Horrid Henry
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"Silence, Worm!"
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Horrid Henry is a British children's animated television series, based on the book series of the same name by Francesca Simon. It is produced by Novel Entertainment, broadcast from 31 October 2006 on CITV and from 28 May 2018 on Nicktoons in the United Kingdom. The animation style differs from the Tony Ross illustrations in the books. The series has also aired on Starz Kids & Family in the United States, Cartoon Network in Australia, New Zealand, India, South-East Asia, South Korea and Taiwan, and Disney XD in Africa, Germany and Poland.
Why It Isn't Horrid (In A Good Way)
- Decently smooth animation, which fits well with the different art style.
- Splendid voice acting, especially with Lizzie Waterworth as Horrid Henry and Aidan Cook as Miss Battle-Axe.
- Unique and visually-appealing background designs.
- Amazing, enjoyable soundtrack that is based around the rock genre, with some of the best songs being the theme songs, ("I'm Horrid Henry" and "Nah Nah Ne Nah Nah".)
- Stays very faithful to the Horrid Henry book series, with only a few minor changes done to some of the stories.
- A considerable range of likable characters, such as Horrid Henry, Rude Ralph, Aerobic Al, Beefy Bert, Sour Susan, Dizzy Dave and Greedy Graham.
- It handles the "breaking the fourth wall" formula greatly well, which is rare for any show to get right.
- Although Henry is known for being a selfish, bratty troublemaker, he is just a typical British troublemaker who is desperately trying to make use of his torturous life by causing mischief and trying to have as much fun as possible, which isn't easy considering the circumstances he repeatedly gets stuck in, making him the most relatable and realistic character in the show, mostly to the young male population.
- Henry even breaks the 4th wall to talk to the viewers about what's going on in the episode and how unfair it might be, and he treats the viewers in a very respectable way, as if the viewer is his friend. And in the rare situation where he might pause for the viewer to respond, the question and response is usually funny, such as "You'd help me if you could, wouldn't you? ... What do you mean 'no'? Thanks a lot."
- It's one of the most famous animated kid shows in the UK, just like Thomas & Friends.
- Characters who act mean-spirited, annoying or torture another character in an episode usually get retaliated in the most unique ways, such as Moody Margaret getting set up and busted for putting Peter in the trash can and attempting to send him to the dump and Bossy Bill getting set up and busted for printing copies of his own backside.
- It shows the consequences of being a horrid and misbehaved child.
- It's basically a done right version of Caillou with all the flaws fixed.
- It uses childhood nostalgia very well, like the refreshing scenes of Henry meeting up with his friends on the playground and chaotic birthday parties being held at Henry's house.
- Some of the episodes are genuinely educational and important, like calming, dealing with spiders (specifically harmless British spiders) and debating on the different meanings of the word "love".
- It had a (kind of) musical episode called "It's All Your Fault", with enjoyable musical numbers with the likes of "Rude Ralph" and "We Don't Know".
- The show also depicts British culture, Some episodes involve tea, tea time, referring to cookies as biscuits, french-fries as chips, and of course the episode "Horrid Henry Meets the Queen".
- Lots of decent to amazing episodes, such as:
- "Horrid Henry's Perfect Day"
- "Horrid Henry Tricks or Treats" (Witch started to the series on a high note)
- "Horrid Henry Makes Some Money"
- "Horrid Henry and the Demon Dinner Lady"
- "Horrid Henry Tidies Up" (a decent way to end Season 1)
- "Horrid Henry and the Bogey Babysitter"
- "Horrid Henry and the Time Machine"
- "Horrid Henry's Favorite Day" (which softly started Season 2)
- "Horrid Henry and the Name Game"
- "Horrid Henry's House Party"
- "Horrid Henry and the Birthday Present"
- "Horrid Henry Goes to the Movies"
- "Horrid Henry, Untouchable"
- "Horrid Henry and the Big Freeze Wheeze" (which concluded Season 2 with a bang)
- "Horrid Henry and the Day of The Dinosaur"
- "Horrid Henry: Alone at Home"
- "Horrid Henry Delivers the Milk"
- "Horrid Henry: It's All Your Fault"
- "Horrid Henry and the Code Crackers"
- "Horrid Henry and the King of Bling"
- "Horrid Henry Goes Bananas" (a funny way to end Season 3)
- "Horrid Henry Goes to School" (one of the better episodes of the later seasons)
- "Horrid Henry's Daring Deed"
- "Horrid Henry Looks at Love" (as mentioned above, which positively wraps up Season 4)
- "Horrid Henry's Uber Homework" (started Season 5 with a positive outlook, despite the sad ending)
- "Horrid Henry: Silence is Golden" (despite the unfair ending)
- "Horrid Henry and the Pet Show" (despite the ending)
- "Horrid Henry's Gross Day Out" (the best episode the series has seen in a long time)
- "Horrid Henry Stays Up All Night"
- "Horrid Henry and the Hotel Horrid"
Intentional Horrid Qualities
- Some animation errors can be common in the earlier seasons.
- The majority of characters in the show are very unlikable.
- While somewhat likable and relatable, Henry can be a bit unlikeable sometimes, as he hates the opposite sex and treats his family badly. Also, some of the deeds Henry commits are too rough for a typical troublemaker, like when he strapped Peter to a tree when they were younger. These aforementioned traits are shown especially in "Horrid Henry: Who Stole Mr Kill?"
