a curated selection of thoughts collected within a 1 gb limit
it's a strange feeling to look back on 2020. i feel that with everything surrounding that era, it's best that we just sort of forget about it. but the reason i look back on it is because it's the last year i can think of that drastically changed me. last time, it was 2014 that did that for me. but 2014 moreso determined what i wanted to do for my career. 2020 on the other hand, that was the year that taught me how to think differently. that second semester, i wrote news articles and reviews for my school newsletter. and artistically, all that free time i had really inspired me to experiment a little and practice my style.
but there was something else that happened. around that time, my local cable company unlocked a free preview of a selection of certain TV channels we don't pay for. i tried boomerang for about two weeks, but you'd have to declare me legally dead if i'm gonna have to watch the same five commercials again and again. then i tried disney XD and accidentally got myself into four cartoons all at once.
amphibia was one of them. by that point, i thought it was just fine. ducktales was another one i really liked, but they had this neat habit of showing what i can only assume is a curated selection of episodes. in other words, not all of them. the owl house actually ended up being my favorite of the bunch, mostly because it felt weirdly nostalgic. this was also before anything with a real plot, let alone anything lumity-related. so all it was at the time was a bunch of cool setpieces with weird creatures. and it was still just as nice! but while these shows eventually got their deserved audience at some point, there's always been one cartoon that never quite had that reputation. it's popular no doubt, but not often brought up in discussion. it was less grandiose, more episodic, and more simple than any of these other shows. and as such, it's been instinctly passed off in the animation community as nothing more than something pretty cool, but not cool enough for the cool kids table. but sit down for a minute and you'll find one of the most genuine surprises in the modern cartoon era. this is big city greens.
now, i know what you're thinking. "stove, what the hell am i looking at?" well, tough guy. i'll be glad to tell you all about it. big city greens is a show on disney channel about a family of country folk who move into their grandmother's home in the big city. it was made by the houghton brothers, chris and shane. they've done a lot of writing work for shows like harvey beaks, which was mostly shane, while chris has done storyboard work on shows like gravity falls and wander over yonder.
so let's roll call. cricket is the mischevious younger child who causes a lot of trouble, tilly is the peppy, sort of weird, older daughter who tends to think outside the box (maybe too outside at times), bill is the humble father who's trying to look out for his family, and gramma alice is the grumpy old lady with a prosthetic leg and a sword. great stuff. oh, and they got a dog named phoenix. dogs are pretty cool too.
the show primarily takes place in the big city known to many as...big city, contrasting with the green family's country mindset. each episode involves them getting into wild wacky scenarios with wild wacky stakes that require wild wacky solutions and wild wacky action bikes. alright, that last part i made up, but that's generally the format we're working with here. most big city greens episodes would usually go like this: introduce the plot, sneak in a B-plot, build up both plots so they can go out with a bang, have them sync up eventually, teach a moral lesson, and wrap everything up nicely. it's a tried and true format that works with the show. although, the moral lesson can take a hike. it's as if they have to stop the wild wacky scenario for a quick PBS moral of the story. one minute, they're like "we gotta stop the rocket from hitting big city!" and then it switches to "sometimes, you just have to take a step back for the sake of your mental health." it's like they have to make everything crystal clear for all the kids who can't pick up on visual cues. actually, maybe that's why they do it.
the most reoccurring character is cricket green’s best friend, remy. he’s the optimistic kid in the show, but he’s also got a lot of anxiety problems as well. it’s like he sees the bright side in everything, but he still struggles with his self-confidence. everything’s just been handed to him his entire life, considering that he was born in a very rich family with danny trejo as his bodyguard. and you know, at the end of the day, he’s still just a kid. he’s eager to grow, but it’s just too hard for him. but he does grow and blossom when he hangs out with cricket. he develops into his own gradually throughout the show.
second to remy in terms of “oh i see them quite a lot” is gloria, the young, grumpy barista at big coffee. she’s got her own aspirations of being an artist and going to paris or something. i really like her character. she's not just a one-note grump who cleans up after cricket's stuff. she too has real insecurities and genuine moments. throughout the show, she grows about as much as, if not more than remy. you could see a bit of candace from phineas and ferb in her if that makes sense. the things she does is not out of a malicious intent, but because that's just how she emotionally responds.
