Uncle Mick and His Sidekick (Magical DoReMi, 4Kids)

"Uncle Mick and His Sidekick (Magical DoReMi, 4Kids)"
This is what we got if we change the plot way too much terrible changes to the point of making it almost unwatchable.
Series: Magical DoReMi Part of Season: 1 Episode Number: 19 Air Date: February 18, 2006 Previous episode: "The Flora Test" Next episode: "Get on the Bus"

"Uncle Mick and His Sidekick" is the 19th episode of Magical DoReMi and the original Japanese version overall, it was aired in February 18, 2006 in the US.

Plot

For the 4kids dub, the plot was altered so that Reanne spends the day with her uncle and his friend, and Dorie and Mirabelle mistaken that she has been kidnapped.

Why It Should Be Kidnapped

Note: This page focus exclusively on the 4Kids dub and not the Japanese version of the episode, as the original version was a good episode

1. The absolute worst thing about this dubbed episode is that they changed everything about how great the plot of the Japanese version was and was instead changed to Reanne (Hazuki) spending time with her uncle, which was of course a terrible idea considering that the episode wasn't built with this many changes, and because of this, it makes it one of the worst episodes of the whole dub, if not the worst.
2. Due to WISBK#1, the plot is completely nonsensical and comes off as just terrible, considering that the changes weren't even well made, and it is highly obnoxious because of a lot of flaws.
   • In fact, the plot wasn't really bad from the start but poorly executed due to a lot of nonsense and because of a lot of plot holes.
3. Due to the plot being changed, the guns were now removed and censored with nothing, when they didn't even censor any guns in some of their Pokémon episodes that were dubbed, this makes it even worse since when you know that in Pokémon, they didn't censor as much as Magical DoReMi and even One Piece, and because of this, it gives a lot of inconsistent censoring from 4Kids.
   • But to be fair, again, due to the episode plot being changed, the guns would possibly serve as nothing due to the plot focusing on Reanne spending time with her "uncle.".
4. In fact, due to how much it was censored, this episode had a lot of nonsensical and confusing moments that aren't even that important to the plots and even create a lot of plot holes.
   • First off, Dorie and Mirabelle mistake Reanne's uncle for being a kidnapper, in which, due to the plot of this episode, it doesn't make any sense, even if Uncle Mick did call Dorie for filling money, and even that scene doesn't make any sense since, again, Reanne wasn't kidnapped in the dub.
     • This would also create a lot of plot holes because of what would happen next in the episode.
   • The absolute worst part about it is that Uncle Mick stated that he's there to protect Reanne, which is now okay, but what's wrong with it is that it's just her friends that are here. Seriously, her friends are here, and you think that they are dangerous?
   • Another very confusing moment would be when Dorie was called for giving money to Uncle Mick, which isn't even credible because of Reanne just spending time with her uncle, and it would even pass as an out-of-context moment due to how nonsensical it is.
5. Like all the other episodes of the dub, the voice acting is incredibly annoying and highly obnoxious because it sounds very high-pitched, and the voices of Uncle Mick and his sidekick are pretty annoying to listen to and mostly sound muffed, like if the episode wasn't finished before airing.
6. The photos that were added in one scene of the episode are very unnecessary, and they were here just for the sake of adding things that aren't even important to the plot, especially since they weren't present in the original version, so why add them?
7. Something weird is that also, if Uncle Mick wants to be with his "sister" for a day, why does he go with his friend (or sidekick if you prefer) to spend a day with his sister? This is rather weird and is unexplained.
8. A ton of plot holes that were not even present in the original version; those include:
   • Uncle Mick stated that Reanne is his sister, but not only in one scene previously in the series was he not seen anywhere with the Hazuki family, but also he doesn't appear in any other episodes of the series (yep, not even in the original version of the show), and Reanne doesn't seem to recognize him in the beginning of the episode, so how is she actually his sister?
     • Also, he stated this two times, yet in the original he was someone that Hazuki doesn't even know.
   • Why didn't Reanne tell Doremi and Aiko that he is her uncle before they use their magic powers to punish them? That would have avoided the problems.
9. Once again, the title is very lazy and feels like they didn't bother to choose something new and instead just chose the characters in the title and called it like that; even some of the laziest titles in The Amazing World of Gumball were better than this!
   • Even worse, it is a bit misleading because it doesn't entirely focus on Uncle Mick and his sidekick, even if they still get a decent amount of screen time.
10. The episode mostly feels like a parody from its original version due to the plot being changed, and mostly because the dialogues are so poorly translated that it feels like it comes from a YTP rather than an actual episode. Yep, that's how badly dubbed the episode is.
11. In fact, this episode dub is so bad that it may even be considered to be possibly the single worst episode of this entire dub and even one of the absolute worst episodes that 4Kids dubbed, as not only is it horribly changed into something almost impossible to sit through due to how many highly obnoxious moments are present, but it also feels more like a parody rather than an actual episode.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The plot could have worked if it had been an exclusive episode or even if the changes were not as bad as they are.
2. Reanne, Doremi, and Mirabelle are still likable, despite the fact that they think that Reanne was kidnapped while she was just spending time with her uncle.
3. The animation is still good with a lot of beautiful details.
4. Some of the out-of-context moments could still be funny to some viewers, especially when Doremi (Dorie) tells that Reanne was kidnapped by a strange man, or when Uncle Mick said to Doremi that he heard that she could make money, and the former is confused, which are the only funny moments of the whole episode and overall the only entertaining moments.

Reception

Much like the rest of the dub, this episode was universally panned by fans of the original show and is considered to be one of the worst episodes of the dub, if not one of the worst dubbed anime episodes in history.   Ojamajo Moe, who is a French user on the Maho TV website, did upload a 17-minute review of the episode on that site and immensely panned the episode because of its horrible changes, some of the worst animation from the original, and also because of a lot of confusing and inaccurate dialogue translation; he even goes as far as saying that it is one of the worst episodes that 4Kids dubbed.

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