The Case
Man, there is no shortage of Nickelodeon product for parents to shell out
greenbacks for. We're into our fourth installment of "Nick Picks," and
this one is as bulky as they come. Nickelodeon and Paramount has crammed in 162
minutes of animated action, courtesy of old favorites like SpongeBob and Jimmy
Neutron (that ass clown), as well as newcomer spy family The X's. In all,
you get eight episodes from seven shows:
All Grown Up
"RV Having Fun Yet?"
This
two-parter has popped up in other Nick anthology releases, so it's kind of a
cheap ploy double-dipping here. All Grown Up follows the adventures of
the Rugrats, now older and sans diapers. This jumbo episode (a shade north of
forty minutes) follows the 'rats as they ride with their moms on a cross-country
road trip. It's a lot of bang for your buck (provided you don't already own it
on another compilation) and the show is well-written.
• SpongeBob Squarepants
"Have You Seen This
Snail?"
Look, another double dip! We've spotted this episode before
on DVD, too! SpongeBob and his pet snail Gary have a fight, and Gary takes off
to live with an old woman who can't stop feeding him. SB needs to rescue his pal
before he becomes fatally obese. The repeat showing hurts it, but the show is
typical looniness from the ultra-absorbent, omnipresent sponge mogul.
• The Fairly Oddparents
"Where's Wanda?"
and "Imaginary Gary"
Two shots of Timmy and his troublesome
wishes. The first episode follows the well-known TFO formula of spoofing
movies, with Timmy entering a movie-making contest. The second finds Timmy in a
load of trouble after wishing his imaginary friend was real. Solid stuff from a
dependably amusing show.
• The X's
"Photo Ops"
I've never
seen this show before, a cross between The Incredibles and Spy Kids, where a family of secret agents
fight evil and do their homemaking thing. This brief episode has The X's away to
have their family portrait taken, and instead face off with their nemesis,
Glowface. The show's pretty funny, actually.
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius
"The Big Pinch"
Shut the hell up Jimmy Neutron, you annoying
little toad. That voice, that haircut, that humongous forehead—blecchh,
this kid needs to be taken in out back to the playground and wrapped around the
monkey bars. Here, you'll have to endure 20 or so minutes of Jimmy trying to
transport Thomas Edison back in time.
• Danny Phantom
"Teacher of the Year"
This hyperactive show follows Danny Phantom, a regular boy-turned-superhero
who must balance his world-saving duties with school work. This dynamic is
clearly evidenced in this episode, where Danny hast to defeat the evil Technus
before he infiltrates the Internet through a video game, while struggling to
pass his English test in the real world. I can't believe I just used the word
"dynamic."
• My Life as a Teenage Robot
"The Great
Unwashed"
In this weird little show, Jenny, the titular teenage
robot, has to deal with intolerant bullies who think that just because she's a
glorified Swiss Army Knife, she shouldn't be allowed to be normal and go to
parties like the other girls.
That's a lot of viewing material there. I don't like the two shows popping
up again, as I think it short-changes dedicated Nick DVD buyers, but 160+
minutes of decent-to-good (not you, Neutron) is a pretty neat deal. My favorite
of the batch: I'm going to go with the rookie, The X's, derivative sure,
but funny nonetheless.
