The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder
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 We were never loud and proud of this horrible excuse of a reboot.
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The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder is an American animated television series created by Bruce W. Smith and Ralph Farquhar which premiered on Disney+ on February 23, 2022. It is a revival of The Proud Family, which originally aired on Disney Channel from 2001 to 2005. In April 2022, Disney+ confirmed that the show's second season was in production, which premiered on Disney+ on February 1, 2023. The series made its linear premiere on January 7, 2023 on Disney Channel and Disney XD.
Synopsis
The series follows Penny Proud, still a 14-year-old middle school girl and her family, as they navigate their lives in the 2020s. Suga Mama returns, as do Michael, Dijonay, Zoey, and LaCienega. Two new kids, Maya and KG, along with their adoptive gay fathers, try to adapt to life in Smithville (renamed Emilyville after the season 2 finale, "Juneteenth").
Why It's Not Loud Nor Proud Anymore
- First and foremost, this show is very over reliant on promoting and referencing the Black Lives Matter movement, acting like they are the only way to defeat racism when it's obviously far from true (Martin Luther King died decades before BLM was even founded).
- Some episodes (especially "Curved") also have various songs that tackle this, and they're completely awful.
- Almost all of the characters were flanderized, with the exception being Zoe, however, as the show progressed, Penny's so called "friends" treat her like crap.
- And to an even worse extent, her friends are more toxic then their original counterparts (i.e, LaCienega, Micheal, and Dijonay).
- Penny was also flanderized in this reboot, although not as much as her father, which will be explained below.
- Oscar went from a entrepreneurial and straight-laced father to a whiny, somewhat egotistical, and has become a chew toy (basically more of a punching bag of the series). Also, despite him being married, he frequently hit on other women in the original series, which is of course is committing adultery. In the episode "Father Figures", he is revealed to be homophobic, which is almost hypocritical, because he approved of Penny being friends with Michael.
- Maya is just a self insert, and is a bland character and is even more unlikeable than anyone in this show.
- Suga Mama, was also flanderized into an abusive mother towards Oscar
- Trudy even locked Penny outside of her house in the middle of the night, which is abusive behavior towards teens her age.
- To add salt to injury: Unlike the original show that taught good morals, the reboot however teaches morals that are either mean-spirited or just wrong.
- The animation feels rather stiff and limited for 2020s standards. Not helping is that it is co-animated by Snipple Animation, who also co-animated the Ren & Stimpy reboot, an already terrible place to work for, mistreating its former animators who have already reported the studio for toxic working conditions.
- There are a lot of plot holes and inconsistencies:
- In "The End of Innocence" how come they don't explain why Noah only wanted to date white girls?
- In "Juneteenth", since most of the protesters are legally classified as minors, they wouldn’t be arrested.
- In "Curved", the songs in it are very inconsistent, so are the historical events.
- One inaccuracy in "Juneteenth" that is very major is completely demonizing Abraham Lincoln, claiming he only emancipated black people despite him freeing them. This episode even goes off the edge by saying that he wanted to deport them from America. Sure, Lincoln did consider and attempted to deport some black people to another place, but it was only 5,000 formerly enslaved Africans and not all of them as this episode claims. They also fail to mention that he eventually abandoned the idea as he got to see slavery as more of a moral issue rather than a political one
- The biggest example of historical inaccuracy in the show is that Smithville was founded by a slave owner in 1827 and still had slaves in it in 1862; however, since Smithville is in California, it was part of Mexico at the time, which strictly forbade slavery (Even though it wasn't abolished in Mexico until 1829). California wasn't officially part of the Union until 1850 when it joined as a free state, meaning that if Christian A. Smith did own slaves in 1862, he would have been a criminal, which in turn would have led to him being arrested and jailed.
- The voice acting, while still decent, is rather annoying and hammy to listen to (no offense to most of the voice actors reprising their roles).
- The writing is also pretty inconsistent too, it was as if the writing team just simply gave up at their jobs.
- This reboot tries so hard to be hip and modern for 2020s kids, most notably the inclusion of smartphones.
- Compared to the original show, the celebrity cameos here feel rather lame and pointless, most notably Lil Nas X.
- Overall: This was qualified as the worst DTVA show in the 2020s decade.
