Rock Paper Scissors
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Rock Paper Scissors is an American animated comedy television series created by Kyle Stegina and Josh Lehrman for Nickelodeon. It premiered on February 11, 2024, airing after the network's alternate broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII.
Plot
Aspiring fashion model Rock, inventor Paper, and ladies' man Scissors go on all sorts of wild adventures together.
Production
After graduating from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 2008, Josh Lehrman worked on Family Guy, Brickleberry, and Robot Chicken. During these gigs, Lehrman tried to come up with his own show ideas. Thankfully, he and his writing partner Kyle Stegina would soon receive professional help with their ideas. Lehrman and Stegina's managers submitted applications to the Disney Channel's Storytellers program in 2014, and their applications were accepted.
During the Storytellers program, Lehrman and Stegina developed what would later become their three-season Disney series Bizaardvark. After the show ended in 2019, Lehrman discovered an opportunity at the competing channel Nickelodeon: the Intergalactic Shorts program. The program was "searching for new and diverse creators from across the globe, focusing on new voices and nurturing their vision for original comedy-driven content with an eye toward representation." Lehrman paired up with Stegina once again to pitch Rock, Paper, Scissors as part of the program.
"We knew we were onto something special with creators Kyle Stegina and Josh Lehrman and their hilarious characters in Rock, Paper, Scissors, which we are so proud to bring to series," said Nickelodeon Animation head Ramsey Naito. "Finding and growing talent through the process of pitch to hit is what powers our Intergalactic Shorts program, and we can't wait to get started finding the next great creator in animation through our program's just-launched second phase."
The full pilot episode was released on August 19, 2023 on the Nicktoons YouTube channel, and an exclusive preview of the pilot was introduced at the NFL Nickmas game on December 25, 2023.
Why It Rocks Papers Scissors
- The show has a talented cast of voice actors like Ron Funches, Thomas Lennon, Carlos Alazraqui, and Melissa Villaseñor.
- The animation, even though it was done in Flash, is still fluidly animated thanks to Toon Boom Harmony with a lot of lively moments that reminds you of other Nickelodeon shows such as The Loud House" (which was also animated in Toon Boom in its first three seasons) or SpongeBob SquarePants.
- The backgrounds are beautiful and are very well-drawn.
- It tackles subject matters greatly such as: False Advertising.
- The show's music, such as the theme song, are well composed and catchy.
- The show has a lot of clever comedy, meta humor, and pop culture references.
- Some heartwarming moments.
- The characters are all very good, and unique in their own ways:
- Rock might be the dumbest character of our trio (he's "dumb as a rock"), but he makes up for it by having the biggest heart. Like Kenneth from "30 Rock" or Buddy in Elf, Rock is warm, optimistic, and innocent, and his main goals are to have fun and express himself. Also, he's not completely dumb; in fact, Rock is surprisingly talented at random things: he can write a novel in an evening, tame an animal in seconds, and he somehow just knows how to play alto sax.
- Paper is a wannabe intellectual who dreams of being a famous inventor. Unfortunately, he's not particularly smart, so his inventions rarely work. His s'more-making robot explodes, his mind-reading device just projects Paper's own thoughts like a megaphone, and his time machine ... actually makes s'mores. But bad s'mores.
- Scissors is the selfish schemer of the trio, and he's always looking for ways to get the upper hand... like when he brings a shark into the apartment to intimidate Rock and Paper into watching the TV show he wants to watch. He's also very lazy. Instead of getting a job, Scissors has been living off settlement money he got from suing the city after a bus barely grazed his shoulder. (He came into the courtroom in a wheelchair, full body cast, and an EKG machine.)
- The pilot ("TV Time") was awesome.
- The episodes never use a cheap ending and are always satisfying. For example, in 'Six Pieces of Turkey', Rock is able to convince the company to match the turkey in the box advertised on the box. Rock then steps outside to show the people that they're victorious, and they sing a victory song that ends the episode. Not to mention, the triumphant climax in interrupted by the sleazy antagonists of the episode, which was another clever joke.
- Due to the flash animation, nonsensical plot and stock photo background, it has the same feel as 2000s Adult Swim shows such as: Aqua Teen Hunger Force and The Brak Show.
Bad Qualities
- The characters could get annoying and/or mean-spirited at times, especially the main trio.
- It can be boring and stale sometimes.
Reception
The show received positive reviews from audiences. It currently has a 6.8 rating on IMDB.
Trivia
- Despite being an American cartoon, all of the episodes aired first in the United Kingdom.