Featured TV on DVD Review: Fanboy and Chum Chum
May 22, 2011
Fanboy and Chum Chum - Buy from Amazon
Some of the creative staff behind Fanboy and Chum Chum include writers, directors, and animators that have worked on The Simpsons, Futurama, SpongeBob SquarePants, and others. That's quite an impressive pedigree, but can this show live up to its predecessors?
Fanboy and Chum Chum are two elementary school kids with an enthusiastic love for comic books, science fiction, fantasy, etc. They take this fandom to the extreme by wearing super hero costumes to school, which consists of capes, masks, and their underwear on the outside. Their enthusiasm tends to annoy most people around them, and I understand the feeling.
Extras include six shorts, but most are just 30 seconds long, so it's hardly a major selling point. There is also the pilot episode for Planet Sheen, the Jimmy Neutron spin-off with Sheen Estevez, one of Jimmy's friends, stuck in a rocket ship that blasts him into space. I like the movie and the TV show, so I'm willing to give this one a try, but just one episode is not enough to judge the show.
Fanboy and Chum Chum is aggressively annoying. It's the kind of show that kids might love, but parents will want to lock themselves in the trunk of their car to avoid seeing. The DVD doesn't have a lot of extras, and unless your kids are hardcore fans of the show, it's only worth a rental.
The Show
This may seem like a lot, but since each episode is made up of two shorts, there are only four episodes worth of material here.
The first episode of the series introduces Kyle, the pre-teen wizard. While Kyle is a real wizard and can cast magic spells, Fanboy likes to pretend to be a wizard and the two get into a duel.
After Fanboy and Chum Chum stick their gum under their desks, they find themselves at odds with Janitor Russ Poopatine, who promptly destroys the gum they were chewing at the time. Fortunately for the pair, he didn't find their main stash of old gum, Yum-Yum, because that night it becomes sentient and now they have a new friend. But when Yum-Yum shows up to school, Janitor Poopatine will try to destroy the gum monster for good.
Fanboy and Chum Chum have money, one whole dollar. But while they plan on buying two small Frosty Freezy Freezes drinks, Chum Chum sticks the money into the Chimp Chomp arcade game before they pay for their drinks. Now they have to figure out a way to get a dollar to pay for their drinks.
When the pair see a commercial for the new Yo's Mecha-Tech robot toy, Fanboy must have one. He goes so far as to trade Chum Chum for one, but just for the day. He quickly rejects this decision. Why?
The Chimp Chomp movie is opening and Fanboy and Chum Chum got the last three tickets. They were supposed to go with Ox, the comic book store owner, but he has to go to a goat show with his mom. So now Boog, the bully, wants that last ticket. Of course Fanboy and Chum Chum will make him pay for it.
Boog, the bully, grew up in a plastic bubble as a result of allergies, but now he's selling it in a big yard sale. Of course it's Fanboy and Chum Chum who buy it. At first they have lots of fun, but then they find out that Boog can't hurt them while they are in the bubble, and suddenly it's the greatest thing ever. But Boog knows they will have to come out to use the bathroom, and he's willing to wait.
Kyle somehow got roped into mountain climbing with Fanboy and Chum Chum and the trio set out to climb... the mount on top of the Frosty-Mart. It's not a long hike, but when they get trapped up there, they will have to try to survive the night.
The kids are playing Freeze Tag when Man-Arctica joins in, but the alien super hero takes the game too far and soon only Fanboy and Chum Chum are left unfrozen. The Extras
The Verdict
- Submitted by: C.S.Strowbridge
Filed under: Video Review