Dads Review the Cartoons: Wild Kratts
I'm back with my good friend Dave Atkins for another installment of Dad’s Review the Cartoons.. This time we are tackling The Wild Kratts. Other Dad reviews include Justin Time, and Tumble Leaf.
For this edition of Dad's Review the Cartoons we specifically watched the Falcon City episode from season 2. This episode stars the peregrine falcon, one of the Zoologist's favorite animals ever, which is saying something. Of course, the Sharp family watches Wild Kratts obsessively, and it appears the Atkins clan has gotten into them as well, so this review should be good.
As I said the Wild Kratts are a Sharp family staple, and it was our Halloween theme a few years ago when we only had three Sharpnadoes. We had two Wild Kratts and a wolf who was the creature they were chasing and learning about.
Follow along as we two dads watch cartoons with our kids and react accordingly.
Aaron Sharp
Ok Dave, our review takes us "on adventure with the coolest creatures, from the oceans to the trees." The Sharp's are veteran Wild Kratt fanatics. When we watch Wild Kratts our kids run around the living room singing/screaming the theme song. It was even the family theme a while back.
Two questions to get us rolling. First, what were your initial thoughts on the cartoon? Second, what creature power would you choose right now to help you in your adult life?
David Atkins
So, I've known of Wild Kratts for a while now, but I've just never watched an episode with the boys. There's so much on right now and my boys are so young, there's plenty of time for them to enjoy good shows later on.
So, I've gone back and watched, at this point, about 6-7 episodes. It was partly under the guise of research and partly as a distraction for the boys while I was cutting their hair. (I still may have traumatized them for all future hair cuts. There were many tears and tugs and overall screaming at the feeling of hair on their bodies, and the boys had a hard time too.) I did not however scar them for watching another episode of Wild Kratts this morning with zero twitches, or spontaneous bursting into tears, or running from the room in terror. So, I'll take that as a dad win. #dadwin #WildKutts
My initial impressions I will list below... bulletpoint styles:
lots of passion about animals
lots of facts about animals (seriously, lot of facts)
not much story, just enough to work in animal facts
Holy Sword! Their technology is incredible! It must be stolen alien tech 'cause it's ridiculous!
And, if I could have creature powers, echo-location would be pretty awesome. Knowing where everyone and everything around me is and what they're doing at all times with a "ooooo" call or something, like stomping my foot on the ground... wait, that's a different cartoon. Either echo-location or wings. Not that they would be super helpful when like trying to make dinner or something, but when is flying not an awesome power?
What creature powers for you? Also, what cartoon does the whole creature powers thing remind you of? And, do you agree with its lack of storyline and do you think it's important for Wild Kratts to have a stronger story element?
Aaron Sharp
Let’s not bury the lede here. You give two young boys haircuts. Your father of the year nomination is all but sown up just with that fact alone. The odds of me trying to give any of my kids a haircut is roughly the same as the odds of me performing open heart surgery on someone next week. Seriously, just trimming nails around here is reminiscent of the Battle of Thermopylae. Hair cutting might require straight jackets and tranquilizers.
It is in no way related to giving haircuts, but I think my creature power would be cheetah speed. At 40 I don’t know that it is really that practical, but I am sure that I could find a way to make use of it. If I ran that fast I might enjoy running.
I can think of several other cartoons that the creature power idea reminds me of. From our childhoods you could make a parallel. To He-Man, Thundercats, Transformers, and I’m sure more. Which gives me an idea. After we have done a few reviews of our kid’s cartoons we should go back and review cartoons from our childhood to see how they hold up.
Anyway, I think your question about the lack of a story line is a good one. I tend to think of Wild Kratts as almost a sitcom-styled animal documentary series. The same basic thing happens ever episode. There is the requisite avalanche of animal facts, there is usually a villain of some sort, and it all ends with those crazy Kratt brothers saving the day again. I think it works without needing too much plot, and in a way I think it kind of promotes kids to use their imaginations to tell their own stories. A number of times I hear our kids playing Wild Kratts and using their imaginations to save some animal so I don’t think the minimal plot is necessarily a bad thing. Then again, our kids take the lead from our six-year-old Zoologist who is obsessed with anything and everything animal related. That might not hold true for every kid. What were your thoughts on the story telling, or lack thereof?
Also what do you think of the Wild Kratt villains? Zach, Donita, and Gourmand are all reasonably harmless villains, and they are generally as successful as the average Scooby Doo bad guy. They are always going to lose, but they provide a little comic relief along the way.
And lastly, does it bother you as much as me that they go around the world saving animals in a flying turtle?
David Atkins
Straight jackets and tranquilizers would have been helpful. Maybe next time. I mean, so long as their hair keeps growing, there's plenty of opportunities to make mistakes.
