Scaredy Squirrel (TV series)

Scaredy Squirrel
"Don't touch that dial! Seriously, it's covered in germs." — Scaredy
Genre: Comedy Running Time: 22 minutes Country: Canada Release Date: April 1, 2011 – August 17, 2013 Network(s): YTV (Canada) Cartoon Network (USA) Pop (UK) Created by: Mélanie Watt Distributed by: Nelvana Starring: Terry McGurrin Jonathan Gould Patrick McKenna Jayne Eastwood David Berni Seasons: 3 Episodes: 52

Scaredy Squirrel is a Canadian animated comedy television series loosely based on the Scaredy Squirrel book series by French-Canadian author Mélanie Watt.

The series premiered in Canada on April 1, 2011, on YTV, then on Nickelodeon on October 1, 2013. In the United States, it premiered on Cartoon Network on August 9, 2011, for the first 40 episodes. Season 1 later reran on Qubo from 2017 to 2019, then season 2 (including the 12 episodes that never aired in the USA) began airing on Starz in 2019. It also aired on Disney XD internationally outside of the United States and Latin America. In the UK, it airs on Pop.

Premise

Based on a series of children's books written by Mélanie Watt, this animated series features Scaredy, a creative, offbeat squirrel who is learning to be comfortable in his fur. Scaredy tackles every challenge that is thrown at him with his trademark dorkiness, but he has self-confidence that makes him cool. Scaredy's best friend is fearless skunk Dave, who likes to take risks and often surprises (and confuses) his friends with his skewed logic. Other characters on the show include fish-out-of-water Sally, a confident, land-walking trout who is in love with Scaredy and goes after her dreams with gusto.

