Hailey's On It!

Hailey's On It!
One list, one kiss. Hailey Banks is here to save the world.
Genre: Action Adventure Animation Comedy Science fiction Slice-of-life Running Time: 23 minutes Country: United States Release Date: June 8, 2023 - May 18, 2024 Network(s): Disney+ Disney Channel Disney XD Created by: Devin Bunje Nick Stanton Distributed by: Disney Platform Distribution Starring: Auli'i Cravalho Manny Jacinto Gary Anthony Williams Seasons: 1 Episodes: 56

Hailey's On It! is a 2023 American animated television series created by Devin Bunje and Nick Stanton for Disney+ and Disney Channel. It first premiered on Disney+ and Disney Channel on June 8, 2023.

Summary

On New Year’s Eve, 14-year-old Hailey decides to make a list of all the big things she wants to do to in the upcoming year. But the real-world challenges she gives herself (from “belly flop off the high dive” to “teach a cat to play piano”) suddenly have huge stakes when a crazed Professor arrives from the future with the already completed list and tells Hailey the fate of the world depends on her completing every item, including the last one… kissing her best friend, Scott Denoga.

Why The Future's In Its Hands

1. To start off, the most remarkable aspect of this series is that it stands out very well with its clever and unique premise: the series, set in Oceanside, California, follows Hailey Banks, a 14-year-old risk-averse teenage Hawaiian girl, who is pushed outside her comfort zone to discover the greatness that lies within. Throughout the series, Hailey always has a tendency to run into all sorts of bizarre, wild, and tenacious challenges that will eventually finish her list to prevent the world from ending and conquer her fears as the series goes on, such as tackling every ride at the county fair, performing in a musical, reuniting a singing duo, or facing her ever-growing and complicated feelings toward her best friend Scott.
2. The traditional hand-drawn animation is well-made, resulting in having a smooth, fluid, personality-prone, and fast-paced tone. What makes the animation stand out well is that it feels like a major improvement to other Disney-produced shows, such as Phineas and Ferb (although the show's animation style shared similarities with the latter) and Space Chickens in Space (otherwise known as the most underrated Disney series), all thanks to Rough Draft Studios and Saerom Animation.
3. Has a very diverse and versatile assortment of likable and unique characters, no matter which personality matches best for them:
   • Hailey ‘Alohilani Banks is a very spectacular and likable protagonist, as she has one of, if not, the best and most fitting personality out of the main cast as a whole. Here, she's portrayed as a 14-year-old risk-averse Hawaiian teenager who must overcome her fears to finish her list completely (especially, since the last item on her list is to kiss Scott), especially at times where Scott or Beta could help her get her job done in order to save the world. As the series progresses, she eventually fills out the items on her list and develops herself to become a normal, ordinary teenager at the same time. Not to mention, her character design is downright adorable.
     • Speaking of Hailey, the members of Hailey’s family are also likable in many ways, which include, but not limited to Kai, Hailey's Hawaiian father who has an interest in playing the ukulele, Patricia, Hailey's Caucasian mother who has a very serious demeanor about her retailing career, Chunk, Hailey's uncle and Kai's brother, and Dwayne and Johnson, Hailey's twin brothers who are just as adorable as Hailey herself.
   • Scott Denoga is a 14-year-old Filipino-Korean boy and Hailey's ditzy, accident-prone best friend whom she develops a strong crush on throughout the series. He's a goofy character who is very extroverted and he, along with Beta, both put Hailey through a series of tough challenges while they both aid her on all sorts of wacky mishaps and zany adventures to complete her list. However, Hailey’s last list item in her journal is to kiss him, but since she prefers to do that as her last list item in "The Beginning of the Friend", her friendship with Scott might be possibly ruined with no explanation whatsoever. As a plus, most of his one-liners are very clever and amazingly hilarious at the same time.
     • Aside from Scott himself, the Denogas are likable too. These include Becker, Scott's destructive and wild younger sister who has an interest in breaking things, and Sunny, Scott's mother who is the owner of U.F. Dough.
