The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (season 2)
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| The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss | ||||||||||||||||
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 This season has made the show to “The Atrocious World of Dr. Seuss”.
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The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss is an American children's puppet television series produced by The Jim Henson Company. The show had a good first season, but in its second season it was reworked along the lines of a more traditional preschool show. Unsurprisingly, the retool failed and the show was cancelled.
Premise
The Cat in the Hat (now performed by Martin P. Robinson) lives in a playhouse with the Little Cats and Terrence McBird (performed by Anthony Asbury). Other Dr. Seuss characters will occasionally visit the Cat's playhouse. Each episode revolves around a theme (such as family, health, art) and features one or two songs about the theme. When there's a story to be told, the Cat in the Hat will use the Wubbuloscope to present it to the audience; we then transition from the Cat's playhouse to the setting of the story. At the end of each episode, the Cat in the Hat sings "Just Shout Hooray".
Why This Season Isn't Wubbulous
- Despite The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss being a mostly faithful adaptation of the late Dr. Seuss' works, with his late widow Audrey Geisel even approving of the show, its second season has various problems. It completely butchers what made the show amazing by changing a lot of things to make it preschooler-friendly.
- So much unoriginality:
- A lot of elements are borrowed from other kids' shows like Sesame Street, Barney & Friends, Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, Blue's Clues (along with Blue's Room and Blue's Clues & You), Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Special Agent Oso, Little Einsteins, including:
- A host who breaks the fourth wall constantly.
- Problems presented by the host's various residents of his home that he solves.
- A goodbye song sung to close out each episode.
- There is also unoriginal characterization, with many characters having similar personalities to those from other kids shows like Sesame Street, Barney & Friends, Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, Blue's Clues (along with Blue's Room and Blue's Clues & You), Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Special Agent Oso, Little Einsteins.
- This season also has some childish, cliché, and overall very repetitive plots that wouldn't feel out of place in other kids' shows like Barney & Friends. Season 1 had plots such as Sue Snue's uncles wanting her to decide what she'd like to do for the rest of her life, Horton transforming into a pop star after he was heard singing a lullaby to Morton, the Cat in the Hat getting Eliza Jane to change her mind about adopting a Gink for a pet, and Julian Jeremy Jaroo Jalloo being taken on an elevator ride to visit all kinds of people who may be in his future.
- Every Season 2 episode, however, focuses on typical preschool show fare and has many signs of being terribly written.
- The A-plot involving the Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats is the same in many of the episodes, with Terrence McBird not wanting to try something and the Cats getting him to like it. Their intention is to teach him never to be afraid of trying new things, but this comes off as "disagreeing with other people is wrong". Some of the second season's other plots include:
- King Derwin falsely outlawing Bimple Beans, which he doesn't like, and his son Milo the Page getting him to like them.
- Sarah Hall Small feeling jealous about her new baby brother Paul.
- The Cat in the Hat and friends throwing a surprise birthday party for Terrence, who thinks everyone’s forgotten about it.
- Morton sleeping over at his friend Junior's house for the first time. However, it turns out that he doesn't want to go to sleep because he's afraid of the shadows outside.
- The Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats trying to cure Terrence McBird's hiccups.
- Some monsters waking up Sarah Hall Small in the middle of the night and Sarah trying to overcome her fear of them.
- King Derwin upsetting his daughter Princess Tizz on her birthday by giving her some presents, only to tell her that they're too rare and precious to be played with.
- The A-plot involving the Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats is the same in many of the episodes, with Terrence McBird not wanting to try something and the Cats getting him to like it. Their intention is to teach him never to be afraid of trying new things, but this comes off as "disagreeing with other people is wrong". Some of the second season's other plots include:
- Every Season 2 episode, however, focuses on typical preschool show fare and has many signs of being terribly written.
- Worst of all, much of the people who wrote the second season's episodes have also written for much better shows and are usually great at doing their jobs. These writers include:
- Stephanie Simpson, who wrote for Arthur.
- Saturday Night Live writer Adam Felber.
