Review: The Aquabats! Super Show! – Season 1 / Cert: PG / Director: Jason DeVilliers, Matt Chapman / Screenplay: Various / Starring: Christian Jacobs, Richard Falomir, James Briggs, Ian Fowles, Chad Larson / Release Date: 22nd July
MC Bat Commander, Crash McLarson, Ricky Fitness, Eagletones Falconhawk, and Jimmy The Robot; together they are the Aquabats, crime fighters and part-time rock band. It is their mission to fight crime and protect the innocent in this DVD collection of their first season.
We follow the Aquabats on several of their crazy adventures. In Manant, several attacks on burger joints across the city lead the gang to a villain who’s making lies in the past of Crash McLarson. Meanwhile, in Mysterious Egg, the discovery of the aforementioned item by the Aquabats leads to trouble… of giant, mutant proportions! Also worth a note is Cowboy Android, in which the Aquabats find themselves in a typical Western town with a not-so-typical android Sherriff.
The Aquabats! Super Show! feels as if it rolls together elements of The Mighty Boosh with the Adam West Batman series and just a hint of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for good measure and the result is very entertaining. The programme owes a lot to the 60s Batman series with its absurd plots, its amusingly, over the top villains, and its comic melodrama; children will find it perilous whereas their parents will find it utterly hilarious, which is all part of its charm. Another nice feature is the parodies of adverts aimed at children, while the cartoon interludes give Aquabats that feel of the Saturday morning telly of yesteryear, which is very appealing.
However, its fundamental flaw is that it is nothing we haven’t seen before; you can watch around three to four episodes before it becomes boring (it took this reviewer the best of a week to get through the box set). Meanwhile, even for someone who does have a passion for slapstick, Aquabats does get that bit too silly at times (though I do appreciate that it is largely aimed at children).
Aquabats! Super Show! takes you back to the television of your youth; big stories and big villains, with its tongue firmly in its cheek (and its only when you’re an adult do you realise the irony). It doesn’t reinvent children’s television but it is certainly entertaining.
