Operation N.I.T.P.I.C.K.- Codename: Kids Next Door Review (EAM)

the whole idea behind the kids rule attitude gets more ridiculous as you get older sure it's great to let kids live out the happiest lives they can in fact it should be encouraged but when you're an adult with experience with school jobs and relationships fantasies of kids being one of or the dominant force of society turns into something downright cute or outright annoying the tie propellers to making kid empowerment stories work for all ages from 1 to 123 is tricky but if you can hit the right notes and maintain everyone's interest you can bring out everyone's in a child this is why I loved getting back into code-named kids next door apparently I watched a lot more than I thought I did there were dozens of memories my revisit unlocked this could mean one of two things one decommissioning is a or two the whole point of the show is to be nostalgic for kids looking back on it 15 minutes later and for adults looking back on it 15 years later is this instinctive feeling of return embedded in kids next door it returns you to the hardships of childhood and the kind of adventures you daydream about to overcome them and that's why the kids rule motif works this may be shocking to some of you but code name kids next door came from the mind of an adult 32 year old mr. Tom Warburton to be precise and looking over his resume he'd made his way around the animation industry working on Nickelodeon's Doug as an assistant layout artist MTV's beavis and butthead as a production designer and Disney's Pippi ran as a character designer all very successful shows from a wide variety of networks even if his credits didn't scream cartoon creator but he got his big break in 1998 sending a pilot to hanna-barbera Kenny and the chimp end is easy does it they didn't like it disease help me online disease please Salmonella Fitzgerald [Music] I said they didn't like it not that I didn't but now kind of insensitive jokes about disease aside I'll admit that Kenny and the chimp doesn't have a clique but one of Tom's other ideas in the pitch bible dead it was meant to be a troupe of side characters called as those kids next door who would live next to Kenny and always have a new harebrained scheme for candy or schoolyard brownie points this had far more potential and a second pilot codename kids next door and no pee in the pool was far better received by Cartoon Network Studios the new guys in charge now that hanna-barbera had started the dissolve and the makers of time-tested classic sheep in the big city curious pitches picked it up for regular production no pee in the pool ed on July 20 2001 as part of the cartoon cartoon shows big pick event being the last winner it was effectively the last ever franchise to come out of the cartoon cartoon brand when it began airing regularly on December 6 2002 while it wasn't as big a household name as other Cartoon Network shows before and after it did pretty well in the ratings and lasted six seasons ending on November 23rd 2007 with one last TV movie on January 21st 2008 critics have also been pretty positive about it and there weren't many complaints about the show's constant mocking of adults and authority figures now personally I watched a fair bit of it back in the day but as is the way with reruns you can't really get the full story in a jumbled up order because kids next door has quite the story somewhere in an American suburban neighborhood there's a treehouse that extends up into the sky and in it there are five ten year old children Nigel uno hoagie Gilligan cooky Sam bun wallaby beetles and Abigail Lincoln who each call each other number one through five in their extensive free shine they make weapons made of two-by-four technology and fight an old tyranny which comes at them in the form of supervillains sound simple right think again as the series continues more is revealed about the kids next door namely that it's a worldwide organization of kids fighting adults and it could be something even greater I'll have more to say about the story as I go through the seasons but it's one of the show's biggest draws if you want an action poverty series with spy elements that gets more serious and complex as it goes on code name kids next door was one of the first animated shows to do that that wasn't about superheroes and for that it has value as a trendsetter I can't see shows like gravity falls or Steven universe being the way they are without those kids next door number one is the most resentful towards adults and the most willing to pick a fight or get revenge but that doesn't mean he's just a brad you can tell he's intelligent and has his reasons to act the way he does number two is the inventor having a knack for testing you two-by-four gadgets and gizmos and having a rather bad sense of humor combine the two and he's my favorite kids next door member number three isn't too bad either being the youngest member of her sector and the most immature but that makes her more useful in scenarios where having a more naive child in danger is warranted helps that her obsession with the show's Care Bears parody rainbow monkeys is infectious number four comes from Cartoon Network's desire to insert a jerk into all their shows that's a little harsh but I got to point out my least favorite characters when I see them that doesn't mean he's never enjoyable just that he'll have a much harder time getting on your good graces that just leaves number five the oldest smartest and most active if he's your favorite I don't blame you that they had a hard time coming up with wars for her character which made it a bit harder for me to feel like