- Mo Rocca, an actor/writer best known for Wishbone, The Daily Show, The Tonight Show, Pepper Ann, and CBS Sunday Morning.
- Jonathan Greenberg, who wrote for Rugrats, Maya & Miguel, Hey Arnold!, Recess, the Jumanji animated series, the Nickelodeon game show Finders Keepers, Peep and the Big Wide World, and Arthur.
- Jay Martel, who wrote for KaBlam! and Key & Peele.
- A lot of elements are borrowed from other kids' shows like Sesame Street, Barney & Friends, Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, Blue's Clues (along with Blue's Room and Blue's Clues & You), Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Special Agent Oso, Little Einsteins, including:
- When Terrence says that his picture "is missing something" in "The Cat in the Hat's Art House", Pam-I-Am is called upon. After a musical number, Terrence receives a box of crayons from her. It makes you wonder how Terrence didn't realize that he needed to color his own picture for the Cat in the Hat or why the Little Cats didn't share their crayons with him.
- Some of Dr. Seuss' most popular characters still don't make any appearances in the show. These characters include Sally, Thing One and Thing Two, Sally's brother, the Lorax, Marvin K. Mooney, and the Sneetches.
- Three annoying and/or unlikable new characters:
- Terrence McBird is an absolutely horrendous addition to the show. He is supposed to be an adult, as evidenced by his green necktie, yet he's very immature and cowardly; he somehow even refuses to do things he should've already known how to do at his age, like drawing, planting a flower, playing an instrument, cleaning house, etc.
- Terrence is such a coward, in fact, that in one episode he thinks he caught Little Cat Z's cold and pretends to be sick.
- He is at his worst in some episodes, like "A Bird's Best Friend", in which he refuses to share his Hooble Ball with the Cat in the Hat.
- Sarah Hall Small replaced Sue Snue, who only appeared in Season 1, and is an overall bland character.
- Little Cat Z is the most annoying of the Little Cats, since he does nothing but mutter Z-words.
- Terrence McBird is an absolutely horrendous addition to the show. He is supposed to be an adult, as evidenced by his green necktie, yet he's very immature and cowardly; he somehow even refuses to do things he should've already known how to do at his age, like drawing, planting a flower, playing an instrument, cleaning house, etc.
- Some of Dr. Seuss' characters from the first season have changed and/or have smaller roles than they did in Season 1, with the Cat in the Hat being the worst offender:
- In Season 1, the Cat in the Hat was a trickster who fooled others into thinking he would make their lives better, which made him hilarious and faithful to his book counterpart. Season 2, however, depicts him as an overly excited and kind host with little to no other personality.
- The Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats have 13 minutes out of each 24-minute episode all to themselves. That's more than half of the show's runtime. The other Dr. Seuss characters (Horton and Morton, Yertle the Turtle, the Grinch, Jane and Junior Kangaroo, etc.) have been reduced to subplots on which the Cat in the Hat covers by consulting the Wubbuloscope, which is just stupid.
- Many characters from the first season like Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, Eliza Jane, Julian Jeremy Jaroo Jalloo, Annie DeLoo, Mayor Stovepipe, and Sue Snue are nowhere to be found.
- Despite Sam-I-Am being likable as well as his female counterpart Pam-I-Am, their only purpose in the show is to lend a helping hand to the Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats. For example, Sam makes a giant green ham and cheese sandwich for their indoor picnic in "The Cat in the Hat's Indoor Picnic" and then leaves.
- The Grinch isn't anywhere near as evil and threatening as he previously was. In "The Cat in the Hat's Flower Power", he tries to stop the Binky Blossom Festival from coming by using a snow blaster and covering Seussville in snow instead of, say, stealing all the flowers that the Seussville citizens have collected for the festival. Another episode, "The Cat in the Hat Takes a Nap", only has him dreaming about having a birthday party with his dog Max.
- Yertle the Turtle is now barely evil, even sharing his nut collection with Earl in "A Bird's Best Friend" after refusing to the first time. His hilarious villainy and his goal to be king of everything are completely thrown out the window. Like the Cat in the Hat, he has little to no personality. He also somehow lives in the Jungle of Nool instead of Salamasond.
