Harvey Beaks: New Nick series

[Drtooth]

Anyone else catch this yet? A new series by C.H. Greenblat, creator of Chowder, but with a distinctly different tone.

So far, I'm quite impressed. It manages to keep similar humor to Chowder, but much, much softer and grounded. Not so much realistic, but not the rapid fire, fourth wall breaking, medium blending wackiness Chowder was. It still has fantastic elements, but they're a little more subtle. And you have to love the premise... an overly sensitive child that's too nervous to have any fun making friends with wild kids who want to show him a good time and take risks. I really hope this finds a good audience on Nick. They need more variety in their animated programming.

 

[mr3urious]

I really enjoyed this series, too. I'd like to see more episodes of Harvey and the twins hanging out with the other kids as an ensemble. The bunny who has a strange obsession with Harvey intrigues me the most.

The imp twins are starting to become my favorite characters. Like their mythical origins, they're pranksters and troublemakers at heart, and are pretty much immortal with a high tolerance for pain. I loved how they laughingly punched each other to sleep in the beginning of the episode where they become positively charged by a giant lodestone. It's both hilarious and heartwarming at the same time.

 

[Drtooth]

I finally got a better look at the second episode, and I just love how the series still has the bizarre mythological/fantasy elements of Chowder, but approaches them at a different angle. In Chowder, the giant finger would have been a gag with a punchline and it would have been funny. Here, it was treated as a wild creature that got the sympathy of Harvey.

There's just something about taking similar elements and playing them differently that really won me over with this series. Unlike, say, Rocko vs. Camp Lazlo where the humor was disconnected and the former makes the latter look like a disappointment. Here, the show has a different, yet the same feel without too much of a disconnect, but retaining its individuality.

 

[mr3urious]

Anyone else wish that Anti-Valentine's Day were a real thing? I'd sure like to see it become one.

 

[mr3urious]

Zeus Cervas, the writer behind some of the most hated episodes of SpongeBob, was one of three writers who contributed to "Harvey's First Scar". And I have to say, it was pretty good. It did have shades of Zeus's mean-spiritedness like all the over-the-top Looney Tunes-type crap the twins throw at him to try to give Harvey a scar to make him feel cool, but he did make a pinky promise to them (which, as a certain pink pony can tell you, you can never break). And the heartwarming ending does balance things out nicely.

And you've just gotta love those French mobsters and their acorn slingshot pistols in the episode following it.

 

[Drtooth]

Arrrg! I missed them all last night. I know where to catch up with everything, but Sanjay and Craig.

But I enjoyed Daid (or however it's spelled) and his family in the Nightclub episode are portrayed as the religious activist zealots (and they're just one family like a certain group). The nice touch being that Daid was trying to save Harvey and joined him in the club as his moral compass, rather than being completely judgmental. Meanwhile, the interaction of Fee and the bouncer was oddly touching.

Above all, the episodes "Pe-Choo" and "The Rebel" really give Harvey some nice characterization. He wants to be bad because he thinks that's why Fee and Foo have more fun, but the realization that he would become bad break him. When he got caught in The Rebel, he lost his passion for it, and felt like being bad was something he had to do. And it's a great show of character here, since Harvey seems to be missing what drives Fee and Foo, not that they're bad or misbehaved, but rather they take risks Harvey's too afraid to take.

 

[mr3urious]

Another thing that surprised me about this show is that it makes use of a full 40-piece orchestra for the background music, which is possibly the first kids' cartoon since Animaniacs to do so. It's nice to see more effort put into cartoon scores recently like with Steven Universe, MLP, and Star vs. the Forces of Evil (the latter also composed by the same guy as Harvey). Ego Plum and Nick are taking a risk in the same way Fee and Foo do everyday.

 

[Drtooth]

If anyone could wrap their heads around the odd airing, this Saturday's 2 new episodes were great. I especially liked the one about Princess and her father tricking all the kids to all compete in a rigged contest. Nice to see an episode about one of the characters besides the twins, Harvey, and Dade. I like the touch that Princess and the girl who's name escapes me at the moment almost bonded on their parents' good intentioned, yet idiotic bannings, and Princess's warped recollection of it.

I'm impressed that (while I have to check it back out) they actually used the tune of "I Love the Nightlife" in the Old Fashioned Day episode. Dade really got an episode to himself that fleshed out his Harvey obsession, making it deeper than the usual one off gag.

 

[mr3urious]

If anyone could wrap their heads around the odd airing, this Saturday's 2 new episodes were great. I especially liked the one about Princess and her father tricking all the kids to all compete in a rigged contest. Nice to see an episode about one of the characters besides the twins, Harvey, and Dade. I like the touch that Princess and the girl who's name escapes me at the moment almost bonded on their parents' good intentioned, yet idiotic bannings, and Princess's warped recollection of it.

I like how Princess was more spoiled in that her father showered her with praise and rewards rather than being showered with material stuff. That's a nice twist on the whole "spoiled brat" trope.

I'm impressed that (while I have to check it back out) they actually used the tune of "I Love the Nightlife" in the Old Fashioned Day episode. Dade really got an episode to himself that fleshed out his Harvey obsession, making it deeper than the usual one off gag.

Dade has become one of my favorite characters on the show besides the twins. His borderline gay crush on Harvey is very hilarious yet also endearing to me.

And you've just gotta love the '70s outfits on the characters, particularly Fee and her huge afro.

 

[mr3urious]

The concurrent two-part episode about the comet was really sweet, especially the second one. Part 1 has Harvey, his dad, and the other boys go on a hike for the comet only for it to turn into disaster as Mr. Beaks suffers a concussion. I liked how the boys other than Harvey and Foo ditched them only to have second thoughts in the end and help them out.

Part 2 has Mrs. Beaks and Fee having some girl time together and even looking through the former's photo album to Fee's delight. However, Mrs. Beaks starts suffering a spontaneous midlife crisis and goes on a destructive partying rampage with the other girls in tow in an effort to impress Fee, only for Fee to say that she liked the boring quiet night in together. I especially loved how mesmerized Claire was about Mrs. Beaks' partying ways, seeing how much she's pressured by her parents in being as good as her older sister.