My Top PBS Kids Shows

The network that impacted me the most is easily PBS, and specifically their children’s shows. After well over a month of rewatches it is time to make the promised list. I went through a list of every show they had and watched at least two episodes from every one I remember looking forward to. Obviously my age (born in 1996) will be a major factor, and it is a purely personal list.

After a little rewatching I decided I needed to not bother with the shows made for really young children, as I cannot really rank them alongside shows made for 4-14 year olds. The ones I actually enjoyed of those are-

Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood

Teletubbies

Peep and the Big Wide World

16. Carl the Collector- The only current show I find myself actually liking. I am not a fan of the animation style, but I enjoy the writing mostly. My favorite parts are the imagination segments that show what are going on in their brains. I think I would have enjoyed this as the target age.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
28	Still On	1 and counting	23 and counting	Some	No	No	3

15. Let’s Go Luna- I enjoyed watching this once a week when I was 23 years old, and it is the last time a new PBS Kids Show got my real enjoyment. It is however very repetitive when actually paying attention and works better as background noise.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
22	25	2	65	Some	Yes	Yes	4

14. George Shrinks- Very good music. Very slow paced episodes. They really take their time getting to the main plot. I did not enjoy the three I rewatched where George’s size did not matter. I really liked the two where that mattered, and that is what I remember liking. I like the design for the Dad and nobody else. I remember liking Junior, but I did not like him as an adult. He is constantly the one who solves every problem, and his constant “Jr. Help got really grating.” I do not like the beady eyes, and the animation is really bad.

I had big hopes for this rewatch, and it did not live up to them. This is the first show where “children voicing children” is somewhat broken. George himself was voiced by a 40 year old woman while the other children were voiced by children. It was moderately distracting, as she only did a moderately good job at sounding like a young boy.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
4	6	3	40	2/5	Yes	Way worse	5

13. Clifford the Big Red Dog- Eye animation is really bad, but it is way better on a distant TV than a closeup on a computer. Anamporphism is really bad for Cleo. I never liked the “Speckle Stories.” I love Mr. Bleakman. The background music regularly does not fit, and it is a very cheaply made show. I think it is a great premise that they lacked the funds to do right. Still is a very cozy show to watch. It has many easy to remember characters with clear defining features. I normally found the Jetta/Mac episodes to be the best (besides the Mr. Bleakman ones). It is very preachy, but considerably more natural than Anne of Green Gables. I watched “The Great Race/Tummy Trouble.” “The Kibble Crook/Screaming for Ice Cream,” “Blanket Blues/Dino Clifford,” and “That’s Snow Lie/A Friend in Need.”

Vaz and Charley are voiced by children. The rest are voiced by adults that did a good job sounding like children. The movie is on my list to do a review of eventually.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
4	6	2	65 and a movie	Barely	Very	Very	4

12. Between The Lions

I really looked forward to this when it first came on. It had bad seasonal rot, as it got way worse after season 4, and I had to turn off seasons 9-10 due to different actors, but those first four seasons (70 episodes) really entertained me. After that it is hard to tell if I saw them or not since they repeated many books.

The show is full of different segments. Many I skip now, but some are still funny like Cliffhanger, Chicken Jane, Silent E, and Un-People. The main parts with the lions are still fine, and sometimes they incorporate the segment characters into the plots.

Unlike most high shows the children are not voiced by children, but the professional puppeteers.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
Really late 3	14	10	130	With a liberal use of the fast forward button	No	No	7

11. Dragon Tales- The imagination and fantasy world in the first season (40/78) episodes is great. They talk realistically, and hey act realistically helping it to come to life. The background music is really good. From what I remember and saw season 2 an especially 3 were a big downgrade, but the majority of episodes are in season 1. I see why many PBS Kids fans would have this at number 1. I rewatched “Pigment of Your ImaginationZak’s Song “Eggs Over EasyA Liking to Biking “Lucky Stone / The Mefirst Wizard”, and “Itching for a Cure / The Big Race.”

Season 3 was harmed with the introduction of Enrique. Many PBS Kids shows introduce a new character into the run that is highly disliked, and that is the case here. I always moderately disliked him, but from what I can tell online most of the fanbase hated his guts. He was a walking stereotype to add Hispanic representation to a show that already had three Hispanic main characters.

Age when started	Age when ended	Age when Reruns stopped	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
3	Late 8	14	3	78	Season 1	Yes, but not that bad.	No	4

10. Cyber Chase- I am really mixed on this show now. I really used to love it for reasons that do not hold up, and it had huge seasonal rot (worse than any show here). On the other hand it had very good dramatic and comedic segments.

Starting with the bad. For one there is all the season rot from the final ten seasons. It just became a terribly made environmental show. The only way for it to be entertaining was to watch it with Dad, as he told me everything they got wrong. It felt like a completely different show hijacked it, and the rot just got worse and worse. Even with the classics it had problems. The animation on the humans is really bad. What is with those eyes? It gets confusing why they always run, as Hacker is not that threatening as a physical force. None of the children are voiced by children, and Jackie’s actress cannot hide that. The animation constantly became worse.

In spite of all those flaws this show has many positive qualities. Gilbert Gottfried and Christopher Lloyd give great performances. I really enjoy Harry in the For Real segments For a while I only watched for them. The I saw the counting episode on TV, and that was great. Many of my problems are gone on the big screen. With a recurring villain who actually won at times (and episode one began with him getting a permanent victory) it really felt like this had an edge most PBS Kids shows did not have. Sure I now view that as a superficial compared to some upcoming shows on the list, but seeing them fight Hacker or Wicked (the witch who became more threatening than Hacker) was entertaining. Before they ditched them the math concepts were well done explanations of complex topics. They relied on repetition, and that helped it to stick. I had to teach myself a things for college classes by watching this show. In spite of its flaws this show makes the top 10.