she was in much danger in her solo adventures they all make up sick to be a very interesting group diverse to and from the start it was fun to see them bounce off each other and learn what each of their most common journeys and fears were for most of season one sick taffy is the only fraction of the kids next door scene which helps build a bond between the five kids in it except three and four but that's a ship raring to sail I think a balance between the good and bad of their world became more evident after their chemistry was sit in stone as the more villainous villain started popping up and the worldwide kids next door network was revealed there's even a hierarchy emerging as we're introduced to Chad the best fighter and most beloved operative that means something Bad's gonna happen to him on the other side of the coin you're also introduced to Tommy number twos younger brother who does all the younger brother things you'd expect he's another part of the show that starts out standard but as adventures get more sophisticated with time sick to these main adversaries are the delightful children from down the lane a creepily welcomed set of siblings sit on ruining all the fun for every kid in the world but themselves I didn't find myself getting invested in them nearly as much except Linnaean operation undercover but that's clearly the point to show you that raising your kids to be nothing else but more bricks in the wall is wrong and who raises them father my favorite character no exceptions whenever he's on screen he steals the show at least behind a ransom note his gleeful hatred for everything and fiery outbursts make him exactly the kind of villain this show needs but while I was worrying about mr. Warburton the relationship with his own father I was being given an incredible rogues gallery that grew every week including but not limited to the toyline a sure the weakest and most ineffective villain for the longest time I liked his role in jokes but the voice could have used some work the voice cracks are really overdone dr. triple extra-large from Kenny and the chip makes a return but it's clear by his later appearances that he's not a big threat at all just wanting to make the ultimate snow cone flavor a bit of a waste of his changing animal body parts but he's still an interesting case of a villain and an early example they're not all adults in the show we're irredeemable killjoys mr. boss is a gruff stoned boss of some of the kids parents and looks for ways to keep them out of adults eyes and he works well too mr. wink and mr. Ferb were rather le villains rarely being used beyond the first season and I think that's because they did Penn Manor of conversation is the gimmick I still like them but they were victims of the show's evolution the common cold is a pretty gross adversary as you can't stand snot I never had a problem with snot so I never had a problem with him Council Spanky Lord Spanky lo was already copyrighted by the Internet is another great one he's Dracula but he spanks kids instead of sucking their blood of course he gets the most jail time out of all of them there's also sticky beard leader of a crew of candy pirates the show likes candy the crew lights having Mark Hamill around to voice him and I like his design in motion he's a win-win-win others like night brace grandma stuffing and the crazy cat lady just what you'd expect but they have their moments they're not my thing though but they don't compare to the most agonising villain of them all with Lizzy number one's girlfriend and easily the worst character on the show she's overall very bossy mean and antagonistic towards everyone she isn't worthless to the story and I think she's neat to be a parody of clingy girlfriends but still more often than not she's a struggle to sit through and that's the thing most of these characters are very useful to a compelling narrative but you wouldn't know it by watching season one alone body gets evacuated to take no fate and I to clown neutralized I'll just say right now that season one is a pretty good season but it's not easy to squeeze back into after all that comes later it's significantly more episodic with only the finale being 22 minutes in having substantial callbacks most of the adventures are self-contained fasters but there's plenty of imagination going into them a lot of the time is spent around showing how elaborate the kids next door is so it doesn't feel like you're simply watching a bunch of rats running around the big tree house they live in is well explored from its power supply of hamsters on wheels to its many rooms as seen in operation the fly yeah this is one of those shows with a title gimmick this one doesn't make it harder to remember what Shepard was about watch the only exception is the pool episodes the pilot no pee in the pool and the season 4 episode operation pool the more you watch the more used to work your gear but it's really a matter of if you want to watch more the kids necks during the actions can be morally ambiguous at points even when clear villains are shown they're not above stealing and sabotage and I can see that as a turn-off if you want to see them as heroes thankfully big goals do get more heroic with time as you understand the world they live in and how evil adults can be but how about that animation I really dig mr. Warburton's our style he had experience in the field after all it looks like a kid's diary from the 70s with the bold line out and funky clothing in character shapes I we're not a priority in season one however ever notice how with the base designs for stick to be none of your eyes are visible it's a choice they phased out