Of all the TV shows that have ever caused any kind of offence, you wouldn't expect the harmless computer-animated "Cubix" to be among them. But in England, where "Cubix" is part of BBC1's children's lineup, MENCAP recently complained that the character of Mong makes fun of people who are Mongoloid; given that the show gives its robot characters stereotyped personalities anyway (in the English-language version there's one in particular who has a pretty grating would-be-Cockney accent), it probably wasn't intentional.
The thing I find most interesting about this show, adapted for us decadent Westerners by the folks who did "Pokemon," is that it's a Japanese show where the participants actually LOOK Japanese for once; most animated series from the East give the characters exaggeratedly Western features, but here the human characters have Japanese features and aren't ashamed of it. The stories themselves aren't much to write home about - a boy and his father move to the robot-filled Bubbletown, to the delight of the lad (our hero and narrator) but not so his dad, who's no great fan of robots for some reason; everyone there has a sentient robot (Captain Kirk would go bananas if he lived there) and his is one he repairs called Cubix, who's a great help in the continuing battles against the town's de rigeur mad scientist...
Nothing spectacular in terms of either writing or animation, but it's a painless and ultimately inoffensive time killer. The BBC should instead be censured for buying in "Evolution: The Animated Series" (as should DIC for making it, but that's another story).