For my rewatch I saw “Sensible Flats,” “Borg of the Rings,” “Day at the spa,” (first episode I ever saw) and “And they Counted Happily Ever After.” The first 6 seasons had 82 episodes. I have seen at least part of 79 of them. After that it is just scattered episodes.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
5	Still going. I was 11 when the good seasons ended.	15	148	Yes	No	Yes	4

9. Curious George- Again, a long runner with big season rot. Outside of Arthur this is the show I have seen the most, as it was my breakfast show for over a decade.

This first season is so great and might be the best they ever did on PBS. The Stem lessons were very memorable due to the try, fail, succeed method. The comedy was great, and the characters were memorable, but simple enough to let the lesson be the star.

It did get consistently worse, but they would occasionally have a great episode that reminded me of the past glory.

Unlike the upcoming picks for 7,3, and 1 I read the books before the show came on, and I was pleased with the adaptation. The episodes based on books consistently divided them into multiple parts, which fit the books well, as they went from plot to plot. It was very recognizable as the source material and many minor characters were expanded to appear in multiple episodes.

One big help is George lived in both the city and the country. Most episodes had one segment in each. This meant it had two casts of characters and occasionally they could interact (a very rare thing). It also meant George really felt like an outsider being a city slicker in the country and a country boy in the city. As a Country boy who went to school with a bunch of City Slickers I could relate to this.

None of the children were voiced by children, but the adult actors did a good job hiding it. I only figured it out because their voices never changed.

One key weakness that started in season 4 was they introduced Allie and Marco. Allie sticks out amongst these new additions for not being an ethnic stereotype, as she is white. Marco is a big Hispanic stereotype, but unlike Enrique he says and does things that have nothing to do with that. These two are not really bad, but they are boring, so I associated them with inferior episodes.

The first 9 seasons were the original run on PBS Kids with the later 6 being years later on Peacock. If only the original run is counted I have seen every single episode without trying.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
10	18 on PBS Kids. 26 total.	15	199 and 3 specials	Some	No	No	4

8. Liberty’s Kids- The top 8 is a big deal, as this is where I will really enjoy watching these as a 29 year old man.

This show is much better as an adult using the internet to watch it. I know it was cousin’s favorite show, but on PBS I found it too confusing keeping the timeline straight, and James and Sarah are not good characters. They are very generic love birds who have to hate each other at first.

On the other hand Henri and Moses are very good, and the history is great. It right away does not shy away from the darker parts of the revolution like slavery, racism, tarring and feathering, and Native Americans. It really presents the great historical figures as people. It goes deep into the lives and complexities of Benedict Arnold (the best character), John Adams, and many others.

This is one of the very few PBS Kids shows made for binge watching, and it is the first one where I saw every single episode. 40 is not that much, but that is still a impressive for a teenager into “The Cool shows” to devote to PBS Kids.

Age when started	Age when ended	Age when reruns stopped	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
6	Late 6	8	1	40	A lot	Yes	No	10

7. Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat- This has been really good. Cute characters, very good score, great theme song, good acting, and good pacing. I just wish they laughed less (and I doubt I would find that a problem with one episode a day). Before Martha Speaks and Wordgirl this is the first time I can remember looking forward to a show starring a girl.

With how bad these shows are with continuity “Sagwa’s Lucky Bat” surprised me. In it she has pearly white fur along with her family, as it is a flashback from before episode 1. In addition the parents have gray tales like they had in episode 1 and the book.

To my surprise I was really loving the marriage of The Foolish Magistrate and Tai-Tai. They fight like a real married couple, but when either is upset the other is so supportive and loving. It is such a realistic yet wholesome marriage. That is a great example of the strength of this show, the character complexity. They feel like real people (even if they are animals).

My main problem is I do not like it when they are anamorphosized like when they do Tai-Chi.

The reverse of George Shrinks, as I loved this way more than I remembered.

Age when started	Age when ended	Age when reruns stopped	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
5	6	8	1	40	A lot	No	No	35 and counting

6. The Magic School Bus- This is the only one I never saw on PBS Kids. It was all VHS tapes (we had 3), school, Blockbuster, and its later airings on NBC. Then it was using the internet. This is the 4th PBS Kids show where I watched every episode. As they get really repetitive on binge watching, it surprisingly took me years to finish. Adopting one a week when they were new on their youtube channel is how I did it.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
Unborn	1	4	52	A lot	No	No	Several

5. Wordgirl- A really funny superhero parody. It has very cheap looking animation but it kind of works with the campy tone. This is very entertaining with its wide array of villains and wacky characters like Mr. Exposition. It is a rare case where the between the episode segments are good.

My favorite is Dr. Two- Brains. The clear obsessions and ridiculous plans were always good for a laugh. This show is regular background noise for me, so I have really watched five episodes recently but many more when doing house work.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
11	19	8	130	A lot	Yes	Yes	5/20ish

4. Wishbone- When I was in Middle School reruns of this show came back on PBS Kids Go at 5PM, and that is how I was introduced to this show, and I was hooked. I bough so many books based on the show at thrift stores.

This was a great introduction to classic literature. It really encouraged me to read many abridged versions, but I read the full versions of The Time Machine and Treasure Island because of this show.