- Some of the voice acting is poor:
- Little Cat A and Morton's voices have become irritatingly scratchy sounding.
- Tim Lagasse is miscast as Junior, making his voice more mature sounding than Kathryn Mullen did in the first season.
- The lullaby Jane Kangaroo sings to Morton and her son Junior in “The Cat in the Hat’s First-First Day” is just too loud, as she blows a whistle and bangs on a drum throughout the entire song.
- The title of "The Cat in the Hat Takes a Nap" is misleading. Terrence McBird takes a nap in the episode, not the Cat in the Hat.
- Terrence McBird is creepy whenever he has his eyes wide open, and so is Yertle the Turtle's grin in "The Cat in the Hat Cleans Up His Act".
- There is filler, such as the Cat cranking up the Wubbuloscope as the map of the Wubbulous World unfolds and looking into it in every single episode.
- A few goofs:
- The Wubbuloscope usually has a yellow-and-pink color scheme with a large, very wide optical tube. This telescope also normally has a yellow/turquoise gradient eyepiece. However, it is designed much differently in several earlier-produced Season 2 episodes like "The Cat in the Hat's Big Birthday Surprise" and "The Cat in the Hat's Flower Power". It is designed more sloppily and has a purple-and-gold color scheme. The optical tube is also longer and narrower. Adding onto that, the Wubbuloscope switches to its normal design in these episodes when the Cat in the Hat uses it.
- When Terrence McBird has his eyes wide open, his eyelashes are missing.
- The final episode in production order, "Cat's Play", ended the show on a sour note.
- The trailers for the VHS volumes, as well as the bumpers on said volumes, wasted the talent of Brian Cummings.
- In "The Cat in the Hat's Indoor Picnic", the Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats make a sandbox for Terrence by using his bird bath and some dried corn. Dried corn shouldn't be used as a sand substitute because you can't make sandcastles with it.
- Matthew Katroom's messy room and the singing rotten sandwich under his bed in "The Cat in the Hat Cleans Up His Act" are both disgusting to look at.
- A stupid interstitial series called Ask the Cat was made to promote it.
- Unlike the first season, although there are some that are considered tolerable and okay, this season doesn't have a single good episode due to the numerous changes.
Wubbulous Qualities
- The humor and wordplay are still clever for the most part.
- Sam-I-Am, Horton, Jane and Junior Kangaroo, Mr. Knox, Fox in Socks, and Morton are still likable characters. They haven't changed much, except for the former.
- Sam-I-Am's female counterpart Pam-I-Am is very hard-working and talented, which makes her a nice addition to the show.
- Talented puppeteering and voices, just like in the first season.
- The eye-gouging virtual backgrounds and chroma-key effects are used less often.
- The Cat's playhouse is very neat to look at, with paintings of some Dr. Seuss characters and little cubbies in which the Little Cats live on the walls.
- Most of the voice acting is still good.
- Catchy theme song.
Trivia
- In Kevin Perjurer's interview with Craig Shemin and Stephanie D'Abruzzo, it was said that The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss was retooled because a focus group at a test screening of "The King's Beard" thought the show was for much younger kids.
- According to the Nickstory Wiki, the third and fourth episodes in production order—"The Cat in the Hat's Big Birthday Surprise" and "The Sounds All Around"—were the second and third ones to air.
- On a similar note, "Lester Leaps In" (the fifteenth produced episode of Season 2) aired before "The Feed You Need" and "A Bird's Best Friend"—which, in production order, are the seventh and thirteenth episodes of Season 2.
- Kathryn Mullen only directed a few Season 2 episodes before resigning from The Jim Henson Company to pursue other projects. Most notably, she co-created Between the Lions with her husband and played Leona in the show's first two seasons. Leslie Carrara-Rudolph took over most of her characters.
Episodes with Their Own Pages
Reception
Season 2 of The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss was criticized by James A. Williams.
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