My TV Show Review on WordGirl · 3:55pm Oct 22nd, 2019
Aloha, my good friends.
This is your friendly and humorous film, TV show, and episode reporter once again here with another review.
And today, I'll be making my thirteenth TV show review by analyzing "WordGirl".
Here the summary of this show:
Becky Botsford is an average school girl who, when duty calls, transforms into a superhero named Wordgirl. Along with a love for vocabulary and helping others learn words, and the help of her monkey sidekick Captain Huggy Face, Wordgirl must protect the city she lives in known as Fair City from a wide array of unusual super villains, such as Dr. Two-Brains, the Butcher, Granny May, Mr. Big, Tobey, and Chuck the Evil Sandwich making Guy.
Along the way, Wordgirl's life outside of crime fighting is explored, and the villains are even given some spotlight of their own.
I really must confess something to you guys about this:
This show from PBS Kids was a particular part of my childhood that I fondly grew up with. Everyday, when my school hours were done, I would flip on the TV when the clock struck 3:30 p.m. just to see it. It would even be on in the mornings of the weekends, which was often what I started my mornings off with.
I was saddened when it suddenly stopped airing following the defunct of "PBS Kids GO!" and that the complete series never got released on home video. But, when I discovered the complete series's availability on Amazon's streaming service, I knew that I absolutely wanted to watch it again and make a review of it.
Let me tell you guys something:
Even now, I find this show to be absolutely spectacular!
For instance, the voice acting, casting, characters, and character development were all extremely excellent.
At first glance, some may think of the characters as rather flatly characterized. However, the ensemble cast and writers, surprisingly, were able to put so much personality and heart into them that they were the exact opposite of flat. The writers even took the time to give the characters development throughout the series, which helped them to be all-the-more alive.
It was the title character herself whom I thought had the largest of developments. Throughout the series, her struggles with balancing her life as a superhero and regular kid are very apparent, and you can even see how hard it must be for her to always do the right thing or not succumb to her own desires. Dannah Phirman did an awesome job portraying the character throughout the series.
Admittedly, before I ever got started on this review, I often thought a lot about Becky's parents, Tim and Sally Botsford, and I couldn't help but feel slightly critical of the two characters. It was mainly because of how childish, naive, and oblivious they were compared to their children. Nevertheless, though, I admired how much they proved themselves to be excellent parents, particularly because of how caring and supportive they were, and how wise they could be whenever their children needed guidance. Plus, Ryan Raddatz and Maria Bamford gave their characters excellent creative flair.
The villains of the series were also fun. I love how their vocal performers portrayed them with astoundingly unique style and personality, and the comedic flair they put into them was hilarious. Prime examples that I definitely want to note is Tom Kenny as Dr. Two-Brains, Patton Oswalt as Tobey, Jeffrey Tambor as Mr. Big, Jack D. Ferrailo as the Butcher, and Fred Stoller as Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy.
Chris Parnell, might I add, did a phenomenal job portraying the Narrator in this series. I love how, even though his character wasn't visible to the screen, he gave the character excellent personality, wit, emotion, and comedic-chops.
Now if I'm going to be honest, the only characters that I was less than moved by were Eileen (aka The Birthday Girl), Victoria Best, and the latter's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Best. I hated how irritable they were in terms of personality, and how one-dimensional they were in terms of development. The portrayals of their vocal performers certainly didn't help any, that's for sure.
The overall writing and direction for this series additionally proved to be really fun. Even though superhero shows for children aren't the most uncommon, Dorothea Gillim and Jack D. Ferrailo's take on the genre was so fresh, new, and funny that one can hardly think of this show as the opposite of original. There was even a Hollywood-feel to the concept that made things all-the-more unique, and I could tell that the writers and directors were having the time of their life with their satirical take to it all. As a plus, they did a brilliant job at giving the series heart and emotion.
The educational value of this series, which is to teach vocabulary, was nicely done too. Wordgirl's love for defining words, as well as how important of a part they play in the series, should perfectly encourage audiences of all ages to increase their vocabulary with passion.
The animation of this series was equally excellent. In all my years, I don't think I've ever come across shows or films that use the technique known as Squigglevision, but this show has made me think of two very words to describe the show's use of it:
TOTAL AWESOMENESS!!!
I love how it aided the series's writing and direction in being unique, as well as the handsome hand-drawn animated look it had and how lively it occasionally was. The amount of creativity behind it was great enough to pave the way for the technique to be used more in other shows.
Finally, the series's music was amazingly accomplished. Whoever composed for it had obviously gone all-out in making things entertaining, because they even brought to a level of where it'd be worthy of an Oscar and where one would consider it cinematic. It was particularly powerful enough to enrapture viewers in the adventures, that's for sure.
In conclusion, "WordGirl" is not only still one of the best educational programs from my childhood, but...the appeal it has for audiences of all ages and the creativity behind it make it better than one would likely expect.
So, I rate "WordGirl" five out of five stars.
Stay tuned for my review on "The Rise of Miss Power" coming tomorrow, and for a listing of what episodes I believe to be the best or worst the day after that.
I could've sworn I've seen this character before, but I don't know where. I definitely never watched the show...
And by the way, a grammar-themed superhero? Sounds...familiar.
Sadly I'm not familiar with this show or its heroine.
I like that show
I used to love PBS Kids also. My personal favorites were Zaboomafoo, Cyberchase, ZOOM!, Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman, and Wild Kratts.
I've currently been watching clips of this show on YouTube. Granted, I may not have grown up with WordGirl, I did watch at least one episode when I was a lot younger.
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👍🏻That’s nice.
When it comes to how I watched the show’s full episodes, the best I could do was have a subscription for the PBS Kids channel on Amazon. I only wish that the entire series could be available on more than just Amazon or be released on home video.