eventually after season one the eyes are visible more frequently which helps in making them more expressive to fit the bigger stories that doesn't mean it all started small the background art is strong and the fight scenes are wacky fun it fits the show like a glove as do these stories operation the fly has us follow a fly around the treehouse seeing what the kids next door do in their free time and how I me a fly can change that dress to play it was uncommon to show us kids being kids for such long stretches of time but it makes for an interesting story operation point embodies season one in some ugly ways but captures its strengths brilliantly the kids are naive to how teenagers would want to go up to a mountain top one night and become adults innuendo ahoy operation Zoo has the creepiest premise of the season an old lady kidnaps all the kids in town and puts them in a zoo it may be the first time the kids next door and delightful children have to work together but not the last time they've bounced off each other better than you'd expect lastly operation grow up is a major turning point for the show the practice of decommissioning 13 year old operatives is established number one is turned into an adult and has to live a depressing menial life and father makes its first appearance in the burning black flesh it's a whopper of a season finale and dismantles one of the questions lingering over season one the show isn't against adults it wants them to be more caring and helpful towards children adults made it after all but you maybe wouldn't know it by seeing episodes like operation cowgirl this lady's annoying number words are complete dingus towards her for the most part and a backstory of being friends with mr. wink and mr. fib takes some of the Menace out of them also not a fan of operation piano number fours irrational hatred for pianos is a little too irrational here for my liking and not even getting crushed by them can change his mind or make him more sympathetic this thing to come out of this one was the team of hamsters that act like the kids next door but only because of another episode much later that expanded upon the concept but now though let's head into seas - sorry I'm late number - where have you been I had to give your place in line to someone else everything that makes season one a little awkward for a newcomer is ironed out now the kids next door are now clearly heroes in a war against only the meanest most fun hitting folks around they've got their own moon base now that's how you know they're up to good and the potshots at adults have more of an anti-authoritarian bin to them there's often several reasons they're not trustworthy but they poke fun at them when the need comes but on to the juicy stuff there's now an age restriction on soda so the kids next door have to smuggle it way to make stories about prohibition and a Cartoon Network show in fact there are a fair amount of mature themes popping up now among them as a group of teenagers now bent on defeating the kids next door one of its neighbors being Creed fives older sister she's one of the more fleshed out characters resenting anything childish and loving everything about being a teenager their dad is a bumbling doctor who wears Swisher's back away from the dated reference slowly without making eye contact because this show can't decide of it wants to do the consi via face thing we see more of sick deviis other families - especially number ones absent-minded dad who number one is kind of embarrassed about number twos tapioca loving grandmother who's another one of my favorite characters and number three sister mushi who's down there with Lizzy but at least not as much of a thorn the feeling I get from then developing the families in season two rather than one is the kind well you know a really good friend but don't go to their house until six months into that friendship it's odd but you get a bit of hold of who they are as people but family isn't the only thing new to season two there's a new boss for sick to be in the form of number 86 a very loud and very Scottish girl who took a good long time to get on my good side it shows that they were still getting bitter in the story in characters and they had even bitter episodes this time operation pop introduces that - soda restriction 12 thread and gives us mr. furs the best soda addicted shell bottling villain on the show there are many tough contenders but he's the best at those things operation flavor is the episode about the legendary fourth Neapolitan ice cream flavor and the way they make it this big Indiana Jones parody is perfect I also really like how they got a number five to go on all the life-threatening food-related adventures after this it suits your personality operation shave is a lot sillier than the usual bride and that's saying something for the early seasons but I could take a plot about alien moustaches that attach themselves to people and give them funny accents the question is would you hate to is the second installment of the show's annual tradition of having the delightful children tease the rest of the world with bigger and bigger birthday cakes and I found the ending of this one to be the most satisfying though be prepared is a few more cake missions after this operation rapport is one of the big art show episodes and it sees all of sick to be telling a story of their scruffles with the delightful children and a pizza box in five different art styles is a lot of fun to be had and seeing each of their personalities visually come to life lastly DEA's operation end we're sick Davi is decommissioned and only number one is able to escape so if you're all