Pilot Expansion
The One That Started it All
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Hard to believe it has been 6 months since Clarence debuted on the Cartoon Network. What seemed like another crude obnoxious take on childhood turned out be a sweet nostalgic show reminiscing the earlier Nicktoons like Hey Arnold! The first season has shown how ordinary rational problems of kids can still be humorous, fun, and consuming as the popular fantasy shows currently airing right now.
Pilot Expansion is the pilot with the added feature of a forward and closing from the trio in their senior years. The episode introduces us to the three main characters and how they became best friends. The most unreal element to this show is how Clarence embodies pure sweet child innocence. Clarences first story involves him inviting all his classmates to his house for a slumber party with only two showing up. First, there is Jeff who has the best personality on this show. "Best" as in how great his compulsive structured persona is and how greatly it contrasts to the last chain of the group Sumo. In the first moments meeting Sumo you know you are getting the equivalent of a reckless daredevil when he promptly requests Clarence to shave his head. The rest of episode has Clarence and Sumo trying to teach Jeff what fun or being a nine year old is. This is of course ends with a beehive piñata, bee stings, and prank calling the police. While everyone thinks this might deflect Jeff from future outings with the simple minded Clarence or the chaotic Sumo, he actually declares he had fun thus beginning the magnificence tri force of their friendship.
The show is at its best when the three of them are playing off each other’s characters strengths and weaknesses. The stories always provide laughs, sentiment, and above all else a chance for younger audience to see what fun can be happening in their own neighborhood or backyard. For older viewers it is a chance to once again relive it. Although it does not have the complexity of the world of Ooo, the conflict of the crystal gems, or the surreal world of Gumball, Clarence still fits very nicely in this new renaissance of animation that has surged through Cartoon Network.
Cool Things Noticed:
1) One thing I always forget to mention is how much I enjoy hearing kid actors playing kids. I know Tom Kenny and Skyler Page voice the main ones but it sounds like mostly everyone else are children. It is always a nice touch and the kids are great actors. It took me a while to get use to a 30 year old voice coming out of Dipper Pines.
2) I have the enthusiasm of Jeff when watching those kinds of trivia shows with the answers that Clarence comes up with.
I know that Amy from "Pretty Great Day with a Girl" was voiced by Ava Acres, aka Young Marceline. That's two roles she's knocked out of the park. Finding good child actors can be tricky, but it works really well if they can pull it off. The old Peanuts specials would always cast children, and more often than not it showed. It was all part of their rough-edged charm though. Jeremy Shada has turned out wonderfully as a voice actor as he's aged, fully capable of handling the dramatic content the later seasons of Adventure Time have thrown at him. Gumball and Darwin's VAs were also great, but they sadly demonstrate the hazard of child VAs: the eventuality of them growing out of their roles. I never had a problem with Jason Ritter as Dipper, especially since Gravity Falls started tackling some pretty hefty emotional issues right out of the gate.
ReplyDeleteThat pinata song is an absurd earworm. Easily brought the episode up an entire letter grade if I were grading it.