Sidekick

I don't find Sidekick unbearable. The animation is fluent, characters aren't too boring, and most episodes I am able to sit through. So, in my opinion, the show is decent, and I think it's a pretty good show to watch when bored.

It's got its ups and downs. 1/10th of the time it seems that it wants to be Stressed Eric again because its main character is named Eric. But most of the time it is still a funny show. Like Ed, Edd n Eddy or The Loud House, they know when to give main characters the punishment they deserve or else we would really hate their unlikable behavior. Every character is really funny and distinct. I find Eric, Trevor, Kitty, Professor Pampelmoose, XOX, and even Vana on occasion to be amusing. It's not my favorite show in the world, but it's still less annoying than Almost Naked Animals and has better characters than Almost Naked Animals. I want to give it a TV movie finale akin to Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show to make sure its brief final episode ends better.

Hey, uh, do you think The Ridonculous Race may have borrowed their Kitty from Sidekick? I think so, but since both Sidekick creators used to work on Total Drama Island (Todd Kauffman directed every Season 1 & 2 episode and Joey So animated every Season 3 episode but the last two), they probably gave the Total Drama Island creators permission to use Kitty in The Ridonculous Race, which is helped by Corus Entertainment owning YTV, Teletoon and most of the market on Canadian kids' entertainment. It would be cool if we finally got to see what Kitty's sister Emma was doing in Sidekick. She must be at a different school in a different city studying international laws, which is useful knowledge to protect Kitty from legal troubles when she becomes a super sidekick.

This is ctually a pretty good series. It has a great cast of charcters and good slapstick/action comedy. The only real problem is the toilet humor and it's not really for everyone but it's still a good watch.

Sidekicks? Really? That's the best you can do for a plot? Granted, it's somewhat original, but this is as generalized as you can get in terms of creativity.

As for the main characters, Eric and Trevor, well, they're actually not as annoying as Adam or Rodney, but getting closer to it I'll admit. In fact, they're kind of copies of Flapjack and K'nuckles, but the supporting ones range from strange to just plain annoying.

Let's start with Maximut, a "angry dog" Are they for real? An angry dog? That's just stupid! Why on earth would anyone think of a character like that anyway? That's like having a character as a dog who's a nuance to the hero. It just doesn't work.

But the worst character in this show by far is Pamplemoose. The guy who can't stop riding in his chair and making stupid quotes about, "The more points you get!" Ugh! This is just pointless dialog. It feels like after "Will and DeWitt" Toronato dubbing is going downhill, but as time went on, I should of been like, Shut up PAMPLEMOOSE!. Your quotes aren't funny anymore. But no, he just has to go on, and on, and on! Seriously, characters are not supposed to be this annoying, and this one is completely that, and then some!

All and all, it's not a horrible show, but it's not exactly a slam dunk either. It's a show I could take it or leave it.

Saw 'Sidekick' as someone in my late teens as a big fan of animation, whether Disney, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, Hanna Barbera, Tex Avery. Even back then 'Sidekick' didn't do much for me. Actually have loved much of Nelvana's work, with 'Babar', 'Redwall', 'The Care Bears', 'The Magic School Bus', 'Tintin', 'Rupert' being childhood favourites. Much of their output has held up really well in my view, 'Redwall', 'The Adventures of Tintin' and 'The Magic School Bus' being among their best still.

While there are far worse animated shows out there ('Johnny Test', 'Uncle Grandpa', 'Angela Anaconda', 'Breadwinners', 'Problem Solverz', 'Fanboy and Chum Chum', 'Chalkzone', 'The Cleveland Show' for examples), 'Sidekick' still isn't good. As far as Nelvana's output goes, it is for me definitely in the lesser end and actually had a hard time believing that it came from them. This could easily pass for past prime Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon, and it would be understandable if anybody ever mistook it as one of theirs.

There are good things with 'Sidekick'. The voice acting is game with the voice actors doing all they can injecting some degree of energy into their very tired material. Did like the backgrounds, which does have some nice colour and detail.

Some of the music is quite cool. Did like Eric at times and Master XOX is a very interesting and sinister antagonist.

All the other characters are poorly written and really irritated me. The show always overdid it with Trevor's jerkish-ness, while Pamplemoose is insufferably annoying (haven't seen an animated character this annoying in a long time), a character with no redeeming qualities and his rambling over-explanatory dialogue makes one want to turn off the television fast. The character interaction lacks wit and any kind of connection, with not much chemistry. Even the friendships don't feel like a friendship and the antagonistic teacher-student chemistry is very mean-spirited. The father-son relationship potentially had heart, but hurt by that the father is an under-developed character and his behaviours vague.

Didn't care for the humour, gross out, crude humour has worked very well in animation numerous times. The writing and jokes just come over as really juvenile and generic, as well as lacking in variety and overdone in the gross out aspect to a distasteful degree. Like Pamplemoose and the teacher-student chemistry, there is too much of a mean spirited edge. The concept sounded quite nice and potentially original, but the execution is paper thin, bland and very generic and repetitive. Nothing original whatsoever. Despite some nice backgrounds, the animation is not to my tastes. The colours are flat and the character designs hideous.

Very mediocre overall. 4/10.