Obscurities- The Two New Children’s Television Cartoons worth Watching
Today, unlike when I was growing up, kids don’t seem to have the same level of entertaining cartoons to watch. Growing up watching Rocko’s Modern Life and Doug, I feel today’s youth doesn’t have the same quality programming. However after viewing most of the modern cartoons I found 2 new shows I enjoy. There are a few gems that have been on the air for a while, Spongebob Squarepants and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends are good choices for kids and adults, but I won’t include them because they have been on for a few years now.
The two shows that have recently premiered on Cartoon Network, Chowder and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, are the two gems I have seen in modern kids cartoons. For those of you who haven’t seen them, you are missing out on bizarre and often gross-out humor that harkens back to Ren and Stimpy but is performed with more class.
Chowder is an odd little story about a master chef who fancies himself a ladies man, Mung Daal, and his apprentice the title character and odd little fellow with an insurmountable appetite, Chowder. They live with Mung Daal’s nagging short-tempered wife Truffles and his journeyman chef and resident rock-monster Shnitzel whose entire set of dialogue consists of the word “radda.” For its odd quirk the show is funny and highly entertaining. Consisting of a variety of animation styles including puppets and masking patterns, it’s unlike any other program on television except maybe for Flapjack.
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is a bizarre show about the titular character Flapjack as he searches for adventure and the fabled Candied Island with his mentor the good-for-nothing Captain K’nuckles and their ship the motherly whale Bubby. The show uses varied styles and bizarre gross-out animation along with a dark and sepia-toned world to contrast the overly excited Flapjack. The titular character wants to be the world’s greatest adventurer and find the fictional Candied Island. In fact, all the hardened pirates and adventurers that hang out at Stormalong harbor, the main setting of the show, are after candy.
Both shows are highly enjoyable and very odd. They feature a sort of humor that appeals to both the young and the older viewers and will unfortunately probably never find the same degree of success as the oddball Spongebob Squarepants. Nickelodeon doesn’t really seem to crank out the same quality as they used to, especially with the new trend of trying to be Disney with all their stupid kids soap opera’s and singing shows. So I’m happy to see Cartoon Network is still capable of producing a few good shows.