   • Beta is the series' artificially-intelligent operating system sent from the future, and is also one of the funniest main characters in not just the main cast, but in the entire series. His primarily serious personality mostly relies on not putting up with any nonsense, and he always goes with Hailey wherever he goes to make sure she is on-task and get her list done before the world ends. Adding to that, he also aids Hailey on adventures and harsh challenges like Scott, plus most nearby people might think of him as a regular toy (which obviously implies that his body is stuck on the face of a teddy bear). He also has two memorable catchphrases: “Get yoked!” (his primary catchphrase), and “I wuv you” (whenever his chest area is pressed). As an extra to lesser the extent, he has a tendency to call people “buffoons” at times.
   • The Professor is a high-energy scientist from the future who assists Hailey to finish her list inside of her journal, and she has an amazing, futuristic-looking character design that matches her personality.
   • Kristine Sanchez is also a great character. She is a Mexican-American girl who is best described as the most popular girl in Hailey's school, and she has a wonderful friendship with Hailey and a strong connection with social media, not to mention that she is a hat fashionista who loves wearing all kinds of hats, especially her sun hat that she wears in most of her appearances.
   • A.C. Aychvak is Hailey's self-proclaimed academic rival, even though it's mostly one-sided. At most times, he can be a hilarious and good-hearted character sometimes, though other times not as much. Topping it all off is his hilarious and clever catchphrase: "What the beans?!"
4. The Chaos Bots are interesting choices for antagonists in a Disney cartoon. Here, they are robots sent from the future that are programmed to prevent Hailey to complete her list, let alone destroy her journal. What makes them unique is their appearances that truly prove to make them stand out as intimidating as they can be in other forms, such as a Mega Chaos Bot appearing in "Smells Like Queen Spirit" in which Hailey must defeat with assistance from Joanne Droid, and multiple Chaos Bots rigging an escape room in an attempt to crush Hailey and her friends inside the room in "Escape Doom". This shows that they're not poorly-executed to the point where they are part of the show's plot as a whole and not come off as generic like other antagonists created by other Disney-produced shows.
5. One of the most important features about this show is all of Hailey's journal. This journal, titled "My Big List of Things I'm Totally Gonna Do", is a journal that Hailey uses as her one and only MacGuffin to successfully complete her list to prevent the world from ending, with the help of her friends, Scott and Beta. Plus, the list items that Hailey does throughout the show are very creative, not to mention most of the items on her list are extraordinary yet very silly at the same time, such as Number 239: Ride every ride at the County Fair, where Hailey must ride every single ride at the County Fair as her first step towards facing her fears, Number 178: Win first prize at the Oceanside Fish Taco Festival, where Hailey must set sail with the help of Scott so they can catch the Legendary Blue Ono in order to win the grand prize at the Oceanside Fish Taco Festival, Number 89: Be in a school musical, where Hailey must overcome her fear of performing in front of an audience, and many, many more.
   • In fact, "The Beginning of the Friend" shows the Professor returning the journal to Hailey, and afterwards, she states that Hailey has to make sure she doesn't screw up during her journey to complete her list, so that the world would be completely safe.
6. Lots of continuity is put throughout the series. In fact, the continuity this series brings out are really clever, just like other Disney-produced series which have great continuity to make room for lots of adventure and comedy-filled stories, such as the most prominent and primary one out of them all: Hailey progressively filling out the list of things she does in her journal so she can achieve her goal of becoming a normal teenager with the help of her friends, alongside some other decent examples of continuity, such as the friendship involved between Hailey and Scott, or the series having some episodes continuing into the next one (for example, “Flippin' Out” would continue to “Smells Like Queen Spirit”).
7. The panoramas throughout the series, being presented as the other important parts of the show. In each episode, many scenes have panoramas which can make out for numerous occasions for a result of unique, creative, comedic, serious, intense, heartwarming, or even tearjerking scenes.