Why It Needs to Get Scared Away

1. Extremely poor grasp on the source material: Similar to the Richie Rich Netflix series and Daybreak, the show has absolutely nothing in common with the book series it's based on (despite its creator being involved with it). Instead of following any of the elements of the original Scaredy Squirrel books, this animated adaptation of Scaredy Squirrel however is heavily altered into nothing more than an unoriginal rip-off of SpongeBob SquarePants but with none of the charm and cleverness that show had, even by that show's infamous Seasons 6-8 standards, and it's not hard to see why:
   • Scaredy is the same as SpongeBob, seeing as he's an employee and something of a neat freak.
   • Dave is the same as Patrick, in that he's the dimwitted best friend of the main character.
   • Nestor is the same as Mr. Krabs, in that he's the boss of the main character. He is also similar to Squidward as well, mainly due to his grouchy nature and lack of tolerance of the main character's antics.
2. Insufferable and annoying theme song, with Scaredy loudly singing off-key gibberish.
3. The episodes usually end in disasters.
   • For example, in the series finale, "Sinker, Sailor, Squirrel, Spy", Dave pulls a water plug that causes Balsa City to flood, potentially drowning most of the town.
   • Another episode ends with everyone except Scaredy and Sally getting turned into zombies.
4. Awkward moments, such as the fact that Scaredy and Dave were talking to a plant in one episode, and though plants are indeed alive, they aren't even sentient.
5. The humor of the show is bizarre and crude, similar to the second season of George of the Jungle (2007) and The Wacky World of Tex Avery. One example includes a beaver talking in a racist Brad Garrett-like monotone in "The Great Mistack".
6. The animation is very lazy and cheap, and it looks even worse in the earlier episodes of the first season.
7. Some unlikable characters:
   • Scaredy, the main character, is just nothing but an idiotically annoying perfectionist who obsesses over safety and cleanliness and is also sometimes an optimistic extrovert, which brings out his most idiotic traits. And his voice and screaming are ear grating and painful to listen.
     • Despite being the smartest character on the show, he is just as much of an idiot like everyone else in Balsa City because of the following:
       • In the episode "Tubtastic Tuo",
       • In the episode "Sticky Situation", where he wears another uniform with a different name tag that makes everyone believe he's someone else. You'd think being a neat freak, Scaredy should've been smart enough to just replace Bob's name tag for his own while using Bob's uniform.
       • In the episode "Water Damage", when he gets new jobs at the library and daycare, Scaredy caused noise in a library and stacked some babies on top of each other. Being a perfectionist, you'd think Scaredy would've been smart enough to know you can't stack babies or talk in a library (He did have hearing problems in that episode, but still).
       • In the episode "Aisle of the Dead", when a slushie machine turns everyone except Scaredy and Sally into zombies, Scaredy discovers that it's because the slushie machine was set to zombie. Couldn't he just turn off the zombie mode? And who would make a slushie machine that turns people into zombies?
       • In the episode "Halloweekend", he tries to set up a haunted house to scare people, but the haunted house is full of "scary" things like a dirty doorknob, an unclean ice tray and a bathtub full of expired yogurt. Who on earth would be afraid of stuff like that?
       • In the episode "Goat Police",
       • In the episode "Talented Mr. Peacock", when a peacock named Philmore starts copying Scaredy for a paddleball ornament, he in turn copies Philmore to snap him out of it. When they get to the paddleball tournament, they're imminently disqualified for Scaredy looking like Philmore, even though Scaredy should've been smart enough to switch out of his Philmore costume.
       • In the episode "Lean Green Fighting Machine", when a rabbit named Mario plans on eating the world's most powerful houseplant, Scaredy calls him a monster despite the fact that he should've been smart enough to know that rabbits eat plants. Dave even points that out!
       • In the episode "Stash n Hoarder", it's revealed that Scaredy has a fear of butterflies. Why would anyone be afraid of butterflies!?
       • In the episode "The Paddy Party Problem",
       • In the episode "Ice Cream Headache", when Scaredy and Dave cover the city in ice cream and everyone cheers for them, the maker of said ice cream says that there is no need to buy ice cream anymore and they ruined his business, yet Scaredy is still happy for what he did.
   • Dave is Scaredy's gluttonous and gross friend who always acts like an idiot like Scaredy and always rides in the fire truck riding game. Not to mention, he never appeared in the books either.
   • Nestor is an annoying and means boss to Scaredy who does nothing but scream and whine and always gets tortured by his mother. Not to mention that his screaming is also ear grating like Scaredy.
   • Sally is nothing more than just a savage and terrible love interest for Scaredy.
   • Nestor's mother is the biggest offender, since she treats her employees at Stash 'N' Hoard horribly and fires them for some reason. She also tortures her son Nestor; one notable example is that when he cheered for her, she put him into a toy truck and turned it on full speed, causing it to launch Nestor into a wall.
8. The show's writing is horrible, as evidenced by the horrible amount of bad-to-mediocre episodes (see "Notable Bad Episodes From This Show" for a full list).
9. All of the character designs are terrible and lazily-designed, and many parts of their bodies look poorly drawn. Scaredy is the WORST offender, due to him having long legs, lighter fur, and a completely diffrent eye design.
10. There are bad morals and life lessons in several episodes. These include, but are not limited to:
    • "Fistful of Quarters" teaches kids that arguing with your boss can help you earn money.
    • "Children of the Acorn" teaches kids that crying can get you what you want, similar to in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Stuck in the Wringer".
    • "Lumberjack Day" and "Snerd Envy" teach kids to fall into commercialism.
    • "There Is No "I" in Groceries" teaches kids that teamwork will get you in trouble.
    • "When Thugs Attack", "Nothing But the Tooth", "The Great Mistack" and "Fudge-Filled Fib" all teach kids that lying is a good thing.
    • "Mr. Perfect Balsa" teaches kids that winning is everything.
    • "Goat Police" tries to show how bad the show would be if it told morals, similar to the Teen Titans Go! episode "Finally A Lesson".
    • "Talented Mr. Peacock" teaches kids that being yourself is bad.
    • "I Think Therefore I Clean" teaches kids that being dirty is okay when someone else does the cleaning for you.
    • "Hip to Be Squirrel" and "Safety Corner Conundrum" teach kids to follow others' opinions without accepting their own.
    • "Arachnofriendly" teaches kids to judge a book by its cover.
11. Annoying voice acting, especially from Terry McGurrin as Scaredy.
12. The concept of Scaredy working at a grocery store is rather generic and uninspired.
13. Overuse of gross-out and toilet humor.
14. Noticeable (albeit minor) animation errors in many of the episodes.
15. Balsa City, the town Scaredy lives in, is structured poorly and uncivilized:
    • In the episode "Lumberjack Day", the townsfolk treat holidays with commercialism without knowing what they're really about.
    • In the episodes "When Thugs Attack" and "Nutters Almanac", the townsfolk believe in rumors and quickly jump to conclusions.
    • In the episode "Grounded Hog", the townsfolk don't seem to be bothered that a giant monstrous groundhog is eating up the city.
    • In the episode "I Think Therefore I Clean", when the vacuums start cleaning up Balsa City, the townsfolk start to become slobs and pour garbage all over town and into the river.
    • In the episode "Hip to Be Squirrel", when Scaredy says that the best way to be cool is not to care about what others say, the townsfolk stop caring and act stupid.
    • In the episode "Mascot in the Act", the townsfolk immediately start liking the game of cricket even though Scaredy mentioned that nobody has heard of it until now and start beating up Scaredy and Dave when they revealed the Pool Cats were cheating since they didn't care if they were cheating and that they would've won the championships.
    • In the episode "Ice Cream Headache", the townsfolk go crazy when the only ice cream truck in town breaks down with the Mayor even saying that it's the worst thing to happen in Balsa City history.
    • In the episode "Double Decker Danger", the police show a video to prove Scaredy and Dave stole a museum artifact, but the video shows two other guys stealing it while Scaredy and Dave just stand there coughing.
    • The episode "Safety Corner Conundrum" is the biggest offender. When the television studio puts Paddy in charge of the show, he says negative messages that everybody believes and when Scaredy and Dave make a new show to stop people from watching Paddy's, the city bans televisions from the town.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The warning at the end of the intro is at least a reference to the source material, which this series fails to reference at all other than the main character's name and the logo.
2. The animation improved after the first few episodes.
3. The art style is decent, and is better than the character designs, since it seems to be inspired by other cartoons from the late-90s/2000s.
4. While being both a safety freak and an idiot, Scaredy is the only character that tries to set a good example for kids and at least tries to be likeable, though most of the morals he tries to teach feel forced in.
5. There are a few funny moments here and there, mainly because the humor stabilized after the first few episodes.
6. The show does have a fair share of good episodes such as:
   • "The Coast is Fear"
   • "Chili Con Scaredy"
   • "Camp or Consequences"
   • "Rock-A-Bye Rock"
   • "Fairweather Squirrel"
   • "From Rodent to Love"
   • "It's Not Easy Being Green"
   • "The Corgin"
   • "Lean Green Fighting Machine"
   • "Soup of a Nova"
   • "Shop Cop"
   • "Extrasquirrelstial"
   • "To Cat a Thief"
   • "Inskunktion"
   • "Captain Nuts"
   • "Nobody Likes Hatton"
   • "28 Daves Later"
   • "Buck Up Buck"
   • "Trophy Catastrophe"
   • "Ice Cream Headache"
   • "Sinker, Sailor, Squirrel, Spy" (which was a good way to end the show, despite ending on a disaster)
7. The show improved a little in season 2 and 3.

