Review of The Bewitchin' Pool

I think this is just a mediocre effort. Many years ago there was a cartoon called "Dreamland." In it a pair of little waifs who went to bed hungry each night dreamed they were in a place where candy grew out of the ground, they were clothed nicely, and all their troubles went away. Ultimately, they woke up to the poverty which was their lives. Eventually, they come to know some happiness. The parents in this episode are so awful. They are spoiled and edgy and have no respect for their children. So while swimming in the enormous pool, the kids find themselves in a kind of "Huckleberry Finn" world with Auntie T making them cake and teaching them traditional crafts. The lesson here is so ham-handed that it loses any subtlety. When one had about twenty-five minutes to tell a story, those subtleties were often ejected. Here, however, there is no chance for reconciliation or redemption. It lacks even a little complexity or irony. Maybe even Auntie T's new book that she bought from some aliens, "How to Serve Man." Most of the family shows of the time were so syrupy that another dose didn't contribute much.