I've only seen a select few shows that were so bad I couldn't watch any further than episode 1. El Chavo is one of those shows. The show is so poorly made that I feel sorry for the Mexican audience that expected this to be fun but were met with utter disappointment.
The first red flag of this cartoon calamity was its "tell, not show" intro. In addition to not being the least bit catchy, the intro spoon feeds the description of the characters and what they do rather than let the show naturally show what they're like. This is a critical mistake on the creator's part as it wastes what could've been an upbeat and catchy song that gets the audience hyped for the upcoming program. Not that an upbeat theme song could save this aggravating animated series.
I recognize that this show is for children, but the one thing writers should NEVER do when writing for children specifically is talk down to them as if they were still babies. That is the cardinal sin this show makes as the story is almost nonexistent in favor of unfunny jokes and characters acting like imbeciles. The basic plot of the first episode is Chavo, Junior and Quico pick on each other while playing with confetti and balloons. The episode has no sense of pacing as it takes 5 minutes before we're introduced to the main character and the rest of the episode is nothing but Chavo, Junior, and Quico being nasty to each other. In fact, all the characters are just nasty to each other and not once is it ever funny. This episode also uses the misunderstanding trope a total of 3 times in the episode and each time is more frustrating than the last. But what really makes the writing especially bad is the dialogue. The characters don't talk like normal people and instead talk like aliens who's only exposure to English is from parrots. Chavo says "It's true" 3 times in a row several times throughout the episode and it got annoying immediately after the first.
I'm going to assume the creators thought the characters would be funny and entertaining to watch even if they weren't saints. This backfires however as I couldn't stand any of the characters and the more they were on screen, the more I wanted great balls of fire to rain down upon them. Every single character is an unlikable cretin that's never even heard of reason or understanding. Starting with Chavo, he is one of the stupidest kids I have ever seen. He makes Oscar from Summer Camp Island look like Carmen Sandiego. He doesn't comprehend the simplest instructions, he falls for all the oldest tricks in the book and he never thinks about telling the truth and sparing the audience of another misunderstanding. Junior is literally Snotty Boy from Barnyard. No seriously, he's obnoxious, he's selfish, he's rude, he's greedy; the only difference between these 2 is Junior is from Mexico. Quico the same character as Junior with the only difference is the former is tall and thin while the other is short and round. Mr. Raymond is a crotchety older bum who hates kids (groan), Mr. Beliarge is the same character but short and round (weak), Dona Florinda is the nasty single Mom who shoots first asks questions never (ugh), and Miss Pinster is has the hots for Mr. Raymond and has no personality of her own except not being called a hag or witch (oi). I have no interest in seeing any more episodes, but I have a hunch all the other supporting characters are just as bad (if not worst) than the main characters.
Visually, this animation is horrendous. It looks like it was brought to life using outdated Flash software. The characters have the most basic designs that could be used as the skeletal blueprint for much better looking designs. I also hate the character movements as it feels too stiff and there's no sense of weight to them. Another bad aspect about the visuals is the background. In addition to being poorly rendered, the 2D characters don't blend well at all with the 3D background. Years after this show would are, The Amazing World Of Gumball would use this technique to stupendous results with one simple word: depth Without depth, the characters might as well be flat pieces of paper. The worst aspect of the visuals though is the awful lip syncing. Like with Chuck Chicken, the bad lip syncing makes it painfully obvious this show was NOT made for an audience outside it's native country. If you couldn't afford to do proper lip syncing, why not just have it subtitled? Regardless how you feel about dub vs. sub, one thing we can all agree on is bad lip syncing ruins the whole show.
The one element I though would at least be enjoyable is the voice acting, but they manged to even botch that too. I'm sure the actors are trying their best, but they sound awkward at best and make me wish I was deaf at worst. Mona Marshall's voice for Chavo got on my nerves, particularly when he started to whimper. It's like she was told to make Chavo sound like an annoying little kid on purpose. I hope that wasn't the case, because if it was thanks, I hate it. Doug Erholts sounded like a discount Eddie Deezen as Quico and his voice for Mr. Raymond just didn't fit as it was too raspy. Yuri Lowenthal (yes the same Yuri Lowenthal who voices Sasuke Uchiha and Spider-Man in Insomniac's Spider-Man) gave a pretty lackluster performance as Junior. Most of it came from the material he was given, but the voice he choive to give the character was just grating.
Aye yai yai, this cartoon is one of the absolute worst I've ever seen. It fails at every aspect and has nothing redeemable to make it even worth giving a complement to. This show is so bad, it deserves the worst fate one can bestow on any form of entertainment: to be ignored and forgotten. Do NOT watch this show. Don't even entertain the idea of watvhing it out of curiosity. There are a million other shows that are much more worth your time than El Chavo.
