Monsters vs. Aliens (TV series)

Monsters vs. Aliens is an American computer-animated television series based on the 2009 film mh:greatestmovies:Monsters vs. Aliens. First announced in 2009, the series premiered on Nickelodeon on March 23, 2013, after the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, then began airing in its regular timeslot on April 6, 2013. The series was executive produced by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, creators of Disney Channel's mh:besttvshows:Kim Possible, who both previously worked on The Penguins of Madagascar.

A total of 26 episodes consisting of 50 segments were released, with the last episode airing on February 8, 2014. Following this, the series was canceled and wasn't renewed for a second season due to low ratings and poor reviews, as well as the network's desire to refocus on making "more Nickish shows".

Plot
Brainless blob B.O.B., prehistoric fish-man Link, mad scientist Dr. Cockroach and incredible growing woman Susan "Ginormica" Murphy learn to adapt to a new world as they work alongside a bizarre group of aliens at Area Fifty-Something, a secret underground base that specializes in the supernatural.

Why It's Super Freaky (And NOT in a Good Way) (Bad Qualities)

 * 1) The show was in development hell for four years, first being announced in 2009 and then finally being released in 2013. To make matters worse, the show was suddenly canceled after a single season of 26 episodes, with the last episode being completely random and not giving the series a proper conclusion, much to the blame going to both DreamWorks and Nickelodeon.
 * 2) None of the cast from the film such as Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, nor Hugh Laurie came back for the show as their roles as Susan Murphy/Ginormica, B.O.B., Dr. Cockroach, and The Missing Link respectively. Their new voice actors are nothing but stand-ins Riki Lindhome, Eric Edelstein, Chris O'Dowd, and Diedrich Bader. They don’t even sound like themselves from the actual film itself, though this could be excused since the original VAs would be expensive.
 * 3) It all includes the fact that DreamWorks Animation hasn't even announced a sequel to the original movie, makes this show even more pointless.
 * 4) The CGI animation looks like it came from a very cheap PS3 video game, which is inexcusable because DreamWorks usually makes sure what they make has good animation, as shown with the animation quality from both mh:besttvshows:The Penguins Of Madagascar and mh:besttvshows:Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. Also, there are barely any new locations throughout the entire series, as most of it takes place in Area Fifty Something. Occasionally, there's a new location, but those are very rare to find. The worst example of this poor animation is Ginormica, who doesn't look properly rendered.
 * 5) B.O.B. is given the most focus in the entire series, which is another example of trying to give a comic relief character the spotlight in a bad way.
 * 6) * To rub salt into the wound, B.O.B. was even flanderized to being dumber and more hyperactive in the series to the point that he's unfunny and irritating.
 * 7) Terrible and unfunny humor which mostly consists of fart jokes or even butt jokes that are mostly associated with Ginormica.
 * 8) Speaking of which, Ginormica (or Susan if you prefer) is no longer giant like she was in the movie; instead, she now has size-shifting abilities, which is an unnecessary change from her original film counterpart.
 * 9) The new aliens are lame, and all of them are based on stereotypes. For example, Coverton is your generic "villain who wants to conquer Earth", Sqweep is your intelligent one, Sta'abi is your badass hothead and Vornicarn is... well, the only alien who doesn't fall into a stereotype. They also all sit around and do nothing in Area Fifty Something.
 * 10) Extremely half-baked perilous situations that are always caused by the monsters' stupidity, to which all of these problems are averted with lame solutions; the 11-minute back-to-back episode format also doesn't help this matter.
 * 11) * Besides that, the plot lines range from boring to cliché to outright stupid, such as B.O.B. taking a bath and then bathing everyone else.
 * 12) The characters have lost lots of their charisma due to the replacement voice actors.
 * 13) Insectosaurus isn't shown in the series, to which it is never explained what happened to her. The animators didn't have the budget to put her in the show and didn't even bother about explaining her disappearance, as she is simply ignored, and nobody ever brought her up.
 * 14) The failure of the series killed off the Monsters vs. Aliens franchise and any chances of it getting a sequel (not helped out by the film not performing well enough at the box office to warrant a sequel), as nowadays DreamWorks outright gave up the franchise, but they still remember it to this day, clarifying, fortunately, they still didn't forget it.
 * 15) * Besides that, the failure of the series also caused Nickelodeon to terminate its partnership with DreamWorks.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The replacement voice actors, while they lack the charisma of the movie cast as previously mentioned, still do a decent job.
 * 2) Except for the absence of Butterflyosaurus, there are very few continuity errors in the movie.
 * 3) The theme song is good.
 * 4) Unlike the original movie, General Monger and President Hathaway get more screen time as recurring characters.

Reception
Despite having a 5.8 rating on IMDb, it was met with mixed-to-negative reviews from fans and critics.

Trivia

 * Eric Edelstein, the actor who played B.O.B. (replacing Seth Rogen, who did not voice B.O.B. in this series unlike the movie), would later voice Chad and Grizz in the two Cartoon Network shows mh:besttvshows:Clarence and mh:besttvshows:We Bare Bears respectively.
 * The CGI animation in the show was made by New Zealand's Oktobor Animation.

Video
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