other characters include andromeda, tilly's friend and the alex jones of the show. you know i'm right. there's also vasquez, the aforementioned bodyguard of remy voiced by danny trejo. love that guy. then there's officer keys, the only good cop on earth. he's pretty funny as well. community sue, gwendolyn zapp, these are just names at this point, but you could feel the character throughout all of these people. everyone's just so distinct and subtle.
and then there's chip whistler, the main antagonist of the first two seasons and proud CEO of wholesome foods. he's a joke of a character who chips his tooth in every episode he's in. i love this guy. paul schreer does his voice, by the way. you'll recognize him from such projects as adult swim's NTSF:SD:SUV:: and FX's the league.
yeah, they got some good names here. i guess that's what disney money does for you. gloria's voice actor has done voice work as sasha in amphibia, remy's actor is known for playing goh in the pokemon anime as well as hunter in the owl house, andromeda is voiced by comedian nicole byer, jenna ortega from wednesday and A24's X plays a character named gabriella, raven symone plays a news anchor named maria media, and tilly's voice actor is pearlie. that freaked me out because i feel like the last person on earth who remembers pearlie. to be fair, so do both of its fans. but still! even tim robinson plays a character!
and by the way, fozzie bear is a guest star. that's marketing right there.
it's not the first time they let a muppet barge into a disney cartoon. they also let kermit the frog out of his cage so he could barge into the production crew. he even helped promote amphibia for a particular reason that i just can't put my finger on. hmm...
but it would be remiss of me to forget about the mom of the show, nancy green. she's the tough and cool ex-wife of the show who shows up every now and then to tag along on the greens' wacky shenanigans. canonically, she hasn't been in a bulk of the show because she got arrested for freeing all the zoo animals. it's less dumb than i'm putting it. but that's the thing about this show. it's not like things happen and everyone moves on. lots of big things go on in this show. there's a sense of real growth throughout this seemingly episodic world. there’s a reason why they move to the city. there’s a reason why the house is basically smushed between two city buildings. there’s a reason why gloria sticks around for so long against all odds. but it's not like anybody can get lost if you lose the slightest bit of context. new viewers can take a couple episodes before they really get into it, and those who are really into it are rewarded with something new and exciting. you google this show and you'll probably notice something different about it. what do i mean?
well for one thing, they leave the city.
yeah, right now as i'm writing this, the latter half of this third season is taking place in the country. welcome to smallton (hilarious), the greens' home turf. it's sort of a full circle moment. we've seen the greens in the big city for so long that we'd never take into account that they were once some humble countryfolk. now we can explore what life was like on the other side of the spectrum. even remy's along for the ride! the only thing i'm concerned about comes in a curious betsy of a question: is this a gimmick? i mean, i appreciate that these guys are so willing to change up the formula? but how long will it take until they run out of meat and start heading back? it's still a good show at the end of the day, but i'm curious to see how long they can milk this dry.
besides settings, i think character really seems to be the name of the game, mainly in terms of dynamics and individuality. cricket is a roughhouser on his own, but how does he work with other people? how do tilly and bill work together? what about remy and gramma? where does nancy see herself in the family after being gone for so long? what happens if you mix in community sue or gwendolyn zapp? if phoenix could talk, would she sound british? you know, real burning questions like that. you can really tell this stupid family loves each other. it’s such a sweet show that gives you time to care about these people and what they’re going through. and above all that, it's really funny, practically demented. between every sweet character moment is something hilarious and unexpected. i don't know if i really have a favorite character because they're all fun to watch.
alright, i've avoided it for long enough. let’s talk art. i had a friend who told me that the character design of cricket green might just be one of the worst designs he’s ever seen. i could see why, you know? he is kind of a rat bastard. but i don’t know if i’d call these designs “bad” per se. just a little derivative. i mean, there’s cricket’s good friend, remy, who’s basically irwin from billy and mandy. i can’t tell you how much it pains me to know that there’s at least two irwins in this world. but they’re not so derivative that it makes my head hurt. there’s clearly some sort of design philosophy going on. each character looks like some sort of technicolor disaster, but that’s just par for the course. they also have very clear silhouettes as well, so not everyone is the same person. you might have some of the same yellows and blues every now and then, but there’s something to each character. they kind of stick in your head that way.