When I am done with Martha Speaks I am doing a retrospective on Wishbone next.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
Unborn	1	2	50 and a movie	A lot	No	No	7

3. Martha Speaks- From here on I can basically pick any episode and think it is a “great” episode. This consistency ultimately determined making the top 3.

Best theme song of all their shows, and very funny. Great job at teaching the messages, has better animation than most shows here, very funny and fast paced, and it has very consistent quality.

A rare case where the between the episode segments are good. These show within a show moments are consistently good for a laugh.

It has many of the same strengths as the number one pick, but it does not quite have the same magic.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
12	18	6	96	A lot	No	No	73

2. Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman- I already did a full retrospective on this show.

This show had so much going on that it was impossible not to find something good in every episode. I think its long term success was it never rested on its laurels. It constantly focused on changing itself for the better best shown with how much better season 2 is from season 1. After all these shows suffering from seasonal rot it is such a relief to find one where season 5/5 is the best season.

It is a rare serialized show from PBS Kids, and it is a rare high stakes show. It had lots of character development (and actual competitions and eliminations with the contestants) that really made so many episodes feel important. It balanced that with avoiding continuity lock out, as it still made sense if I missed some episodes.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
10	14	5	100	A lot	No	No	100

1. Arthur- I already did a full retrospective on this show.

I think what makes this show number one is the variability. I know Fetch! will be a competition, Martha Speaks will be a wacky comedy, Wishbone will be about classical wisdom, Wordgirl will be an action comedy, Sagwa will be wholesome, etc. Arthur meanwhile can be almost any genre. It is a show that can have wacky comedies like “The Contest” and the same season has a high stakes episode like “The Blizzard.” Very out there episodes like “Elwood City Turns 100” then the same season for another special episode has the very dark “April 9th.” I never knew what the tone would be, and that is what makes this so rewatchable after all these years.

There was no real debate this would be number 1.

Congratulations to WGBH to having all the top 3 picks and 5 shows in the top 12. Also congratulations to Carol Greenwald for producing two shows in the top 3.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
0	26	25	253 and 3 specials	MY favorite non-serialized show and possibly favorite show.	No	No	Hordes

Here are some shows I remembered looking forward to that distinctly did not hold up on a rewatch, and I could not put on the list.

Anne of Green Gables- Really preachy. They make an annoyingly big deal about how beautiful her best friend is when the animation is nowhere near good enough for that. I watched “Carrots” and “Question of Rules.” Both were slogs to get through with how slow they were. I never saw it when it aired, but for a while it aired on Sundays when I was in Middle School.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
5	5	1	26	No	Not that I recall	A little	2

The Berenstain Bears- On a previous post I said this was my 14th favorite theme song. I have no idea what I was thinking. This did not hold up at all. I remember calling it “the lesser Arthur.” At the time that meant a good show that came on at 12:30. Now it means why would I watch this instead of Arthur, its much superior 80s adaptations, or its much superior TV specials? The voices now sound so wrong. I was a big fan of the books, and all the changes really bothered me even if they are not that big. Is Fred everybody’s cousin? Everybody calls him “Cousin Fred.” I watched “Too Much TV/Trick or Treat” and “Too Much Vacation/Trouble with Grown Ups.” Looking through the list I have seen 28/40 episodes or at least some of them. I have no memory of several segments, but I remember the sister segments.

How was this three seasons? The final episode aired 1 year and 3 days after the first episode. I see Michael Cera voiced Brother. I did not expect that.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
6	7	3	40	No	Yes	The same	2

Jakers- The Grandsons are voiced by Miguel. She uses the same voice for one of them. My PBS station only aired this at 6 AM, but I did watch it when I woke up that early. I saw two episodes, “All Night Long,” and “Haunted Shipwreck.” It has decent premises, but it lacks the characters to compete with the other shows. Today the animation looks hideous, but at the time it was praised CG. I think being half asleep helped me enjoy it.

Age when started	Age when ended	Seasons	Episodes	Do I like it as an adult	Is the music really repetitive	Is the animation worse than I remember	Episodes Rewatched
7	9	3	40	No	Yes	Yes*	2

This was a hard post. Thanks for staying ’til the end.

Martha Speaks: General Thoughts

60 Episodes in and time for a holiday break. Here are some of the surprising things I forgot about.

The show has many recurring writers from Arthur, but they are more different than I remembered. For one this show has a much smaller cast and wackier tone. The episodes that feel the most like Arthur are the ones not written by regular writer of that show like Ron Holsey. The ones that feel the least like Arthur are the ones written by the top Arthur writer, Peter Hirsch.

It is a very good adaptation. The only major change is Skits ran away instead of getting lost. The main changes are to expand 6 books into a show like that Helen, Pablum, and Otis are not the only named humans.

The songs sound very natural, like ten years olds came up with them on the spot. It does not make earworms, but it makes them sound surprisingly normal and grounded for a show this wacky.

I appreciate how the children act like elementary age children. I think it is the physical contact. After regularly joking the children in Arthur are more like high schoolers this is a big change. Granted it sometimes makes for underwhelming episodes.

Helen is really strong, as she regularly carries and wrestles Martha like it is nothing. I have two mutts that are part lab and pit bull like Martha and the lighter one weighs over 70 lbs. Not to mention in this image she tugs of war with a full grown large man while carrying Martha and seems to equal him. What are the Lorraines feeding her?

As an adult I noticed Carolina is a big loser. She has no friends her own age, and she has to hang out with her cousin’s friends. In the earlier episodes Truman did not like her, and TD really did not like her. Almost all her appearances emphasize how bad she is at X. Good thing the football episode is later when she actually has a hidden skill.

