I didn't think it would come to this. I didn't think I would end up discussing this show once once let alone twice, but time makes a fool of us all. I recently because I was THAT bored went around and looked at my blog and I do think while my posts are still not very good they are a massive improvement of what I used to do. Seriously in one of my old reviews of Spider-Man comics I gave the series Maximum Carnage one paragraph. I do not like that story but I feel it's enough of an "important" Spider-Man story that it deserves more than one paragraph. I will be discussing that series again sadly because I feel it deserves more of a in depth look.
The Monster By Mistake TV Review was so terrible that I do not think even portnoyd commented on it. He didn't comment to do the stupid tiresome comedic dance we do that he will never let die. It was that bad. Mostly because I clearly was way too angry at a dumb youtuber and his dumb YouTube video. It was on the movie House (1986) a horror comedy. The reviewer didn't like it and yeah maybe I'm just opinionated but I love that movie and it's very special to me, being one of the many things from my childhood I loved. I don't know if I even mentioned why the video made me mad. The biggest reason was the reviewer calling the movie a ripoff of Evil Dead II (1987). I don't even know if it was some kind of weird joke because I thought that entire idea of saying a movie that 1.) came out prior was a ripoff and 2.) the fact the only things the movie have in common are they take place in a house and are horror comedies made me just give up on that You Tuber without even seeing the video.
Yeah I got so worked up over it that I decided to do what I call an honest review of something I didn't like. I really did not like this show but I will get into that. I really do not like that article and the only thing that keeps me from deleting it is that I don't think it's right for weird reasons I don't really want to get into. I dunno but I'm just going to forget it exists. Anyway it's finally time to get into my hopefully a little bit more improved discussion on the Monster By Mistake CGI cartoon that aired on Television. I hope that I don't make any weird comments that piss off any hardcore Monster By Mistake fans but I cannot deny that this will not be very positive.
I think that I've mentioned this before but the Canadian Government wants Canadian Television Channels (like in this case YTV) to have a good amount of Canadian Content. It's not my favorite thing because a lot of Canadian content is not great. A lot of it was "Yeah, I think I'm going to throw some toys I have around instead of watching this" kind of TV show. However they were pretty lenient in the past. If an anime (like Dragon Ball Z or Sailor Moon) had a Canadian voice acting cast then you'd be let in and would count as Canadian content. Any cartoon animated by like Nelvana would also count (like Babar, Adventures of Tintin or Care Bears) and we still got a lot of the shows from Cartoon Network (like Dexter's Lab) or Nickelodeon (did you know that Are You Afraid of the Dark? is a co-production between Canada AND America?), plus reruns of all kinds of other stuff. It wasn't as bad as I remember and I really should discuss some more Canadian content because It's all over the place with quality.
Anyway I must finally get into this show. If I were to ever somehow rate all of the Canadian content that I watched between 1985 and 2003 this show would be put in the F-Tier. This was the trifecta of Casper the Friendly Ghost and another show that I will leave nameless until we get to it's Final Episode because I like to tease you people with MYSTERY! This was an absolute no. Yes, sometimes I and even you would watch a TV show or cartoon you didn't enjoy because there was nothing else to do and the NES had pissed you off because you played BattleToads for an hour trying to beat the damn turbo tunnel, those three shows had me just deciding to stare at a fucking wall instead. They were that bad. Luckily for me and my sister, I do remember this being a Sunday show (why did channels like this just shove all the junk on Sunday?) and that was a day we'd go visit Family or go to the Flea Market. Both way more entertaining than stinky ass Monster By Mistake. (Now I just wonder how the hell PJ Phresh Phil would have tried to hype us kids up with this show while talking to us during the shows on The Zone)
Monster By Mistake was created by a guy named Mark Mayerson, which really sounds like a cool Superhero name that Stan Lee would give some Marvel Comics character. He worked for Catapult Productions. I do not know what other things they did in Canadian CGI animation. This is one of the things that made me not want to revisit it. I mean besides not liking it when I was a 14 year old in 1999. CGI Animation ages terribly. I mean I still like Reboot and Beast Wars but I'd be lying if I said the CGI wasn't dated and that was CGI that was GOOD at the time. They were helped by 9 Story Media who worked on a lot of reboots of things like Clifford the Big Red Dog and The Magic School Bus Rides Again. The only thing I know that they made that isn't a reboot that was made after like 2003 was Nerds Vs Monsters that my nieces were kinda into until they found the worst thing ever made YouTube Kids.
Anyway I'm sure you are dying to find out what the premise of this show was and I will finally tell you. It involves a kid named Warren who finds a magic jewel made by Gorgol or however you spell his stupid name that turns him into a monster whenever he sneezes. His sister tries to help him not be a Monster anymore by using the spell book. Also there is a ghost named Johnny who plays a trumpet because why the hell not? This whole show just felt slapdash and weirdly pandering. Like hey kids like Monsters and Ghosts so let's just shove them into the equation. All I know is that I spent more time enjoying Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z at this point in my life. Yeah unlike some kids who have been forced to stop watching cartoons at an age like eight. I was still able to watch cartoons at fourteen and my parents didn't care.
