After the abysmal failure of one cartoon about giant robots fighting monsters, you'd think the immediate next cartoon in the same genre would be at the very least a step up in quality. Infuriatingly, Mech Cadets is yet another waste of an amazing premise. From the atrocious writing to the horrendous action scenes, this show continues this seemingly never ending train of sloppily made modern cartoons.
Based on the comic by Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa, Mech Cadets has an astounding premise that would make an amazing TV show. A group of specially trained youths pilot giant robots to fight alien monsters and defend the Earth. That premise alone is what likely got the show picked up on the spot. If you think this show more than delivers on it's premise, you'd be DEAD WRONG! Yeah, that premise was all hype and the actual show is nothing more than a generic melodrama about a bunch of dull and annoying characters spoonfeeding exposition to the audience like we're freaking babies! Nothing is left up to the imagination or visuals as each episode just has characters standing around doing nothing but spout exposition! One scene is literally just that! A character is explained their backstory to another and they're just standing there while the camera zooms back and forth across the room. No flashbacks! No interesting camera angles! NO NOTHING! As such the show has painfully sluggish pacing and just goes through the motions of a typical underdog story. What? The garbage boy aspires to be a pilot? Wow! I wonder if he gets his chance by sheer dumb luck! Oh wow! He did?! Well, gee wilickers! I hope everything turns out fine for him when he disobeys a direct order! What are the freaking odds?! He still gets to keep his giant robot after getting kicked out! And what's this? The leading general is the bad guy all along?! Who would've freaking guessed?! See, THAT'S the kind of writing that shows like Cobra Kai would be torn to shredds over! It's so formulaic and boring that it makes these episodes feel like an eternity to sit through! Then there's the humor, or should I say lack there of? All we get is a bunch of tired quips, unfunny gags, and very cringy attempts at imitation humor. This premise should've written itself, yet this is a prime example of the right idea in the wrong hands!
The characters are ironically more machine like than the giant robots with how often they spout exposition. Stanford is the generic underdog who gets everything handed to him through dumb luck. He goes on and on about wanting to be a pilot and making his late Dad proud and yet he never becomes relatable or interesting. Maya is Stanford's friend who's just there to be a parrot for Stanford. His Mom, Dolly, is just there to be his emotional support blanket. Olivia is a bitter rival with Daddy issues, Frank is the failed comic relief, and Ava is the girl who's hesitation really should've gotten her killed. Then there's General Aiden Park, Olivia's Dad and the big cheese of the academy. This guy is not a good person nor is he an interesting villain. He emotionally manipulates and gaslights his own daughter and is all about putting the safety of the world before the lives of family members. That would only make sense if we SAW men women and children being terrorized by alien monsters, but even then that's just freaking evil! Not even General Ross was willing to put his daughter, Betty, in handcuffs when apprehending Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk. There's being a harden general, then there's just being an incompetent moron who doesn't hear how evil he clearly sounds! General Park is the latter! No one else leaves that much of an impression and the robots and monsters are just colossal props for the cast to use.
The voice acting is honestly rather bland, like everyone's just going through the motions and don't make the characters sound that believable. Brandon Soo Hoo sounded really flat as Stanford, making him sound as generic as his character already is. Victoria Grace sounded bored as Olivia, which is good if they wanted her to be an emotionless husk and not a victim of emotional abuse. Josh Sundquist sounded fine as Frank but noting really stood out about his performance. Likewise Aprena Brielle as Ava and Anairis Quinones as Maya. The only decent actors are veterans Ming-Na Wen as Dolly and Daniel Dae Kim as General Park, but even then the material they're given doesn't do either of their talents justice.
Visually, the animation isn't that good, which is a shame because it's provided by Polygon Pictures, the same company behind Transformers: Prime and it's successor Transformers: Robots In Disguise. I'll give them credit that the character designs look fantastic with a great use of the cel-shading style that's common place now. The characters also have a futuristic yet grounded look to them with polished mech suits, gruff details, and natural looking facial features. I also really like the look of the robots and monsters as they feel colossal and have a lot of detail put into them. All that being said though, that's where the positives for the show end. The actual character animation is very weightless and choppy with characters looking like their have little to now mass and the frame rate cutting back and forth from being fluid to being choppy. Where the visuals suffer the most, though, is in the action scenes. By Schwarzenegger's chiseled pecs are these abominable action scenes! First of all, there's very few of them in a show about giant robots fighting monsters. Second, when they do show up, they are so disorienting and choppy with the camera going all over the place and not allowing the audience to see what's going on! Last and most importantly, THEY'RE TOO DANG QUICK! As soon as a fight between these mighty giants start, it over in less than 30 seconds! COME THE FLOP ON! This is borderline false advertising! Try as the animators might, all their hard work was ruined by the terrible cinematography and editing.
What a colossal waste of TIME! Mech Cadets is another prime example of how NOT to make a cartoon! The writing is atrocious, the characters are dull exposition machines, the acting is bland and the animation is choppy and weightless. The biggest cardinal sin this show commits, though, is having terrible action scenes that barely last long enough to qualify this as an action show! It most certainly deserves the worst fate to bestow on a piece of entertainment: to be ignored and forgotten! Do NOT watch Mech Cadets! Don't even bother looking into the comic it's based on because I doubt it's any better if this is how they promoted it. You know what you should do instead? Watch Michael Bay's Transformers quintology! I'm as serious as a heart attack! You find actually entertainment value with that film serious, whereas here all you'll find is wasted potential! 😡
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