- Some gross-out humor:
- The first episode contains a joke about Bebe soiling his diaper.
- A few episodes contain gross close-ups of various characters with dirty/diseased feet.
Qualities That Are Still Proud
- Despite It's flaws, it's nice to see The Proud Family again after 21 years.
- The voice acting is still decent as well, as the original actors reprised their roles.
- KG, along with Zoe are both likeable.
- Great theme song as its the same as the original show.
- There are a few funny moments.
- Despite the animation being limited, the artstyle is a huge improvement.
- There are a few good episodes.
Trivia
- On February 4, 2022, it was mentioned that one of the biggest changes to the show are “gender identity, obviously racial identity and quote-unquote wokeness,” according to Farquhar. “All these things we can now address straight up, where 20 years ago, we had to use code to talk about if Michael was gay, to talk about sexuality, we always had to be sort of underhanded about it. Now we can be sort of in your face with it a lot more. And that’s going to be reflected in the storytelling.”
- On February 17, 2022, Bruce W. Smith mentioned that if folks are ever in L.A, then they should have a cup of coffee in the Proud Family living room at: Sip and Sonder located at 108 S. Market St. Inglewood CA 90301.
- On February 21, 2022, some Funko Pops of the characters were announced.
- On February 23, 2022, in regards to Sticky Webb departure, Bruce W. Smith said that, “We always wanted to expand out the world. In doing that, sometimes you have to revisit where characters are going and how we can bring in new characters. For us, expanding the world sometimes means you lose characters, but you also gain more characters that help grow the show in a direction we feel is necessary for this new version...[And in regards to a possible return he said that] We never say never on our show,” Smith says of a possible return down the line. “
- Also on this day it was mentioned that the original featured guest appearances by popular early 2000s performers like Lil’ Romeo, Mos Def and Mariah Carey. “Louder and Prouder” is similarly star-studded, with cameos by the likes of Lil Nas X, Chance the Rapper and Lizzo. The heartwarming theme song, performed by Solange Knowles and Destiny’s Child, also got a makeover — the 2022 version is sung by the newcomer Joyce Wrice. Moreover, Penny and her friends are now solidly into their teens, with all of the body changes, heightened hormones and social minefields that entails. And a few new players have joined the returning core cast.
- Maimuna Venzant also released in a tweet the opening pan shot introducing the audience to Penny's room. According to Venzant, this is the first background they designed for Episode 1.
- In addition, Phillip Light shared artwork that he was able to do for the series. Among the sketches were the characters in some various expressions for Penny and the gang.
- In addition some sketches for Sticky's departure were released.
- Moreover, an illustration of LaCienega's 'Uber-Puberty Pimply Face' for extreme close up shots in Episode 1 was also released.
Controversy
"When the inaugural season of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder launched on Disney Plus last year, the revival series earned praise for its LGBTQ+ inclusion and its discussion of social issues like homelessness. But its sophomore season upped the ante during Black History Month by doubling down on virtually unspoken topics that no animated series aimed at a family demographic has ever tackled before, most notably Juneteenth, the holiday marking the emancipation of American enslaved people.
During its original run, which began in 2001, The Proud Family dared to air social commentary pertaining to African American culture. Through protagonist Penny Proud’s misadventures as a middle schooler, the show’s complex and thoughtfully crafted episodes introduced kids to a myriad of topics ranging from sexism to racism. Its directness and sincerity has always managed to undercut the heaviness of the subject matter at hand; over two decades later, I still often think about the nuance of the 2002 episode “I Had a Dream,” in which Penny is transported Wizard of Oz-style to the Jim Crow era, where she must bridge her friendship with her white friend Zoey, who doesn’t address her the same way as she did in the present day.
Similarly, the soft reboot of the animated sitcom — which transposes the day-to-day-adventures of the Prouds onto the 2020s — has now given us an episode I’m sure I’ll still be chewing on 20 years from now.'
Episodes with links
Reception
The series was critically panned (especially by right-wing critics) for its overreliance on referencing Black Lives Matter, poor execution of their topics, and awful songs. The show currently has 3.1/10 on IMDb, which making the lowest Disney Television Animation shows. HenryTheBean also gave it his "BAD" rating for its political propaganda.