Half Review: Never For Nothing

I started this review, but never really finished it.  Since I haven't posted in a while, I thought I'd just go ahead and post what I have.  I just changed it a little bit. Enjoy! :)


Does anybody else think it’s really annoying how Mr. Whittaker presses an issue until somebody does what he wants?  Let me clarify.  For example, in this episode, Whit nearly forces Matthew to go to the half-way house with him.  I mean, really, what is Matthew supposed to say?  He needs to say: “NO!  I DON’T WANT TO GO TO THE HALF-WAY HOUSE OR THE ORPHANAGE OR THE POOR VILLAGE SO WE CAN PASS OUT PRESENTS OR THE DRUG REHAB CENTER OR ANYWHERE ELSE!  NOW PLEASE STOP ASKING!!!  HAS IT EVER OCCURRED TO YOU THAT THERE ARE THINGS THAT WE HAVE TO DO TOO??!!!” in a nicer more respectful way.  :)  Everybody just listens to Whit and follows him around, doing whatever he wants.  It’s really annoying.

Anyway, ignoring that aspect, a few corny jokes, and several obnoxious characters (such as Olivia and her Grandma) this story was pretty good.  The Spanish characters were awesome and funny.  Especially Juan and Esperanza’s cousin.  And they had cool accents too. :)

Another thing I noticed is that the episode seemed more mature than usual, with Esperanza dying.  Of course, with what kids watch on TV and in the movies today, an accidental death in an audio drama is pretty mild.

Move That Bus and Let's Have a Concert! - A Review of "Wooton Knows Best"

All in all "Wooton Knows Best" is a great episode.  It's very funny and teaches a good lesson.  Wooton brings the humor of course.  I loved how he was telling his story to Whit but trying to do it in a way that would be non-scary.

Since I like music, I thought it was cool that they included Melissa Ciphers in the story although I'm sure she doesn't sing the kind of music I listen to.  It was pretty stupid how they had her at the end singing just for Olivia.  Pleease, a dose of realism.  Do you think that they would have brought Joe Ciphers if Olivia won the contest?

Of course Olivia was obnoxious (as usual) but it didn't ruin the story.  Especially since Matthew got to go to camp.  That made me happy.  :)  I love it when the boys win.  It shows that the world hasn't gone completely crazy.  (No offense girls)  ;)

Humor: Excellent
Plot: Very Good
"Stupid" Content: Little
Character Selection: Pretty Good
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The Jurassic Aliens Are Attacking!

I was looking forward to hearing this episode.  It sounded like it would be pretty interesting.  But when I heard it, I was disappointed.

The whole Parker family was pretty obnoxious, with maybe the exception of Matthew.  Camilla didn’t seem to know a thing, Olivia was her usual annoying self, Matthew didn’t want to work and came up with a ridiculous way to clean the dishes, David was portrayed to look like a dummy, and Eva was…well Eva.  I don’t have much to say about her, actually.

I’m not sure why all the kids in Odyssey feel the need to disclose all their personal life to Mr. Whittaker.  I would be pretty embarrassed, if I walked up to a man I knew and said, “Yeah the other night we got grounded because we watched a bad movie, and disobeyed our parents, and lied to our babysitter, and let this huge dog into the house and let him trash the place.”  You shouldn‘t tell people things like that.  It just makes them think that you’re bad kids and that you need a spanking.

The kids were very…bad.  I mean come on, a banana fight!  I am so sure.  Letting the dog lick out the pots and pans!  That is so exaggerated.  Think about it, do you know any kids who would waste perfectly good bananas…in a food fight…in the kitchen…with the baby-sitter right upstairs?  The writer was trying to hard to come up with a way to make the kids be irresponsible.  Now I might see a kid watching a bad movie, like Camilla did, but all the other things were sooo unrealistic.

I would like to point out something about the movies while we’re on the subject.  Have you ever noticed that in Odyssey, the “bad” movies are always about something slimy, or maybe they’re about aliens.  (For example in “All the Difference in the World” Danny watched “Slime Creatures from Sludge City.”)  I just think those are lame titles.  I think they should come up with better names.  For example in the comic books Calvin and Hobbes, when Calvin wants to watch a bad movie, or when he reads a scary book, the titles are something like “Cuisinart Murderer of Central High,” or “The Monster That Waits In Your Backyard to Dismember You.”  (Some other books that Calvin reads are named “Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie” and “Commander Coriander Salamander and’er Underhander Bellylander.”  (I thought that was humorous.)  I’ll get back on subject now, though.  That was just a thought.

Here’s a few other things I noticed:  For one, when the dog got into the house, it got very loud.  I noticed this in A Christmas Carol, too, when there was a thunderclap.  It scared me half to death.  Focus really needs to level their sound some way.  Also this episode reminded me of “Grandma’s Visit” in that all the Parker kids told Whit the story after it happened.  The last thing I’ll point out is that the end was kind of weird when we found out that the nanny wasn’t really English, but was actually an actor.

There was one, maybe two scenes, that made me laugh.  This was one of the worst episodes in #52 (along with “Opposite Day,” “Wooton’s Broken Pencil Show,” and probably “A Thankstaking Story.”  I haven’t listened to all of this story yet.)  My rating would have to be one out of five stars.

Rue the Day! Part 2

Despite my thoughts before I listened to this episode I actually enjoyed it.  I was checking my Facebook and stuff while I listened to it, but I managed to take some notes off it.  I’ll go back later and pay more attention to the stories within the episode.

This episode had some great humor.  In the beginning of the episode I was like, “Oh brother,” at some of the stuff they said.  Like when Wooton was talking about the “concussion game.”  But I did enjoy the rest, like when Jay started his “Rue the day!” lines again, and when Connie told the mayor she wanted to watch the parade on TV.

The acting was pretty good too (with the exception of Whit maybe)  I loved Jay’s Uncle’s bad guy voice.  I loved the mayors voice too.  I didn’t really care for Connie’s voice but I never like her when she sounds like that.

My favorite song on here was probably the one that stated “We are the bad guys.”  The rest of the music was pretty good.  One of them sounded too honky-tonk or something.  One of the other Blogger’s mentioned Connie’s ringtone and said something along the line that Focus would probably get complaints for playing the “devil’s” rock music.  Though I am against the “devil’s” rock music, I didn’t think that the ringtone was out of hand.  It was a common-sounding cell phone ringtone and I certainly wouldn’t complain about it.

One other note was the spoof’s they did.  I’d have to go through and listen again but the one’s I can remember are the Dr. Seuss spoof and possibly one about Mr. Magoo and the Grinch.  Also Peachey Keen pointed out that they had one about the Great Pumpkin (Bumpkin) on Charlie Brown.

I’d give this episode 3½ stars.  Great humor, good story, awesome voices, cool songs.