standing around memoryless wondering if they're doing the whole kids next door thing right which is pretty humorous but then we learn that Chad hacked the system to decommission them early because his parents sent out invitations to his 13th birthday party early and you see them slowly transition into a teenager before thin anyway it's a game-changing episode so it's really great that it's really great but season two still had some rough patches operation fugitive was a pretty useful introduction to number 86 we'll be at a very abrasive and annoying one and why do the delightful children have a toenail clipping collection it's not even simply gross it's just a strange thing for them to do but my least favorite episode is operation shrimp do you want to watch two bumbling Asian kids getting kicked around a lot being played by Tom Kenny and Tara Strong doing really bad Japanese accents boy do I have an episode for you it's good that stuff like this gets less common in the later seasons and it's uplifting that even in a season as good as two it's this year's are still ahead of it [Music] season three feels like a reward you now know all the characters you now have a grasp on the stories they're telling now they're going to extreme places with it I'll always remember it for being a particularly scary season with the threat level is rising drastically it's less about fighting adult tyranny and we're about surviving out at sea inside a stomach at the center of a vampire outbreak discovering a pinkeye milking station at school yes school is introduced this is a pretty creepy period in the show and I love it they've still got a sense of humor about it all and great characters going on their own adventures number two in particular is going to be a detective more often like how five is now going on journeys for candy now fighting against a German kid called Heinrich all the kids are branching off exploring a bigger world and sometimes that has to be a scarier world and remember Tommy he goes through his own arc of training to be a kids next door operative with some new friends number 83 and 84 what they are they're pretty memorable but after taking his burger out of the system in a world saving clock Tommy's irreversibly out of the club for good so he's got a cape and occasionally helps out now it's an alkyl right it ends unexpectedly but is pretty satisfying and doesn't change Tommy for the worse you'll notice that to fit with the bigger stories that can't be easily condensed that the animation has changed the lines have gotten thinner and the colors are more vibrant this does nothing to hurt the visual identity of the show and only makes everything more easy to take at face value season three truly has some of the best stories codename kids next door has to offer like operation utopia number one ends up on a way to peaceful Island that's basically a paradise for kids but it all turns out to be a trap by a mad scientist to keep kids busy in an occupied world forever let it be known this was before the iPad came out operations training and graduates other Tommy episodes I talked about and they are as good as I make them sound there's even a lot of body horror in the latch as everyone gets transformed into animals but it has a neat shout-out to sheep in the big city operation archive is one big parody of a segment from the Animatrix replacing mankind with KITT kind and technology with adults there's a reason you don't see this in many reprints of the Old Testament some terrifying implications blossom by the end operation jewels expands upon number Five's quest for candy gives you that you Heinrich rival and there isn't some Egyptian tomb raiding I love Egypt and I love this new rivalry that leaves operation uncool where they are on a mission to find a very valuable beloved number but the kids are picked off one by one by nerds who forced them to watch a dr. time-space marathon give it a year or two and kids their age won't be able to get enough of it I have a fondness for season three but if I had to pick one memory that led behind the wrists it would be an operation but it's not that bad if you want something silly but a dead they make it seem really serious when number one is being blackmailed by the delightful's because of a picture of his rear end I should have mentioned that from start to finish the show could get pretty immature sometimes it's part of your ideal kid world and other times it was immature for the sake of it [Music] our season four in my opinion this is the best season of the show it still got the world-building of three but feels more easygoing like 1 & 2 you can dip into this era of the show and come up with something a little edgy and a little crude but still very enjoyable granted there is some regression number three is getting angrier than she even needed to be and number four is getting dumber than he ever needed to be I don't know why they character development consisted of exaggerating the negative traits and they're not bad all the time it's just they've got a weak a grasp of what worked about them at the stash this is most evident and Operation Matador with four joins this bully bullfighting tournament that is dads being used in that's strange and fours art feels half complete it would also be better if it didn't have soccer mum one of the most annoying villains but thankfully one of the most underutilized but with some character arcs put on pause season four otherwise didn't do much different from three and it still had some of the best episodes of the whole show operation pulled being my favorite of the bunch about a parallel world at the bottom of a pool with evil doppelgangers