So the Final Episode was released in 2003 and I think that makes this show the newest thing I've covered for The Final Episode series of blog posts. Wild. Anyway there was a three year gap between the pilot airing in 1996 during Halloween (I remember it because I was probably waiting for Are You Afraid of the Dark? marathon to start. That or Freaky Stories. or Goosebumps. Something of better quality then this. Then there was another three year gap between 2000 and 2003. Giving you hope that they got rid of it. The CGI changed and somehow got uglier between all three gaps too! Amazing.) Anyway the Final Episode was written by Steve Westren but it's not on the IMDB page for him. I assume it's him because this guy also worked on other 9 Story Media productions. His credits go all the way back to 1995. Wimzie's House, Groundling Marsh, Franklin and Friends, and a lot of other stuff that I have no thoughts or feelings about. It was directed by David Geldart who worked on season 3 of this show and maybe Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clone Wars.
The shows Final Episode is called Strawberry Jam. Yep. So Tracy the sister to the monster is growing strawberries with their dad, except they aren't doing a good job and Tracy isn't enjoying herself. Oh no! Warren tells her but Dad loves doing it with her! We then see Dad and Mom talking about the same thing and HOLY MOLY Dad doesn't want to garden either! Woah! Thrilling stuff! Anyway Tracy just grabs the Book of Magic Spells and makes the berries appear! And they look great! You know after the fifthy-first time you used the Magic Book and it messed up maybe the character that was shown throughout the show to be intelligent would have realized IT WASN'T A GOOD IDEA. Any way Mom, Warren and Johnny the Jazz Trumpet Playing Ghost with His Jaunty Hat from 1943 eat the strawberries. Only the strawberries make everyone go hyper!
So Tracy then uses the magic spell to make people un-hyper, starting with Mom. Who was painting the walls polka dots! So wacky! I think I get why I did not like this show as a child because it somehow feels pandering and incredibly forced. Ooo it's polka dots! Isn't that funny kids! No. It isn't. Anyway Moms back to normal but now she's tired! Anyway Tracy runs to do Johnny next and he becomes tired! Before she goes to turn Warren back to normal (who is doing tricks to impress his dead eye friends. Seriously this is some of the cheapest AND creepiest CGI animation you could have possibly made.) but she realizes dad took the berries to the Flower Berry Growing Contest thing! Oh no! She quickly turns Warren back and they go of. Notice I did not say Warren turned into the Monster and used his monster powers to get and find dad quickly.
Oh there's a scene where Johnny the Ghost is tired and can't fly up high but can fly two streets ahead to steal coffee from their aunt character who as a cop who hated the Monster. I don't know why but this character was the most annoying of them all. Yeah if people commented on this they'd be like this was a show for children Michael!!! but I would have called this plot point out as bullshit in 1994 when I was NINE. It's a lazy "oh shit this episode needs to be a scene or two longer! just jam in some shit" from a lazy show that just felt like it was pandering. A lot of shows from the 1980s and 1990s you get the feeling people had some fun making this and it shows within the product itself. Not a single person had any fun making this and it feels like a detention assignment. One so bad that I could tell at 14 years old.
So they find Dad but before he ate a Strawberry! Oh no! You know this might be the lowest lowest stakes I've seen in something I've reviewed for the Final Episode. Even Charles in Charge had higher stakes and that had Scott Baio who is so bad that I stop giving a shit about anything he's in that isn't the silly ass movie Zapped! . Anyway they get the berries but oh no Dad is freaking out in the Bus! He's gone Hyper!!!!!! In the Bus!!! Anyway there's an insane amount of scenes of Dad just driving all over the place. Then five minutes before the episode ends they get Warren to change into the Monster. To grab the bumper when Johnny the Ghost puts the Strawberries into the bus' gas tank. The Monster then would grab the bumper. You'd think the Strawberries would do more than gum up the tank they'd stop the bus from moving at all. This is clearly "Oh shit we didn't even use the Monster in this episode so we gotta shove him in here" and because it was a Friday they threw it together in the laziest way possible.
The bus is finally stopped but oh no the lady cop who hates the monster is now here how will we stop her from getting the monster and putting him in jail or something. Thankfully the strawberries in the gas tank blow up and spray stuff all over her so Warren can turn back into Warren! Woah! Anyway Tracy tells her dad she doesn't want to garden and instead make a machine from Young Machine Magazine or some shit. I don't know. You can tell I've clearly checked out. The machine looks like shit. Warren brags to his friend and his sister gives him a stare like he caused this whole mess or something. Anyway this, THE worst Canadian thing ever ends. Yes. I'd rather listen to Justin Beiber for days then ever watch another episode of this show.
FINAL VERDICT: Another thing wrong with the original post about this show is that it was way too nice on the show trying to show the youtube guy that I don't even remember anymore that's the real way to review a thing but it isn't. If you dislike something and have a shitty blog you should just tell the world about it. This was in a 3 way tie for the worst thing on the television when I was a kid. The fact that it could have been replaced by anything except those two other shows would have been an improvement. Anything. A nickelodeon show we didn't get. Reruns of I Love Lucy. A random anime from Japan. Like literally go to Japan and pick the first remotely child friendly to Canada anime you can see and put it there. Anything. Literally anything would be better than this trashy, thrown together nonsense. This was a ugly, lazily written (so bad that a literal child could tell they were just throwing stuff together sense) boring mess of a television show. The worst thing of it all that with people who knew what the fuck they were doing the idea probably could have had some legs but what we got was a man with no legs. Depressing as hell.
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