Notable Bad Episodes From This Show

• "Sticky Situation" (which started the show (in production order) on a sour note)
• "Cowlicked"
• "Luck Be a Penny"
• "The Golden Paddleballs"
• "Water Damage"
• ""Life Saver"
• "Who's Your Paddy"
• "Snerd Envy"
• "Children of the Acorn"
• "Acting Silly"
• "Lumberjack Day"
• "Suggestion Box Blues"
• "Aisle of the Dead"
• "Where the Stink At?"
• "Pranks for Nothing" (which started the show (in airing order) on a sour note)
• "Fistful of Quarters"
• "Nothing But the Tooth"
• "Mrs. Nestor's Mother's Momma"
• "Stackinator"
• "Goat Police"
• "Store Wars" (which ended season 1 (in airing order) on a sour note)
• "Less Nestorman"
• "Neat Wits"
• "The Great Mistack" (the most infamous)
• "Grand Olde Grocery" (which started season 2 on a bad note)
• "Groundhog Day"
• "Talented Mr. Peacock"
• "Hiccup Hicdown in Balsatown"
• "Empty Nestor Syndrome"
• "Breaking The Mold"
• "Hip to Be Squirrel"
• "The Paddy Party Problem"
• "Hamsticorn" (a torture episode for Scaredy)
• "Freaky Fur Day"
• "Mascot in the Act"
• "Stack to School"
• "Store Terk"
• "Safety Corner Conumdrum (which ended season 2 on a sour note)
• "Straighten Up and Flu Right"
• "Abracagrandma"
• "Momma Lisa Smile"
• "Arachnofriendly"
• "Double Decker Danger"
• "Actually It Is Rocket Science"
• "For a Few S'Mores More" (another torture episode for Scaredy)

Reception

Compared to the book series, this television series received negative reviews. The show currently holds a 4.2/10 on IMDb.

Trivia

• It's a rare Canadian children's television show to be based on a book that is Canadian in origin and by a Canadian author as other shows of such are based on American books.
• Melanie Watt did help out a bit with work on the series.

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