Donkey Hodie

Donkey Hodie
If Fred Rogers was still alive today, he wouldn't be really happy when he sees this. Plus, he'd take Fred Rogers Productions to court. It's also like as if he had a Jump the shark moment.
Genre: Preschool Puppetry Fantasy Running Time: 30 minutes Country: United States Release Date: May 3, 2021 — present Network(s): PBS Kids Created by: David Rudman Adam Rudman Distributed by: Fred Rogers Productions Starring: Haley Jenkins Stephanie D'Abruzzo David Rudman Frankie Cordero Peter Linz Matt Vogel Joey Mazzarino Seasons: 2 Episodes: 48 Previous show: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

Donkey Hodie is a American computer-animated children's television series inspired by characters created by Fred Rogers. The series premiered May 3, 2021 on PBS Kids and is the second spinoff of Rogers' television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood after Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.

Heehawful Qualities

1. The main problem with the series is that it's very unfaithful to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and completely misses the spirit of what made it so special.
2. Like Seasons 12-16 of Thomas & Friends, nearly every episode uses the same formula, which makes the show quite repetitive and predictable.
3. It is completely unnecessary since Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, another Mister Rogers spin-off, is still airing new episodes. It would be easier to just continue that show as is than to take the massive risk making another spin-off. Also, Daniel Tiger premiered in 2012, 11 years after Mister Rogers ended.
4. The show is very different from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood in a way, as they both seem to have nothing in common other than being produced by Fred Rogers Productions. Daniel Tiger has a darker tone, better and bouncier animation, great character designs, very different morals, musical numbers, and actual promotion, while Donkey Hodie is a kid-friendly puppet show.
5. The CGI and visual effects feel extremely lifeless, lazy, cheap and stiff.
6. It completely abandons the down-to-earth tone of both Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and instead goes all-in on overly age appropriate junk such as outer space, aliens, rocket ships, robots, talking animals, pop-culture references, fantasy elements and more.
   • It doesn't help that David and Adam Rudman (co-creators of Nature Cat) created and developed this show. The former has also written episodes of this show.
7. It's rather fast-paced, which doesn't fit very well in a show spun-off from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
8. The voice acting is ear-grating at worst and bland at best, with Duck Duck and Purple Panda being the worst offenders.

Good Qualities

1. Decent puppetry.
2. The puppet designs are fine and kinda cute.
3. The characters are likeable in the show.
4. The songs (including the theme song) are admittedly catchy.
5. There are some good morals in the show
   • "Flying Flapjacks" and "Pickle Penguin Problem" both encourage teamwork.
   • "A Fair Way To Bounce" encourages taking turns.
   • "The Fastest Fetcher" encourages never giving up
   • "The Waiting Game" encourages patience.
6. Some good episodes.
7. Despite being unfaithful to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the show isn't all bad, it's just flawed.

Reception

The show received a generally mixed reception from critics and fans of Mr. Rogers' alike. It has a 6.3/10 on IMDb and a 3.5/5 on Google.

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