Angela Anaconda

Angela Anaconda
The main reason why Disney bought the Fox Kids library in the first place.
Genre: Animation Comedy Family Running Time: 22 minutes Country: Canada Release Date: October 4, 1999 – October 28, 2001 Created by: Joanna Ferrone Sue Rose Distributed by: WildBrain Starring: Sue Rose Ali Mukaddam Bryn McAuley Edward Glen Ruby Smith-Merovitz Richard Binsley Seasons: 3 Episodes: 65

Angela Anaconda is a Canadian children's television series created by Joanna Ferrone and Sue Rose, the latter of whom also voices the title character. The show ran for three seasons, from 1999 to 2001, for a total of 65 episodes.

The show uses cutout animation, in which characters are created using black-and-white photographs. The production studio, C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, used Elastic Reality software to superimpose models' faces onto computer-generated bodies and backgrounds.

Plot

The show centers on the adventures of an eight-year-old girl named Angela in the fictional town of Tapwater City. Other characters include Angela's three best friends and several antagonists.

Why It Should Get Bitten by an Anaconda

1. The intro of the cartoon is super lazy and boring with bad roleplaying.
2. Horrible and obnoxious voice acting, with Angela's being the worst offender as it is high pitched.
3. The animation may be creative, but it's not only hideous to look at, but it also looks very lazy and creepy as it looks like it's made with paper and nothing else. It looks like a poor attempt to imitate Terry Gilliam/Monty Python's art style.
   • In fact, the creepiness of the animation once lead to a rumored divorce (see below in Trivia), and whilst it is unsure if this is true or not, it shows that the animation is freaky and potential nightmare fuel for children.
4. Very poor and awful music that does not sound fit for a kids' cartoon but would instead be better for some kind of any Fox Kids shows. On the topic of the soundtrack, the theme song is also quite laughable for children's show standards.
5. Awful jokes and humor, which usually apply to dumb one-liners or bad gross out/toilet humor, such as Nanette Manoir sometimes uncomfortably being called "Ninnypoo".
6. Terrible and ugly designs of characters, that they make the characters from Delgo actually look like supermodels in comparison.
7. Often at times, it can teach bad lessons:
   • For example, in the episode "Angela Who?" Angela just feeds her dog her food instead of eating the food herself.
   • Another bad lesson, instead of telling the teacher about the bully so the school bully can feel sorry you should assault them and become a murderer instead of just a regular school bully. How is that a good lesson?
   • In many episodes, it teaches kids they can get off scot-free with their bad actions, and when they try to do something nice, they will get punished, usually with this being with Angela and Nanette.
8. It's filled to the brim with unlikable and stereotypical characters:
   • Angela Anaconda is a sociopath and bad protagonist.
   • Nanette Manoir, who tries way too hard to be a French and "bully" stereotype.
   • Gina Lash, who is has a big appetite and a stereotypical smart girl.
   • Johnny Abatti, who is clumsy and of Italian descent; his family also owns a pizzeria.
     • Heck, Angela refers to him as a quote on quote: "Johnny Abatti, my dimwitted best friend."
   • Gordy Rhinehart, who is weak and sensitive having an interest in things commonly associated with girls.
   • Mark and Derek Anaconda are the stereotypical "dimwitted older brothers" whose only traits are to torture Angela, and do dumb and gross stuff like burping, and hitting their heads.
   • Josephine Praline, who is the Catholic of the show.
   • Ms. Yamagotchi, is an extremely racist Japanese stereotype.
   • Mrs. Brinks is an ugly teacher with a manly voice who favorites Nanette than everyone else.
9. Some of the stories in this show have been done better in other shows. For example, "The Substitute" is a watered-down version of "Lisa's Substitute" from The Simpsons.
10. This show tries to make Angela the good gal, with Nanette being the mean popular girl. However, it is reversed. Instead, Angela is an extremely unlikable jerk who gets off scot-free, while Nanette is portrayed as a Butt-Monkey, who we're supposed to hate because she's the bully. However, she most often isn't an alpha bitch, as in "The Substitute", she makes sure she gets her assignments done...how is that bad in any way?
    • Angela is also clearly a sociopath, especially in "The Substitute", where she fantasizes about cannibalizing people she doesn't like, and later letting Nanette and Ms. Brinks drown in a waterfall.
11. The show most of the time is very mean-spirited, especially to Nanette Mainor, such as in the infamous episode "The Substitute" when she and Ms. Brinks get punished by cleaning out the closet...that ANGELA FLOODED!
12. The show's logic often makes no sense, for example, in "The Substitute", the substitute teacher becomes a substitute principal, despite that not exist. Heck, the reason why they don't exist is that vice-principals exist!
13. Many terrible/mediocre episodes, such as:
    • Chew on This (a poor way to begin the series on KaBlam!)
    • Pet Peeves (which started the official series on a sour note)
    • You're So Vain
    • The Substitute (overall the worst episode)
    • Model Behavior
    • Who's Sari Now?
    • Turtle Confessions
    • The Dog Ate It
    • Bob and Hot Chocolate
    • Pizza Wars
    • Stuck On You
    • My Fair Lulu
    • Bathroom Blues
    • Rough Times Tables
    • Angela Who?
    • Rockabye Abatti
    • Dirty Work
    • Skipping Lessons
    • View to Brinks
    • Injury to Insult
    • Gordy Floats (which was a poor way to end season 1)
14. Overall, this show showed the downfall of Fox Kids and would probably be one of the leading forces for people to stop watching.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Despite being ugly, the animation is creative and was ahead of its time.
2. Although she is generally sadistic, Angela is a realistic portrayal of how girls dress and behave in real life especially given that the series creators are both women which is rare in television animation.
3. Even though rarely, Nanette can play the villain role well, so sometimes she does deserve to be subjected to torture in Angela's imagination.
   • Editor's Note: Although that doesn't allow for Nanette to be cannibalized.
4. There are some funny jokes/lines on occasion, such as Angela expressing her distaste for her dad's fish casserole by telling the audience that it's called "famous" because anyone who eats it would become famous.
5. The show improved slightly in seasons 2 and 3, though not by much.
6. It's worth noting that Angela isn't being serious about doing a lot of the things that she does to Nanette in her fantasies.
7. The show does ocassionally teach some good morals.