In the first 2 episodes I think Truman is Helen’s best friend. It makes me wonder if that was the creators’ original plan.

A common gag is Helen gets more and more frustrated with her friend and dog’s crazy plans as the episode goes on, and I think that is why she is a great straight man. It makes many of the funny gags coming from her. I cannot help but feel she is an adrenaline junkie, as she keeps going with everybody else’s crazy plans.

I have no idea how TD is passing school. The show twice (first episode and “Helen’s all Thumbs”) showed how much Helen was struggling by emphasizing TD was being a better student. I consistently love the TD episodes making me surprised he has a major role in zero of my top three episodes. I also remembered Truman being in the same grade as them, but he is never shown in class with them.

PBS Kids shows normally have added segments that can easily be removed for international viewings (due to them having commercials). Other than the “Check out this Song” segments these are very entertaining, and those are normally weaknesses for PBS Kids shows.

TD’s “catchphrase” has so so far only been said by him once. I think Helen just really liked it and said that he always said it. She says it way more often than he does. In fact it has been said to him by both Martha and Helen at least twice in the show’s run (one is in an episode I have not gotten to yet).

Martha learned TD’s made up code by eating a paper. By that logic she should be able to speak without alphabet soup by just eating paper written in English.

The last several episodes I saw before the rewatch were mostly from the later seasons and I forgot how much Helen’s voice changed. TD and Alice later get entirely new actors. Truman’s changed so much it was impossible to forget. Helen changed slowly.

TD has a much older sister he has a bad relationship with. This explains a lot about his actions. It is a mix of crying for attention, and his parents probably visit her often making him want to hang out with Helen more often.

Alice is in the show considerably less than I remembered. It is very rare she has a major role. I thought Professor Monkey was in quite a few episodes, but he is only in two. The professor (from the theme song) is in several early episodes, but he then basically vanishes.

Otis and Pablum were actually threatening in their first two appearances. Then they became punch clock villains with really absurd engineering skills. I love them, and Pablum needs to get a normal engineering job.

Adding the highlighted words was a mistake. Defining words went from being natural to forced.

I really misremembered Bob. I remembered him being a villain like he is portrayed in “There Goes the Neighborhood.” He is normally portrayed more as an energetic dog with a mean side when overstimulated. It is easy to imagine him being a trained guard dog.

Ronald and Mrs. Demson are voice by Kathleen Barr. In my research for PBS Kids I keep seeing her giving good performances making me wonder why she was so bad in Rudolph.

Normally when defining words they give an example. I think that is for the best to make the meaning clear.

In contrast to most double segment episode shows there is a lot of continuity between segments. They normally feel incomplete without the other one, as they often build on each other. In addition (season 1 and 4 especially) love callback jokes.

There is lots of meta comedy on edutainment. They mock themselves regularly and other edutainment shows that are too on the nose. After watching so many PBS Kids shows for my upcoming lists I really enjoyed it. My favorite case is from “Martha’s Pickle.”

The show is a lot more grounded than I remember. While it has lots of wacky plots like mind control it has plenty of episodes with pretty high stakes (at least by PBS Kids standards). Many of them are actually very realistic stuff for elementary students. Some episodes are normal things from a dog’s perspective.

Currently the worst episodes are “Martha in the White House,” and “Martha Runs Away.” The best episodes are “Ice Scream,” “The Penguin Always Rings Twice,” and “Martha’s Life in Crime.”

Obscure Animation: Abominable

Abominable is a 2019 Dreamworks film that was a decent box office film, good with critics, and it is mostly forgotten. Part of this is there were two other yeti movies released at the same time, part of it is how loaded 2019 was with box office megahits, and part of it is its weirdly inconsistent quality. It goes back and forth on doing something great and doing something bad.

To start things off there is a mixed scene. The introduction to Everest, the yeti is good. He breaks out before he can be shown to the world. He is kept completely in the shadows, and he looks at a poster to his home mountain. On the other hand there is the introduction to our villain, Dr. Zara.

I think She and Prince Hans are a perfect twist villain together, as they reverse all their strengths and weaknesses. While he is a great villain build up she is a boring villain build up. While he then becomes a sucky villain with too little thirst for blood she is great after the reveal and has lots of thirst for blood. Here is her initial look.

It is a boring look for such a key antagonist. She pretends to be an animal lover, so she carries around a gerbil that she secretly hates. She always looks very stoic.

Here is after her reveal.

Much more emotion, much wilder, and the animal is gone. She looks kind of like Merida, except Zara looks like she fits into her own movie. She has more in common story wise with Scarlet from Total Drama.

Next scene introduces the main three leads, Yi, her cousin Peng, and their cousin Jin. Yi’s father recently died putting the family in a rough patch, and they are trying to move on in different ways. Peng is into sports and tries to move on with his life. Only the younger kids play with him, so he hopes either of his bigger cousins will play with him. Jinn in into social media and popularity to get over it. Yi is the lead, and she does it by hustling for money to take a trip she was going to take with her dad (later revealed she has never left the city). She is introduces as very aloof trying to stay distant from her remaining family. I like this scene. The dialogue leaves a little to be desired early on, but the story gets the job done. My main problem is Chloe Bennet’s performance as the lead. She is not bad, as she gets the range right, but she does not sound like a young teenager, as she sounds like a 30 year old woman. I let that pass years ago, but now that I am on a PBS Kids binge for an upcoming list I am not so forgiving. Their shows are full of children voiced by children or adults convincingly sounding like children. It does not help Peng and Jin were actually voiced by teenagers.

