Henry Danger + The Adventures of Kid Danger Reviewed: S4 E7 & S1E1/2 reviewed (Toon in For Danger + Popcorn Monster/Game of Drones)

Zoom zoom zoom to the moon moon moon!

What is it? A combination of Henry Danger (I trust ya'll know what that is) with the premiere of The Adventures of Kid Danger which...yeah if you already know what Henry Danger is you know what this one is too.
Where did it air? Well if you already know what Henry Danger is you probably already also know this on Nickelodeon
Who stars in it? Cooper Barnes, Jace Norman, and Riele Downs for both shows because, yeah, animated spinoff (well I'm assuming it's Jace even though it doesn't sound like him but whatever)
Why are we reviewing this? Well, cartoon, live-action, you know.

Man, I can't wait for Mike to join me on this one. I'm sure he's going to have lots to say, and you damn well bet I'm gonna spread his words far and wide.

What's The Adventures of Kid Danger, exactly? Well, you can look at it several ways, really. You can look at it as an animated version of Henry Danger. You can even look at it as effectively a single-camera version of Kid Danger with an unlimited budget for SFX, just...not an unlimited budget for animation. Clearly.

Either way, it's just more Henry Danger. Or to put it a third way, it's Henry Danger hyper-Flanderized to Dan Schneider's logical conclusion.  

TIL Dan Schneider's most extreme logical conclusion ends up being about the same as every single episode of Robot Chicken ever made, ever. With a heavy dose of classic 90s cartoon tropes (so yeah, like every single episode of Robot Chicken ever made).

Before I go on, let's talk about Toon in For Danger. Of the three, I'd call it the middle episode in terms of quality, although the margins aren't that wide. It went about where'd you expect, which is exactly nowhere other than at the very end when we finally see the first episode of Adventures of Henry Danger. Save for the fake-out cartoon near the beginning, which was clearly the highlight of this episode.

In fact, I think I might actually like the fakeout cartoon better than the real thing.

So let's move on back to Popcorn Monster. It was...well...yeah, exactly how many times in a single review can I say "the logical extreme conclusion of Dan Schneider is every single Robot Chicken ever made" and "it's like regular Henry Danger except animated?"

Just like what came before it, nothing really much happened. I mean, live-action or animated it's pretty clear the Schneider shows in general are moving closer to being raw delivery vehicles for jokes (at least VicTORious actually had interesting, relatable plots at its best - yes I mean it) but Popcorn Monster was pretty much just empty, barely-buttered calories (cue the CSI: Miami sunglass drop if you want). 

Game of Drones...good God Game of Drones was just so freakin' stupid, but it worked. This is clearly the direction Schneider and crew want to take the show, and it's the direction they need to take the show. Beating a dead horse, it's what defines the best of Robot Chicken: it doesn't matter how much sense it makes, or how out of left-field it is, just make it funny. Hell sometimes the jokes work because they're so out of left field they don't even need a punchline. 

There are many types of stupid when it comes to TV. If it's so out-of-left-field stupid, that becomes the punchline.

Again, empty calories, but lots of flavor. So might as well move on to:

Toon In For Danger: Episode Grade: C-. Again, the best part was the fakeout cartoon.
Episode MVP: Whoever did Fake Kid Danger's voice. I'm so not kidding. This is a completely serious MVP reward.

Extra Thoughts:

 - man, Shawn White got old.

 - Yeah I'd believe the scripts for all three of these episodes were written in the space of the same two days.

 - The running joke with the news anchors is just getting old, man. Old enough to make Shawn White feel better about his age.

Popcorn Monster: Episode Grade: C. If this is what we have to look forward to for the future of Dan Schneider in general...eeeehhhhhhh. Time to start hunting Amazon or EBay for VicTORious, Drake & Josh and iCarly DVD collections, I guess.
Episode MVP: Whoever did the voice of the woman the popcorn monster threw into the tree because whatevs.

Extra Thoughts:

 - I got nothing, man.

Game of Drones: Episode Grade: B-. By far the strongest of the three, and if this is what we have to look forward to on Friday when Adventures begins its regular rotation, well, I might actually stick around after Loud House. Hell I originally gave this episode a C+ - even typed it out and everything - but then I decided....ehhh. What the hell, benefit of the doubt rewarded.
Episode MVP: Sean Ryan Fox. Yes really, despite his relatively minor role.

Extra Thoughts:

 - WTF is up with this BS about the episode having Dr. Minyak but not his super-hot assistant, even in animated form?

 - So we're getting yet another Jace Norman movie (or "movie"), yay.

