The Hydronauts

The Hydronauts (Die Hydronauten in German) is a 2003 German-French-British-Finnish, animated, television series. It was co-created by Eckart Fingberg and Michael Madel. Co-production was provided by Centre national du cinema et de l'image animee (CNC), Epidem, France 5, Kindrkanal (KiKA), MEDIA Programme of the European Union, Millimages, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), and Toons 'N' Tales.

Plot
A young, female alien named Neptuna comes to Earth to study the planet's environment, more specifically that relating to aquatic ecology with the mission and goal of improving it. She is accompanied by her crew of marine animals: The second-in-command, sailor seal, Balty; a seagull named Ponto, who has a prosthetic leg; and an octopus named Gloob, who is Neptuna's pet. Information about the ocean and marine life is provided by Obo, the crew's submarine, the Hydronica's, computer.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It's mainly traditional art with some CG thrown in, such as the submarine, and both seem to look alright enough. But the animation, on the other hand, is somewhat mediocre.
 * 2) The writing more than compensates for the animation quality, as the stories are both creative and informative.
 * 3) There is plenty of likability to the main characters, as well as a lot of the marine life they meet.
 * 4) The character designs are pleasing enough and nothing to scoff at, at all.
 * 5) The theme song is serene with the instrumentation that includes what sounds like steel pans or something similar, giving it a Caribbean flavor.
 * 6) The English voice acting sounds good.
 * 7) Some entertaining moments provided by Neptuna's crew.
 * 8) The underwater scenes are splendiferous to see.
 * 9) It gives an eye-opening account of what's being done to the oceans in a simplified but non-preachy way to get its message across and drive it home.
 * 10) The additional facts that Neptuna gives about the ocean and its marine fauna, and flora, to go along with the live-action footage displayed, and demonstrated, are a plus.
 * 11) Hopefully, more viewers will watch this and be encouraged to take note of what all can be done to care for Earth better.
 * 12) At a time when the future of Earth is uncertain, this kind of show is still relevant and needed even more than ever.

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) The animation isn't the best and it could've been better, but again, there are other things about this that make up for it.