- Perfect Peter is a huge Gary Stu with an ear-piercing voice and treats Henry badly, especially when he tells on him for dumb reasons and even tried to tempt Henry into doing something horrid when Henry decided to be good for a day. And his catchphrase "MUUUUUUUUM!" is extremely irritating.
- He was very unlikable in the episode "Horrid Henry Takes the Biscuit". In it, he was debatably at his absolute worst. He blames Henry for the biscuits falling on the ground. Yes, it was kind of Henry’s fault for putting his backpack on the floor, but that doesn’t mean Peter has to rub the fact that he behaves better than him in Henry’s face. Plus he lied to Mum and tries to sell copies of the recipe when everyone in the school wanted to know what it was, soon he pulls a copy of the recipe in front of Henry’s class revealing to be carrots, making Henry the laughingstock of his class and Peter never got comeuppance for his actions. Oh, and his infamous line “He has no idea”.
- He was also at his worst in "Horrid Henry: Mi Casa Es Tu Casa", putting tape around the house so he and Henry have separate sides, which makes Henry's life harder. He even goes as far to make Henry pee in the bath and builds a giant wall in front of the TV while he watches it and changes the channel to Number Gnomes.
- Mum and Dad blame Henry for everything (even when it's not his fault) and they almost never punish Peter.
- Miss Battle-Axe sometimes unnecessarily picks on Henry, and once even gave him double detention for having an unpopular opinion on a TV show.
- Moody Margaret is a sexist common spoiled brat who shouts a lot and hates boys.
- Stuck-Up-Steve is Henry's rich and spoiled cousin who always rubs his toys in Henry's face and Henry's parents are blind to Steve's behavior towards Henry.
- Prissy Polly, while certainly not as bad as the other characters, has a terrible habit of overreacting.
- Soggy Sid got flanderized into someone who actively roots against Henry all the time, even once trying to get him arrested.
- Some of the episodes felt like the main message was "misbehave all the time", with the biggest offender being a scene where Henry looks at a book signed by his favorite author, and he found out that the author wrote a message saying "Never stop being horrid, Henry", then the episode ends. Although, this could be easily overlooked.
- Seasons 4 and 5, while not at all bad, feel very weak compared to previous seasons due to episodes going from entertaining, hilarious and memorable to feeling like a generic animated sitcom. You could even tell the writers were running out of ideas, with episodes such as "Horrid Henry and the Phantom Phone", "Horrid Henry: Hashtag Henry", Horrid Henry and the Detention Diva", and so on. The most weakest season was probably season 5, and it was home to some of the worst episodes of the series.
- Some bad episodes, such as:
- "Horrid Henry Takes The Biscuit"
- "Horrid Henry and the Tickly Treats Thief"
- "Horrid Henry Changes a Nappy"
- "Horrid Henry: Good Day, Bad Day"
- "Horrid Henry's Time Capsule"
- "Horrid Henry: Who Stole Mr Kill?"
- "Horrid Henry: Mi Casa Es Tu Casa" (the infamous example)
- "Horrid Henry and The Booger Bogey"
- "Horrid Henry's Hike" (depending on your view)
- "Horrid Henry and the Secret Club" (depending on your view)
- "Horrid Henry on Trial" (mostly the first half)
- "Horrid Henry and the Comic Caper" (a mediocre way to start season 4)
- "Horrid Henry Tells The Truth" (another one of the worst)
- "Horrid Henry and the Detention Diva"
- "Horrid Henry's Double Trouble" (especially the ending)
- "Horrid Henry and the Titanic TV"
- "Horrid Henry and the Jumper Jinx"
- Sometimes, the show can be very one-sided against Henry. Lots of these examples can be found in the list of episodes above.
- Henry's catchphrase "NOOOOOOO!" can get annoying.
- The infamous Hindi dub of the show was very atrocious, horrendous, unbearable and terrible. Furthermore, it seemed like a poorly made fandub instead of an actual dub made by a dubbing studio, which is unacceptable because even fandubs sound more tolerable, like the ones from fandubbers unite.
- Overuse of toilet humor and gross-out humor, such as Mrs. Tiddler's dog constantly trying to pee on Henry's shoe as a running gag.
- Episodes involving Vomiting Vera are another example since they physically show her barfing all the time. The worse offender of a VV episode is "Horrid Henry Changes a Nappy", which physically showed feces.
- The early version of the intro had a different ending sequence where Horrid Henry screams so badly we zoom into his mouth. This sequence jumpscared many children.
- A lot of the games based on it are horrible/average, such as Horrid Henry: Missions of Mischief and Horrid Adventure.
- The animation took a nosedive in later seasons (particularly Season 5), as it is very mediocre, choppy, and stiff compared to the earlier seasons due to the usage of Adobe Flash.
Episodes with their own pages
TBA
Reception
Although the show is somewhat infamous, especially in America, the show is loved in the UK and is usually considered a classic. Most parents love the show solely because one of its purposes is to teach kids how to behave, and children love the show because of some of the enjoyable characters and the great music. It currently has a rating of 6.4 on IMDb.[1]
Trivia
- The first episode of the series ("Horrid Henry: Tricks and Treats") is actually a Halloween special, similar to how the first Simpsons episode was a Christmas special.
- There are 2 Horrid Henry specials currently on Netflix: "Horrid Henry's Wild Weekend" (which is just the last four episodes of the show mashed together), which released on DVD on 21 October 2019 and was added to Netflix on 6 June 2020 and "Horrid Henry's Gross Day Out" which was added to Netflix on 17 September 2020.
References
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985991/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_horrid
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