Thursday, April 14, 2011

Jungle Junction

Alright, dear readers, school is over now, and now my little operation here should start to pick up again. Fear not.

That said, most of my ideas in the past while have all been based around a singular theme: Childrens' programming. See, I spend a lot of time at my sister's house, with her and her two little boys. This creates ample opportunity for me to experience the strange and confusing world of modern childrens' programming that I would not have otherwise been exposed to. Most of these shows contain some element or another that leaves me with my head tilted to one side and my mouth hanging open in bewilderment -- I'm pretty sure my face is going to freeze that way soon. At any rate, because of all of the new things I have seen while watching the Disney channel with my nephews, I have decided to dedicate my posts for the next month or so to the wonders of kids' shows. Keep in mind that most of the things I will discuss, I haven't watched extensively. These will mostly be my impressions based on a random episode, or even just a clip that I catch here and there while doing homework or folding laundry on my sister's couch. That being said, here's a whole series of me thinking way too hard about daytime childrens' programming:

So there is this show on the Disney channel called "Jungle Junction"
Jungle Junction is about animals.
British animals.
With wheels.

Aside from wondering a few things like "Why is there a pig in the jungle?" and "What is that raccoon pikachu rabbit thing supposed to be?" the main question that this show brings to my mind is "WHY do the animals have wheels?!?"

From the few episodes I've seen of this show, I've been able to determine that there is absolutely NO reason for them to have wheels. The problems they encounter are things like needing to bake a cake for a party or locate somebody's lost something-or-other... In other words: problems that are in no way related to them being animals with wheels. Since the wheels are never explained, they become something of a distraction -- an elephant in the room, so to speak (an elephant with wheels, no less.) I literally could not tell you anything else about the show because the couple times I've watched it, I've been far too worried about the unexplained wheels to notice anything else...Maybe it's a good show, maybe it's painfully stupid, I honestly have no idea.

To the lovely people who created this show: It's great and all that you came up with a concept that has never been done before, but I think you accidentally forgot to have it make any sense ... Just thought I should let you know cause that would be really embarrassing if it went out on the air like that and-- oh... wait... Never mind. Sorry dudes. I'll just... yeah, uh... I'll just let myself out, shall I?
...Oh, but before I go, will you do me a favor and tell me WHY THE ANIMALS HAVE WHEELS!!! Seriously guys, you gotta help me out! I need to understand! I'm going crazy here! Please! Just help me to understand! Why? Why?! WHYYY?!? D:

... that is all.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This pleases me. OH ANIMATION, why have you FAILED US!? Oh, and wv is noolte. Don't ask me what it means. But it also pleases me.

Meg said...

Because kids like cars? Also, Yo Gabba Gabba. They have random guest stars (I'm assuming for the adults who have to watch it with their kids) like Elijah Wood. Also, there's a party in my tummy (look it up on YouTube, most disturbing song ever).

WV: enures. Looks Latin. Also sounds slightly dirty...

Taylor said...

This is the real answer: Money. The designers are so cheap that they don't want to design legs, thus wheels are easier to program and they make the cut. That's my assumption anyway.

My favorite kids show is backyardigans. LOVE IT SO MUCH! :)

redne

Jessica Grosland said...

Good gracious, this is even weirder than I imagined....

WV: a perc. Sounds like a British insult.

Meg said...

Isn't the yellow thing a lemur? I was privileged to listen to an episode on Friday when my niece was sick. It was kind of mind boggling. What I don't understand is why there are so many British CG kids shows on TV.

WV: emeybrot. I really don't know what to make of that.

Dan said...

Watching this right now with my daughter and had to Google to find out why they have wheels! I'd doing my head in... She 2.5 years old and loves animals so I'm not going to let her watch this anymore because it doesn't make sense. I don't want her to ask me why animals don't have wheels. I agree with the previous comment - I think they used wheels to save money. Animating legs and walking motion is more difficult than just giving them all wheels. Laziness and stupid of Disney to approve it. Finally - the accents. Disney is American so this isn't a British show... I guess the producers just think Americans like British accents... and to some degree they are correct. For me (I'm British) the accents are really annoying... they are crap and over-exaggerated.

CJ said...

I think Jungle Junction is one of the best shows ever. What I don't like is Mickey Mouse and Little Einsteins and especially P J Masks. My children won't watch these shows.