to the kids next door there destructively no furious kids it's a fun time scene parallel versions of all the characters no matter the show and this takes a lot of advantage of the premise by injecting it with the kids next door's distinctive atmosphere I also really like Operation session one of the more mysterious and gripping uses of the rainbow monkeys they apparently make up sevens rings because they're rainbow monkey AI just wants to be loved really weird but really cool operation munchies has another interesting will be it more relaxed premise sick to be in the villains all fight for the last box of rainbow munchies cereal in a store but eventually call a truce to spite night brace who just wants to destroy it a truce is just what these dynamics needed at this point and for a story about a man not wanting to do an adult thing where a Thai operation not is pretty intense I guess they just couldn't predict how young-at-heart Millennials will but it's a really good episode nevertheless last of all operation Maryse shows us the social consequences of the K and DS decommissioning system one of number Five's best friends maurice is seemingly decommissioned and she's heartbroken right up until he reveals that he's still part of a secret fraction of teens and adults we get to keep their jobs and memories that's a relieving twist that keeps you guessing how the show is gonna unfold from here fun fact Maurice is based on one of the writers whom left in season four that's not a good sign we immediately plummet into my least favorite season of code name cos next door season five there are still plenty of good episodes but some really interesting premises were squandered in a drive to make everything louder and grosser than before sure I'm a stuffy adult who isn't as into loud and gross stories as an average kid especially with him the show's target demographic but I could notice that I didn't like these episodes as much as the rest back in the day one of the few materials that didn't abide by this change in direction is the first TV movie operation zero fathers father grandfather has started turning everyone on the planet into senior citizen bees and number ones only hope in restoring peace and childhood is by finding the mythical number zero the founder of the kids next door which turns out to be his dad if you like zombie apocalypse stories this is your go to and if you're one of those fans who's really really into the lore of series this will be your heaven I loved operation zero it's everything the show means to me wrapped up in 72 minutes of tense adventure with a little extra harsh and there were many other highlights in this tough adjustment period operation caked v is the most epic of the caped stepped ology about father making an entire spaceship made of cake for the delightful children and it kids next door operative from the 1800's being unfrozen and pardon my more modern lingo but he is one and a half foots operation breakup makes a sport out of breaking down objects and number four retains a valuable lesson about their emotional worth see I don't take all the structure and heavy stories it can be good when they have a point operation home sees number three is oldest rainbow monkey being taken into a retirement home for rainbow monkeys that turns out to be a trap insane premises like this were the reason I kept watching and operation it is a really fun episode about a worldwide game of tag to choose the Knicks kids next door leader I've seen a less democratic approaches but sure and I've seen more valid reasons to hate a show open ducky the one way of Tommy goes on a pirate adventure to escape bath time is one of the least grossed gross out episodes I've ever seen so it couldn't catch my interest well orell operation diaper is the one we're set to be just outright kidnaps babies from the hospital but it's okay because the babies are evil and what their teeth the saving grace is number five being the sane one in all this but the joke of her telling everyone where babies really come from is a swing and a miss and operation holiday has Lizzy being an obnoxious twit to everyone in a cockpit flying so she can scold number one while he's on vacation this is far and away one of her most annoying outings we've got one more season to go now and this one's actually pretty good again key words pretty good the seasons story are concerns a splinter cell being detected in the kids next door and number one being watched on a screen it's built up and paid off competently but I didn't feel like it had enough time to blossom and the conclusion of the arc and by extension the show as a whole was a bit rushed they were more insistent on giving us little finales they each of the other operatives in sick to V sending them on their last couple missions and to be fear they did some complex stuff rather well number Five's rival heinrich is revealed to have been a girl who got a femininity stolen by a caramel curse i'm not that kind of critic that praises gender issues in media just for existing there has to be a meaning behind it and although this doesn't have a realistic meaning i'm happy to see it resolved something i noticed about the animation by this point was the UK no lack of it live-action cutaways had sneaked their way into the show gradually but were more common in season six they are weird but come on isn't this a weird show but I don't know if it was a creative choice a budget conscious decision or because of cashew Network for getting half its name in the late 2000s it might be a combination of all three but it's clear that by 2007 code name kids next door wasn't one of the channels major breadwinners