Many years ago, I occasionally watched some part of Newton episodes with my children, and I remember to this day a certain fascination. Now at age 53, finding a 3 DVD set of season 2 in the bargain bin (1 each), 26 episodes or some 300 minutes worth, I couldn't resist. With slight hesitation I put the first disk in the player.. and ended up watching the whole bunch, slightly exhausted at 1am.
This is powerful stuff with many surprising, weird but good ideas, which I tend to rank close to Simpsons or Futurama. Or, in a quite different vein, Ned and Newton are somehow comparable to Charlie Brown and Snoopy (also, the simple drawing style, Ned's free-flying eyebrows and hairs...).
However, I can't but agree to one commenter at TV.com that Newton has some striking similarity with the genie in Disney's Aladdin - blue, voice-imitating shape-shifter.
Seemingly simple kiddie cartoons, with a lot of content that it takes an adult or two to really appreciate... cultural references, especially to movies, lasting just a split-second. Blink and you missed it.
Of last night's tour de force, I had the strongest impressions from the episodes dealing with alphabet soup, Bremen, New York alligators, and a giant shoe. But I'll re-watch them soon, hoping to understand more of the plentiful subtle allusions :^)
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