Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja

Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja
Randy: For 800 years, Norrisville High has been protected by a Ninja. No one knows that every four years a new warrior is chosen. Go Ninja
Genre: Comedy Surreal comedy Action Science fantasy Science fiction Running Time: 11 minutes Country: United States United Kingdom Ireland Release Date: August 13, 2012 – July 27, 2015 Network(s): Disney XD Created by: Jed Elinoff Scott Thomas Distributed by: Disney Television Animation Boulder Media Limited Starring: Ben Schwartz Andrew Caldwell John DiMaggio Kevin Michael Richardson Tim Curry Ben Cross Seasons: 2 Episodes: 52

Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja is an American-British-Irish action-comedy super-hero animated television series created by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas. Features a cast of recognized voice actors Ben Schwartz (who started his voice acting career here), Tim Curry, Andrew Caldwell, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Ben Cross. Produced by Titmouse, Inc. and Boulder Media Limited for Disney XD, the first season premiered on August 13, 2012, and the series ended its run-on July 27, 2015, being canceled after two seasons.

Plot

Randy Cunningham is a freshman ninth grader who is unwillingly chosen to become the next ninja, a superhuman with a magic ninja suit encharged with the mission of protecting his city from the Sorcerer and his minions. The Ninja Nomicon aids Randy in his role as the ninja based on knowledge garnered by the ninjas of previous generations. These lessons are taught in the form of subtle riddles for Randy to decipher. With the suit and help from his best friend Howard, Randy battles evil while trying to survive high school and guard his secret identity.

Why It Rocks

1. Fluid and fast-paced animation thanks to Boulder Media and Titmouse.inc.
   • The characters are designed by the same guy who created Invader Zim!
2. There are lots of funny moments.
3. Most of the action scenes are fun to watch.
4. Few Likable characters such as Randy, Theresa, and sometimes Howard.
5. Phenomenal voice acting, with the most outstanding performances being Ben Schwartz, Tim Curry and Kevin Michael Richardson as Randy, the Sorcerer and Viceroy respectively.
   • In fact Randy was Ben Schwartz's first voice-acting role.
6. It's doubtful to expect the following, but this show does pull off some really good jokes and comedic dialogues, though that's not saying much as they don't stand a chance against the overwhelming bad comedy analyzed in BQ #3.
   • One example is the final episode's end credits which feature animated bloopers and behind the scenes in the same style of early Pixar films
   • Another example is practically everything that Rhymez says, as he always rhymes in normal conversations which often results in quotable dialogues
7. Randy, and to a lesser extent Howard, does undergo development in season 2, but it's partly ineffective and even slow as it could've taken place from season 1 and put a stop to the formulaic episodes withal.
   • His occasional heroic actions are undeniably admirable, like in 'The Tale of the Golden Doctor's Note'. Randy, Howard, and Julian went on a quest to find said notes to avoid climbing a rope, but when Howard had proven to be capable of doing it and even under challenging conditions, Randy gave the only note they had to Julian who suffered a lot in the dungeon
8. The season one finale 'Randy Cunningham: 13th Century Ninja' is excellent in what it tries to accomplish, providing good comedy, action and advancement in the story at last, leaving the viewer with thrill to watch more.
9. A lot of the recurring, minor and background characters have gained surprising popularity, such as Julian and Theresa. So much they have fanart and fanfictions about them.
10. This show captures what a lot of teenagers go through when they reach high school freshman year.
11. This show has a tendency of coming up with clever slang, such as "What the juice?!", "The cheese", "Wonk", "Shoob" to help express feelings without swearing.
12. The Ninja Nomicon teaches lessons that can be useful in real life.
13. The top-notch animation, fantastic art style and exciting action sequences are the show's genius selling point, though they don't make up for the flaws hidden inside this Trojan horse of beautiful animation and visuals.
14. As for how nonsensical they sound, the Ninja Nomicon's lessons might actually be useful in many situations and are by far the most interesting aspect of the show in how wise they sound and how clever their executions are sometimes.
15. The concept of the Sorcerer is dark and admittedly creative; a magician imprisoned by the first Ninja in a sewer with no escape, and his only way to fight the Ninja is by absorbing the angst and suffering from the citizens to transform them into monsters, compressing their energy source inside their most valuable material possession.
    • Speaking of, Catfish Booray is alright, as he only wants to protect the wilderness (his home) from potentially dangerous invaders. Him being pushed to a recurrent villain and not being a major antagonist was also an acceptable choice due to him being uninteresting in contrast to the Sorcerer, McFist and Viceroy
    • Tengu is an interesting deity; a bird demon that has an unbreakable bond to the Ninja, and the only way to free a soul from Tengu's control is by destroying the Ninja suit entirely
16. Spectacular theme song that's a true delight both visually and audibly.