I had considered cheetah speed. Running at 70 mph would be pretty amazing! I like what you're thinking for the other cartoons, and a Dad's Retro-Reviews section would be a great excuse to revisit some old favorites. I was thinking mainly of Bravestarr, the old west style sheriff who upholds the law on the newly colonized planet of New Texas. He was capable of channeling the abilities of specific animals, like speed of the puma, strength of the bear, eye of the hawk, and ear of the wolf. You're a Texan. You know what I'm talking about. It was one of those things that make Texas and Texans obnoxious to non-Texans.
Anyway, I'm with you on the story-telling. It isn't about the story of an episode. The Kratt brothers' passion for animals is exuberant, maybe approaching maniacal, at times. But, it seems to amp up my boys about animals. They're really good at not only communicating a lot of information about animals but making them relatable. I mean, how many episodes show the animal with its offspring or show it in relationships to other animals like it and even in its surroundings. But, where they've really gotten things right is with the hook - creature powers. That's where the magic happens. They seem to tap into a kid's imagination and sync it with an animal's abilities, whatever they may be. So, they seem to foster this strong connection between kids and animals. And, I think that's the real story, that of humans living in harmony with and caring for animals. I haven't seen all episodes but the message is delivered in a generally upbeat way and not in a heavy-handed way.
As for the villains, the first episode I saw with Zach, I thought, "Did they get a young Gilbert Gottfried to voice Zach?" Beyond that, they really your generic villains that each seem to represent industries that don't care about the environment - technology, clothing, food. They just need a pharmaceutical rep to make a complete quartet, right? They just seem to use villains to add some extra conflict when the episode may not have enough on its own.
As for the flying turtle, I don't know that it bothers me all that much. It seems Aviva wanted to fly around in an animal-themed HQ, and a turtle would have plenty of interior space (more so than say a manta ray or a rattlesnake), something to offer protection (shell). Why you couldn't reinforce a flying chipmunk, I have no idea. It's also not very intimidating if you spend lots of time around children, as opposed a flying angler fish. Maybe she just has a thing for turtles. Why does it bother you so much?
My biggest issue so far with the series is: Why do they have to be touching the animal before they can transform/morph? Aviva has already inputted all the creature powers "stuff" into the disc, right? Why do they need to touch the animal? It doesn't make sense. Are they borrowing the creature's powers? Is it a means of asking for permission to use the creature's powers? If they borrow them, is the animal temporarily disabled from using his/her powers? I don't understand. Can you explain this to me?
Aaron Sharp
Ok, so I am not sure what I was doing in 1987 and 1988 (probably watching ALF), but I had no recollection of Bravestarr whatsoever. Having said that I would be down with watching some episodes, surely they are online somewhere, to converse about. If you recommend it and it makes Texans obnoxious to non-Texans I am hopeful.
You make a good point that there is a fine line between exuberant and maniacal and the Kratts dance on that line from time to time. And how relatable they make the creature powers is a good observation. When the Zoologist was playing soccer last year I would try to motivate him to run hard by asking him to show me “cheetah speed,” and he would usually tell me, “No dad, I peregrine falcon speed.” Right now he has something like 25 creature power discs that he cajoled one of us to printing off of the internet for him. I end up learning a lot about animals too, like the other day when the boy asked me how to spell the name of a particular type of lemur (indri) that I had never heard of and had to google.
I hadn’t thought about the categories of Wild Kratt villains, but you are totally right. I think a pharmaceutical rep would make a great fourth addition, or maybe a makeup salesperson who tests the products out on animals. Maybe a villain based on MaryKay.
I can’t really explain what it is about the Tortuga that bothers me. It seems like almost all of these kids cartoons have a few things that inexplicably defy the laws of physics. Which, of course would be ridiculous if it wasn’t a show that involved teleportation, shapeshifting, and a variety of other science fiction concepts. Octonauts is the same way. I am fine with believing that a polar bear is the commander of a group of animals who travel the oceans in a massive octopus-shaped ship, but the ship’s ludicrous propulsion system annoys me. Basically, I’m the guy in the fourth season of LOST complaining about a tire that should have gone flat.
Why they have to touch the animal to transform makes no sense, and I don’t know that it is ever explained. Maybe it is like the woman in the gospels who just touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed. Ok, maybe theology doesn’t really work here. It would be very funny if while they were using the creatures powers if it got something from them. Like while they are out using rhino powers the rhino walked up to a McDonalds drive thru and in plain English tried to order a value meal.
Ok, so let’s wrap our Wild Kratts review up. The Sharp clan are clearly huge fans. This is one of our favorite shows. For my rating I compare Wild Kratts to chocolate covered strawberries. The fruit is good for you, but the chocolate will probably leave you pretty hyped up at the end.
David Atkins
Yeah, they should totally swap powers a little bit. Maybe a meerkat ordering a low-fat mocha latte.
As for a rating, I would say maybe puppy chow, like when you take Chex, a whole grain cereal, and smother it in chocolate and powdered sugar. It's got a whole grain foundation, my kids can't get enough of it, and it makes them run around like strung out drug fiends.