Skunk Fu!

Skunk Fu!
The Art of STINKY Cartoons.
Genre: Action Adventure Comedy Martial Arts Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United Kingdom Ireland Release Date: July 9, 2007 – January 31, 2008 Network(s): Kids' WB Cartoon Network CBBC Created by: Aidan Harte Distributed by: Cake Entertainment Starring: Jules de Jongh Paul Tylak Tony Acworth Patricia Rodriguez Rod Goodall Paul McLoone Seasons: 1 Episodes: 26 (51 segments)

Skunk Fu! is an animated television series featuring the fables of anthropomorphic animals protecting their valley using martial arts. The show chronicles the adventures of young Skunk, training with his Kung Fu master, Panda, with the support of Rabbit, Fox, Turtle, and others, who directly, or inadvertently, also help Skunk grow. The show won the IFTA award for "Best Animation". In addition to an English soundtrack, Irish-language, French-language, Japanese-language, and Dutch-language soundtracks were initially produced.

Plot

Animals in The Valley have been using their Kung fu skills to ward off evil in their homeland, but they need a miracle to win the battle. Skunk arrives to help their cause and begins following the teachings of Panda. Skunk must learn to master Kung Fu and his stink to overcome the sinister Dragon and the Ninja Monkey Army.

Bad Qualities

1. To start with, the intro or show itself never really explains several important details; what is The Valley? Who is Dragon, what was he arrogant about and why did he blame the other animals for his punishment by heaven? Why is Skunk their "only hope" against him?
   • In fact, Dragon was withstanding with rope by the idiotic Pig of all people? If he is held back that easy, how can he be that much of a threat?
2. The characters often range from stock to forgettable, to unlikable.
   • Skunk himself is often quite idiotic, a typical plot is him doing something stupid, but learning his lesson in the end.
   • Rabbit is a dumb arrogant tough guy.
   • Pig is an ugly and dumb comic relief.
   • Dragon is supposed to be a scary villain, but he can come off as a joke instead, especially when he can't even tell the difference between Skunk with a coconut on his head and a Ninja Monkey.
   • Baboon and the Ninja Monkeys are the dumb henchmen.
     • There's even some characters that are complete rip-offs of already existing characters with similar personalities, like Tiger is the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz, while Bird and Ox are basically Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King.
3. Almost every character in this show is named for what they are, which comes off as just lazy.
4. Bad episodes such as "The Art of Influence" and "The Art of The Stink".
5. It feels generic and cliché, as the characters (as mentioned above) and plots are typically stock, unoriginal, and/or uninteresting. Speaking of unoriginal, though probably just a coincidence, it feels kind of like a second-rate version of Yin Yang Yo!, with several characters and concepts being similar to the latter show.
   • The stories are typically generic and formulaic, typically being something like; Skunk learns a new skill, Baboon and Ninja Monkeys attack, he uses his skill against them.
6. Toilet humor, mostly when Skunk uses the "stink".
7. Bad American theme song, which replaces the original music with a generic Chinese action theme with no lyrics, though you could say it fits the show more since the theme is mediocre just like how show itself is.
8. "The Art of Remembering" was not a good way to end the series, since it never explained the plot of the show (not that were was much, to begin with).

Good Qualities

1. Some likable characters like Skunk (depending your view), Panda and Fox.
2. The animation (by Cartoon Saloon) is decent, smooth, and fluid with an interesting and unique lineless art style.
3. Great non-American theme song by Ghostface Killah, which not only sound great, but has very cool visuals to go along with it.
4. The voice acting is decent, all thanks to names such as Jules de Jongh, Paul Tylak, Tony Acworth, Patricia Rodriguez, Rod Goodall, and Paul McLoone, which says a lot.
5. Some of the jokes can be good.
6. Some good/decent episodes like "The Art of Dream Control", "The Art of Darkness" and “The Art of Sneaking”.
7. The concept is great, although to think that it is a wasted potential.

Reception

Skunk Fu! has given a rating of 5.2/10 on IMDb.

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