Bubble Guppies
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 It's time for Bubble Guppies!
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Bubble Guppies is a CGI-animated children's television series produced for Nickelodeon and created by Jonny Belt and Robert Scull. The series is a combination of sketch comedy, edutainment, and musical genres and revolves around the underwater adventures of a group of merperson preschoolers named Molly, Gil, Goby, Deema, Oona, Nonny, and Zooli. The program premiered on Nickelodeon on January 24, 2011, and originally ran for four seasons until its conclusion on October 21, 2016. The series is produced using 3D software.
Almost three years after the last episode of its original run, it was revived for a fifth season on June 4, 2019, with an order of 26 episodes. The fifth season premiered on September 27, 2019. On February 19, 2020, the show was renewed for a sixth season, which premiered on October 19, 2021, and ended (along with the series as a whole) on June 30, 2023, after almost 13 years.
Plot
Bubble Guppies literally takes the phrase "school of fish" as fish-tailed preschoolers attend school in an underwater classroom. Children learn about topics such as science, math and literacy through original music. Among the characters featured on the show are turbocharged Gil, leader Molly, and drama queen Deema.
Why It's Fin-tastic
- The computer animation used by Autodesk Maya is simple but cute and adorable, light-hearted and relaxed, and almost flawless in seasons 2 onwards, especially in revival seasons, where it looks really fresh and clean by Jam Filled Entertainment.
- The seven Guppies (Molly, Gil, Goby, Deema, Oona, Nonny, and Zooli) and Bubble Puppy are all cute, diverse, smart, imaginative, and likable main characters who work off each other well, have multicultural designs and personalities and are always eager to learn something as well as amazing chemistry between the characters, like Nonny and Oona (Deema, when not hanging around with Nonny). Other examples of Guppies including the puppy like:
- Molly is a bubbly human guppy girl, who aids Gil in hopes that problems won't arise.
- Gil is a silly human guppy boy, who often attempts to do something but with unexpected results.
- Goby is a human guppy boy with an imaginative personality.
- Deema is a human guppy girl with a wild imagination and often plays the role of shopkeeper in the "store" segments.
- Oona is a human guppy girl with a sweet personality, who takes care about plants and animals.
- Nonny is a human guppy boy with an intelligent personality who is the most polite, smart, and mature member of the group, despite not smiling a lot.
- Zooli is a human guppy girl who's an animal expert. She was a good addition to the main cast, as she was introduced in season 5.
- Bubble Puppy is Gil's pet puppy and best friend.
- Mr. Grouper is a gentle, funny and patient teacher, who has the special ability to change into any random color, regarding if it's the theme for each episode full of information.
- Molly and Gil are very welcoming and friendly hosts.
- The premise of "literal school of fish" literally as fish-tailed human preschoolers is very creative, original, cute and uncommon concept.
- Beautiful and catchy songs for a preschool/Nick Jr. show standards that use a mixture of different genres, mostly pop as well as notably the theme song by Terry Fryer.
- While the songs are catchy, "Big Bubble City" from "Super Shrimptennial Celebration" takes the cake as it has cues used in "Tomorrow" from Annie, "Naughty" from Matilda, "That's What I Do" by Axie, and many more.
- "Got a Bunch of Bones" seems to be inspired by Boyz II Men or Bell Biv DeVoe. It starts with Boston drum beats, gives a nod to MindMash in the first verse, and samples "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Ashford & Simpson.
- The reprise is even better, with Squog Belnavis and Jen Taylor joining in.
- Very educational for the average preschool show, as it helps the viewers learn about several parts, such as math, colors, reading, music, the solar system, industries and even hospital treatment as well as message, like teamwork, respect, friendship, good sportsmanship, honesty, conquering fears, and working hard.
- Awesome episode plots with some continuity.
- Outstanding and entertaining sketches that sometimes pays homage and parody pop culture, like Indiana Jones and The Lord of the Rings.
- The talents of all the voice actors do not go to waste.
- After almost three years later, it returned with a fifth season in September 2019 despite being mediocre, with the the parts being changed, such as the dance songs and field trips being removed and the introduced the new character.
- Cute and great voice acting for the main characters, notably the Guppies and Mr. Grouper by the late Tino Insana in seasons 1, 2 and 4 and Fred Tatasciore in seasons 3 and 5 onwards.
- The seascapes successfully defocus backgrounds to emphasize characters and objects.
- Promotes teamwork, creativity and imagination in the unique way.
- The main characters, especially the Guppies, talk to reasonably the toddlers and audience in a charming way to understand isn't pandering at best.
