I Tried to Explain Cow and Chicken

[Music] Nickelodeon and kashu Network's rivalry has always been peculiar as far as business rivalries go in that they tend to share a lot of personnel but it's the very specific creative identities of the networks that makes their output come out so different and that's a great thing no one wants all their entertainment options to look homogeneous there is one show that could have been cut from either cloth though a cartoon cartoon take on a Nick tune and that is Cow and Chicken this review is already probably going to sit wrong with Cow and Chicken fans as it's always head to face accusations of being a Ren and Stimpy wannabe that show was a big hit for Nickelodeon and while not every following '90s cartoon wanted to be it it was a massive influence cow Shen has too similar a setup big dumb friendly character and short grumpy character go on crude nonsensical Adventures but I don't want to write it off there because it's got its own style and sensibilities that make it one of Caron Network's most unique offerings more of a dated Relic depending on how you view the glass it's a difficult show to hate though this review is already confusing and you have no idea what the takeaway could be good it's a proper Cow and Chicken retrospective now and the Creator we have to be retrospective about is David Fe who got us start young around the age of 19 he'd made a music video for The Beatles song Maxwell silver hammer and that incentivized his parents to find him a job in the animation industry and that job ended up being at Hannah barara which he joined that year in 1978 he had a long resume of animating and directing by the time he was hired by spumco to work on their upcoming nek tune the re and Stimpy show in 1990 I can hear through a portal to the Future some of you saying to yourselves that explains a lot but when he devised cow and shicken it wasn't to be his own answer to Ren and Stimpy rather it was a children's book at first where Cow and Chicken were boyfriend and girlfriend but around the time he heard that Cartoon Network were looking for show pictures for their upcoming Anthology series The Water cartoon show F changed the Cow and Chicken into being siblings because he felt it was a dumber and funnier idea he also had a dream of the devil and that worked its way into their world CN checken and no smoking premiered on the water cartoon show on November 12th 1995 water cartoon had a lot of Ren and Stimpy look alikes whether that be an art style or core Dynamic due to many factors like it being that popular and other spumco veterans joining the Showcase but no smoking proved to be one of the most popular shorts in nearly every Focus Test cartoon nwork shopped it out to so it was picked up for a full series the following year I know it was in full swing by 1996 because David face used to have nearly every episode's delivery date on his website as a spread sheet that's dedication to preserving your history now we'll always know fluffy the Anaconda is a 97 Baby K and chicken would make its debut on July 15th 1997 one day after Johnny Bravo and one day before season 2 of Dix's lab this could be considered the week the cartoon cartoons became a fully fledged brand but Cowan chicken was the biggest outlier not in a bad way though it did receive some criticism for its crude humor it was too strange for some but show that while Cartoon Network style was usually clean and vintage you didn't have to fit in to be part of the group it ended on August 13th 1999 by which time the age of the crude gross out gag fist was coming to an end it has the unfortunate honor of being the first cartoon cartoon to end and if I'm making it sound like a complete product of its time that's because it is oh uh just before I get started I Am Weasel started as a segment on Cow and Chicken but I'll review it separately some other day dear Dy you ain't never going to believe what I am about to write down on you mama had a chicken mama had a cow dad needn't know who else Mama sleeps with those children unusual in their conception as they are are the stars of many tales these Tales often but not always involve a red guy trying to ruin their lives somehow it's a pretty simple setup for a cartoon a weird one but but still simple not a whole lot of characters but a lot of freedom in the kinds of stories they can approach cow is certainly a main character a little girl who's a big stupid cow she can't exactly rely on being cute but still being dramatic curious and caring demonstrates that there would always be more to her than being a little girl she's also a Spanish-speaking superhero super cow I'm here to break the ice these two are the same people her older brother chicken also isn't what he appear is an East Coast attitude wrapped up in a smug little bird who will do whatever it takes to make a little more cash it' be easy to make him Brash and leave it at that but they PPP her in those moments where he'll save cow or do something for her to drive