Bad Qualities

1. Half of the conflicts are either partly or entirely caused/worsened by Randy when he follows the Ninja Nomicon's advice wrong.
2. Static characters don't improve upon the previous hindrances either, with both protagonist Randy Cunningham and deuteragonist Howard Weinerman not experiencing any growth or character development until season 2. They are selfish in how they prioritize their social status over honest heroic acts (with exceptions), unfunny in their ways of treating each other and their schoolmates, and generic in overall concept and execution as a duo of brilliant-dumb goofs, and they stay like this for a painfully long time, seeming to never get bored of not learning from their consistent mistakes in all episodes. They lack any charm or humanity to make you feel an inch of empathy for them. An odd case is presented in Season 1's Raiders of the Lost Nomicon where Randy suddenly recalls all of the Nomicon's teachings only to neglect his development by the next episode.
   • Extending from the previous pointer, the nature of the show is thoroughly uncomfortable to witness, varying between feelings of anxiety and stress that flow from the mean spirit in the characters' interactions and redundant fellow kids approach that the show intended.
3. With the upcoming statement, it's not a secret that this show was trying to become the next Spectacular Spider-Man, just for it to miss Spectacular's clever techniques horribly. RC:9GN presents an uninspiring and clichéd premise even for the standards of its era; the school's biggest loser all of a sudden becomes the chosen one to protect his city from villains and monsters as a hero with a secret identity—commonly hidden behind a mask and suit only to be treated like dirt by everyone else when he's not hiding behind his famous alter ego, having his best "friend" as the only exception. Doesn't it remind you of a universally recognized character and franchise? Swapping spiders with ninjas wasn't the most creative idea Elinoff and Thomas had, but it was smart enough to slip under the radar the uncreative rip-off they were selling to their audience.
4. As a consequence of not enhancing little mistakes, a major hassle is implied to rise, and Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja is a perfect exemplar of latter teaching. Multiple contributors influenced what made iconic stories become what they were destined to be, and in this case, a determining factor is their straightforward storytelling, a resource that this show loosely made fun of, only to result in the mess that it is now. To tell a story was its objective, to needlessly enlarge it with pointless comedic episodes devoid of continuity and character growth was what it did. With a story that never advances, the writers didn't just waste an entire season without unleashing the already scarce potential their show had, but they ultimately pulled their creation to its early and unintentional fate just when it was starting to redeem itself.
5. Major plot hole: In 'Evil Spirit Week' when Howard is possessed by Tengu and Randy destroys the Ninja suit to free Howard he's inexplicably given a second chance, but in the season 1 finale after using the Tengu to fight the Sorcerer, he destroyed the Ninja suit yet again and we never get to know how he got it back in season 2
6. Elinoff and Thomas were way too confident and let all their trust in their lackluster creation, hoping it'd last long enough for them to keep milking the cow and never give it a fully deserved break. In the Season 2 finale, "Ball's Well That Friends Well", following the conclusion of the Ninja and the Sorcerer's final battle, the mysterious owner of the suit (whom we still know nothing about) warns Randy of a new threat that's much bigger than anything he's seen before, but it was never shown or explored and the show got canceled, thus making it a terrible cliffhanger finale.
7. Pathetic "badass"-like villains who never show their clear motives to be bad outside of "they are the bad guys", making a total pain the search for their redeeming points, the most necessary aspect of a villain, since that way the viewer can feel empathy with them and understand what made them evil, yet this show's villains forget the true meaning of villainy. They fall flat as bad guys and are just there to advance with the plot next to being a lazy excuse to the origin of the monsters. The Sorcerer (despite being a creative villain), Hannibal McFist and Willem Viceroy (the trio of main antagonists), the Sorceress and especially Mac Antfee (the previous ninja to Randy, who resisted his obligation to let go of the suit when his work was done, showing he's just hungry for power) are notable examples of such insulting vapidity.
8. Presumably inspired by Regular Show, the show tries way too hard to replicate the former's "bros cartoon" feel, attempting to appeal to modern children with embarrassing and cringe-worthy trendy dialogues accompanied by the typical "bro", "dude", "yo" and "cool" slang. The most blatant example is the rap from the extended theme song.
   • For a show marketed as both 'action' and 'comedy', it is an underwhelming surprise to disclose the fact that RC:9GN only fulfills one half of its duty, while resorting to unacceptable and lazy alternatives to get rid of its second commission. An art form that countless artists struggle to master is spit in the face by the inexperienced and impatient ones, with a disgusting, unfunny, insulting, repetitive, childish and, above all, inappropriate sense of humor that can't go beyond farts and terribly hidden adult jokes to satisfy younger consumers and dismiss the older demographic's desires.
     • On a side note, the MAD parody 'Randy Savage: 9th Grade Wrestler' handled better comedy than the product it was mocking, and such humiliation serves RC:9GN right.