A good detail is most of Yi’s jobs are literally working in trash. She lies she sold the violin to her mother’s disappointment, and later scenes show how big a deal that is. Her father taught her to play it, and ignoring it is her ignoring what he wanted her to focus on, family.

12 minutes in until Everest’s face is revealed. Yi shelters and cares for him over several days. It is revealed through music he has powers like making plants grow fast and healthy. By many reports yetis are big singers, and some malicious stories say they have sound based attacks, so I am fine with this very divisive element. I also see the other side who think magic yeti should be able to just teleport himself to Everest.

Burnish, the red herring villain, is introduced. He is played by Eddie Izzard giving it lots of energy. His design is much funner than the other ones. He is a man who seemingly hates nature, but loves it in his own way. He will become the nature lover Zara pretends to be. In the past he was attacked by a yeti, and nobody believed him. I see why he wants to prove they exist, and he makes me laugh, so I like this guy.

Everest is found resulting in a decent and mixed chase scene. One one hand it is animated well, has some good visuals, and Jin (reluctantly) and Peng (happily joining are highlights). On the other hand it seems forced Zara can keep up, and at this point she is a boring villain.

Peng’s arc is the most simple. He basically wants a big brother and Everest gives him that right up to letting Peng play in his mouth.

Next comes a series of short scenes. A major highlight of the movie is the blueberry scene where Everest makes them grow enourmous, and they have to flee them. The problem is Jin goes “Flat Earth Atheist.” There is some good dialogue with Jinn and Yi about Hustle vs hedonism. Burnish is the one enjoying nature, but he wants to cut his favorite tree down to put it in the penthouse. This contrasts with Zara being hyper focused on yeti. He is becoming a real nature lover piece by piece.

In a chase scene Jin gets scared and captured and Zara is finally shown to be a good villain. She manipulates Jin by explaining Everest is an unpredictable wild animal. Zara is revealed to be villain at 53 minute mark, and she plans on killing kids and gets rid of gerbil. Jin overhears and gives Burnish the gerbil and leaves in the funniest part of the movie.

I have been lost many times and highly relate to this.

He comedically keeps getting lost, filthy, and all his master plans like stealing a motorcycle go wrong. I relate way too well to Jin this scene. At the end he finds a boat and trades it for his phone showing how he has changed. Going into this movie and rewatch I thought he would be my least favorite character, but I love this guy. Some viewers have asked how the battery is not dead. I think it is in character for him to carry around a portable charger. The comedy mixed with character development and a new design really helps. His inconsistent and inconclusive actions (jumping on the boat, but not the previous escape dandelion) help him feel the most like a real kid.

Throughout the movie he has called his expensive shoes “his babies” and been way too worried when they got dirty. After this image where he holds them above the rain he ditches that and uses them as normal shoes.

Thanks to Jin’s words Zara interecepts Everest, Peng, and Yi. Jin and his new boat and hero design come to the rescue, and Everest uses his yeti powers to lose Zara. It is a fun scene that then hits mood whiplash when the violin is broken.

Broken violin is a key highlight. There is no big third act break up nor big action, just talking about dealing with the death of Yi’s dad. It does make them seem very grown up like this adventure has changed them all for the better.

Almost 70 minutes in and Yi can now make plants grow too. I presume this is due to Everest remaking her violin with his fur, and it is a sweet scene. Villains corner them on a bridge, and Everest goes to defend them. Burnish then remembers the yeti he faced was defending its three children, not attacking him, and he switches goals. Zara has her security captain tranquilize him, captures, Everest, and throws Yi off a bridge. I was forgetting why I praised her as a good twist villain, but this is quite the scene for her. She is incredibly malicious.

Yi survives by clinging to a broken cable. In the climax she wakes up Everest with her violin’s new Yeti powers, and he stops the convoy. Zara is fed up and tries to kill him resulting in her own death. After all the good to great scenes before it this is a lackluster climax.

It has the expected falling action. Burnish is now a huge hero. They get Everest back to his home and family, and the children’s family is very happy with how the children have changed. It is simple, but I think it is a good ending.

It is slow paced, thus the pacing is highly subjective- too slow or great for development, and I am mixed. It is a mixed movie, and I give it a high Three Tree Star rating. I am glad I saw and rewatched it.

Next Time:

Best PBS Kids Shows

Martha Speaks Seasons 2-3 Part 2

Got a few poor episodes here, but the bangers here more than make up for them. I have been watching hordes of PBS Kids shows for another post, and they really make me appreciate the humans having 5 fingers on each hand. Many of these episodes put big emphasis on Helen being a dog mom. Then again a few of these episodes makes me wonder if she has a death wish.

11- Words on hot and cold, which oddly results in two episodes where Helen is ditzier than usual. Maybe writer Raye Lankford remembered she was like that at first, and the first segment is a flashback.

11A- “Skits on Ice” They recount when Skits nearly died in the ice as a puppy. I am mixed on this one, as I like the plot, but I think the execution was lacking. For one Skits is a puppy, and that makes it easy to stick out. Unlike all the other puppy Skits episodes Helen calls him “Skitsy,” and acts more like a mom to him. I like those little details. I do not think TD getting frustrated with a dog (much less his very recently former dog) is in character. It is good set up for a mystery on why Skits is scared of hockey pucks. Unfortunately the pacing is slow, and it is very predictable (my thoughts from when I was 13 when this first aired). Even though it is on paper a great episode (rare time this show has serious stakes) I think it is well below par. It Is not bad, but I expect better from this show).

