The Buzz on Maggie

All of this just works. ― Todd Howard

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The Buzz on Maggie
Not necessarily one of the worst Disney cartoons, but it might just make you want it to buzz off.
Genre: Comedy Slapstick Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States Canada (animated) Release Date: June 17, 2005 - May 27, 2006 Network(s): Disney Channel Created by: Dave Polsky Distributed by: Buena Vista Television Starring: Jessica DiCicco David Kaufman Thom Adcox Cree Summer Brian Doyle-Murray Susan Tolsky Seasons: 1 Episodes: 21 (42 segments)

The Buzz on Maggie is an American animated show created by Dave Polsky for Disney Channel. The show centers on an anthropomorphic tween crane fly named Maggie Pesky, who lives in the town of Stickyfeet and dreams of becoming a rock star. It was also one of the first-ever Disney shows to be animated in Adobe Flash.

Buzzkill Qualities

1. The main problem with the show is that it is filled with unlikable or stereotypical characters. These include:
   • Maggie Pesky, the titular character, while not an awful character and is a decent character, is a Punching Bag who never seems to get what she wants at the end and constantly gets abused.
   • Aldrin (Maggie’s brother) is a horrible sibling who is a jerk towards Maggie, and he usually gets away with all of the bad deeds that he committed. He’s also the overplayed Jerk Jock stereotype. Though he does have his moments of kindness from time to time.
   • Chauncey and Frieda are not good parents. They dote on Aldrin and do neither punish nor scold him for treating Maggie like a solid piece of crap.
   • One of the worst characters of the whole show is Dawn Swatworthy, Maggie’s arch nemesis at school who is a stereotypical Mean Girl stereotype and who is basically a female insect version of Chick Hicks from Cars but a lot worse. She also has the nerve to start trouble with individuals who never even had a problem with her or stoop down to the lowest levels to get her way or even just for heck of it. Thankfully, she gets her comeuppance in most of the episodes which feature her as the main antagonist.
   • While not as bad as Dawn, the one-shot antagonist Lacey Ladybug in the second segment of the first episode is another unlikable Mean Girl stereotype who is straight up racist towards flies, believing them to be inferior to her own species. Thankfully like Dawn, she also gets her comeuppance too and only appeared in the one episode she’s featured in.
2. The voice acting can be annoying at times; Pupert’s voice is the biggest offender, and it will get on your last nerves. And Dawn Swatworthy's valley girl-like voice is also incredibly annoying and poorly acted, like Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, despite being voiced by Tara Strong.
3. Subpar character designs for the insects, but for some reason, the character designs were nominated for an Annie Award.
4. A majority of the jokes range from stale to just plain weak.
5. Almost everyone treats Maggie like garbage and usually gets off for scot-free at the end.
6. Some disturbing scenes for the target audience, such as a painful scene where Maggie gets her skin scraped off by a bandage being peeled off too fast.
7. Poor attempts at humor. A majority of it relies on gross-out jokes, such the stinkbug named Melvin farting so loud and destroying almost an entire building.
8. Almost lack of originality.

The Buzz Qualities

1. The show does teach good morals and life lessons.
2. Maggie (at times), Rayna, Pupert and Bella are very adorable characters. Maggie, herself can be relatable, as she's a very cute protagonist who aspires to one day be a famous musician.
3. The animation is great since it’s one of the first Disney Animation Television cartoons to be animated in flash. While also taking cues from Disney’s golden age productions from the 1930s and 40s.
4. The setting for the cartoon is kinda clever for the bugs.
5. Maggie's character design and tomboyish personality are admittedly cute.
6. Good voice acting, despite the voice acting being annoying at times. Jessica DiCicco (who is best-known for Cecil in Viva Pinata, Flame Princess from Adventure Time, Lucy, Lynn Jr., Benny, and Zach from The Loud House, Tambry and .GIFfany from Gravity Falls, Summer from the Muppet Babies reboot, and Hissy from Puppy Dog Pals) herself does a great job voicing Maggie in her debut role in voice acting. Cree Summer also gives a spunky and energetic performance voicing Rayna.
7. Funny moments now and then.
8. The show's theme song "Just the Way I Am" is very cute and charming. It got critical praise and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award. There is even a full version.
9. As said in BOQ#7, the idea can prove that it can get some originality, helped by the decent execution.
10. The intro looks nice to view it, without resorting to use clips from the episodes awfully.

Trivia

• The series is currently unavailable on Disney+ as of now.
• The Buzz on Maggie was the second Disney Channel original series to be canceled after one season, after Dave the Barbarian.
• While the show was produced in 4:3, there are a few clips from the show that are in widescreen 16:9 and can be found in this playlist.

Reception

The Buzz on Maggie generally received mixed reviews, as it currently holds a 5.6/10 on IMDb. However, despite its mixed reviews and short-lived run, the series eventually gained a cult following in 2019.

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