My Review of Camp Lazlo · 8:39pm March 31st
My TV Show Rating Score:
5/5: It is an awesome show!
4.5/5: it is a great show albeit not perfect
4/5: It’s a good show with minor flaws
3/5: It’s overall okay/guilty pleasure
2/5: It’s bad but not awful
1/5: Look, up in the sky! It’s super bad!
0/5: MY EYEEEESSS!!!
Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with another TV show review for today. This afternoon, I will be reviewing Cartoon Network’s “Camp Lazlo” which aired from 2005-2008. This was among a list of childhood cartoons I grew up watching on CN; I remember watching dozens of these episodes on TV and being amused by its silly characters as a kid. However, I never saw the ending of this series as I was more focused on watching other cartoons.
I wanted to re-watch this series as an adult to see if it’s as entertaining as I remembered. So last month, I began watching and re-watching each episode on the “watch anime dub” website from beginning to the end until I finished it just earlier this month. To put it simply…it is AWFUL!
This show is about Jelly Bean Scouts—one of whom is Lazlo having a series of wacky, nonsensical adventures in Camp Kidney. There’s also a self-centered Scoutmaster Lumpus, grumpy Edward, diligent Slinkman, dumb/dumber Chip & Skip, and many more.
I would be lying if I said that this show wasn’t absolute torture. It’s amazing how it comes together when you are an adult in contrast to your childish understanding when you are a kid watching this. This series is nothing but a compilation of cringeworthy drama and comedy which are neither funny nor entertaining in this context.
Let me just talk about the world in this show first: it feels like a carbon copy of “SpongeBob SquarePants”…having its music play in the background, having characters act stupid, and doing all sorts of nonsense for shits and giggles. Unlike SpongeBob however, “Camp Lazlo” does everything so tastelessly which gives me the impression that it was only made just for the sake of having a SpongeBob-like cartoon so that Nickelodeon could have some competition.
As for the characters themselves, they are some of the worst cartoon characters I’ve ever seen in any show. Lazlo is straight-up annoying and naive and not in a funny way. Raj is strangely unlikable and one-dimensional in terms of his personality.
Chip & Skip are dull, boring rip-offs of Patrick Star. And Samson? Oh my goodness, he is the single most inconsistent and unnecessary character in this entire show. The writers tried so hard to make him a sympathetic character who suffers from a lot of emotional baggage.
They even dedicated episodes for him to “shine” and “grow”; however, the rest of the episodes that aren’t dedicated to him depict him as just like everyone else: everybody likes him, talks to him, and stuff like that. I’m sorry, but what’s the point of his character?
Why is he so obnoxious and unlikable? No, if he whines, complains, bullies those who bully him, straight-up looks only after himself, and picks fights with a fellow scout over trivial things, then he’s no better or different from everybody else.
Edward is like Squidward except he has no depth to his character and is just a typical bully who doesn’t have any positive attribute that can make me relate to him.
Lumpus was the only character in this whole series who had some promising potential to be a better character than he was since the start thereof. Heck, he literally had an episode right before the last one where he made a selfless decision which is something he doesn’t normally do.
He had some potential, but as revealed in the last episode “Lumpus’s Last Stand”, he’s a lunatic who pretended to be a scoutmaster this whole time. After seeing him in action for 5 seasons, I find it somewhat hard to believe he’s an imposter…because it makes no sense.
It’s been established he’s been scoutmaster for an undetermined number of years over Camp Kidney, so how could he be a faker if he has a history with the camp, with Slinkman, and other people who’ve known him for years?
Also, the real scoutmaster says he was locked in a closet the whole summer. Umm, how are you still alive?? Did you have access to food and water in a closet? Why didn’t Lumpus ice you when he had the chance?
And what took you so long to arrive in Camp Kidney? The ending leaves so many plot holes that it warrants viewers to make theories or speculations to fill them in. That’s just bad writing. And from what I learned online, Tom Kenny was the man who hatched this idea of an ending. Mr. Kenny, I love you, but I’m afraid you dropped the ball on this one.
I’m not sure if he actually cared about this show’s continuity or remembered what was already established, but I feel like he only said this to the writers and producers just to make it as a dramatic ending as possible regardless of how little sense it makes.
It does explain Lumpus’s irresponsible behavior and lack of knowledge on how to properly care for his scouts. He’s grossly negligent, so it kinda sums up his character in that regard alone…but that’s just it. It fits his character well, but it throws continuity into the dumpster.
Speaking of continuity, what I hate the most about this show is the lack of consistency. Every episode feels like a separate story or universe on its own; they don’t align with each other’s storylines at all which breaks the immersion completely. Given how insanely episodic it is, it’s very difficult to understand these characters and enjoy whatever they do or say. It’s just a bunch of cringe, unfunny, weird, illogical stuff with no taste or substance.
While many of these episodes range from insufferable to boring, some of them were kinda…sorta decent. But there are a few that I found to be the absolute worst episodes out of them all. Those episodes are “Valentine’s Day”, “Tour Wars”, "Are You There S.M.I.T.S? It's Me Samson", and “Samson Needs a Hug”.
The only redeemable factors are the voice acting from Tom Kenny, Steve Little, Mr. Lawrence, and Jeff Bennett. Carlos Alazraqui was not good to listen to, honestly; that isn’t to say he sucks at his job. He is very skilled, yes, but his style of voice acting isn’t my cup of tea.
Overall, this is one of the weakest shows on Cartoon Network. It’s sad to see this cartoon in a different light, and I just have to move on to something else that is actually worth watching. With that said, I give this a 1/5: Camp Stinky.
Slinkman and Clam are the only characters who are remotely likable. They carried this show with their backs; man, I feel sorry for them. They’re in the wrong program.
Peace!
I can’t remember the last time I saw this show, although I do recall seeing episodes of it for some reason or another. It never did stick with me.
Then again, when it comes to my Cartoon Network experiences as a kid, the only things that’d bring me to the channel were episodes of old Scooby-Doo and Tom & Jerry shows. Nothing else from the channel ever interested me back then.
And what if I told you that the creator was the man behind Rocko's Modern Life?
What’s your overall opinion on Joe Murray and his works?
5774466
Never seen that show.
5774470
Don’t know anything about him or the other shows he made.
5774476
Would you like to or not?
5774477
No
5774476
...huh. I'll admit, I don't have much of a response prepared beyond to check it out but given your review, you may not like it either. Also, screwy enough to me, he created a PBS Kids series.