Hello lords and ladies.
Welcome back to Cartoon Hangout, your place for all things cartoon.
But more specifically welcome back to Flashback Friday, a series within a series that focuses
solely on older cartoons.
Typically ones I've seen already and am excited to share with you.
FF has been absent since December and it's never truly caught on, but with the content
around here lacking since most of the shows I regularly review are on hiatus, I decided
it was time to do something about it.
And the show I've decided to review is none other Slugterra.
I wouldn't be very surprised if you hadn't heard of this show before.
It's underrated in my opinion.
Just to briefly summarize what the show is about, it follows a young Eli Shane who descends
into the underground world of Slugterra after his father is killed in order to restore peace.
In this bizarre cavernous world, there are things called slugs which are essentially
living ammo that Slugslingers use to duel and basically solve all their conflicts.
It's sort of part Pokemon, part Beyblade in a sense.
There's a gotta-collect-em-all mentality with each specie of slug having unique abilities,
but the fights are closer to Beyblade in that you launch your slug (albeit out of a blaster)
and it transforms to quickly fight either the opponent's slug or the opponent themselves.
It's difficult to fully explain until you've seen the show yourself.
Trust me, it sounds incredibly dumb but it's actually really freaking cool!
Especially as the show continues into later seasons.
I truly love this show and this episode is just as strong a start as I remember it being.
First off, the premiere is a two-parter.
Now that's something we don't get too much these days.
Story-oriented cartoons with great first episodes.
Although there's room for all kinds of shows, I have started to ache for more shows like
Slugterra.
Maybe that's why I'm returning to it.
Or the promise of new episodes.
Right off the bat we get hit with what will be the ongoing conflict and mystery of this
show.
What happened to Eli's father and what exactly are those dark slugs?
Hint: Think Shadow Pokemon and you'll kinda be close.
That's always, at least in my mind, a good thing to include in your first episode: an
intriguing hook to keep your audience coming back each week to learn more.
And boy does this episode deliver in that regard.
Plus we get a really strongly written protagonist in Eli Shane.
See, if there's one thing I don't necessarily like (depending on the context), it's when
a show starts out with an already incredibly powerful protagonist.
Specifically when they're meant to be a newb.
Sure, it can be fun watching the good guys wreck the baddies, but what's equally, if
not more so, fun is seeing a character you've become attached to slowly become stronger.
His losses are your losses, his wins are your wins.
Eli even first acts like he IS that type of character I mentioned.
The already all-powerful character.
He does this because he thinks being a Shane will just mean something to the people of
Slugterra, but nope.
It's like obvious comedic character Pronto says here.
Again, this concept of the protagonist slowly getting stronger after starting at level zero
is such an interesting one for me.
You can mold it however you'd like and get some very gratifying stories out of it.
For example, while he's definitely new to Slugterra, Eli is quick on his feet and is
able to utilize Trixie's advice on the battlefield.
It also helps that in a way it allows the writers to set up the other characters that
will very obviously join up with young Shane to help him: namely Trixie (my cartoon crush),
Kord, and Pronto.
I personally think these characters are some of the best characters in all of cartoondom.
Seriously, by the end of season one you'll probably be emotionally invested in their
lives.
Not much of this praise is super apparent in this episode, mind you.
Keep in mind this is only part 1 of 2, but for now we don't get to know these new characters
all that much.
And lest I forget, the art style of Slugterra is quite pretty to look at.
I'm not going to lie to you and claim, "Oh boy, this CGI is SO good!" because it's not.
I will say it's got its charm.
It helps that the backdrops of the show look like they could be standalone pieces of art.
They've got this really painted look about them.
Going back to the CGI, one aspect that shows that there are some limits to what this show
can do is during the slug duels.
If you pay attention, sometimes the Slugs turn 2D.
It'll probably help if I just show it off.
See, not CGI, but I kinda like it and how it reminds me of either video game art or
comic books.
This show means a lot to me and I can't even say it's due to nostalgia as I only discovered
this show two years ago.
Hopefully as I review these episodes, I can not only show off some of the great episodes,
but maybe even notice some things I didn't the first time.
I'm sure there are some not-so-great moments that I just can't recall that I'll be able
to analyze later on.
Hopefully if you haven't yet seen Slugterra, this review has convinced you to go give it
a watch.
Maybe you can watch it alongside me.
If you're coming back to this video after seeing episode 1, please let me know what
you thought of it.
Thanks for watching and take care.