LarryBoy: The Cartoon Adventures

Larry-Boy: The Cartoon Adventures is a 2D Flash-animated series developed by Disney animator, Tom Bancroft. It was based on the Larry-Boy series from VeggieTales, created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki. The series ran for only 4 episodes from 2002 through 2003. It was abruptly canceled due to Big Idea's bankruptcy.

Why It's That Hero

 * 1) The theme song, "He Is That Hero" is pretty catchy for a 2D animated series.
 * 2) * There is also an extended version that exists outside of the show itself, with more awesome lyrics that were cut for time constraints.
 * 3) The animation is pretty fluid and expressive, despite the Flash not aging well. It's almost as if the series was cel-animated, thanks to a talent of excellent key animators.
 * 4) Introducing new characters such as The Dark Crow, Lemon Twist and Electro-Melon.
 * 5) Retains the same positive messages from the Christian bible in the original VeggieTales series. At least for the first episode. The remaining three, on the other hand...
 * 6) Mike Nawrocki, Phil Vischer and Lisa Vischer voice their respective characters in the series.
 * 7) * Also, voice actors such as Larry Whitaker, Jose Vincente, Marc Graue, Anita Protich and Shari Belgeau portray the voices of new characters.
 * 8) Unlike the first two LarryBoy videos and prior to the Bad Apple, it was interesting for LarryBoy to finally save the day (along with a little help from his friends in the later videos).
 * 9) The episodes written by Kent Redeker were considered to be the best of the series, mainly "The Angry Eyebrows" and "The Yodelnapper".
 * 10) Tom Bancroft's style set the look of the series and helped transform the VeggieTales characters from 3D to 2D. Neither Phil Vischer nor Mike Nawrocki can do an art style cartoony enough to save their lives.
 * 11) This was the first series from Big Idea to use title cards for each episode, seeing as how they experimented in the first VeggieTales video, "Where's God When I'm S-Scared?". The only difference is that they had characters and sets to describe the plot rather than having a plain black backdrop with white text.
 * 12) While the first episode was generally stronger in writing, the remaining three had lackluster plots that are "so bad, it's good".
 * 13) Much like the DiC Mario cartoon trilogy and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, certain scenes taken from the show became popular memes in later years.
 * 14) Funny moments, such as someone throwing Bob at Larry for his inability to yodel. Bob, in response, says, "I don't care how bad he is. We do not throw tomatoes in this town."
 * 15) * Awful Alvin doing his "Villainous dance of Villainy".