 - Yeah I decided to split up the Grade/MVP/Extra Thought sections just for clarity and convenience given how we're reviewing no less than three episodes at the same time.

Here I am.....about nine days late, but I'm here.


I liked "Popcorn Monster" more than "Game of Drones." That episode felt like the kind of stupid-funny comedy that could work for a show like this.


I'm going to be honest here: The cartoon has more potential to be good than the actual live-action show. At this point, Henry Danger isn't going to change. In fact, it probably doesn't have that much time left anyway to change. It's already on its fourth season, and it has established itself as one of the dumbest shows Nickelodeon has ever greenlit. It's established itself as one of the reasons this network is looked at the way it is now. But what if all that stupidity and annoying content could be put to use in a constructive way?


Think about it. Dan Schneider's style of writing is way past the expiration date for live-action shows. The acting doesn't help either, but there's a reason why I can watch a Drake & Josh episode from season one like I did this past weekend and not feel embarrassed when I watch it. The writing has aged well, the characters and situations have aged well. These current shows are going to look like a joke in a few years. But maybe Henry Danger was just made in the wrong format. Animation allows you to be wacky, zany, stupid, bizarre, and over the top. This new cartoon could be everything Henry Danger failed to be. It could use Dan Schneider's writing style and give it new life in an animated form. Will it be a great show? Probably not, and as long as The Loud House is breathing, it will never be the best cartoon on the network either. But it could be charming enough to outshine the original show and come off as endearing instead of irritating.

Only time will tell.

Episode Grade: B-. The grade would be lower if the fake-out cartoon wasn't so hilarious.

Episode MVP: Whoever voiced Henry at the beginning. They really went above and beyond in making that cartoon awful. 

Cartoon Grade: B. "Popcorn Monster" was pretty entertaining and a sign of what the show could be if they put effort into it, and harness the stupidity of the live-action show for the greater good. Didn't care much for "Game of Drones" though.

Cartoon MVP: Cooper Barnes. He really sounded at home voicing Ray. Even though he's been doing this character for four years, he gave it new life in the cartoon. Him and Jace Norman are going to provide most of the laughs on the show. 

EXTRA THOUGHTS
-I've said before that Henry Danger would be a lot more tolerable if the show was just about Henry, Ray, Charlotte, and Schwoz. This episode and the cartoon pilot seem to be taking my advice because those four characters were in the focus for the most part. The best thing about the cartoon is that it sounds like everyone is having fun, especially Cooper Barnes. It's almost like getting to voice an animated character was his lifelong dream or something. I got the feeling that Henry and Ray are more dumbed down in the cartoon and Charlotte will face the consequences for being a normally functioning person. I hope they don't make a habit of it because.......that's not what the show needs.

-About the actual Henry Danger episode, it was okay. Nothing really stood out besides the fake-out cartoon. I agree with Ray entirely, that shit was hilarious. Especially when Kid Danger asked Captain Man how he would get his oranges to the church festival on time, and Captain Man told him he didn't know what he just said. Honestly, the first time I watched this episode, I didn't know what he said either. That was some phenomenal voice acting to make Henry sound as muffled and incoherent and wimpy as possible. I would much rather watch that cartoon every week than the live-action show. Also, Ray chose the perfect opening quote for this review. What really killed me was that Henry was legitimately upset about the fact that Kid Danger never took the oranges to church. It's sad that this series could only pull together funny scenes like this 5% of the time, and the other 95% is just mindless garbage. 

-Shaun White's guest appearance was......a guest appearance. I don't know what to say about it. I mean, I know he's an Olympic gold medalist and not an actor, but damn, that was awkward. It came off like the writers had absolutely no idea what to do with him and they just told him to improvise. You know how at some point, The Simpsons went from making fun of their guest stars to worshipping them? That's what this felt like. 

-This might be me being nitpicky, but what cartoon was everybody watching at Henry's place? The episode gives away that Henry and Ray are Kid Danger and Captain Man. It also gives away Charlotte assisting them. So the cartoon we saw was different from the one they saw? It had to have been, because if it wasn't, that makes absolutely no sense. But I'm not getting paid for this so why does it matter? 

-I don't know if Oliver is supposed to be an awkward, monotone character or the actor is just that bad. Either explanation makes sense to me, but whenever he appears on screen, I'm just wondering what the hell is happening. That scene where Shaun White challenges him to a race was more uncomfortable than it should have been. I actually felt violated and considered reporting it to the authorities. The weird part is his personality works much better within the cartoon, so........something to chew on.

-I almost forgot to comment on the show's animation. Is it supposed to look like a comic book? Because it looks cheap and moves like a computer game. I'll get used to it, but it's pretty off-putting right now.