home that he's a good older sibling the main villain and breakout star is the red guy a naked demon who will jump around on his heiny and torment Cow and Chicken however he can after the pilot they weren't allowed to call him the devil or show him in the Underworld world but one look at him gives you the gist he's all powerful he can appear anywhere he wants just to cause trouble but he's not smart enough to succeed in any of his plans he's an effective joke antagonist and Charlie Adler's performance is indispensable as is the case for Cow and Chicken too this show alone is enough to make him one of the most impressive voice actors in history Cow and Chicken have a mom and dad who are quite eccentric you will only see their legs and that's because that's all they are they don't give their children the best advice or the safest places to go and laugh maniacally at just about anything they are skewering of an era of Parental standards that was not the norm by the 9s but there are still parents like them if that makes any sense chicken's got some friends flim and ear who are dumb and easily duped into playing along to chicken mini schemes there's a few times where they can exist independent of chicken so it's not like they're just stock characters for the sake of it ear's my favorite of the two because his voice is Dan castala doing the Barney voice but for an 11-year-old it's strange but that's the point let's draw STW to see who goes in but chickens is the best dang this is Richard Nixon's enemies list you just crashed out his name and put yours it helps that they're some of the only prominent supporting characters on this show unless you count Lance sackless rare Admiral Floyd major wedgie Geraldo rare viewer Mrs be darer Ivan pants and all their close relatives you've also got their abrasive teacher who wouldn't be out of place in the Jerome horx faculty and your cousin boneless chicken a stand-up comedian and Vietnam War veteran his character is random axis humor but I love it I love that chicken who was born under strange circumstances himself has this cousin who exists to be a weird joke character boneless chicken is actually my favorite character and the sort of humor I like from the show when I get it oh golly we're going to have so much fun brother and sister something that should be clear about the way Cow and Chicken is constructed is that it was riding the wave of nearly every '90s animation Trend I'm not saying that as if to say it was just a byproduct because it's not that cynical they're making something new out of what was familiar to audiences of the time and that involved drawing a lot of hindquarters I usually pixelate cartoon butts to be bit safe than sorry and because it's funny but I can't this time this show is unpixel atable it's one of the most naked shows ever made for kids and while there is a debate to be had of some of this content is simply too perverted for them this was all an artistic Choice with an intent to see where Cartoon Network would draw the line turns out they draw it at carpet munching but my Spiel on Buffalo Girls is going to come a little later the show may be crash sometimes but this writer's room of artists was clearly being given a lot of creative freedom and that manifested in some more universally enjoyable ways silly is the name of the game with many of the premises being either extreme from the off or simple tasks that quickly become extreme how else will they get the silliest possible jokes the main settings are generic Suburbia so there's always a good excuse to get the characters out of there a pretty novel thing about Cowen shiken compared to a lot of the rest of its kin is that it steers far away from direct parodies they aren't outlawed but they want their stories to be Evergreen the sorts of tales that will make just as much sense in 2027 as they did in 1997 as long as airplanes still exist by then this writing section has mostly been about the plots which should tell you where the characters Rank and their priorities make no mistake they've all got strong personalities but I always get the feeling the scenarios and jokes are given slightly more Focus not a terrible thing for one of these zany gag fist shows I want to make that clear but there are shows before and after this that have a greater balance on characterization and that's the approach I personally prefer so if you're here for the funny and the strange Cow and Chicken won't leave you hungry it's not my very favorite thing but that doesn't mean I can't tolerate it it still works on me sometimes and this is the cartoon so it gets a lot of points for how good the animation is David feist's artistic style is on display at all times with its sharp and thick designs and half scratchy half paint look and it stays consistent from the start to the end of the show many other cartoon cartoons start off with the Creator's fingerprints all over it but eventually evolve to be more standard and uniform but Cowen chicken doesn't feel like it