9. Good writing saves bad animation, good animation doesn't save bad writing, another resource that this show doesn't bother to take into account. The writers thought that offering an outstanding visual marvel would be enough to redeem their product's hollow identity, comedy & general important attributes by not even caring about those other aspects of their product—the aspects that almost all the time determine the real quality of it, not a fake quality brought up by its animation and art, taking for granted the audience is dumb enough to consume all that glitters despite not being gold.
10. Not only are they filler with every letter, but most episodes can't stop repeating the same stupid formula over and over again as if the consumers were mindless idiots who'd listen to the same story all day. The generic Monster of The Week plot-line is a spotlight vanquisher here, occupying all plot prompts from season 1 and even some of season 2, but there's more to this:
    • If not causing, Randy does worsen the situations of the citizens transforming into monsters by hurting their feelings, usually because he misinterprets the Ninja Nomicon's advice and doesn't decipher it until the near end of the fight when it reveals that he was the bad guy in the moral, not the transformed victim. This is product of Randy's over-dramatic responses to the actions of the innocent victim who most of the time is doing more good than bad
      • An example is 'Let Them Eat Cake Fries'. When the school principal changed the cafeteria's menu and nobody, not even Randy, bothered to check the favorable replacement, Randy of course misinterpreted the riddle "He who attacks without cause has no cause to attack." which was referring to Randy not forcing the menu to change, yet he attacked the cause thinking the referent in the quote was the principal changing the menu that from Randy's view didn't need change, and not Randy (the literal Ninja) attacking the former cause. This insulting formula prevails in likely every episode of season 1; he should've learned from his mistake the first time it occurred, yet here we are
    • Based on the content examined in this pointer, Status Quo Is God in this show. A downright disrespectful trope to execute in a show where storytelling is one of your biggest priorities
11. The second season ended with a tease of a new coming threat, but the series ended for good.
12. Without an acceptable main character, the supporting and side characters are the only salvation to the show's charisma, but what happens when its supporting cast fails at that too, and delivers annoying and bland mannequins that are just there to advance with the plot or to fill the background? Even more unacceptable faces to meet
    • Julian, Bucky, Stevens, Flute Girl and Mrs. Driscoll are pointless comic relief characters. While in most cases they did get an episode focused on them (even Julian becomes a major part of season 2), after that they were simply deducted back to their default roles and never heard of again
    • Principal Slimovitz is another comic relief and the butt-monkey of the series. He's nothing but the stereotypical clown principal that's constantly getting an important possession (his car) broken, lost or stolen as a cruel running gag. Everyone intentionally misspelling his name is an unfunny gag too, as he seems to be very annoyed by that (as if this character wasn't going through a lot already)
    • Theresa is often portrayed as Randy's love interest, but their relationship is never explored outside of occasional (generic) references. It's weird when taking into account the Ninja having a love interest was meant to be a major part of the plot, later thrown away as a forgettable subplot and now this
    • Bash and his gang are stereotypes of dumb bullies with rich parents. They treat likely everyone in their school (especially Randy and Howard) as inferior to them for no real reason other than the nature of bullying. Let it be known Bash seems to appreciate the Ninja a lot, going as far as doing anything he says just because "he's famous and cool" and not because of him being right
    • Heidi Weinerman, a Mary Sue who never hesitates to humiliate people online in her blog and most of her screen time is dedicated to bragging about her popularity, is one of the supporting characters with most interactions in the show. Of course, she hates her brother, loves the Ninja, and many of the citizens' transformations occur because of her selfishness and immeasurable ego
    • Howard's selfish behavior can be can very mean-spirited sometimes.
13. It has issues crafting emotion. An action sequence (or better yet, any segment in general) is never tied to the company of music and sound, blending both can either intensify the experience or downgrade its quality and emotion. A leitmotif (in this case, the theme song's instrumental that's obviously the Ninja's theme) must be introduced at a key moment, not reused in every single fight that the Ninja can brave, thus decimating its unique feeling. This makes the already mediocre Rock-like soundtrack and its minuscule emotion much more forgettable and less memorable.
14. There's a lot of fart jokes in this show.

Reception

Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja initially received mixed—partly positive, but mostly mixed reviews. Praise was sent to the show's animation, art and visual design, with criticisms toward its blatant action comedy and to a lesser extent, premise and storytelling.

The Ninja's more recent reception has been overwhelmingly positive and off the charts, following a great count of love letters from nostalgic consumers who blatantly confirm their statement of the term 'masterpiece' being the correct way to describe it.

Trivia

• Boulder Media was the same company who behind The Amazing World Of Gumball, Danger Mouse
• Before Ben Schwartz was cast, James Arnold Taylor (Johnny Test) was one of the original choices to voice Randy. In fact, Taylor was Randy's voice actor in the Randy Cunningham The 2010 Pilot.
• The 2010 Pilot seem traditionally than the final show.
• Randy Cunnigham 9th Grade Ninja. was a special crossover short with Crash Pranksgiving.

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