If you take Bluey and add a pinch of Gumball, you have a simple cartoon full of unnecessary depth and lore. Simply put, this is a bit like Gumball for kids. To be more precise, it has the fluffier nature from Bluey, but it's got the moral grayness of Gumball, though with a more kid-friendly coat of a paint.
It all started with the click of a thumbnail. Why not, it could just be another cruddy typical kid's show. Well, it's at the least, better than that. I skimmed through it at first, expecting the worst. Then, Major Pickles happened. And Ted, the smooth-voiced news anchor.
The premise revolves around a team known as Big Tree City Rescue. It is a 7-member group led by Major Pickles. Each member can be fairly labeled as a main character, as each episode has a focus on a different pair. Each story deals with the city in pretty much every aspect, from policing to fire fighting, to general public problems, to sewage and more. Often times the situation is made light of, such as spreading fire and the massive amounts of destruction. It's a colorful world with these pill-shaped animals, complete with children's show fixings like obligatory theme song cues when moving into action. Each episode is usually about a character, sometimes involving a main character and a side character.
The characters are mostly run of the mill. Sometimes they're fun, sometimes they're extremely obnoxious. The ones that I find endearing are Major Pickles, Stripes, and Tricks. Breaking them down, you've got the problem-solving badger, the genius squirrel, the lead hedgehog. Then there's the valve-turning chaos-inducing plumber frog, the standard super strong bear, the hyperactive destructive construction bird, and the occasionally mentally mature but also "dull" medic fox.
Major Pickles is, well, he's a bit of an arse. Without his old fashioned charm, his chuckling, and his charismatic nature, it would be a generic kid's show that one would otherwise completely ignore. Stripes is a simple badger who likes solving puzzles. Tricks is the standard-fare genius inventor, but he doesn't do genius talk or tech babble, which is very welcomed. The others are alright.
The writing starts off pretty strong for what it is, but then has some slower-paced episodes with the lesser likeable characters. After those series of episodes, it continues on and picks up again. Despite that, each episode always involves multiple characters at a time, with plenty of recurring extras.
Due to the unexplainable chaotic nature of events, it's hard to figure out what exactly is a spoiler, so I'll just say that these are undertone highlights. In a VR simulation, Pickles fell to his doom. Tricks' smooth voice mod was impressively hot. There's also a hot manly tango, between men.
Visually, I'm drawn to the colorful childlike nature, which is a nice compliment to the apparent constant chaos in the city, either "naturally" or caused by Big Tree City Rescue. I also enjoy the facial expressions the characters make. As you would know it, Major Pickles makes quite a lot due to his frequent appearances. It's a bit of a reminiscence of expressions found in Gumball, and if I had to think about why, apparently, I haven't been watching very expressive animations. Plus, it enjoys itself, even occasionally making light fun of cliches. They had an episode involving a reverse heist plot, complete with the night time fountain/water watching conclusion.
I feel like there are plenty of things that would go over kids' heads, but there'd be plenty of hope yet if this is the entertainment kids can get. I cannot stand half of the things my niece wants to watch, but between this and Bluey, there may be a bright future ahead. I'm just a pessimist who finally found something positive, a cartoon simply being a cartoon.