anymore they were in the middle of a different generation of the four bowing ouch they had a few more good episodes up their snotty sleeves operation England returns number one to his homeland while he's on a fetch quest for the kids next to a handbook I appreciate all the English parodies they do and how the ending anti-climactic as it is is how Englishman would settle the situation operation six is my favorite installment of the caped saga it's a simple delivery that turns into a gripping car chase which finally gives the time for number two and three to build some chemistry operation party is one of the sillier episodes the delightful children throw a soiree that overflows with teenagers and rock music but it's all in good fun I told you you wouldn't be the last time they truce with a sick TV last of all the good is operation science about a two-by-four technology expose where all kinds of kitty contractions are shown and tested I can tell the prop designers had a lot of fun in making this episode as dense as it was just one more batch of stinkers and you'll be begging to grow up didn't enjoy operation tricycle because I felt most of the kids were acting mean and selfish for the first half and the twist in the second half that the tricycle can turn into a giant monster truck was overly far-fetched then dears operation girlfriend where Lizzie finally breaks up with number one you can see this change coming from ten miles away so while the adventure is fun it's held back by the waiting game there are just three more episodes I need to talk about first a crossover with the grim adventures of Billy and Mandy where brings ciphers stolen by the delightful children and in a freak accident they turn into a soul-sucking Reaper monster meanwhile bull crap happens at moonbase I think I'll need to have a full grasp on what great adventures was like to get the most out of this crossover but judging by its writing quality I hate to age by that review we'll have to wait for a long time but this thing about it is the plethora of catching Network references and cameos they were really good at making all their shows feel United back in the 2000s sickened the penultimate adventure operation shriti a treaty between the kids and teenagers of the world is being prepared but number one discovers something wrong with it and but grudgingly gets stuck with Chad who's trying to figure out what it is as well it's narrow field that chad is a senior operative like Maurice a relief but where were the clues and with a premise as big as this I was a little disappointed there was no closure between five and three even with the treaty falling through it's a good episode and another fun adventure but its placement in the show is a little haphazard last of all the second TV movie and the finale operation interviews a couple decades into the future that now grownup numbers 2 through 5 are asked questions about number ones disappearance and they reveal that during the 7th K King was shunned into a big scavenger hunt number one was abducted by the splinter cell and taken to operate at the Galactic kids next door for the rest of his life it's a very sudden way to in the series but I'd be lying if I said I didn't see something like this coming it takes the way for a very emotional goodbye to all his friends an optimistic bittersweet ending and butters you up for this wonderful ending slideshow of nearly every episode of the series but as the show became more action-packed and science-fiction heavy one question in my mind arose that was compounded by this ending did this all actually happen look of course it didn't happen in our reality but is this all a children's fantasy in the a universe if we take off the fiction goggles and go all the way back to the kids being kids dynamic of the early episodes this can look like nigel uno and his family I'm moving away from the town they're all in and his promotion to Galactic kids next door is just their way of writing him out of their adventures and now that makes for a very poignant ending to Conan kids next door and still does illegally mr. Warburton and his team aren't ready to give up yet and push it a darker and easier sequel series to Cartoon Network in 2013 it's been rejected a few times now because of business politics and sales numbers suggesting that kids don't respond to dark action shows anymore that's why their current action offerings are so goofy and light-hearted and why Galactic kids next door may never see the light of day - and they reveal that some of the previously established characters are aliens and mr. and his teammate betting they felt like it was fanfiction of their own works oh damn there's everything I like and hate about the idea but at the moment it's ended growing around here where there are odds stacked against it but I'll reserve judgment for if big if eventually it materializes that being said I lean very very positive on what came from codename kiss next door and struck an even balance between silly and dark style and substance and child and adult perspectives on the world I tend to structure my reviews to be not necessarily just my opinion but a recommendation guide for three different types of people the first is me and I like it the second is the six to twelve year old demographic they're going for they'll like it too and everyone else from everything I've seen will definitely understand its worth as one of Cartoon Network's boldest most distinct productions goodbye for now [Music]

Channel: EmployeeAMillion

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Id: 8FIeBOdz-3w

Length: 33min 26sec (2006 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2020