i mean design-wise, these guys are crazy expressive. it took quite a bit to find its footing visually. everyone’s either a bit loose or a bit stiff. the most drastic change might be tilly, who was moreso innocently gullible and stiff before she got a tad more outgoing. her overall attributes are still there. they’re just more fleshed out is all. this practice isn't unique to only this cartoon. lots of shows tend to start off in some sort of early state. it's always sunny in philadelphia, for instance, didn't even have danny devito until the second season. and if we're talking cartoons, steven universe used to look...rough. but then they wised up and mostly stayed consistent. with big city greens, they were just figuring out what to do early on like anyone would. for god's sake, cricket had a catchphrase. it's not often he says it these days, but he'd usually say "bingo bango" when he had a good idea in his head. even the masochists at disney saw this as the funniest thing they'd ever heard, putting it on t-shirts and making an official bingo bango video compilation. it really is the last bastion of the catchphrase.
i’ve also heard the “calarts style” comparison. but that’s just trends. in the 80s, it used to be melted plastic action figures that defined a lot of character designs. sometimes the most cartoonish looking designs would slip by like with hanna-barbera or the super mario cartoon. in the 90s, creative control was the hot new thing at nickelodeon and cartoon network. so when these creators started going crazy, companies saw this and told their committee to sort of be kinda like that. i believe ren and stimpy was especially the model for that. then the 2000s saw the return of that blocky UPA style, so a lot of cartoons followed that model. think clone high or foster’s home for imaginary friends. there was even a bit of anime influence like in totally spies. then, the early 2010s happened and story-driven cartoons were in full swing. you know, until they weren’t. they also happened to have characters with the dreaded “round shape” designs which happened to come from a lot of calarts graduates. thus, the calarts style was born out of thin air...which was coined by the ren and stimpy guy to call out the disney art style of the 90s.
yeah, it’s not exactly fair game to base judgments off of art style alone. i can see how it affects presentation. sometimes, being derivative can hurt a cartoon’s chances of really striking a core with its audience. but i guarantee you that giving something the benefit of the doubt can be a good make or break factor. i’m not asking you to like a certain art style. but i am asking you to give faith a chance every once in a while. take a whiff of it in motion for more than a minute and decide if it’s right for you.
that’s what big city greens is to me. i don’t think i would’ve ever given this a go if i’d never gotten bored and switched to disney channel for some reason. and i’m glad! because what i’d gotten myself into is one of the sweetest, funniest, and most comforting animated shows of our time. it’s not exactly the deepest show ever made. it’s very simplistic in terms of structure, art direction, and storytelling. it’s using a tried-and-true model that works in its favor, but doesn’t turn any heads. and that’s what makes it such a genuine surprise in the medium. the characters are expressive, the art direction is simple and recognizable, it’s genuinely funny, and you can tell there’s an underlying sense of growth. there’s real meat on this plate that a lot of people are missing out on.
and that’s the thing. it's big enough to keep going and even get a whole movie greenlit. it’s fairly popular not just on cable, but on streaming. i’ve actually seen this baby on the front page of disney+ quite a few times. and there’s MILLIONS of youtube views for mere clips of this show. these are yellow-skinned beverly hillbillies getting movie trailer hits. it’s not like it’s gone unnoticed. just the efforts.
man, i love big city greens. i love it! it can be corny every once in a while, but it's not something that distracts from the overall charm. look, if there’s one hill to die on, it’s the hill where i defend big city greens with all i have left. if there’s no hill to die on, i’m already dead. if you want a headstart before selling your soul to disney+, there's a couple episodes available on youtube, including the pilot. my favorite episodes in particular are bear trapped, barry cuda, coffee quest, hurty tooth, cricket's kapowie, elevator action, heat beaters, shark objects, wild side, greens' acres, cheap show, and green greens. or if you somehow still have cable, just turn on disney channel. disney XD plays this show a lot more, but only college dorms and people in denial still have disney XD. however way you watch it, i hope you give it a lucky shot like i did. you might get something out of it.