The little details are memorable. It is a rare episode where all five main children have a major role. I was trying to remember what episode began with Helen not wanting to get out of bed on a cold morning. Truman said he was at Helen’s as a force of habit, but I cannot recall that since episode 1. Ronald and his friends lose to a team of younger children. They really need to work on their personal fitness.

Helen is considerably less intelligent this episode compared to Martha. Martha already knows the words and just double checks with her. She would have died trying to save Skits if Martha did not stop her. Still I did like seeing a more motherly side to her with puppy Skits.

11B- “Martha’s Steamed” On a very hot day (nice job animating the sweat) they find a dog locked in a car and try to find the owner. Again Helen is extra ditzy this episode nearly falling for Martha eating her food and jumping to conclusions. Mainly in the beginning she is oblivious to why letting TD keep his shoes in her freezer is a bad idea (odd he never appears this episode). Unlike last episode this has an intriguing mystery with lots of foreshadowing and misdirection. The dog goes in the police car to eat the donuts foreshadowing what she did earlier. Martha suspects Helen only ordered chocolate ice cream, so she could avoid sharing with Martha. I agree and cannot blame Helen, as Martha eats her ice cream on a regular basis. This is a great episode. It is very funny, educational, well animated, and memorable.

Helen wears her clothes from the very first image of the very first book. I think that was an early main design for her, and they used it for this episode. In the books Helen basically changes clothes every page.

12- “Martha’s Life in Crime” In a 2 parter Martha’s life in crime as a puppy is told to Truman. One of multiple episodes coming up that is a flashback told to Truman. Along with “Ice Cream” and “The Penguin Always Rings Twice” this is a candidate for best episode.

I have not seen the professor in a while. Have not seen a major role from Truman in a while. I do not think it is a continuity error Martha knew Kazuo. The important thing is he could not recognize a full grown dog he has not seen since she was a puppy. Good use of word “narrate” where Martha uses it after Truman teaches it to give repetition for the audience.

These one time villains make Otis and Pablum look like The Hacker (in the first five seasons). Good move stealing Madame Medusa’s design. Mr. Stubble is smarter at plans, but clueless with words. Whoever voiced that cat did a great job. It sounds very realistic and catlike. Horrible dinosaur plan, as they thought the little puppy would carry each bone up one by one. In fact the skeleton is probably mostly fake or would break anyway. One of the cops is the undercover cop from “Codename Martha.”

This time Madeline Peters voices young Helen with a different voice. I am surprised Helen did not want a cat, as there is plenty of evidence she loves cats. Maybe she just loves dogs more. I see why so much of Helen’s art is of Martha. That is what wore down her parents into getting the dog. Helen letting Goldie the goldfish swim away is a good detail on why she is a dog person. She likes letting animals push their boundaries, and dogs are the ones that come back when doing that. Now she has a dog that pushed the speech boundary. Martha called her “that little red haired girl,” an obvious reference to Peanuts. Unlike Heather, Helen is actually key in the main character’s life.

For a fan like me I really love seeing these backstory moments for Martha, Helen, and Kazuo, but the real good stuff is all the comedy. Some of it is from Helen, but most of it is either the music or jus how ridiculous the villains are. Then again they had nothing to lose trying to sell Martha with the ink on her as “an autographed pooch.”

“Martha’s Thanksgiving” is basically a prequel to this episode.

13A- “Martha Plays Favorites” Another Flashback told to Truman. He is worried his mom cares more about the babies in her daycare than him, thus Martha tells about fighting for Helen’s attention over puppy skits.

This episode puts more focus on puppy Skits than any other episode, and it makes for a very cute episode. Before I never saw this segment (I saw the end of the next one), and this was a great watch. Seeing Helen like that is a nice change of pace along with babying of Skits, and Martha’s jealous reactions.

It gives clear solutions to jealousy (giving the older one alone time even it is only a partial solution). It was at least a temporary solution that helped until Martha grew more attached.

One great image is Martha saying Helen no longer cares about her when Helen is literally on her hands and knees cleaning her mess (between this and “Martha Bakes” she is really good at scrubbing). Unlike last Puppy Skits episode TD acts like skits used to be his puppy. The acting is extra good this episode.

13B- “Martha and the Doggie Lover” TD’s cousin loves dogs, and is too rough with them. Martha tries to train him. There is a lot of bait and switch this episode. It is presented like it will be about a kid overcoming his fear of dogs instead of being too rough with them. He is scared, as he is too rough, making the dogs scare him to save themselves. Great job showing all the different methods. I really relate to this episode, as my niece is a “doggy lover.” Getting a younger dog really helped, as he can actually play with her and deal with her doing things like jumping on him and kicking his paws. That is exactly what this episode did. Another winner, and this show has been on a roll lately.

Helen, I know you are happy your dog is fine after all the massaging and icing you did, but is kissing her the best idea. You know she loves rolling in garbage.

14A- “Martha and the One Thousand Fleas” Helen is selling cookies for a school fundraiser, and her dogs eat 50 dollars of them. They put on a circus to pay her debt.

Odd Ronald was genuinely trying to help with sales. “Always be annoying” is not moral advice, but it is practical. It becomes clear his real motivation is to show off how smart he is, but at least there is nothing malicious. I enjoy how frustrated Alice is with him. As shown in” the dog shown in “Best in Show” Helen can barely muster 15 dollars. With her parents’ help she can barely do 25. 50 is a huge deal. It is a very predictable episode, but that is because this is a solid plot that has been done many times. It is not memorable (when I read the synopsis I doubted I saw it), but it is funny.

