Sidekick

Sidekick is a Canadian animated television comedy series created by Todd Kauffman (former co-director of mh:besttvshows:Total Drama, and later co-creator of mh:besttvshows:Grojband and Looped) and Joey So. The series ran from September 3, 2010, to September 14, 2013, on YTV. In the US it airs on Cartoon Network and in the UK it airs on CBBC. The series is based on the original shorts originally titled The Not-So-Superheroic Adventures of Sidekick aired as part of the 2005 TV series, Funpak.

Premise
Sidekick centers on an orphan boy named Eric Needles, with his best friend Trevor Troublemeyer and his two female friends, Vana Glama and Kitty Ko, who are training to become sidekicks at the Academy for Aspiring Sidekicks in the city of Splittsboro. While dealing with intense sidekick training, Eric must also contend with his strict guardian Maximum Brain, his grumpy teacher Professor Pamplemoose, the evil Master XOX, and keeping the disappearance of his superhero mentor, Maximum Man.

Why It's a Terrible Sidekick

 * 1) First off just to get the elephant out of the room to begin with, the main problem with the show is that it's way too mean-spirited to the main protagonist as every episode just has him being tortured by every single character for no reason to the point where it makes it unwatchable.
 * 2) It has very messed up and horrible messages:
 * 3) *"If you do something wrong, you get off scot-free, but if you haven't done anything wrong, you get punished by torture."
 * 4) *"Who cares how you act? Looks are more important than behavior."
 * 5) Aside from being mean-spirited, the show is also littered with everyone being a hypocrite and an idiot.
 * 6) The animation, while good and decent, was pretty cheap and lazy in the first season.
 * 7) It tends to be inappropriate at times.
 * 8) * Even worse is that just like Fanboy & Chum Chum, it tends to overuse gross-out humor in most episodes, especially in episodes like "My Brother, My Pimple". Examples are, but are not limited to:
 * 9) ** Almost any scene that involves Trevor.
 * 10) ** Eric having smelly feet in the episode "Match Dot Com".
 * 11) ** A gross-out close-up of Kitty's snot-covered tie in the episode "The Heartbreak Golly-Gee Kid".
 * 12) **Vana and Kitty (in turtle form) having a burping and then a farting contest in "Eric and Trevor’s Mediocre Adventure". This scene however, was censored on Qubo reruns.
 * 13) ** Kitty licking the sludge off of Eric's window in the episode "What's He Hiding".
 * 14) ** Eric popping his mutated pimple brother Derek at the end of the episode "My Brother, My Pimple".
 * 15) ** Master XOX kissing Eric's feet in the episode "OppoXOX".
 * 16) ** Another gross-out close-up of Eric's unwashed hand in the episode "Vapo House".
 * 17) * As mentioned above, the entirety of the episode "My Brother, My Pimple" just focuses on Eric getting a mutated pimple brother named Derek and also uses the gross-out humor this show has as a major plot device.
 * 18) The series writing is mediocre and lackluster, as it just relies on the same old "Yank the Dog's Chain" plot device that is seen in some cartoons. As such, it's filled to the brim with a handful of bad or mediocre episodes, such as:
 * 19) * "Fart of Darkness"
 * 20) * "Identity Crisis"
 * 21) * "Crudburger"
 * 22) * "The Short List"
 * 23) * "This Hour Has 22 Million Minutes"
 * 24) * "Eric Squared"
 * 25) * "Everybody is Side-Fu Fighting"
 * 26) * "Beneath the Missile-Toe" (arguably the worst episode and an awful Christmas episode)
 * 27) * "Drop the Needles" (depending on your view)
 * 28) * "Henchman for a Day"
 * 29) * "Pamplemoose and Son"
 * 30) * "Lights, Camera, Sidekick Action"
 * 31) * "Four's a Crowd"
 * 32) * "Super Frenemies"
 * 33) * "My Brother, My Pimple" (a bad way to start Season 2)
 * 34) * "The Superest Day of the Year"
 * 35) * "Love Fights"
 * 36) * "The Heartbreak Golly-Gee Kid"
 * 37) * "App-y Days"
 * 38) * "Exchange Student from the Black Lagoon"
 * 39) * "Eric Amazing" (also counts as the worst episode)
 * 40) * "Trevor the Hero"
 * 41) * "The Grim Gerbil" (depending on your view)
 * 42) * "Gimme a Sign"
 * 43) * "I, Sidebot"
 * 44) * "Sidekicks Rule"
 * 45) * "Adventures in Supersitting"
 * 46) * "Mandy-o and Eric-et"
 * 47) * "The Maxum Method"
 * 48) * "Iron Sidechef" (which ended Season 2 on a sour note)
 * 49) * "Teacher's Pet" (a bad way to start Season 3)
 * 50) * "Opossum Man"
 * 51) * "Oh Trevor, Where Art Thou" (depending on your view)
 * 52) * "Pains, Sprains, and Maxum Mobiles"
 * 53) * "Multikickery"
 * 54) * "The Dingalish Patient"
 * 55) * "Parent-Teacher Night of Doom"
 * 56) * "Pamp My Ride" (depending on your view)
 * 57) * "The Running of the Trolls" (depending on your view)
 * 58) * "Those Who Can't Teach"
 * 59) * "Graduation Daze" (which ended the show on a cliffhanger and a low and flat note)
 * 60) Many unlikeable and dull characters.
 * 61) * Trevor Troublemeyer is perhaps the worst character in the whole show, because he does something wrong, and he refused to take responsibility for his terrible actions; so he frames them all on Eric. It's to the point where this character is making Jake Spidermonkey look like a saint.
