MOT
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 Better look before giving this a watch.
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MOT is a French animated television series produced by Ellipsanime and Canal+. The series was made in 1994, but didn't make its premiere on French television until September 8, 1996 on France 3 under their Les Minikeums block. It was later broadcasted in reruns in 2005 on Gulli, with some of its airings being under the Gulli Gang and Gulli Gulli blocks.
It is based on the comic books of the same name, written by Moreno Nacho and illustrated by Alfonso Azpiri.
Plot
Leo is an average teenager who lives with his mom and dad. His best friend is a giant, purple monster named MOT (short for Monstrous Organicus Telluricus) who travels through and from his closet and takes Leo on all sorts of wacky misadventures through time. Meanwhile, the neighbor is always spying on them and is determined to prove MOT's existence to the police.
Why Something Weird's Going On
- Annoying theme song. Some of the lyrics (especially "Better look before opening the door!") are sung too fast to be able to understand the first time. Not helping is the constant screaming of the lyrics, especially in the English dub.
- The instrumental itself also sounds lazily done, sounding more like a Windows MIDI mix than anything else.
- Most of the characters aside from Leo (and sometimes MOT) are pretty unlikable, often making Leo even more miserable than he already is.
- The overall character design tends to range from either mediocre or just plain weird, especially with some of the episodic characters.
- MOT and Leo's appearances are significantly different than in the original comics. MOT himself is purple rather than green (thus looking more like Barney the Dinosaur), and Leo wears a red suit rather than a white one.
- A lot of plot elements tend to be executed pretty shoddily, and at times come straight out of nowhere.
- Plenty of bad episodes, such as "Spaced Out" and "Double Trouble" (one of the worst episodes of the series).
- The score tends to be all over the place, ranging from excellent to just cheap-sounding.
- Leo is usually blamed for most of the troubles caused in each episode when it usually isn't his fault.
- One episode has MOT drinking and getting drunk from booze in a kids' show.
- Contradictory ending: In the final episode, MOT is taken away from Leo and banned from time travel by a well-dressed crocodile for breaking a rule regarding the usage of it. The final scene then shows MOT visiting Leo again in his adulthood, without any explanation as to whether the ban was temporary or not.
Redeeming Qualities
- The animation is pretty good for the most part, having been animated by Ellipsanime, a proficient animation studio.
- Some okay moments here and there.
- As mentioned in WSWGO #2, Leo himself is one of the only likable characters in the show. He, in comparison to the others, actually has common sense and is well aware of the dangers that others put him into.
- The English dub in particular has decent voice acting, utilizing the same talent pool as most English dubs produced in France at the time.
- The French version, though, is better in that field.
Reception
Despite being obscure, it has been described by most who have known it as having a strange charm for the wrong reasons. Others, however, describe it as being a fever dream and see why its status became what it is.
The show currently ranks at 6.6 on IMDB.