'The Nutshack' (2007-2011)
Opening thoughts: Absolutely adore animation, something that has been the case as a child and it is frequently seen still. Have always aimed to at least appreciate all kinds of humour, and have seen crude humour done well (the early seasons of 'Rick and Morty' for instance) and animated shows that broke boundaries and were ahead of their time (i.e. 'South Park'). Have though seen quite a number of bad and worse animated shows, such as 'Red Ape Family' and 'Mega Babies' in recent weeks.
'The Nutshack' (saw the whole thing by the way) is another show that is proof that not all animation is good. It is very poor and a vast majority of elements are done awfully, but actually this reviewer has seen a lot worse. As lazy and lacking in effort 'The Nutshack' was, it at least didn't offend me as such as 'Red Ape Family', 'Mega Babies' and 'High Guardian Spice' for instances. For anybody asking why people who hated this while praising 'South Park', regardless of how much it can shock, the latter at least is well made, had jokes that were witty and original, broke boundaries and had fun characters. Other than the bold boundary breaking with the diversity for 2007, 'The Nutshack' has none of that.
Good things: Did think there were good things. Chita did have some likeability and was gamely voiced.
It was great to see some diverse representation and it was a lot more tasteful and accurate than the diversity seen in 'High Guardian Spice'.
Bad things: So much is really poorly done. Including some of the worst flash animation to ever exist. There is no colour vibrancy, everything just looks flat and garish, editing is not tight enough and is often dizzying, the backgrounds lack imagination or smoothness, almost always looking static. The character designs fare the worst, some of the ugliest easily of any animated show. The music never fits and sounds at least a decade out of date. The theme tune is one of the most annoying in animation.
Nothing is funny or clever here, there is too much over-reliance on crude gross out humour that would offend even younger viewers and make parents question the target audience. The humour sounds very recycled and has no originality or subtlety whatsoever. Emotionally, there is nothing. No depth, no pathos or heart, there is not even enough emotion to be remotely sentimental. The storytelling in all the episodes is as unoriginal as one can get (very rehashed feeling actually), the world building is not immersive and is never fully fleshed out and it is very dull by the numbers in execution.
With the sole exception of Chita, the characters are obnoxious with the show going well overboard on making Phil as jerk-ish as possible. The voice acting is a mix of uninterested and hammy, the worst offenders being for Phil and Horats. That for Chita is the one exception. While the diversity is not as distasteful or as caricatured as feared (this aspect is done far better than in 'High Guardian Spice', that surprisingly was written by a trans person but written in a way that was indicative of bigotry) and enough of it is accurate, it still felt too stereotyped and simplistic.
Closing thoughts: Concluding, very poor but have seen a lot worse.
2/10.
