My TV Show Review on WordGirl

Aloha, my good friends.

This is your friendly and humorous film, TV show, and episode reporter once again here with another review.

Today, for my 13th TV show review, I'll be giving you guys my analysis of "WordGirl".

Here the rundown of it:

Becky Botsford is an average school girl who, when duty calls, transforms into a superhero named WordGirl. Along with a love for vocabulary and helping others learn words, and the help of her monkey sidekick Captain Huggy Face, WordGirl must protect the city she lives in known as Fair City from a wide array of unusual super villains, such as Dr. Two-Brains, the Butcher, Granny May, Mr. Big, Tobey, and Chuck the Evil Sandwich making Guy.

Along the way, WordGirl’s life outside of crime fighting is explored, and the villains are even given some spotlight of their own.

I really must confess something to you guys about this:

This PBS Kids show was a program I fondly grew up with. Everyday, when my school hours were done, I would flip on the TV when the clock struck 3:30 p.m. just to see it. The show would even be on during the mornings of weekends, and I often what I started my mornings off with.

I was saddened when it suddenly stopped airing after "PBS Kids GO!" dissolved, and that the complete series never got released on home video. But, when I discovered the complete series's availability on Amazon's streaming service, I knew that I absolutely wanted to watch it again and make a review of it.

Let me tell you guys something:

Even now, I find this show to be absolutely spectacular!

For instance, the voice acting, casting, characters, and character development were all extremely excellent.

At first glance, people may think the characters are flatly characterized as individuals. However, thanks to the ensemble cast, the individual writers, and the directors, the characters themselves turned out to be the exact opposite of flat. They had so much personality and heart, and the series even took the time to give them character development so that they could be all-the-more three-dimensional. Basically, they were more alive than lifeless!

It was Becky/WordGirl herself whom I believe had the largest of character growths. Throughout the series, Becky’s struggles with balancing her life as a superhero and regular kid were very apparent. It’s easy to see how hard it often was for her to always do the right thing or not succumb to her own desires, and many of the situations Becky dealt with were difficult for her to work out, so nothing was ever easy for her. Dannah Phirman did an awesome job portraying Becky/WordGirl throughout the series, because along with giving her a great sense of humor, she successfully translated the character as someone with heart & depth.

Admittedly, I often thought about Becky's parents, Tim and Sally Botsford. Prior to eventually making my review of the show, I remembered that they tended to come across as childish, naive, & oblivious compared to their children, which is something I felt slightly critical over regarding them. When I reacquainted myself with the series, though…I began to note that they had more positive qualities than negative ones! Each of the things I mentioned before were true, but I admired how much Tim & Sally proved themselves to be wonderful parents. They were caring, supportive, and loving. Whenever their children needed guidance, they provided excellent wisdom as well. Ryan Raddatz and Maria Bamford were terrific in the roles, I’ll tell you that. 

The villains of the series were enjoyable as well. I loved that the vocal performers for the villains portrayed them with astoundingly unique style and passion, and the comedic flair they incorporated was hilarious. Prime examples that I definitely want to note are Tom Kenny as Dr. Two-Brains, Patton Oswalt as Tobey, Jeffrey Tambor as Mr. Big, Jack D. Ferrailo as the Butcher, and Fred Stoller as Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy. The villains themselves brimmed with personality & dimension, and while they are quite evil, the show’s interestingly distinctive take on the supervillain aspect helped them be incredibly lovable.

Chris Parnell did a phenomenal job portraying the Narrator, if I may add. Even though the Narrator was mainly “just a voice”, Parnell gave the character brilliant personality, wit, emotion, and comedic-chops. The Narrator’s interactions with the onscreen characters were particularly entertaining to watch.

Now if I'm going to be honest, the only characters that I was less than moved by were Eileen (aka The Birthday Girl), Victoria Best, and the latter's entire family. They were too irritable & one-dimensional for my taste, especially to where they’d be hard to sit through. The performances of the people who portrayed these characters were decent, although they primarily just seemed to add onto why I’m not fond of them. But, at least they weren’t terrible to where they negatively affected my overall experience with the series.

In addition to this, the overall writing and direction for this series was enjoyable. 

Even though superhero shows for children aren't uncommon, Dorothea Gillim and Jack D. Ferrailo's take on the genre was fresh and new to where one can hardly think of this show as the opposite of original. There was even a satirical Hollywood-feel to the concept that made things all-the-more unique, and I could tell that the writers and directors were having the time of their life with their spin on the superhero genre. As a plus, the humor throughout this show had an innocent quality that made the jokes too irresistible not to laugh at, and the best part was that the various gags were appropriate for all ages. The production team didn’t refrain from giving the series heart and emotion either, and several episodes even had terrific morals to live by. 

The educational value of this series was nicely done too. WordGirl's love for defining words, as well as how important of a part they play in the series, should perfectly encourage audiences of all ages to increase their vocabulary with passion. If you really think about it, the featured words in an episode notably helped shape the storylines, so the vocabulary teachings aren’t out-of-place at all.

The animation of this series was equally excellent. 

In all my years, I don't think I've ever come across shows or films that use the technique known as Squigglevision. But this show has made me think of two very words to describe the show's use of it:

TOTAL AWESOMENESS!!!

I loved the visuals aided the series' writing and direction in being unique. It had a handsome hand-drawn animated look that was surprisingly reminiscent of comic books, and it was occasionally very lively to watch. The amount of creativity behind the animation was great enough to pave the way for the technique to be used more in other shows.

Finally, the series's music was amazingly accomplished. 

Whoever composed the music for this show had obviously gone all-out in making the music entrancing to the ear. For me, the score was even brought to a level of where it'd be worthy of an Oscar, and the melodies had a wonderful cinematic quality. It was particularly powerful enough to enrapture viewers in the adventures, that's for sure.

In conclusion, "WordGirl" is not only one of the best educational programs from my childhood, but the appeal it has for audiences of all ages and the creativity behind the show make it better than one would likely expect. The characters & voice acting were delightful, the concept was splendidly well-done, everything!

So, I rate "WordGirl" a solid five out of five stars.

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Stay tuned for my review on "The Rise of Miss Power" coming tomorrow, and for a listing of what episodes I believe to be the best or worst the day after that.