Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends

Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends

"I like chocolate milk." - Cheese

Genre:	Adventure Fantasy Comedy
Running Time:	22 minutes, two 66 minute specials
Country:	United States
Release Date:	August 13, 2004 – May 3, 2009
Network(s):	Cartoon Network
Created by:	Craig McCracken
Distributed by:	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Starring:	Sean Marquette Keith Ferguson Phil LaMarr Tom Kenny Candi Milo Tara Strong Grey DeLisle Griffin Tom Kane Lauren Faust Mike Moon
Seasons:	6
Episodes:	79

Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends is an American animated television series created by Craig McCracken for Cartoon Network Studios. It ran from 2004 to 2009.

Plot

The series is set in a universe in which childhood imaginary friends coexist with humans. In the show's universe, imaginary friends take physical form and become real as soon as children think them up. Once children outgrow them, friends are relocated to the titular orphanage, where they stay until other children adopt them. The home is run by the elderly Madame Foster, its lovable, kind founder; her imaginary friend Mr. Herriman, the strict rule-abider and business manager; and her granddaughter Frankie, who handles day-to-day operations.

In the series' premiere episode, a young boy named Mac is pressured by his mother to abandon his imaginary friend Bloo, since she believes that he is too old to keep him. Bloo sees an advertisement on television about Foster's Home and tells Mac, who takes him there, only to find out the home is an orphanage and if Bloo were to reside there, he would be available to be adopted by another child. Mac then bargains with Frankie, Herriman and Madame Foster and they agree to guard Bloo from adoption so long as Mac continues to visit the center daily. During the series, Mac visits the home everyday after school. The show focuses on the escapades experienced by the mischievous Bloo, Mac, and the array of eccentric, colorful characters inhabiting Foster's, and the obstacles with which they are challenged.

Why It Rocks

Great flash animation.
Creative designs for the imaginary friends.
Catchy theme song.
Memorable characters like Mac, Bloo, Wilt, Eduardo, Coco, Frankie, Mr. Herriman, Madame Foster, Goo, Jackie Khones, Uncle Pockets, and Cheese.
Mac is a likable kid with a cool imaginary friend.
Pays homage to pop culture, such as in their episode titles. The episode, “Store Wars”, for example is a homage to Star Wars.
It provides the talents of Candi Milo, Phil LaMarr, Grey DeLisle, Tom Kenny, Tara Strong, and Sean Marquette, who did an awesome portrayal as a deep voiced teenage boy that it was highly convincing.
Funny moments, such as the "It's Hot In Topeka" scene in the episode “Squeeze The Day” or the moving cacti toys scene in "Store Wars".
It started of great with the first TV movie, “House of Bloo’s”
The 48 minute special, "Good Wilt Hunting", is very good as it reveals Wilt's tragic backstory.
The second TV movie, "Destination: Imagination", is also great as it involves the gang encountering a mentally-unstable imaginary friend who refuses to let Frankie leave the pocket dimension that he created.
It was made by the famous Craig McCracken, who also made The Powerpuff Girls and would later create Wander Over Yonder.
Depending on how you view the final episode "Goodbye to Bloo", it was a decent way to send off the series.

Bad Qualities

It gets pretty mean-spirited, annoying, dumb, hypocritical, and nonsensical at times.
As the series went on, Bloo turned into such an insensitive, selfish, and obnoxious jerk, that the majority of the fans of the show heavily disliked or even hated him.
- Some other imaginary friend characters like sometimes Cheese, Duchess, and sometimes even Mr. Herriman himself, are unlikable as well.
- There are also some unlikable human characters like Mac's older brother, Terrence, and their mother.
It as its fair share of bad episodes like:
- "Everyone Knows It's Bendy"
- "Bye Bye Nerdy"
- "Imposter's Home For Um.... Make 'Em Up Pals"
- "Foster's Goes to Europe"
- "Duchess of Wails"
- "I Only Have Surprise for You"
- "Crime After Crime"
- "The Big Cheese"
- "Where There's a Wilt, Theres a Way"
- "Say It Isn’t Sew".
  - Likewise, the final episode, "Goodbye to Bloo", wasn't too great either. But as stated before, it depends on your view.
That part where Mac's mother tells him to get rid of Bloo is kind of messed up because it may give the implication to children that it's okay to abandon a living thinking person.

Trivia

In the movie, “Destination: Imagination”, one of Bloo's lines are "You peeved him off, that's what's happening." However, Vitac, the closed captioning company who provided the said movie's subtitles, thought that the line was "You 'pissed' him off, that's what's happening."

Comments

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Jumpman

9 months ago

Score 2

The show never went downhill.