10 Years of Total Drama, the real Behind the Laughter · 4:58pm Jul 6th, 2017
It's been ten years since this show aired on Canada. Perhaps many of its elements haven't aged well, but many of today's speculations and expectations originated from here.
For this analysis I'm going to see the common elements of the entire series, and finally a mini-review for each season as well as a general ranking. Without further ado, let's begin.
First, this show came out in one of the darkest periods for animation, where producers and executives didn't care about writers and thought they could do a show without them: 2005-2009. From this period I can only remember two shows: Phineas & Ferb (which became really repetitive by its third season) and this one. Total Drama Island was a parody of reality shows like Survivor and it was one of the first animated shows to have a PG rating (although it needed a PG-13 for its crude humor). This was important since it permited future shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show to have more material to work with, more adult jokes and deeper themes to deal with.
True, the humor is not for everyone. It's crude, relies too much on slapstick (which gets old over time) and sometimes it borders scatological levels. But this has effect on an unique characteristic for its time: You had to watch the episodes in order to prevent spoilers. Many people at the time speculated who was going to be the next eliminated and thanks to this technique, many more are analyzing, speculating and even creating its own theories around other modern cartoons and, in some ways, it was the show that taught us words like "fandom" and "shipping".
But now let's get deep into one of the most controversial aspects of the show and one that can be cringy: the characters. Not that I don't like them or that the design is simplistic at times or anything, but there are two problems with them. Most of them feel one-dimensional with little development and only until later episodes the remaining ones have characterization. This can set apart some viewers. And second: Each and every single one of them are an ode to stereotype!
Ok, maybe I'm overreacting, because as we all know, all fat people are happy as hell, all delinquents are dressed as rappers, all nerds and goths are morally superiors, all beautiful girls are bitches, all rednecks are ignorants and all blondes are dumbs!
But with that said, the characters are very likeable, they just spend time hanging out with the others, you worry about them because you don't want them to be eliminated and the ones who didn't get much attention get development in the next season (well, most of them).
Now let's get into the seasons, saying its positives and negatives and the most notable characters:
Total Drama Island: The one which started everything and, from my perspective, still the best season of the bunch. A slow, but necessary pacing for knowing the contestants (well, most of them), great characters (specially the main and side villain), and overall a balanced season.
Best characters (no particular order): Gwen, Heather, Owen, Trent, Duncan, Izzy, Geoff, Bridgette, LeShawna, Lindsay, Cody.
Total Drama Action: Inferior to the first season in every way, but to be honest, I give it more credit than others: I liked a lot the cinematic approach and different style to the challenges. Besides, many characters left behind in the first season got more screen time now and the aftermaths were trying something more different than the usual. Sadly, it suffered from the lack of a true side antagonist and many loved characters were degraded heavily.
Buffed characters: Duncan, Lindsay, Harold, DJ, Heather.
Nerfed characters: Courtney, Geoff, Bridgette, LeShawna.
Total Drama World Tour: Considered by many the best season, it now parodies musical numbers and adds a cultural perspective thanks to its main theme. The remaining characters from Island have a nice development, the most veterans have also more screen time and the couple of new characters did their job perfectly. However, these main aspects also carried problems: the musical numbers can be obnoxious at times, the majority of the cast was heavily nerfed and it was the beginning of a cancer that has spread throughout the next entries: the TV soap love triangle. If in the first season the guys met and in the second one they were together, here they separated.
Buffed characters: Noah, Heather, Izzy.
Nerfed characters: Courtney, Cody, Ezekiel, DJ, Duncan, Gwen, Owen.
Total Drama Revenge of the Island: I understand why they needed a new cast, but why did they have to be so lackluster? To make it worse, most of the newcomers don't live up to the previous cast and lasting 13 episodes instead of 26, like the previous entries, meant the pacing had to be rushed. And it heavily hurts. At least making the island radioactive gave it an interesting look, fact that I can't say about the next one.
Best characters: Dawn, B, Brick, Cameron, Mike, Jo.
Total Drama All Stars: The worst season, by far. The idea of gather two generations together was great, the execution... not. The creators decided to return the most notorious ones from the first gen instead of others who hadn't much activity in the past. Not only that: the island look gets really repetitive, the retrospective challenges are often boring or not interesing and there was no spotlight for any character: the veterans lost their abilities and the newcomers were downgraded. If we add to all of this the worst side villain in the entire series, then we have a recipe for disaster. By the way, the worst episode was the finale. That. Is. Unforgivable.
Buffed characters (and just a little): Gwen, Scott.
Nerfed characters: Everyone else.
Total Drama Pahkitew Island: Many considered this as a weak entry due to the 13-episode format and the cast, which many labeled as a "freak show". But these characters have more personality and likeability than many of the two previous cast, the new island was more wild, the twist was amazing and overall: it was a satire of the entire series, from the island to the participants. To recover their audience, the creators had no choice but to mock themselves.
Best characters: Shawn, Jasmine, Scarlett, Ella.
I don't include Ridonculous Race on the list because that's a spin-off and I don't have much to say about it. The final ranking is:
The good: Island, Pahkitew.
The passable: World Tour, Action.
The bad: Revenge of the Island, All Stars.
To end all of this, the users known as Luck Lupin (who left our dimension in September 2016) and Arturo Hernandez Lopez did an entire analysis of almost every season (with the exception of Action and Revenge of the Island), which went deep into the characters' personality and psychology, events from the episodes, which had consequences in the future, the use of karma and how every detail can tell something about a situation. With a detailed and very well explained analysis, these guys have enough material for a Behind the Laughter-type story with this series. Have this in mind folks.
So, what do you think of this series? Let me know in the comments.
Interesting. The first one was the only series I had ever seen. Except for the last episode. (go figure.) Fortunately I did find out who one. The others I saw snippets of. I remember getting involved in TDI but it was never more that a curiosity.
Looking back on it I realize you are right. For its time it was one of the only cartoons around.