at all) and Adult Cartoon Party. Can't decide which is worse, actually. Anything after season3 (and that's being generous adding that season) becomes painful to watch. That's the reason the unthinkable has happened for me. Rocko overtook it in my favorite Nicktoons list. Unless I split Ren and Stimpy up to Spumco R&S and Games R&S.

I'd say Cow and Chicken is closer. I'd say it's a weird mix of Cow and Chicken if it were designed by Everett Peck and Pulp Fiction style storytelling. It really doesn't look like the show is all there, but it surprisingly comes together really well. It really has a retro 90's charm. It manages to capture mid-90's cable animation really well, but with the bonus of technical advancements in animation to give it an illustration come to life look.

Plus, at this point, any freaking cartoon on Nick looks amazing compared to their live action line up. Even Breadwinners. Too bad other than PGBC, there hasn't been a new episode of anything for a while. There was a long hiatus for episodes of Sanjay and Craig and Harvey Beaks only for one episode of each 2 weeks ago and then nothing...
 

mr3urious

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Am I the only one who noticed that the animation on a couple of the episodes, including the one from yesterday, looked a little stiffer than usual, as if it were done in Flash? I looked at the credits and saw that it (along with ep. 1) was outsourced to a Mexican company called Ánima Estudios, the guys responsible for the Don Gato (Top Cat) movie and the El Chavo del Ocho animated series, which also used Flash. Granted, their work here still looks a lot more fluid than those two shows.
 
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