ever loses the face feeling which is very important for a Creator driven field like this I want to remind you this was all animated at Hanah barara I struggle to remind myself of that sometimes because it's such a stark departure from their usual art style and animation techniques but I couldn't be happier they took the plunge and I don't know if it's the tesene talking but this generally feels like a warm show a lot of Reds and yellows in its color palette with the blues mostly being in the aqua and purple rangers it's the show with the red guy why complain if it feels like a red show want to play Road chicken up in the mattress no I do not choose to play no stupid cow G we have here a show that ran for Four Seasons with 13 half hours a piece but minus the IM Am Weasel segment that makes it less than that 52 sets of 2x 7 Minutes cow and shicken is not a long running show these were all AED in the span of 2 years and 1 month there are slight changes in animation quality across the Four Seasons with the budgeting slowly improving but seasonal Trends are hard to spot there's not much separating a season 1 episode from a season 4 episode from a macroscopic distance the biggest differences in a season 1 episode are the usual everything's still feeling quite new taking this little pilot and crafting a bigger world around it the parents become more prominent just as they become more unhinged there's a bit of Rin Sisk criticism of so-called greatest Generation parenting but you might be happy to know it feels less personal here red guys plans start off evil but gradually become more cartoonishly so they're figuring out how to make make him funnier every week and that leads into a more Bonkers second season don't let him get me don't let him get me they're not after you this one has a more absurd tone to everything which comparing anything to the last season might sound strange but I get the vibe season 2 depicts The Cow and Chicken creative team at their most free this didn't come without consequences though as this was the season with Buffalo Gals it only AED once and David Fe has since expressed regret over it due to the offense it caused but Buffalo Gals is just a symptom of a bigger Trend season 2 is the tongue sandwich in L sackless season 2 they liked to get touchy now and I'll leave it at that hey everybody free trailer this season's already intriguing me but it's more of the same from season 2 of a bit more controlled A Little Less in uendo as if they were now wary of any trouble they could further get into towards the end of the season more focus is finally given to the characters and having them go through something more meaningful than a bunch of jokes and that leads into season 4 in my opinion the best of the show guys i' like to introduce you to our cousin Black Sheep I'm most honored to make your acquaintance more episodes like black sheep of the family the big move and major widie some of these don't seem so touching but there is an element of it to them and many more other season 4 episodes I might be reading too deep into this but it felt like the crew had spent enough time with these characters by now that they wanted them to come off a little deeper and willing to learn things now I don't know if they were offer a season 5 but it probably would have been more of this and I'm a little sad the show ended so soon now but I'll take what's given to me there's enough seriously good times for a top 10 list major wiie takes us back to how mom and dad first met in a wartime romantic comedy fitting for a pair of character characters who let's face it could only deserve a backstory this screwy the penalty wheel is a parody of a very familiar game show red guy using his position as host to Taun the contestants it's a premise that promises creativity and a story that promises some catharus by the end and you get both the exchange student is a story of an unlikely friendship between cow and Foreigner Slappy mcracken touching powerful and sure to spread a positive message about acceptance for Generations to come a couple of skating fools is about figure skating you can never be out of ideas if you haven't done the figure skating episode yet chicken flim and ear are into it today for some reason but a silly enough narrative unfolds to make you believe its fical ways The Ballad of Cow and Chicken was a quirky way to end their adventures in song form it's a long run away from red guy and I feel it's got more spice to it than a musical Adventure in the bayou as fun as that sounds time machine knows what it wants to be a goofy demonstration of the butterfly effect Cow and Chicken travel back to the primordial soup and turn everyone into coins in the future it's completely successful if a bit simple the day I was born should have been a simple Endeavor for cow finding out how she came to be but everyone's got a slightly different recollection of what happened did I say slightly don't know how that got in the script great execution of a premise that shows