- While not officially primary antagonists, there are plenty of antagonists in the show throughout the imagination sequence, like Airline Pirate, Anteater, Ball Hog Pig, Coldsnap, Hairball, Humbug, Major Bummer, Mr. Grumpfish (only appeared in two imagination sequences in seasons 5 and 6), Ms. Goo Goo, Night Wizard, Party Squirrel, Queen of Hearts, Rotten Tomato, Roughy, Sid Fishy, the Sea Witch, and Windy Pete.
- Tons of guest actors who voiced characters as the celebrities, such as George Takei, Keke Palmer, Ozzy Osbourne, RuPaul, and Tracy Morgan.
- Many jokes are really funny for kids, like the lunch jokes, although the sketch formula is repetitive.
- The United Kingdom dub (which lasted from seasons 1-4) is also fantastic, with most of the British-English voice acting for Molly, Gil, Mr. Grouper, Deema, etc. being passable.
- There are even some tear-jerker moments, such as Gil reading his get well soon card that he made for Bubble Puppy in "Puppy Love".
- Thanks to the awesome and excellent writing, the show has a fair load of great episodes from these seasons and even the last two seasons:
- "Call a Clambulance!" (which started the series on a high note)
- "The Crayon Prix!"
- "The Moon Rocks!"
- "Boy Meets Squirrel!"
- "Haunted House Party!" (which ended season 1 on a high note)
- "X Marks the Spot!" (which started season 2 on a high note)
- "Happy Holidays, Mr. Grumpfish!"
- "Check it Out!"
- "The Beach Ball!"
- "Bubble-Cadabra!"
- "Good Hair Day!" (which ended season 2 on a high note)
- "Get Ready for School!" (which started season 3 on a high note)
- "The Puppy and the Ring!"
- "Come to Your Senses!"
- "Bubble Scrubbies!"
- "Bubble Kitty!"
- "Super Guppies!"
- "Fruit Camp!" (which ended season 3 on a high note)
- "The Glitter Games!" (which started season 4 on a high note)
- "The Temple of the Lost Puppy!"
- "Space Guppies!"
- "Bubble Baby!"
- "Guppy Style!"
- "The Summer Camp Games!"
- "Trick or Treat, Mr Grumpfish!" (which ended the original era and season 4 on a high note)
- "The New Guppy!" (which started the revival era and season 5 on a high note)
- "Secret Agent Nonny!"
- "Ninja Season!"
- "Too Bright for Movie Night!"
- "The Guppies Save Christmas!"
- "Swinging in the Rainforest!"
- "Fogzilla!"
- "Bigfoot Crossing!"
- "A Load of Litterbugs!"
- "Bubble Puppysaurus!" (which ended season 5 on a high note in production order)
- "Race to the Oasis!"
- "Escape from Volcano Island!"
- "Alison in Wonderland!"
- "Taste Buddies!" (which ended season 5 on a high note in airing order)
- "Werewolves of Bubbledon!" (which started season 6 on a high note)
- "A Giant Harvest Day!"
- "Christmas is Coming!"
- "The SS Friendship!"
- "The Holiday Pirates!"
- "Robo Puppy!"
- "The Kingdom of Sleepwell!"
- "A Big Splash!"
- "Bubble Medics to the Rescue!"
- "Don't Yuck My Yum!"
- "Mystery on the Guppy Express!"
- "Puppy Girl and Super Pup!"
- "The Fastest Feather in the Race!"
- "The Kingdom of Laughs-a-Lot!"
- "The Three Guppeteers!" (which ended season 6 and the series as a whole on a high note in production order)
- "The Ultra Spy Tool!"
- "Zooli's New Pet!"
- "Trouble in Harmony Valley!"
- "See You Later, Alligator!" (which ended season 6 and the series as a whole on a high note in airing order)
Not-So-Fin-tastic Qualities
- Seasons 5 and 6, while not bad, were mediocre to some people.
- The animation, while nice-looking, also sometimes looks too much like lazy stop-motion with animation errors, especially in pre-Nelvana episodes. Not to mention, the quality of the older episodes look like they were made in the late 2000's.
- Nonny's character mostly consists of being the typical "orangehead with no soul" cliche.
- Some songs are not that catchy. Notably the theme song, while decently cute and catchy, is also lazy and irritating, with the characters repeatedly saying "bubble" and "guppies", and at some point, introducing themselves in 2-word sentences.
- The show can get formulaic and repetitive at times, like the sketch comedy formula. They put the intro to the episode first, then a learning moment, then a music video showing curiosity, then lunch, then a story outside sketch, then a song and dance. However, as of season 5, the episodes started focusing more on the outside sketches.
- Most of the background characters are either crabs, lobsters, or snails, they also reused the same models with different outfits or hair to them, which can come off as lazy.