8. Pushing the animation aside (as described in WTFIIH #2), the art style is really splendid, detailed and colorful, as it perfectly blends with the upbeat, action-packed tone of the show, not to mention the backgrounds are beautiful to look at in every way, with the colorful visual detail and the perfectly-structured art style mixing together in every scene throughout the series to make a gorgeous focus referent in many backgrounds that each location gives off perfectly, especially with Hailey's room, everywhere throughout Oceanside, Oceanside High School, Catalina Island (in "Seas the Day"), and even in the Banks Residence.
9. Like other Disney shows, the comedy and humor is great and executed decently. In the series’s case, it has a truckload of funny moments from scene-to-scene, most of which serve as humorous purposes throughout the show, even if it's a scene involving the main characters or focusing on other characters. Some examples include, but not limited to:
   • Almost every scene involving Scott or A.C.
   • Hailey dropping the Test Your Strength hammer on her foot in "The Beginning of the Friend".
   • Hailey realizing that an actor named Thatcher (who looks like Scott) had married Bailey, his best friend, complete with similar interests. This scene eventually gets followed by Hailey imagining herself and Scott as Bailey and Thatcher respectively in "The Puffle Kerfuffle".
   • Hailey throwing a hat out the window then later boomeranging back to Kristine's head, not before Kristine hugs Hailey in a rather hilarious way in "Catching Felines".
   • A bird chirping and holding a wing up to itself, then hurriedly going back inside its birdhouse and slamming the door in "Frankly Fabulous".
10. The show has a lot of hilarious parodies of real products, companies, or people, which is another exceptional highlight that makes the show's clever humor stand out at its finest. Many examples of this include a parody of Mr. Potato Head called Mr. Tomato Head in "The Beginning of the Friend", a parody of Pringles parsed Dingles debuting in "Beta'd and Hooked", (which would later be seen or mentioned in later episodes like "Who Let The Dogs Out? (Hailey)" where a factory called the Dingles Factory parodying the Pringle Factory and Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory is seen for the first time in the series), and a parody of Jetzel's Pretzels called Wetzel's Pretzels in "Leather Jacket Hailey".
    • "Road Trippin'" currently has the winner's crown claimed for the most parodies of food-based products appearing an episode, and below this shows the full list of products that have appeared in the episode:
      • Bitz, a parody of Ritz.
      • Danish Fish, a parody of Swedish Fish.
      • bb's, a parody of Sugar Babies.
      • Pounds, a parody of Mounds.
      • Crunchies, a parody of Cheez-It's.
      • Wheat Thicks, a parody of Wheat Thins.
      • Fugles, a parody of Bugles.
        • On top of all that, an interesting parody of Burger King, Culver's, and real-world butter burgers is seen in the episode called Butter Burger.

Bad Qualities

1. The series finale, "I Wanna Dance With My Buddy" is the only bad episode of the entire series, as it ended the entire series on both a sour note and a unresolved cliffhanger, as Scott didn't have Hailey after he realized that he loved her and Beta wants him to make a list, then, it does nothing, just like Star vs. the Forces of Evil. Though, it's not as bad.
   • The show unfortunately is confirmed cancelled too soon after season 1 and there for season 2 was not in production.
   • If wasn't bad enough, the show is removed from Disney+ and possibly DisneyNow.
2. Some characters can be unlikable.

Reception

Hailey's On It! was met with largely positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, with many praising the series for its humor, delightful visuals, creative stories, stunning voice cast, likable characters, and of course, its overall clever premise. It currently sits at a 7.2/10 on IMDb.

Trivia

• The series was initially titled Hailey Banks and the Apoca-List.
• The series' title is a pun on Halley's Comet (official: 1P/Halley), which is named after English astronomer Edmond Halley.
• Hailey's twin brothers Dwayne and Johnson was based on the name of American actor and businessman Dwayne Johnson, who also worked with Hailey's voice actress, Auli'i Cravalho, in the film Moana.

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