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Bread Barbershop (2020)
Bread... Barber?
In my insatiable hunger for Asian children's cartoons, I've come across yet another "SpongeBob SquarePants"-esque food one (the others are "Simple Samosa" from India and "Crazy Candies" from China). And I don't need to watch the whole first season to know that "Bread Barbershop" is weird - even compared to "Crazy Candies", a potentially lawsuit-inducing knockoff of "SpongeBob SquarePants"!
The show is about a slice of bread named Bread Pitt - and, by the way, that's canon AND his name in the original Korean version - who runs a "barbershop" where he gives foods decorative makeovers with help from his snarky cupcake cashier Choco and enthusiastic assistant milk carton Wilk White. They also have a sausage dog mascot named... wait for it... Sausage.
So, positives. I like how the show gets a lot of mileage out of a simple concept. A good comedy should have a lot of potential, and this one wastes no effort in story ideas, ranging from customers needing makeovers to shenanigans outside the barber place, all while having food themes it works off.
As for negatives, the characters can be mean-spirited, the humor is not that good and often relies on lame food puns, and a number of plotlines and jokes seem like they'd be inappropriate a show rated TV-Y (ages 2 through 6) in the United States. There's an episode where they attempt an exorcism on Wilk, deciding he's possessed. Apparently exorcisms are appropriate for preschoolers, everyone. Its worldbuilding is also confusing; why are none of the foods who are interested in getting put on display on a display shelf aware that they may be eaten, yet Wilk eats the crust off a client with no problem? And why is Wilk's misspelled label a biological thing?
"Bread Barbershop" is best suited to older children (about aged 9 and up), but its sense of humor and worldbuilding make it extremely obvious that it's not meant to be taken seriously. Just don't have high expectations for it, and just treat it as fun, but mindless. Mark my words; "Bread Barbershop" is a meme waiting to happen.
Apologies if my English is not terrible; I actually care about my capitalization, spelling, and grammar.
Zootopia (2016)
Somehow only one flaw
I'd imagine "Zootopia" is nothing but rewatchable for many people with its memorable characters, intense but interesting mystery, witty worldbuilding, good humor, and powerful anti-racism message broken down to be understandable to children. Literally the only storytelling flaw I can think of that ruins the enjoyment for me is that there is a plot twist that, without spoiling too much, gets no foreshadowing that alerts you to its presence at all, meaning it comes out of nowhere in the narrative; other than that, it's easily one of the best Disney movies of the new millennium. I'd absolutely recommend it.
Xi Yangyang Yu Hui Tailang: Kuang Chu Weilai (2022)
A slam dunk of a film for "Pleasant Goat"
While many people prefer the old seasons of "Pleasant Goat", this movie shows how far the franchise has come since its humble beginnings in 2005. The animation is vibrant, being far more detailed than any of the films that came before it; its art is similarly detailed, the backgrounds looking absolutely stunning; the premise, while not innovative, still works surprisingly well for what was once a shoddily-animated slapstick cartoon. The only things I don't like are the characters spectating the basketball game using the 3D animation they used in the previous films, and the characters still using simplistic lip movements as in the original TV show and previous films, as they look off for a film with otherwise gorgeous animation and art direction. Other than that, it's the only "Pleasant Goat" film I give four stars out of five, and not three stars or below.
Simple Samosa (2018)
Simple Samosa may be a bit too simple.
I watched several episodes of this that were uploaded to YouTube and must say, it's, uh, something.
For starters, the animation leaves something to be desired. I understand that Indian animation in general usually isn't of the same quality as here in America and elsewhere (the only exception I've seen so far is Cartoon Network India's Lamput), but it's still kinda awkward and low-budget.
The show proper is about the many adventures of a samosa boy and his friends, a dhokla, a jalebi, and a vada... who are named Samosa, Dhokla, Jalebi, and Vada respectively. In fact, most of the characters are just named after what food they are. That naming convention is too simple (no pun intended!), but at least it's educational to an extent about Indian cuisine over here in America where samosas and such foods aren't that common, I guess.
The episode plots seem decent enough that with a little work, they could be something cool. A few I noticed, however, are stock plots that have been done literally to oblivion and back (for example, in one episode, it's Jalebi's birthday, but she thinks her friends may have forgotten... but in reality they had a surprise party planned for her the whole time! That TOTALLY doesn't sound cliched, right?).
The voice work is so-so; the English dub has the characters speak in such a thick accent that I can't understand them sometimes, but other than that it seems fine. Could be better, though.
The pace of the show seems kinda slow for a cartoon I assume was made for children around 6-8 years old and over. I guess the scenes just feel like they're longer than they probably should be.
In general, the show is mediocre but not without any potential or merit. There IS one thing I will say about this show, though: It's a shame we're not able to find a full episode list at the moment, let alone all the episodes themselves; in fact, the show premiered in 2018, and the show being that recent and yet having no full episode lists anywhere caught me off guard!