This week's article features my favorite TV Show "Arthur." The TV show is made by PBS and Cookie Jar Entertainment (formally known as Cinar). I have been watching the show since the second season (That would be late season, in 1998, mind you) and I will never stop watching it. However, the newer episodes disappoint me somewhat. And I will list a few reasons why and talk about them a bit.
Animation Style
According to the almighty deity known as Wikipedia, after the 11th season was wrapped up, Cookie Jar switched animation companies. Because of this, the animation looks different. I really enjoy Canadian-made cartoons and I really like how well the animation is done by them. But this company is BAD! The animation looks shoddy, and it feels like a semi-flash cartoons. And personally, I cannot stand flash cartoons made on a computer. The words don't exactly fit the lips like the original company made the animations do. Here is a picture showing the difference between to versions of the character Francine.
New on left, old on right. Pitiful.
Acting:
Voice acting is one of my favorite parts of cartoons. I really want to be one. I've imitated actors and cartoon characters, including Bugs Bunny, George Harrison, Wakko Warner (Wakko and George have very similar voices), George Takei and I've even tried my hand at Ian McKellan. (For guys, I try to catch some elements of his voice like how he says "never be the same" in "The Hobbit" trailer. I know, I'm weird.) The show has had some very good actors in it (not counting celeb). A good idea is that Arthur, D.W., and several other characters had been voiced by children. One problem with this, however, is that when a boy's voice changed, he had to leave the show and he was replaced by a different actor. The first three actors of Arthur and D.W. were great, but when the third Arthur actor left, he was replaced by Cameron Ansell, and when he left he was replaced by an actor named Dallas Jokic. When the third actor of D.W. left (D.W. has only ever been played by boys), he was replaced with Robert Naylor. While Cameron Ansell had a girlier voice (which improved when his voice started to change) but the current actor of Arthur has a lame voice, and his angry voices sounds pitiful, and he doesn't put a lot of good emotion into the role, unlike Michael Yarmush and Mark Rendall, the first and third actor respectively. Robert Naylor, the current actor of D.W. just isn't funny in the role. In fact, he is annoying. EXTREMELY annoying. Personally, I don't understand why they picked him to play D.W. Fortunately, since they are boys, there voices will change sometime. Dallas's is starting to all ready. I cannot wait for the next season to start to see the different actor (if they decide to have a new one).
Stories:
This is the last of my gripes. The show has been running for 15 seasons now (14 in countries outside the U.S.) and it seems like the are scraping the bottom of the barrel for show ideas. There is an episode in season 15 where Buster has a toy car that gets into the teachers lounge. Timmy Tibble gets mad when he finds out that he can't whistle and his brother Tommy can. The preschooler James is treated like a king because of a little lamb doll. Lame right? By all means, they need to keep Peter K. Hirsch on the show (he's been writing shows since the first season), but please Cookie Jar, bring back the old writers or hire new ones! We need great episodes!
So I am not dismissing the show entirely. I'm not saying that show is doomed to stink. I still have hope that the show will get better, and maybe they will. We will have to see later on down the road. So what are your opinions about the current state of the show? Tell me in the comments. Thank you so much for reading and come again!