Helen’s facial expressions are very good this episode, and they really add to the comedy. I cannot think of another episode where Martha gets Helen into trouble like this. Normally that is from something outside their control or Helen being an adrenaline junkie like when she went down right next to Bob. It helps this to stick out as a high stakes episode that resembles real fears we had as children, fund raisers. I am glad my parents just paid for this stuff (to what I can tell that is normally what happens). Normally the joke is the kid eats it so the parent pays. Now it is the dog eats it so the dog mom/kid pays for it.

14B- “Nice and Crabby” Joe Fallon episode. Mrs. Demson is suddenly nice because her medical report was mixed up with a crab’s report from the vet. Meanwhile Otis and Pablum try to buy her house so they can… They have no idea why they want the talking dog anymore). I cannot judge. That is the way I often play chess.

Helen knocks their ball into Mrs. Demson’s yard (Maybe you should pass with your leg instead of your head Helen), and she instead goes out to play with them and everybody. Normally when watching this show I think Helen is freakishly good shape. Turns out she has nothing on Mrs. Demson. A lot of the comedy is how often she loses the act, and how it creeps everybody out. Nice callback to “Martha Puts out the Lights” with the petition for a parade in front of her house every day.

To add to the comedy are the two criminals. They cannot even remember why they want Martha. They forgot they will convince people they taught her how to talk and charge fortunes as dog trainers. They start seeming crazy, but as the episode goes on they become more and more the straight men. Mrs. Demson is just crazy this episode on either the happy or angry side and has wild mood swings. Helen and Martha always know something is wrong and are worried. I am not normally a big fan of role reversal episodes, but this did it great.

That delivery man needs to be fired before he gets prescriptions mixed up. This is a really funny episode and the classic Joe Fallon humor.

15- “Martha: Secret Agent Dog” Martha becomes a spy. Her employers are actually the villains.I am surprised TD and Martha are the ones bored with everyday life, while Helen is happy. Helen should know by now if she says X does not happen it means X will happen (From “Martha Changes her Luck.”) I know the popular fan theory is Martha is a reality warper, but I think that is actually Helen.  

I missed the “Part One” in the title card, and I was surprised this was a cliffhanger. It seemed like a normal wacky episode with a self-contained plot. Good job figuring it all out Helen; especially as the auditorial version she heard had less clues than the visual version. Granny Flo is back after a lengthy absence. There is a big dream sequence chase which results in actual results. It has some major highlights like being buried in fleas, but below par. The best part is TD playing and losing checkers to a mannequin in the between the episodes clip. Granted, I never cared about the spy genre.

Next comes season 3. Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman is back to master episodes meaning this is down to being the second best season on PBS Kids at the time. It is the second half of season 2 in production order, so not much is actually changed.

1- “The Martha Show” Two Parter by Joe Fallon and Ken Scarborough. They try to make a show, and it really feels like The Arthur episode “The Contest.” Unfortunatly Martha’s costar is Mrs. Demson.

There are lots of meta jokes this episode. In universe TD and Martha delivered the script at the last second and said there was no time to fix the weird ending. Seems like commentary on modern film production. It has many parodies of children’s shows. Parody of Clifford is “Bluey.” My favorite is the spy show due to how ridiculous it is. Educational television is mocked, as Fallon is known for hating when it is too on the nose. The joke about “who would want to watch us” was frequently done by this pair in Arthur. I enjoy the commentary that sometimes shows force people to work together that dislike each other, but I cannot help but wander if that is evidence the rumors Marc Brown and Joe Fallon got into fights are true

TD faints at the sight of blood, so I am surprised he is into medical dramas. It has the same actors as the pickle movie? Carolina’s merchandise idea was portrayed as morally wrong, but it was logically sound. Nice callback to “Truman on the Ball” with TD being a fan of Moby Dick. I definitely enjoyed this more as an adult than a boy. I do not remember how I felt about it, but I enjoyed it now. As I typed earlier it is very similar to one of the best Arthur episodes (Scarborough wrote or co-wrote both). Sure it is a worse version, but a worse version is still very entertaining.

A major highlight is the opening with all the wind to show how much they fear Mrs. Demson. It is over the top comedy.

I did not remember Book Bots failing to become a show in universe, as it has two sequel episodes. I have fond memories of one, and the other remember only seeing a few minutes and thinking it looked bad.

2A- “Martha’s Millions” A dog inherits a huge fortune and is thrown out by his deceased master’s nephew. In a complex episode Martha tries to give the rich dog a voice, while he has no idea what he actually wants or what to say.

It drags at times, and if not for that I think this would be seen as one of the show’s best episodes with the three mentioned above. Leaving money to pets happens, but it normally means it goes to a trusted person who will take care of them with it.  These idiot reporters actually believe that the dog took the collar and bow off. It has been a while since most people did not know Martha talked. Then again maybe it is just these dumb reporters who missed the memo (I just love it when they are portrayed as clueless). Check is for 5 sextillion dollars. That is enough to make the national debt look like nothing. Carolina better hope Helen is in a forgiving mood, as she got hordes of reporters hounding her and her dogs. If not Carolina might turn up dead or lose her only social connection she has.

Great usage of power of words. So much of the episode is finding just the right thing to say due to how complex thoughts are. I think this should have been the season premiere.

2B– “Carolina’s Gidted” Carolina’s gift card is about to expire, and she has no idea how to use it resulting in a low stakes episode on using money.

I do not know why Helen was whispering the definition of “gift certificate” to Martha. Maybe she wants Carolina to view Martha as smarter. Why is she then torturing her dogs by not defining “squirrel away”? Helen paid TD back 32 cents for buying her lunch last week. I think she was just seeing if he would actually save it, as I would think that cost more. Helen, and only Helen, is eating chocolate ice cream. Most likely that is to avoid her dogs’ begging. Episode started boring, and it then had some funny highlights (mostly from TD). Why was Carolina thinking she and Helen have the same fashion sense. Poor episode. It really needed something bigger to make it more interesting.

