The Chicken Squad

This article was copied (instead of imported) from the now-deleted Terrible Shows & Episodes Wiki from the Wayback Machine.

The Chicken Squad
Chicken Squad, ready to make a terrible showǃ And Disney Junior wouldn't blame us for how bad this show turned out, and cancelled it in response...
Genre: Adventure Comedy Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States Release Date: May 14, 2021 - April 22, 2022 Network(s): Disney Junior Created by: Tom Rogers Starring: Yvette Nicole Brown Ramone Hamilton Gabriella Graves Maxwell Simkins Seasons: 1 Episodes: 29

The Chicken Squad is a CGI Disney Junior show by Tom Rogers based on a book series of the same name. It premiered on May 14th, 2021. In April 2022, it was revealed that the show had been cancelled after only one season.

Plot

Inspired by Doreen Cronin's popular children’s book series, the show follows Coop, Little Boo, and Sweetie – a trio of young chicken siblings – and their mentor Captain Tully, a retired search and rescue dog, who use teamwork and critical thinking skills to solve problems and keep the peace in their neighborhood. Whether rescuing a stranded puppy from a creek, helping a bird track down its missing food, or solving the mystery of how their mom's prized flowers got trampled, the Chicken Squad is always ready to lend a helping wing. Whenever a character thinks of something, his/her thought bubble can be seen and edited by anyone around.

Why It's Ready to Get Scrambled

1. Off the bat, the CGI animation is rendered terribly for 2021 standards and also looks very stilted. It was made by the same people who even made Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years.
   • The characters, while decent on paper, look uncanny and even ugly to look at.
   • The backgrounds look rather generic, being the stereotypical houses and farms.
   • This is especially surprising because Wild Canary Animation produced the show. Previous shows from the company had way better, well rendered CGI.
2. All of the characters are stereotypical, bland, and unlikeable:
   • Coop is the smart, nerdy one who likes making gadgets.
   • Sweetie is the strong Mary Sue.
   • Little Boo is the cool, speedy egotist.
     • Out of all the members of the Chicken Squad, he is by far the worst. He shows off his speed and hair constantly, and there is even a whole episode centered on him being upset the squad made a car and he is no longer the fastest, which by the way, is a ridiculous reason to even get upset over.
   • Captain Tully is nothing more than filler.
     • She also is a perfect example of wasted potential as she could have been a great representation of a retired rescue dog, especially due to her unique condition, heterochromia iridium (two different colored eyes), but what do they do with her? Nothing.
   • Frazz is the fancy squirrel who is obsessed with tea.
   • Dr. Dirt is a stereotypical genius snail who likes acting hip.
   • Dinah is the mother of the main trio who is also a filler character.
   • Riley is Frazz's rat sidekick who is also used for filler.
   • Lt. Scruffy is an offensive fire dog stereotype.
   • Snick and Wheeze are annoying redeemed raccoon antagonists who make terrible jokes and love to steal.
   • Maizie is another redeemed antagonist who is a sheep and loves stealing stuff from her mother.
   • Nibbles is yet another filler character who is a hare that loves vegetables.
   • The characters that are voiced by guest stars, Rebeecca, Quilla, Cornelius, and Dash & Chance also serve as filler as well as plot devices.
   • Not to mention, expect for the Blue Booted Baddie, the show can't decide on making an antagonist, as there is usually only one per episode, and then they redeem themselves.
3. Horrible pacing. The scenes either last too long with unnecessary jokes or scenes last too short and you can't grasp your attention.
4. The show's "humor" is bland for its demographic and filled to the brim with gross, dumb, or sometimes even inappropriate jokes. One major example was "Honey Bee Boogie Woogie", in which the bees, including the Chicken Squad, who are minors, twerkǃ
5. Extremely poor grasp on the original book: Some characters are missing or added, and only 2 of the 4 Chicken Squad members are in the show: Little Boo and Sweetie. They also had very different personalities compared to their show counterparts.
6. Unlike most Disney Junior shows, and similar to the later seasons of Barney & Friends, the tone is way too childish and treats the viewers as if they are idiots, creating a "It's made for kids" excuse. Other Disney Junior shows like Bluey at least understand the viewer, and at least add an interesting and realistic tone, whilst this show can't take anything seriously.
7. On that topic, the show most often also suffers from an identity crisis, as the episodes can't seem to figure out which tone the audience will need in each scene.
8. The episodes follow the exact same formula almost every time, with the cliche "the group has a problem, they do it the wrong way, but they do it right the 2nd time" story. As a result, many mediocre bland episodes to just mean-spirited atrocious episodes are produced, including:
   • Chicken Squad to the Rescue (which started the show on a mediocre note)
   • A Speedy Exit
   • A Dirty Job
   • Roommate Rubble
   • The Problematic Puppy
   • The Squirrel Next Door
   • The Stakeout Mistake
   • Tech Trouble
   • A Visit from the Bearded Dragon
   • The Lemonade Letdown
   • The Prankster Returns
   • Honey Bee Boogie Woogie (arguably one of the worst episodes of the entire series)

Redeeming Qualities

1. In concept, the show's premise was somewhat interesting, but it was butchered horribly.
   • Along with that, the books the show is based off are way better than this.
2. The theme song, even is consisting of annoying lyrics, is somewhat catchy.
3. Passable voice acting for the most part, sans Monty.

Reception

The Chicken Squad received negative reviews from viewers, parents, and critics, with the main criticisms being the poor animation, childish tone, stereotypical characters, and humor. It is often disregarded as the worst Disney Junior show as of now. It currently has a 5.7/10 on IMDb.

It is also rumored that Disney Junior themselves even hated the show, probably why it was cancelled after only one season and being taken off of Disney+ shortly after without any warning. It is still available on digital outlets, however.

Trivia

• The theme song was sung by Kids Incorporated star Renee Sands.
• The director for many episodes is Pat Pakula, also responsible for joining working on The Loud House and writing parts for The Emoji Movie.
• Many members of the crew for the show moved to Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures.

References

1. https://x.com/DTVANews/status/1534015043100106753

Comments

Loading comments...