 * 62) * Vana Glama is your generic mean popular girl, but her selfish attitude and hatred towards nerds have been taken to the extreme, and not even people like Trixie Tang would be this harmful (except in "Just the Two of Us").
 * 63) * While likeable, Kitty Ko is a creepy stalker to Eric due to her obsessive crush on him.
 * 64) * Professor Pamplemoose is just too mean to Eric, especially when he constantly gives him F's, even when the answers are right.
 * 65) * Maxum Brain is just your generic caretaker without any charm, unlike Elder Kettle from Cuphead. What's worse is that he never defends Eric for something Trevor did and just blames it all on him.
 * 66) * Alan Amazing is your generic handsome guy that people go gaga over. He does something wrong, and gets off scot-free, just because "looks matter more than behavior".
 * 67) * Kid Ruthless is your generic bully who's praised just because he raps. He's especially nothing like Buford from Phineas and Ferb, who has better character than this guy ever would.
 * 68) * Not even the superheroes are likeable.
 * 69) ** Maxum Man is very mean and selfish towards Golly Gee Kid and even Maxum Brain.
 * 70) ** Savannah Glama is a horrible sister to Vana Glama.
 * 71) * While likeable, Eric Needles himself can be selfish and lazy on his own, and didn't bother to clean up his room.
 * 72) ** In one episode, he even framed his actions on Trevor.
 * 73) While the voice acting is decent, it can be lackluster and annoying at times. (Ex: Any scene whenever Vana screams or mainly Eric's voice sometimes)
 * 74) It tends to reuse character models in some episodes. For example, some scenes of episodes have the same character models of the background characters at their school and just reuse the same character model without no recolors at all. Another example comes from the episode "Maxum Men" were the same models for the 70's women are reused again without any recolors at all. It makes it feel as if the animators are too lazy to even draw any other background characters at all.
 * 75) There is no sign of character development as each of the characters keep on getting worse.
 * 76) What's worse is that Maxum Man can be seen in person anywhere, like when he's at his actual Mansion of Maxumtude, or when he grabs candy that from the Maxum Mobile.
 * 77) The series ended off on a cliffhanger, as it ends up not showing if Eric or anyone who knows Maxum Man tried to search for him.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The character designs are good.
 * 2) The soundtrack is pretty good, along with the theme song.
 * 3) Despite their criticisms, Eric Needles and Kitty Ko are the only likable characters.
 * 4) * Eric can be treated as sympathetic since he was abused as a punching bag in almost every episode.
 * 5) There are some good episodes here and there, such as:
 * 6) * "Maxum Man Mark 2" (which was a good introduction to the series)
 * 7) * "To Party Perchance To Party"
 * 8) * "Gone Gaga"
 * 9) * "Like Supervillain, Like Son"
 * 10) * "A Monster Headache"
 * 11) * "Days of Golly"
 * 12) * "Ain't No Party Like a Maxum Brain Party"
 * 13) * "Hello Dolly"
 * 14) * "Maxum Mom"
 * 15) * "Moustachesquatch"
 * 16) * "The Endless Summer"
 * 17) * "The Bogey Man"
 * 18) * "The Henchman Challenge"
 * 19) * "Family Fun Day"
 * 20) * "Slime Spree"
 * 21) * "Halloweenie"
 * 22) * "Internal Affairs"
 * 23) * "Virtual Mayhem"
 * 24) * "The Maxum Switcheroo"
 * 25) * "Sleepless in Splittsboro"
 * 26) * "Ice to Know You"
 * 27) * "Ye Old Sidekick Village"
 * 28) * "Escape from Razzuma-traz"
 * 29) * "Stupor-ize Me"
 * 30) * "Little Orphan Eric"
 * 31) * "The Spark is Gone"
 * 32) * "Wrinkle Resistant" (which ended Season 1 on a decent note)
 * 33) * "A Sidecar Named Desire"
 * 34) * "Circus Jerkus"
 * 35) * "Anty Maim"
 * 36) * "Fortress of Maxumtude"
 * 37) * "Insane in the Cranial"
 * 38) * "Eric and Trevor's Mediocre Adventure"
 * 39) * "Master XOX Ray Vision"
 * 40) * "Eric and the Maxum Brain Factory"
 * 41) * "Trip Van Twinkle Toes"
 * 42) * "Maxum Men"
 * 43) * "XOX to be You"
 * 44) * "A XOX for Good"
 * 45) * "Oppoxox"
 * 46) * "Hullaballoo"
 * 47) * "Superbest in Show"
 * 48) The backgrounds and the art style are colorful and beautiful.
 * 49) The animation and voice acting is still good and decent, despite the former was pretty cheap and lazy in the first season, and the latter was lackluster and annoying.

Episodes With Their Own Pages

 * "Everybody is Side-Fu Fighting"
 * "Sidekicks Rule!"
 * "Teacher's Pet"
 * "Trevor the Hero"

Reception
Sidekick received mixed to negative reviews from critics and audiences, and currently holds a 3.8/10 on IMDb.

Trivia

 * This show is the second show made by Todd Kauffman to carry on the tradition of having a skull on one of the character's appearances. In this case, it's on Eric's shirt.
 * In the episode "Master XOX Ray Vision", Scaredy, Dave, and Sally from Scaredy Squirrel made a cameo appearance when Eric puts his glasses on after he puts on contact lenses.
 * This show was formerly on Best Shows & Episodes Wiki, but this page was even a candidate for deletion after this page was created on this wiki, and it was deleted later because of the negative reception on this series.