where they were headed in the later seasons the king and queen of cheese is the tried and tested child slavery story line the red guy gets cow to produce milk on his farm for cheese but she realizes he's not an ethical Farmer in the slightest this one ends in a rebellion which is always satisfying to see before red guy The Laughing puddle is almost a Horror Story most of the regular characters are confronted with a giggly bit of water and gets sucked into it some way or another but take it from me if you want to join them in the puddle it's not so bad my favorite episode is the black sheep of the family starring cow and chicken's severely misunderstood cousin once again I seriously don't know what's up with their Jean Pool no one can see the black sheep as anything but a burden and a criminal except for cow who trusts him no matter what this is a strong display of her most useful personality traits and I'm making this sound deeper than it really is it's just a funny and effective story I don't know why these ones can't be piano listens is one of the only times I felt season 4 feeling a bit tired like they were having red guy prep cow and or chicken for stardom again because it worked before act like a militant to them because it worked before less than hoam chicken's first kiss is your chance to see chicken get kissed by a girl in school then tormented at the thought of having cooties it's better at being a psychological drama than anything else and I mean anything else cow's toys is a little Toy Story which can't live up to any theatrical comparison points felt a little too late to give piles in the gang any characterization without it feeling undercooked Buffalo Gals is worth a watch and some thought afterwards but I think it got pretty blunt and tasteless with The Well of humor it went to there's a moral to the story but it's a secret cow loves piles is a repetitive one cow and chicken bungle their way through a fear and chicken goes through a lot just so cow can survive an early one and one you'll forget you watched a couple seasons in school bully isn't the sort of tale that seems very appealing and unsurprisingly it wasn't it treats its topic quite seriously then just gives up ending on some gags that remove all the tension I'd rather it be weirdly serious or weirdly stupid not in this flimsy in between PE is your typical cartoon routine of the characters being naked somehow and trying to escape their situation without being called for indecent exposure in a show with a lot of butt jokes and a lot of dirty humor there's nothing special shocking or new to this one sa and Shen is like the evil twin of the black sheep episode how does anyone keep track of what I'm saying s is putting Cal through misery and blaming her for a ton of bad things tons of people fall for it just so a plot happens and there's nothing else to Sal's personality other than being a generic delinquent who's Afraid of the Dark is the worst example of Mom and Dad's eccentric parenting they hire the red guy not to help Cow and Chicken be less afraid of the dark but to be more afraid of it look at how bored their kids are throughout most of this they know this is a pointless Endeavor worst episode for me is chicken in the bathroom coming in a distant last place nearly all of it is just cow Mom and Dad holding it in and making up phrases for holding it in while chicken refuses to share the party I can see why it works on some but I can't take my thinking goggles off for this one it just seems like a rush job compared to the others and that's nearly all I can say about cow and Sheen I can't exactly dive deep into a show like this you can't praise or scrutinize it for too long without repeating yourself and it's pretty short making up 2/3 of 52 episodes cutting the IM Am Weasel segments definitely did a number on what could be discussed but like with evil con carne I'm saving it for its own review which is within my priorities but as a whole cow and shien may be a little spotty and crude for my liking but I respect what it accomplished making Cartoon Network a home for the stranger folks in Toontown Cow and Chicken bigot Ed nitty which I'm sure is a show many of you vastly prefer but CN Shen has a legacy of its own red guy made a small appearance in Jellystone earlier this year proving there is still some time for it to shine it's always there if you want something mindless and unpredictable and even a little risky I got to say I wasn't looking forward to reviewing this show due to its dismissal as a ripoff from some re and Stimpy fans and while I can't say I prefer it I'm always happy when I've got something positive to leave you with it's not a black sheep after all end The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is coming up [Music] next by alhim will now te you how to B

Channel: EmployeeAMillion

Views: 12,158

Keywords: Cow and Chicken, Cartoon Network, 90s

Id: lTEs44FlnSg

Length: 20min 31sec (1231 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 24 2024