Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

[D'Snowth]

And the one where D.W. plays with the box instead of the new toy sounds just dreadful.

Didn't they just do an episode like that, like, two seasons ago?

But, aside from that, once again, most of these episodes sound tired, cliched, and unoriginal. Sibling Seniority Squabble between the Tibbles? The Tibbles smothering D.W. with kindness after she "saves them"? Ladonna sitting on a bench covered in wet paint while wearing Muffy's dress? These have been done millions of times.

I am, however, interested in seeing this episode where Arthur's parents are going through lulls in their jobs, and it's apparently causing fiscal issues for the family... that hits so close to home for me, especially with today's economy.

 

[Drtooth]

Addressing economic realities is something they'd have to do. The one about how the Toad bought up all the socks in the sock market, horrifyingly accurate and therefore satirical, went over kid's heads.

Anyway, yeah... they done most of these episodes already, better in fact. There's no excuse if they manage to show some of them in rotation (not nearly enough, though). If it was a Doraemon situation where they purposely remake episodes because they just have so many that it's impossible to show them all and to update them, that's one thing. Sesame Street could get away with that. Fleeting demographic and all that.

But with Arthur, they're just unintentionally plagiarizing themselves, giving the same lesson plans over and over, and making the show both repetitive and unenjoyable. There's still some really good episodes... I don't think D.W. and Bud trying to look taller to get on a roller coaster is one of them.

I mean, that has to have a TV Tropes page. I've gotten very sick of that old chestnut.

 

[Auburn Red]

No show can run a long time as Arthur does without running its course. I haven't seen it in years but many of the issues (repeating episodes, characters becoming Flanderized) could be found in many a long running series. I do want to say that I admire any show like Arthur or Sesame Street that can handle a sensitive subject like cancer and treat kids with enough respect that they can understand it.
I do want to mention about the revelation of Brain getting held back in Kindergarten. I related to it for a very strong reason. I was held back in first grade and not for academic reasons. The teacher believed that I wasn't emotionally ready to handle second grade. I was misdiagnosed by the teacher as having Hyperactivity (the early version of ADHD). I didn't and the stigma of it embarrassed me for years afterward leading to a lot of self esteem issues about how smart I felt (How many people want to brag that they were held back in first grade or Kindergarten). Like Brain I overcompensated with intelligence though it was more of an English Literary nature than Brain's scientific nature. I'm just saying its not as unusual as one thing for a smart kid to be held back in school. I'm just glad that Arthur mentioned it.

 

[Drtooth]

No show can run a long time as Arthur does without running its course. I haven't seen it in years but many of the issues (repeating episodes, characters becoming Flanderized) could be found in many a long running series. I do want to say that I admire any show like Arthur or Sesame Street that can handle a sensitive subject like cancer and treat kids with enough respect that they can understand it.

A point I make quite a bit, actually. On the one hand, yes... the episodes are a little tired and labored. That is a natural affliction of long running programs. And some programs get tired really early in their run as well. And considering the show's actual demographic, they really don't care about the episodes being awful.

However, it seems they're sticking to lame kid's show tropes, which is strange and I'll tell you why. A couple years ago, I went to an even hosting Marc Brown. He told this story about how long it took Arthur to become a series, and why it wasn't one sooner. Essentially he was approached by some of the biggest writers in the cartoon making industry and he turned each and every single one of them down because the scripts were inorganic, and in his words, the writers didn't know what it was like to be a kid. Now, hypothetically, this happened in the 80's. Watch a cartoon made in the 80's about a gang of kids. he's right.

The sad thing is, we're getting some really bad 1980's kid's cartoon tropes in the show lately. The Complainer is always wrong (Binky's Music Madness), the crazy treasure hunt adventure (while not a treasure hunt exactly, Around the World in 11 Minutes), and now we got a "too short to ride the roller coaster" episode. They're so going to find a genie in season 19.

 

[Mr Snrub]

we're getting some really bad 1980's kid's cartoon tropes in the show lately

Does this mean we'll get yet another episode where a band is formed? They've pretty much done everything they could do with that. It's perfect for a new episode's topic.

