Pokemon: A cartoon ripe for parody

With kids ages 7 and nearly 5 in our house, we watch a lot of Pokemon. I know the names of too many of these “pocket monsters” and their various stages of evolution than I care to admit.
The whole premise behind the show is silly and ripe for parody.
I’ve joked about the parallels between Pokemon battles and dog fights or cockfights in a previous post.
The video-game comedy website Dorkly regularly pokes fun at Pokemon.

Here are some examples:

Ash Discovers New Pokemon (Oct. 11, 2010)

Pokemon: The Later Years (Oct. 20, 2010)

5 Pokemon Facebook Updates (Aug. 19, 2010)

And as a bonus, Pokemon fan art:

100 Pokemon Brought to Life through Creative Art (Sept. 18, 2010; Designzzz)

20 Pokemon re-imagined by artist Gavin Mackey on Dorkly

Artwork: Pikachu gives a jumpstart (top) and Pokémon Center Closed by Ry-Spirit (bottom).

Animated kids’ show ‘The Backyardigans’ began as a full-body puppet show

“The Backyardigans,” one of the best children’s television programs today, was originally conceived as a full-body puppet show like “Yo Gabba Gabba.”
A pilot for the show, then called “Me and My Friends,” was filmed but rejected by Nickelodeon in favor of a new show called “Dora the Explorer.”
Backyardigans creator Janice Burgess told me recently that four of the five characters in her 3-D animated hit “The Backyardigans” were in “Me and My Friends.” The failed pilot also featured original music and dancing just like “The Backyardigans,” she says.
I interviewed Burgess for a Leaders & Success profile story in Investor’s Business Daily. You can read the story at Investors.com.
“The Backyardigans” premiered in 2004 and is now in its fourth season. When this season is over, Burgess will have produced 80 episodes of the half-hour show.
Burgess gets her inspiration for the adventures on the show, which is made for preschoolers, from Hollywood action movies.
Here’s what she said on the subject:

“I really enjoy a big adventure. I think ‘Die Hard’ is one of the greatest films ever, not to mention ‘Terminator 2.’ I love those big films. The first ‘Transformers’ was ‘Wow-wee, now we’re talking!’ I love high stakes. And I love their fantastical nature.
Obviously you’re never going to land on an island populated by reanimated dinosaurs and have them chase you around. But, hey, if you did, it would be really thrilling.
So I enjoy that. And I wanted to bring some of that to young children, but to do it in a way that is safe, hopefully not scary, and not imitatable except in your head. Like if you’re 2, you’re probably not going to fly a helicopter, drive a car, or drive a stagecoach through the Old West.”

Each episode features music from a different genre. And the show’s creative team isn’t running out of musical genres yet, she says.
When the show started, musical director Evan Lurie came up with a list of about 30 musical genres, she says. But this season alone they discovered that they hadn’t done ragtime or American country, for instance.
Thanks to the Internet and music services like Apple’s iTunes, Lurie can study many styles of music that wouldn’t have been readily available to him 10 years ago, Burgess says.
Brown Johnson, president of animation for Nickelodeon and MTV Networks Kids and Family Group, says “The Backyardigans” will be around for a long time.
“Backyardigans is going to be on Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon for probably at least another five years,” she says. “Maybe forever.”

Pokemon training kids to appreciate dogfights, cockfights

My 6-year-old son is into Pokemon these days. He likes watching Pokemon videos, reading the books and playing with the cards.
Having learned about the Pokemon story, it reminds me a lot of dog fighting or cockfighting.

In the fantasy world of Pokemon, human characters go out and capture wild animals called Pokemon and train them to fight other Pokemon. It’s a respected spectator sport in the Pokemon world.
Swap the Pokemon for pit bulls or roosters and you’ve got an illegal sport (in most places).

I guess it’s OK to make fictional creatures fight each other. Just don’t think too much about it.

Photos:
Top: Human trainers prepare their Pokemon creatures for battle
Center: Dog fighting in Afghanistan. Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo for U.S. News & World Report.
Bottom: Cockfighting in the Philippines. Photo by Marco Pereira.

Beyonce plays to her broad fan base – from adults to preschoolers

It’s a big week for Beyonce Knowles. Her mature-themed movie, “Obsessed,” was No. 1 at the weekend box office. And today she appears on kid’s cartoon “Wow Wow Wubbzy” as Shine, the lead singer of girl group the Wubb Girlz.
Knowles is featured on multiple episodes of the animated show this week on Nickelodeon. Having conquered music and movies, this is the singer’s first children’s project.
She’s following a path blazed by other celebrities. In recent weeks, we’ve had Jack Black on “Yo Gabba Gabba,” Johnny Depp on "SpongeBob SquarePants," and Ricky Gervaise and Paul Rudd on “Sesame Street.”
Knowles will have to bring her "A" game to top my favorite celebrity cameo in recent years: Alicia Keys on “The Backyardigans.” She played an animated Martian mom who sang “Almost Everything Is Boinga” on the episode “Mission to Mars.” Great voice for a great song.