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Characters, such as Mayor Blueberry, Mr. Nezzer, Pa Grape and The French Peas don't appear anywhere in this series.
 * 2) * There are two characters named Herbert and Wally who are eggplants and are direct copies of Jimmy and Jerry Gourd. They are even built the same way and have the same heights as the latter mentioned characters (one short and one tall). They also have a big appetite which is a characteristic shared by both Jimmy and Jerry, in fact, in Leggo My Ego, Herbert and Wally eat all the cotton candy that covers the carnival when the machine explodes, which is strikingly similar to when Jimmy and Jerry eat the popcorn meteor in the VeggieTales episode "The Gourds Must Be Crazy" to save the U.S.S. Applepies. Case in point: why did they make new characters that were essentially the same as two characters that already existed?
 * 3) While the animation remained the same, the writing generally took a nosedive after its first episode (depending on your view).`
 * 4) * However, the animation itself can be considered as mediocre at best to some. In fact, it was one of the complaints the series got when it was first released; they claimed that the Flash animation was too cheap-looking and looked more like a show that could've aired on cable television. Although genuinely, the overall animation hasn't aged well 20 years later.
 * 5) * As for the writing itself, Awful Alvin and The Alchemist's overall evil plots are just the cliched "take over the city" trope. Greta Von Gruesome did differentiate from the two, but her plot still seemed generic as it involved kidnapping the world's greatest yodelers for herself. The overall show seems to take cues from Spider-Man and Superman media, down to even having a direct one letter change of the "Daily Bubble" newspaper from Superman, which in LarryBoy is called "The Daily Bumble".
 * 6) * The final episode has arguably the worst writing of the whole 4-episode series: Greta and Alvin team up together and steal a large ray that turns any inanimate object into over easy eggs, which seems ridiculous on its own. Frankly, this may have been not as bad if the two villains had a motivation to do so, or if they actually planned on doing something with all the eggs they've created, but no explanation is given why they want to turn everything into eggs. Heck, even the show is aware of this and one line goes "Just because they could, and just because they were bad". LarryBoy is also somewhat unlikable in this episode, matter of fact the entire episode-wide argument between him and Dark Crow only starts because LarryBoy acts unusually more annoying than he had possibly ever been, asking questions about wooden cows and real cows after the ray gets stolen. Also, in fact, the entire museum scene was rather pointless and almost did nothing good for the plot, other than Vicki being kidnapped which didn't really have any purpose either and felt cliched.
 * 7) Wasted potential, where most new characters (such as Dark Crow) never made a comeback in future VeggieTales media.
 * 8) This show may cause some continuity errors that don't match up with the original VeggieTales. In "The Yodelnapper", Larry has the inability to yodel. But in the Silly Song "The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps", he can yodel just fine.
 * 9) Practically all of the "Super Shorts" that appear at the end of each show are just 7 minute torture episodes for LarryBoy:
 * 10) * "Fly By Might", a Tom and Jerry-stylized short, has LarryBoy try to get rid of a fly disrupting his peacefulness, but all his attempts end with himself getting hurt. The short ends with the fly winning and relaxing on a dazed LarryBoy's head.
 * 11) * "Cuke of All Trades" features LarryBoy having to maintain both a candle shop and a bakery after both of their owners step out for a moment at the same time, on his birthday of all days. It gets to the point where LarryBoy snaps and screams and runs out of the bakery after being annoyed so much. Fortunately, the short ends on a good note and LarryBoy's birthday is recognized after all, complete with a cake and candles that come shooting out of the bakery and candle shop respectively after LarryBoy tried working the oven and candle maker machine.
 * 12) * In "A Polar Pickle", LarryBoy must retract a rubber fish toy for a child after it falls in a penguin exhibit at the zoo, and the penguins there think it's an actual fish. Likewise with Fly By Might, the penguins give LarryBoy a hard time. After much exhaustion, LarryBoy recovers the fish, but the short ends with the fish this time dropping into the polar bear exhibit much to LarryBoy's dismay.
 * 13) * While "Merry-Go-Wreck" is a lesser example as LarryBoy isn't in the main plot until later, he still has to stay after superhero class dusting off a big mountain of erasers while Electro-Melon and Lemon Twist go to the amusement park, all because Bok Choy overhyped the task and called it a "secret mission".
 * 14) Unlike the first two LarryBoy videos, this show had a narrator (with the voice of Lee Marshall) which could feel patronizing to those who loved the first videos. The narrator's attempts at humor can be cringeworthy too.

Reception

 * When the series came out, fans of the original VeggieTales (mainly parents) panned the series for its cheap animation. It currently holds a rating of 6.9/10 on IMDB.

Trivia

 * Awful Alvin and Lampy would make their return on The VeggieTales Show episode, "LarryBoy and the Angry Eyebrows Trouble".
 * According to TASproductions, the series went downhill with "The Yodelnapper" and "The Good, The Bad and the Eggly" being rushed into production. As a result, the jokes and stories became predictable.
 * This wasn't the first time Big Idea rushed an episode into production. God Wants Me to Forgive Them?! (an episode of the original VeggieTales) was actually the first, mainly due to lackluster plots and its message not handled well. As a result, the animation became even more wild and rubbery than before with countless errors.

Videos
giDLqD7-DHI lYDsgb-jObI