 

[Drtooth]

I do want to mention about the revelation of Brain getting held back in Kindergarten. I related to it for a very strong reason. I was held back in first grade and not for academic reasons. The teacher believed that I wasn't emotionally ready to handle second grade. I was misdiagnosed by the teacher as having Hyperactivity (the early version of ADHD). I didn't and the stigma of it embarrassed me for years afterward leading to a lot of self esteem issues about how smart I felt (How many people want to brag that they were held back in first grade or Kindergarten). Like Brain I overcompensated with intelligence though it was more of an English Literary nature than Brain's scientific nature. I'm just saying its not as unusual as one thing for a smart kid to be held back in school. I'm just glad that Arthur mentioned it.

While I usually don't respond to the same quote twice, I realized something. I agree, it's not unheard of to hold back a student for not being emotionally ready. Almost dropped out of college for that reason. Then again, fat load of good staying there did me.

My problem with the episode, however, is that they handled it poorly. While Brain staying back for emotional reasons may not be as out of character as most would think, it feels like that revelation on The Simpsons that Ned Flanders was in his 60's. An out of left field development that only makes sense for the sake of the plot. But then again, it's Arthur, and they have two choices. Either inflict a regular character or invent a character that's just about an affliction. That's easy to forgive. But the tie in to Binky, while essentially the only interesting and remotely funny thing about the episode adds an unfortunate implication as Binky was held back for being a bad student. Not to mention the way Brain described why he was held back was slapdash and glib. This from a character that's oozing with sesquipedalian loquaciousness. Instead of saying that the stress of moving to an academic setting left him frustrated, confused, and depressed at an early age, he essentially said "I cried a lot." While, yeah, it's a kid's show and the message has to be understandable, it made him come off as a crybaby, not one with actual emotional problems.

 

[Dominicboo1]

Aparantly a future season will have Maria in her own episode.......according to the link Drtooth provided. I think it would be smarter just to give her a speaking line beforehand, or some secondary roles even like they did with Jenna before Jenna's Bedtime Blues.

 

[Drtooth]

Considering they only had so many character models to begin with, even before the situation was exacerbated by flash animation, I'm surprised they didn't use Maria in other scenes and give her a crowd line to begin with. Something tells me the only reason she's even getting an episode is because some of the fanbase kept pestering them to.

As for Jenna... I hate Jenna. She was a severely underdeveloped character to begin with. Her first named/voiced appearance she was a stock tomboy that was just there. Like they needed another girl to round out the cast, when she basically did nothing important to the plot, other than eating a bag of chips. Then her role increased to almost being a sitcom rival to Francine, but didn't and her title starring episode where she's afraid of going to a sleepover because she was "Arthur Inflicted (TM)." Meaning that she all the sudden had a problem with going to a sleepover when she was already at one. Though I admit, that episode was kinda funny. But she basically was the inbetween of Arthur Infliction... either introduce a new character or inflict an existing famous character to help kids cope.

But above all, she has the worst character design of the series (at least until they switched to flash). A balding cat with a human nose? Really?! I'm kinda glad she hasn't been in too many other episodes.

 

[Muppet Master]

Arthur just has to be put out of this misery. It is almost like keeping a person alive just to torture them. Get a spinoff series, revive that Postcards From Buster thing, anything, just cancel Arthur. They have destroyed the animation, demolished the characters, and got the most unfitting voice actors. What is next, Arthur changes to a slideshow cartoon.

 

[Drtooth]

Okay... I'd agree with any complaint brought against the show, but I still think the voice acting thing can't be helped. Arthur would sound like a full grown man, because most of his child actor voice actors are. Not that the original one doesn't still collect a paycheck from the show, he's Slink after all. Other than Sue Ellen, the voice actors who were adults originally still have their respective parts. Just... you have to replace kid voice actors when their voices go low. And frankly, they didn't replace them enough. It's a peril that comes with getting that level of realism in kid voices. Would we be better off if Arthur was voiced by a woman the whole time?

That said, while I do feel really really sorry for what happened to Postcards from Buster (especially the kids of the lesbian couple), I'm glad the show's gone. Frankly, it wasn't a good concept. Having an anthro character in an anthro world meet real human children via taping them? Conceptually, there was something wrong there. Other than that, it was dreadfully dull. The controversy about the lesbian parents and the Muslim kids (because religious right) was essentially the only remarkable thing that can be said about the show, and the only publicity it got.