Beast of Friends (Bunsen is a Beast/The Fairly OddParents)
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 A once great show that's gone massively downhill + a show that's been terrible from the start = an even worse crossover.
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"Beast of Friends", is a crossover special between Bunsen is a Beast and The Fairly OddParents! Although characters from The Fairly OddParents! do appear, this is also not an official Fairly OddParents! episode. It is only a Bunsen Is a Beast episode.
Plot
It's Bunsen and Cosmo's friend-iversary, so Bunsen excitedly takes Mikey to meet Cosmo in Dimmsdale, while Amanda secretly follows. The group has a great time, until Mr. Crocker and Amanda team up, and decide to take them down.
Why It Can't Be A Beast of A Friend
- The only reason why this crossover special was even made was so that Nickelodeon can have an excuse to further promote Bunsen Is a Beast, using The Fairly OddParents! as marketing, and it shows.
- It doesn't help that The Fairly OddParents! already went downhill enough in its final two seasons, and Nickelodeon already moved the show over to Nicktoons to air its remaining episodes from its tenth season at the time this crossover special came out, so what was the point?
- Ironically, this attempt flopped miserably as Nickelodeon hardly promoted or advertised Bunsen Is a Beast even after the network released this crossover special, and eventually moved the show over to Nicktoons by late 2017 to air its remaining episodes before being cancelled in February 2018 in which Butch Hartman departed from Nickelodeon just a few days before the show aired its final episode.
- Almost all of the characters from both sets of shows are still really poor:
- Bunsen and Mikey are even more idiotic, annoying and louder than usual.
- Cosmo, Timmy's dad, and Mr. Crocker are dumbed down, since this crossover special just relies on season 10's characterization, instead of the earlier seasons.
- Mr. Crocker, in particular, sees Cosmo and Wanda. However, instead of using one of his laboratory equipment, notably the butterfly net, he uses several pieces of mouse traps and places them on the floor one by one, thinking those will catch Cosmo and Wanda. Yes, seriously.
- The dynamic between Amanda and Crocker, while interesting, is not well handled because of Amanda's poor characterization and Crocker's bad character change.
- Slow pacing, as most of the special is just Mikey making many absurd wishes granted by Timmy's fairies, while Amanda and Crocker constantly fall victim to pointless slapstick humor, for the sake of forcing a cheap laugh out of the audience.
- Very annoying running gag jokes, such as:
- Amanda getting hit by pianos.
- Amanda using boom-boom powder, and saying, "where's the boom-boom?", before it goes off.
- Mr. Turner calling Mikey a hotdog head.
- Crocker snaring himself in mousetraps.
- Mr. Turner himself has no purpose to be in this episode other than yet another lazy attempt for the writers to use him as filler and make running gag jokes. The special could have easily function without him and nothing would have changed.
- This crossover special is very literal-minded, because, as stated earlier, in terms of The Fairly OddParents! side of town, it just relies on season 10's continuity instead of the show's earlier seasons. For example:
- How do Bunsen and Cosmo just happen to know each other to begin with? That plot point was never given an explanation. Additionally, Cosmo is a fairy, so Bunsen isn't supposed to know his existence unless the writers could have executed this correctly so that it stays true to The Fairly OddParents! continuity from its earlier seasons, but they unfortunately never did and lazily just dished out the "Bunsen and Cosmo know each other" plot point.
- The fairies supposed to not grant Mikey for wish something, due to he wasn’t a miserable kid, yet they didn’t bother that.
- Wanda's wand runs out of battery after Mikey makes too many wishes. This is just yet another lazy excuse for the writers to force in drama or conflict, and almost on the same level with the, "Cosmo and Wanda lose their wands", gag that was spammed throughout the final two seasons of The Fairly OddParents!
- Due to Mr. Turner's entire character being dumbed down, he doesn't question the existence of Timmy's fairies, nor do Timmy's fairies get taken away forever. But then again, this is modern Fairly OddParents! we’re talking about here.
- The flash animation and character designs are still pretty out of date, and cheap looking, for 2017 standards.
- Just like most cases with Bunsen is a Beast as well as every Fairly OddParents! episode animated in flash, this crossover special feels way too random and wacky in terms of its plot and humor with barely any structure, and the pacing suffers just as much, given that the running gag jokes take up most of the special's running time.
Redeeming Qualities
- Although it is still unfortunate that Poof didn't return, it at least focuses on the original dynamic between Timmy, Cosmo and Wanda, despite being poorly executed.
- The voice acting is still good from both shows, except for Cosmo, Bunsen and Amanda.
- Timmy, Wanda and Mrs. Turner are the only tolerable characters.
Reception
The special got negative reviews. It currently holds a 6.6/10 rating on IMDb.com. It was criticized for the writing and characterization, including from The Fairly OddParents! side of town.
Trivia
- This episode is dedicated to the memory of Kevin Iwaki.
- This is the first episode since "Jerk of All Trades" to only feature Timmy, Cosmo, and Wanda.
- Despite Kari Wahlgren voicing Amanda Killman, her other character, Chloe Carmichael, is completely absent from this crossover special for unknown reasons. This could most likely be due to negative reception that her character has gotten, similar to Sparky.
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