I like seeing Martha and Skits waiting for the school bell to ring, as one of my dogs and one of my cats used to wait in the front yard for me to come home. It is something I never saw at school (but I saw it at church), so I like seeing this pet loyalty in cartoons. I think this is an animation mistake, but they greeted her while inside the school, and the janitor did not notice

3A- “Truman’s Mad” Truman buys a science kit thinking it will be amazing and is disappointed in the results. He learns how to make his own version from cooking. It is a predictable episode. Otis and Pablum actually made a decent toy, and they have come a long way from “flea farm” and “possum on a stick.” It had some funny scenes like chasing the mailman. The best part is the contrast in attitudes towards the magnets. Truman thinks they are boring, Martha thinks they are very exciting, and Helen is in the middle. It feels more like an Arthur episode than Martha Speaks, and that is ironic. The writer, Ron Holsey, is one of the few who was not a regular writer on Arthur. He only wrote one episode. Okay episode. Better as background noise.

3B- “Dog for a Day” For a School experiment TD and Martha try to switch species for a day. Again a common plot, but this is done much better than the last few segments. OG and Helen are into this in different ways. OG wants to make sure it is accurate, while Helen is enjoying the show (rare time she laughs at TD’s expense). Helen is so proud Martha knew the capital of South Dakota and could keep a schedule. I have seen dogs learn to tell time, so I am not surprised she pulled that off. This was very good. It is funny and wacky, and it does a common plot well.

In episode 4 Carolina’s newspaper returns for words on the news.

4A- “Martha: Deadline Doggie” Carolina needs a story fast, so Martha gathers information. the published scoops make many problems, and then Carolina does not want to hear it when Martha discovers Pablum and Otis are about to steal a statue.

Great opening where Carolina looks for news and misses a python escape, a bank robbery (and actually helps him), and an alien abduction. I am surprised Carolina lets Martha into her room. I am surprised Helen is interested in snakes, but that might just be to avoid stereotypes. Helen clearly thinks bribing Martha with a burrito to get news is a bad idea. That or she does not want the dog who sleeps in her bed to have bad breath. Why is Mr. Parkington and all these other adults reading a newspaper by a middle schooler? I honestly cannot blame Martha. Carolina is the human who published it and did not think this through. Why not just go to the police station.

That shirt is ruined forever Helen. In spite of those logic flaws I really like this one. There are many funny small details and lines, and it teaches a complex message. Eavesdropping and gossip are not morally permissible even if it is correct. It is right if it is an emergency.

4b- “It’s the Giant Pumpkin, Martha” Ronald and his friend Reginal try to put Carolina’s paper out of bussiness. It does not help her source keeps being TD who suffers with exagerations.

TD suffers from equivocation fallacy. Feels like it has been a while since Peter Hirsch wrote an episode. I am really surprised Carolina stuck with this hobby. First appearance of Reginald Steinglass, Ronald’s much smarter partner in crime. Lousy ending, but refreshing to see threatening villains again. Not that good of an episode.

Does Helen invite TD to “do homework” at her house or does he just goof off there? Nice metajoke about TD thinking “learning new words makes you do better in school” is fake news. From what I heard about them it from Scarborough and Fallon.

5-Both episodes seemed to be made to cast characters in different roles than usual, and they both involved constant costume changes, so I am sure this was a hard episode to make. Then again the animations seemed stiffer than usual.

5A- “The Dog Did it” Martha tells them the (state in show to be incorrect) history of how dogs made civilization, philosophy, science, and art.

Focus on educational point of show is vocabulary, and it tells young viewers not to take fake history lessons seriously. Now that I have actually read several origin myths I really appreciate cavemen story. Many of them the details on how X happened feel really forced and contrived. I enjoy how Truman hates it for the inaccuracies, TD is hooked, while Helen is moderately into it. 

I never noticed this, but Helen takes advantage of TD being into the story to pelt him with a snowball. This is after he tried to get her, and she somehow dodged it at point blank range (I think TD needs glasses). On the computer I could tell she was mad he tried that and then hypocritically pleased with herself for getting him. It really helps them to feel like real kids. Galileo one is the funniest. I like the refences. They seem simple to me now, but to teenage me they were challenging to keep track of.

I think this is the only time Skits gets to talk. Very funny episode, and that should not be surprising from Scarborough and Hirsch both writing it.

5B- “Martha Out West” They film a western movie.

They really liked using their cowboy designs. So in their first story Helen can easily carry gold in a wagon, while Ronald cannot move it at all in a bag, as that much weight should destroy the wagon. Eh, it still teaches children about weight and using machines to make a job easier. Also it is funny. “Help me put [struggling noises] put this [struggling noises] gold in it.”  I get what they are going for with milkshake joke- sub for anything, oil, alcohol, and bullets, but I do not think it is funny. Feels more like an Arthur episode. Ironic, as the writer of this episode wrote one episode of Arthur. The writers of the last one combined wrote 140 and head wrote the whole series. The space episode is a better version of this. It definitely has flaws, but it has funny moments. The milkshake song is very catchy, and Helen in a dress makes it stand out more, but I do not like the song, but I think most of the fandom loves it. Still not a good one.

60 episodes done, and that will be it for this year. I will continue the reviews in January and write a general thoughts in November.

Thanks for staying ’til the end.