Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

[D'Snowth]

Though I would say the Storm episode was probably also on hold until a real storm hit, but as one didn't happen yet, they had no reason to air it.

Well, yeah, 'cause the peak of hurricane season usually isn't until September and October anyway.

 

[Mr Snrub]

Watched Shelter from the Storm.

It has a large number of subtle callbacks to early seasons. They may have existed in other recent episodes, but I've never noticed them

Also of note, there's an effing Frozen reference. Not even a subtle one. Idina's character literally says "I enjoy things frozen" and then winks.

 

[D'Snowth]

Also of note, there's an effing Frozen reference. Not even a subtle one. Idina's character literally says "I enjoy things frozen" and then winks.

We all saw that coming a mile away. And yet, the episode was supposdely in production before FROZEN was released, at least that's what we were told, so apparently Idina Menzel's appearance was "coincidental."

I saw "Little Miss Meanie," and it turned out to be pretty good, actually. It was written by the same writer who did "The Tardy Tumbler," so that's two of the show's recurring disabled characters that were expanded upon by a newer writer. It was nice to see Muffy and Lydia actually earn common grounds and develop a mutual respect for each other - we apparently were supposed to have gotten another Lydia episode long before now: this is either it, or they just finally threw her into a new episode, I'm not sure. And Beulah McInerney is so far the only character whose Flash design is actuall an improvement from the original hand-drawn designs.

On a sidenote . . . hey Drtooth, you know that troll you were talking about earlier who does really obvious tracings of screenshots and apparently gives Bud Hershey Kiss nipples? Apparently Portia Dimwitty is his new subject of obsession right now.

 

[Drtooth]

We all saw that coming a mile away. And yet, the episode was supposdely in production before FROZEN was released, at least that's what we were told, so apparently Idina Menzel's appearance was "coincidental."

Unless they decided to put her in the thing while it was in production, or they had to get her back in for ADR or something. I dunno. If this isn't coincidental, it seems like one clumsy and hamfisted actor allusion. I wonder if there's one for Wicked shoe horned in as well.

So the new season supposedly starts this week. I usually tend to forget that it does. Can't say I'm too excited for this, but I honestly have to question PBS's splitting episodes up this time. At least 2 upcoming episodes premiering in the fall are dealing with Summer vacation. Yeah. Good call on only airing 3 new episodes in May, guys.

On a sidenote . . . hey Drtooth, you know that troll you were talking about earlier who does really obvious tracings of screenshots and apparently gives Bud Hershey Kiss nipples? Apparently Portia Dimwitty is his new subject of obsession right now.

Uhhhhhh... yeah. Is he drawing her in inappropriate attire too? How old is this guy? These are just this close to being pedophilic. They're very disturbing when they pop up on my screen. Glad to see Aardvarks Anonymous is filtering out his entries.

Also glad to see that guy who draws those D.W. in school comics as well. Those are actually quite good most of the time.

 

[Mr Snrub]

We get an episode where Brain dreams about him, DW, and Bud touring his brain. Along with 4 or 5 Brains at a control panel controlling his emotions, we get this as one of his core memories. Random callbacks, yay.

 

[D'Snowth]

Uhhhhhh... yeah. Is he drawing her in inappropriate attire too? How old is this guy? These are just this close to being pedophilic. They're very disturbing when they pop up on my screen. Glad to see Aardvarks Anonymous is filtering out his entries.

Yeah, AA is my group, and I keep blocking this guy everytime he opens a new account (and it does that all the time: he deactivates his account, then opens a new one, deactivates it, opens a new one, yadda-yadda-yadda), and this is like, I don't know, maybe the fifth or sixth account he's had? But yeah, in addition to that guy and his tracings and such, I try to keep other stuff out of the group like fetish artwork and such (one guy kept submitting tickle torture stuff) - I once found a deviation of Buster being pinned down by Binky while it looks like Ratburn and Art Garfunkel are attempting to . . . um . . . let's not even think about it.

Also glad to see that guy who draws those D.W. in school comics as well. Those are actually quite good most of the time.

Yes indeed; now, if they were to do an actual D.W. spin-off, this is the direction they could go in. He's really advanced the characters in believable ways.

 

[Drtooth]

So I managed to catch the hurricane episode, and frankly for what it was it was okay. By all means this was made to help kids cope with disastrous storms that we keep having, even though plotwise, it was exactly the same as the Blizzard episode and the School catches fire episode. Except they tacked on that therapist to be all Simpsons-y with the celebrity guest. While I get the reason for her to be in the plot, she seemed shoehorned. But I did love Arthur's story about helping reunite storm victims with their pets.

 

[D'Snowth]

Well, they've been making a big deal out of it for over a year now, not just because of Idena Menzel's shoehorned cameo (which the production staff swear was before FROZEN even came out, and has nothing to do with her appearance on the show), but because of a major character's house being destroyed.

I missed it th eother day: I had things to do, and traffic for some reason was incredibly heavy for some reason, which prevented me from getting home in time.

So, Drtooth: since the Tough Customers have been given a lot more focus as of late, especially with Rattles having so much character development, what do you bet that the Vanderloos (and Rattles's mom, for that matter) will end up becoming more unnecessary secondary characters thrown into the show in future episodes? The father didn't really contribute much to the story other than he's engaged to Rattles's mom, but the twins are too one-dimensional to work in the long run, what with the brother being like a male Francine, and the sister speaking in slang vocabulary that seriously makes her sound like she's speaking a foreign language.

 

[Drtooth]

I missed that episode and couldn't find it on YT.

I did manage to catch Super Saver and the Life Debt episode (I forgot that title) and they went off with an astounding meh.

The Super Saver episode bugged me because of the obvious little flaw. Jane wasn't getting any accounting jobs because everyone was saving money doing their own taxes, and David wasn't getting any catering jobs because no one's throwing parties (obviously, to save money). So Arthur suggests saving money by not going to the movies, mowing the lawn himself, and at the end not even buying the toy he suffered for to give the money to someone less well off than him (which is a good message, but....). Essentially, Arthur is saving money in the same way that those who aren't hiring Jane or David are saving it. By cutting out goods and services, thus dooming the theater workers and the toy shop to the same exact fate of not bringing money into their families. If Alberto was doing the Reads' housework, that clearly means he needed money for something. Essentially the episode says "if your parents aren't getting paid because they went into specialty, commission based careers, save money by taking it out of the mouths of other specialty, commission based careers. That's not hypocritical at all."

Seriously. I get the feeling Arthur's toy money he donated will go to the family that owns the toy shop. Then there's a side rant about how the slightly less poor in this country have more of a desire and will and actual good values to take care of the less fortunate while those with much, much more don't have to do squat, but that would go on too long.

Now, the life debt episode wasn't as bad as I thought and had some nice bits to it. I did like how they turned it around slightly from the tired old trope of life debt episodes by making the Tibbles the one who want to break the debt off with a crazy scheme to save someone that doesn't work. Loved D.W.'s deadpan snarkiness in this episode, and the opening was the best part. They brought back Bananomanoman. Heck, they brought back Sharky! Actually, this episode wasn't a total loss.

 

[D'Snowth]

So, there's an episode that hasn't aired yet (well, on PBS, that is), and already it's stirring up a little bit of controversy over an lengthy sequence that involves Buster watching Arthur sleep, then when Arthur gets out of bed and undresses in the background, Buster's arm is in the foreground censoring any potential nudity (I guess Arthur's been haunted by his underwear so much that he's out there, Jerry, and lovin' every minute of it).