Reception

The show received mainly negative reception from critics and watchers alike and is considered to be the low point of Fox Kids, as the channel was steadily declining. It is often shown on many lists of the worst Canadian shows of all time. And whilst some fans claim it's nostalgic, it was extremely hated. It currently holds a 40% on Google and a 4.7/10 on IMDb.

The show is also one of the reasons people stopped watching Fox Kids for good, despite Digimon. It's no wonder Disney bought the Fox Kids library in 2001 and resurrected it into Jetix. At least Disney didn't have to worry about showing us this show or The Ripping Friends ever again.

Trivia

• This is one of the three shows that started as a series of shorts on Nickelodeon's KaBlam! before becoming a proper TV show, the other two being Action League Now! and Untalkative Bunny.
• As said, it is rumored that this show actually caused a divorce. On 4chan, someone uploaded the story of how. The story goes like this: A child (the 4chan user) was going to watch the Digimon movie with his parents at the theater. Before the movie, a quick Angela Anaconda short about Angela also going to see the movie played (the short was of course, poorly recieved). People were confused and the kid was crying. The parents, believing they had bought the wrong tickets, left the theater, and blamed each other for it. They then got into a car accident afterwards, and about a month after the incident, they got divorced. Once again, it is unsure whether this is true or not, but it shows how frightening the animation really is.
• Ruby Smith-Merovitz said her favorite episode was "Goodbye Mrs. Brinks" because she got to play Nanette as a rebel biker and use a different part of her voice.

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