I figured. Still, he did a lot scripting for the last batch of episodes and has been the strongest and most consistent. He's the only one who remembered that Sticks is a natural survivalist (along with being a paranoid conspiracy theorist).

Sonic Boom does look like crap but it's kind of the defacto "look" of CGI cartoons nowadays, because of the budget. The best looking CGI cartoon is probably Dragons: Riders of Berk but that show has a lot of… issues.

I'm always baffled when people say Colbert's transition was smooth. I remember it being very awkward for about two months, not really hitting a real stride until then (in fact, I think the exact moment it clicked for Colbert was when his parodied Bush's pre-planned BS town hall meetings).

I'm pretty sure the "better jokes" work less because of Smigel and more because of Genndy, who was able to work on the film beginning to end, instead of being brought about in the middle of production, like the first film. Over on Cartoonbrew (I think) Genndy basically had to "re-teach" the animators to work in his…

Yep. That's sort of what I meant when I called him manipulative. I don't want to call him an out-and-out dick (I feel like we're using that word WAY too often now, particularly for people who have to put their foot down/be uncomfortably crafty when trying to corral multiple, insane, narcissistic characters as best you…

The other thing is that Kermit was clever and a shrewd compromiser (at best) or manipulator (at worst). He mostly had a positive attitude and never actively went *at* anyone directly, although he has had his under-the-breath comments about people behind their backs. So Kermit putting his foot down on booking Banks was…

I guess there's a nuance there that the episode didn't explore. Like, talking to other girls to "move on" (Mabel's words) isn't exactly a bad thing, in the sense that he's just trying to talk to new people. "Getting out there" isn't inherently a problem, and talking with/meeting new people isn't either, regardless of…

The problem with earnestness (New Sincerity, I guess they call it) is that they confuse it with "seriousness," taking things at super face value. Which is just as terrible as being ironic.

I don't know… I kind of found this episode a bit cluttered and messy. I mean, I know what they trying to do, but even in the heightened universe of Gravity Falls, the thematic and narrative elements never connected like they should.

Star Vs has become immensely fascinating to me. Like you said, not all of it worked (balancing its goofy humor with iis more deeper, richer backstories never really gelled, and mostly all the human side characters not named Marco sucked), but there's so many open-ended questions, not just in those backstories but in…

That's… a really great explanation actually. If the show follows through with that thematically I'll happily eat my words.

Admittedly, I dropped the ball on the sandwich thing. I completely forgot the ending to the Dinner Party. That would also go into explaining Hater's final takedown of the sandwich.

The closest would probably be some of the weird stuff you'd see on MTV: Beavis and Butthead and Liquid TV.

Fixed! Apologies, I was up till 2AM writing that review.

It's a blurry memory, but Wikipedia mentioned CN did a trial run of sorts in December of 2000, so I'm not sure if I managed to catch that first or the official airing in 2001.

"Man, they have so much to do! I thought I had a lot to do, but they have MORE."

Carl also becomes evil when he becomes king of the bees, with his badass bumble-mullet.

The alien monkeys were… kind of villains? They ripped off Shake's thumb after all.

Agreed. The grade for this episode is 100% arbitrary; it could've done anything and probably be pretty good.

FYM