Photos:
Top: Beyonce Knowles and the characters from "Wow Wow Wubbzy"
Bottom: Jack Black on "Yo Gabba Gabba!"

DJs gaining rock-star status

Since when did spinning records make someone the object of adulation?
DJs in recent years have become celebrities. They’re dating Hollywood stars, attracting big crowds for their gigs, and getting written up in the gossip pages with the A-listers.
I recently caught a music video of a Dutch DJ named Tiësto and couldn’t believe my eyes. He was on stage playing recorded music for a crowd of thousands who were going wild for him. He just stood at his turntables and digital mixing controls, wearing his headphones and played music. He didn’t sing, dance, or play a guitar, keyboard or drums. He simply smiled and pumped his fist in the air while playing his dance beats and grooves. Not very compelling for a live performance. But the fans loved it. Maybe it’s a European thing.
I like electronic dance music – house, rave, trance, you name it. But I wouldn’t join thousands of fans to hear or see a particular DJ.
Enjoying the work of a good DJ in a club is one thing. But in a stadium or arena setting? No thanks. It’s bad enough going to see a rock concert at a big stadium and ending up watching the video screens because you’re so far away. But a DJ is a lot less interesting to watch.
There’s a range of DJs – from those who mash up and remix other people’s recordings like Girl Talk to those who create their own beats and melodies. Some like DJ Colette from Chicago even sing their own songs.
DJs have been around for a long time, but mostly as an underground culture with a devoted, but niche following.
Now U.S. DJs like Samantha Ronson and DJ AM are frequently in the gossip columns.
Kids are learning about DJs thanks to “Yo Gabba Gabba!,” a show on Nickelodeon in which DJ Lance Rock orchestrates the activities.
Later this year, everybody will get a chance to play DJ when video game publisher Activision Blizzard releases the music game “DJ Hero.” An extension of the company’s “Guitar Hero” rock music franchise, “DJ Hero” will feature a new genre of music and different game controls.
I’m sure it comes with everything you need to be a DJ. Except the adoring crowds.

Photo of Tiësto from djtiesto.com.
Photo of DC Lance Rock and characters from “Yo Gabba Gabba!”

The nasty truth about Miss Spider and friends

I guess they ran out of cute, lovable animals to anthropomorphize about the time “Miss Spider” was created.
“Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends” is one of those animated children’s TV shows I have to endure as the father of two youngsters. The show follows the adventures of a family of bugs living together. The clan is led by the gentle, kind-hearted Miss Spider, voiced by the sexy Kristin Davis of “Sex and the City” fame.
Among the adopted “children” living with Miss Spider and her spider kin are a bed bug, jewel beetle and a dragonfly. The community of bugs they live with includes a stink bug, a praying mantis, earwigs and carpenter ants.
In real life, these aren’t the most adorable animals. Spiders and praying mantises are stone-cold killers of other insects. Bed bugs are nasty little blood suckers. And stink bugs are just plain gross. (See photos above.)
If Miss Spider ever snapped out of it and realized that she was a predator, she and her family would devour most of Sunny Patch in a day. The survivors would be rounded up and eaten by Dragon, the dragonfly, and Mr. Mantis, the praying mantis.
That would give little kids nightmares, sure. But maybe they’d learn something about the animal kingdom.

The “Miss Spider” cartoon (2004-07), airing on Nick Jr. and Noggin, is based on the children’s books by David Kirk.

"Miss Spider" artwork from Noggin, a property of MTV Networks, which is a unit of Viacom International. Spider photo from Wikimedia Commons. Praying mantis photo from Flickr site of Martin LaBar. Bedbug photo from the Scavenging blog.

Note to Diego, Wonder Pets: Sometimes it’s OK to let animals die

With a 3-year-old daughter and 5 ½-year-old son at home, I have to endure a lot of children’s television programming.
After hours of watching “Dora the Explorer,” “Backyardigans” and other kid-vid, you can’t help but get resentful and start looking at the flaws in these shows.
There’s a trend in some kid-vid shows (“Go, Diego, Go!” and “Wonder Pets”) where characters who rescue animals are actually interfering with nature’s way.
Diego and the Wonder Pets often get distress calls from cute animals in the wild who are being threatened by their natural predators. The heroes will dash off to help these creatures avoid pumas, hawks and other predators.
Their response reminds me of a town I lived in where citizens were up in arms over the fact that snapping turtles were eating the baby ducks in a particular pond. Hey folks, that’s what snapping turtles do. That’s nature. Just because baby ducks are cute and snapping turtles are ugly doesn’t mean you should interfere with nature’s way.
Maybe Diego should start an episode with three animals of the same species that need to get home and end the show happy that one survived to make it.
Also, would it kill Diego and the Wonder Pets to save a human every now and then?
They’re probably like PETA protestors stepping over homeless people when picketing for animal rights. Diego would say, “Human in trouble? Not my thing, amigo. He can fend for himself; I’ve got a butterfly to rescue.”