The New Disney continues to get more and more calculated with its material by the minute.
Honestly, the only new animated television show they've managed to produce during the past several years that is genuinely good is "House of Mouse". Other than that, the "marketeers" and ridiculous focus groups are getting more and more out of hand. Now to be fair, this is pretty much the case with all of Hollywood and not just the current Disney studio: the current contempt for audiences is producing more pap here in the United States than ever before. I keep hoping that maybe things will eventually turn back around, but the marketers in this country have simply too firm a vice-grip on creators.
But unfortunately, Disney's new animated stuff is also showing just how calculated and out-of-touch the studio really is, as "The Proud Family" is a show which looks, feels and is written like something out of the eighties instead of something current.
Despite its good intentions, there is precious little to be said for this show, which comprises of a ton of wildly cubist limited/abstract designs that were all the rage back during the eighties and were already greviously worn out way back when "Hammerman" and "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" had ripped them off from Bakshi's "Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures", and major major references to trend-following and clothing styles also out of said long-past era, each and every single one of them audience-appeal-programmed to the max. Adding to the problem is the fact that all of the voice acting is wildly overplayed in the "Just The Ten Of Us" mode; only "Sugar Mama" provides any respite. Now and again, the plots will actually begin to write something remarkably tender for a show so determined to be cool, but unfortunately Disney smothers everything with too much political correctness (and by that, I mean a strong "Let's not show TOO MUCH emotion between friends here, otherwise it will be uncool and nerdy!" bias) before you can savour the show's sentiments for very long.
I actually found the TV station's advertising for the show far more entertaining that the show itself. One ad which featured a brief interview with the voice for "Sugar Mama", for example, is a delight and fun to watch all on its own.
All in all, though, "The Proud Family" is about nothing more than the current Disney quest for trend-following, audience-hopes and lots of money money money. Virtually every laugh, every gag, every loud shriek of "Party over HERE!" and jagged design line and abstract character creation and rap music guest seems calculated to induce tweens everywhere to stare in rapture and go, "HOOOO, YEAH!" ...and to spend more money on Proud Family merchandising and videotapes. In other words, "The Proud Family" is "Rainbow Brite" with funky illusions to style and a hip-hop soundtrack.
