gotuokere
Ah, yes. I remember The Mighty B, I was 10 years old at the time it premiered on Nickelodeon. Brings back some great, nostalgic memories.Okay, let's get to the review. The Mighty B! is a cartoon about a 9 (and three quarters) year-old girl scout who aspires to become a fantastic superhero by collecting every Honeybee badge there is in existence. First of all, this is an extremely original premise and I can see why Nickelodeon accepted this show. It's great! This is one of the most underrated shows I've ever seen. I fail to see anything bad in it. The animation was fluid and great, it even has some wacky antics in the style of Tom and Jerry or SpongeBob, two other cartoons I love.Bessie Kajolica Higgenbottom is an excitable, energetic character who is very loyal to being the best Honeybee scout in her troop. She is a very likable character. Next there's Happy Walter Higgenbottom, Bessie's stubborn but easy-going dog who is usually dragged into Bessie's schemes and hi-jinks against his will. The relationship between Bessie and Happy is both touching and hilarious at the same time, and the switch between friendship and tension between them is very interesting. Benjamin (Ben) Higgenbottom is Bessie's 6 year-old little brother who feels unappreciated and wants to become Bessie's sidekick when she goes full blown superhero.The show lasted for two seasons and Nick gave it the boot during the middle of the second season, and its fate was getting burned off on its sister network Nicktoons. Personally, I enjoyed the first season over the second season. Season one felt like it had more heart and character development. Season two gave the characters and backgrounds a re-design, giving the show a more "tan" look. I didn't mind the changes too much, but Season 2 was lacking the "magic" that the first season had, even though Season 2 was still good, just not as good as Season 1. My favorite episode of the entire show was one called "Bee Patients" found in Season 1, which is when Bessie and Happy are injured and must go to the doctor and vet respectively. Happy gets a dog cone around his neck, much to his dismay, and Bessie must take a booster shot, which she is afraid of. To me, it was the best episode of the entire show. It's where the show really "shines" and it shows what good you can do with animation when used in the right hands.The Mighty B! premiered way back in 2008, when Nickelodeon was still in good condition. They had great shows like El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, Back at the Barnyard, Wayside, Making Fiends, Ricky Sprocket: Showbiz Boy and much more I loved and enjoyed deeply. Now that time has passed and we're in 2015, times are looking quite bleak for Nick with terrible shows like Sanjay and Craig, Pig Goat Banana Cricket, Breadwinners and mediocre to almost bad ones like Harvey Beaks. So, in conclusion The Mighty B! is an excellent cartoon that I look back at with fond memories and it easily beats any new show out on TV right now.The Mighty B!-10/10 Excellent masterpiece!
John Cassidy (ryuuseipro)
I don't know about the many detractors of this series, but I really love and must show support for THE MIGHTY B!, one of Nickelodeon's latest shows, and the network's best new show, in my opinion. After almost a whole decade of cartoons that got unfortunately canceled by Nickelodeon, including INVADER ZIM, MY LIFE AS A TEENAGE ROBOT, THE X's, and EL TIGRE: THE ADVENTURES OF MANNY RIVERA, I'm just glad to see yet another good show that isn't SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, a show which is just okay, but Nick seems to treat it as the Center of the Universe (like RUGRATS before it). I just hope they don't cancel THE MIGHTY B! after one season like the aforementioned shows (although MLAATR lasted for three, and IZ a season-and-a-half), just to make room for *more* SPONGEBOB! (And face it, AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER is gracefully finished and done with, so leave it alone!)Having seen this series since last year, I thought of it as the girl scouts version of REN & STIMPY, as it's got the same animation style, same selection of vintage library music, and even the same kind of gross-out humor. Yes, gross-out humor in a girls' cartoon! That's something you don't see every day. Erik Wiese, one of the three creators of this show, was a former John Kricfalusi animator. In fact, John K seems to have given this series his blessing, as he was featured in the "Special Thanks" credit in the first episode! He was definitely with this series in spirit.Series co-creator and UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE/Saturday NIGHT LIVE alumni Amy Poehler voices the titular character, Bessie Higgenbottom, a hilariously spastic and high-strung, but altruistic and lovable girl scout; she's a member of the San Francisco Honeybee Scouts. Other members include Bessie's obese friend Penny Lefkowitz (Dannah Feinglass), and her snobbish frenemies Portia Gibbons (Grey Delisle) and Gwen Wu (Jessica DiCicco). Portia's mother Mary Francis Gibbons (Sarah Thyre) is the Honeybees' bourgeois troop leader, and, like her daughter, has a love-hate thing for Bessie (because she wants Portia to succeed). Other supporting characters include Bessie's single mother, Hillary (Megan Canavagh), her little brother Ben (Andy Richter), her rock band friend Rocky Rhodes (Nickelodeon vet/Poehler's SNL colleague Kenan Thompson), and last but not least, her reluctant but loyal pet dog Happy (Dee Bradley Baker). Bessie's goal is to collect every single Honeybee badge, so that, as said in the Honeybee Handbook, she will become a superhero called the "Mighty Bee," which Bessie envisions as her imaginary superhero alter-ego with a tall, muscular body.Poehler's performance of Bessie is, as expected of her, irrepressible, and it also adds to Bessie's outcast status. You know she's considered an annoying outcast, but she's also funny and lovable at it, and some can actually empathize with her. Poehler based her Bessie character on a similar character she played in UCB, a girl scout named Cassie. (One would probably go on about how this series is an UCB spin off!) I'm also impressed with Dee Bradley Baker as Happy! He was so convincing, sounding like a real dog trying to talk. One such golden moment in the series is in the episode "Sweet Sixteenth," in which Bessie and Happy do "vocal warm ups" on a roller-coaster ride! It was just so funny and cute at the same time. The other voice talents are equally well done, including Delisle as the snobbish Portia. The theme song by Amy Miles and Michael Robertson, as well as the accompanying main title sequence, are among the craziest ever, and captures the essence of Bessie's adrenaline rush.At this writing, a full half-hour special episode, "Dragonflies," premiered just a week ago, and I can say that it was the most exciting episode yet! Plenty of non-stop action throughout.Yes, I can handle gross humor, as well as loudmouth humor, as long as the cartoon is *good*, which I think THE MIGHTY B! is. For me, it nostalgically hearkens back to the glory days of REN & STIMPY, and has become one of my favorite cartoons. In closing, I highly recommend this series to everyone, especially fans of R&S and thereabouts! Otherwise, those expecting SPONGEBOB and AVATAR may as well stay away, or at least *try* to enjoy it!
