Happy New Year!
Most people have their New Years Eve traditions of partying, watching the ball drop, hanging out with friends, BBQs, or whatever. Me? My last few New Years Eves have been spent home alone chillin’ in front of the TV with some snacks. This year I was especially alone since my parents were out of town for most of the week and I had the house to myself (not counting pets). So, New Years Eve was all up to me... I chose my usual tradition of snacking in front of TV. But the question was, what was I going to binge-watch until midnight? (I sat down in front of the TV around 6:00pm so I had a lot of time to kill.)
I played with a couple ideas since I currently wasn’t watching a TV show: I could watch a couple different movies, I could rewatch an old TV show... but I didn’t have anything particularly pressing that I really wanted to watch. So, I fell back on the old standby: scroll through Netflix and hope something catches your attention.
I wasn’t scrolling very long when I came across something in the “Netflix Originals” section: a Green Eggs and Ham cartoon. At first glance, I assumed it was just a cheesy dumb show made for little kids; like just a straightforward retelling of the classic Dr. Seuss story (kind of like how Warner Bros did The Grinch back in the day). Since it was Green Eggs and Ham, I assumed they must’ve added a bunch of dumb stuff in order to make it longer and since it was (I assumed) for little kids, not a lot of effort was put into any of it-- jokes, characters, story, etc. As is usual for kids movies/shows these days, all money goes into being visually stimulating and not much else.
Anyways, back to the point, I was just going to skim over the show. However, as I passed over it, I realized I saw “watch Season 1 Episode 1” as I whizzed by. That intrigued me. It was a SERIES?? Making a movie would’ve been challenging enough, but how in the world did they manage to stretch Green Eggs and Ham into a full series?
If you’ve read the original book, it’s pretty darn simplistic with hardly any plot. It’s just one guy trying to convince another guy to try green eggs and ham... and that’s it. One of the characters doesn’t even have a name! Thus, we come back to my question: how did they manage to make an entire series out of that premise?
That question convinced me to check out the trailer, just to see what kind of stuff they put into the show-- what they might’ve added and whatnot... I had to admit, the trailer was different than I expected. It certainly wasn’t just a dumb little kids show and it looked like there was more effort put into it than I originally thought. Plus there were several big names involved (Ellen Degeneres produced it, then some voices included Michael Douglas, Adam Devine, Keegan-Michael Key, and Diane Keaton). Again, I was intrigued, but I went back to scrolling through Netflix.
However, I kept thinking back to the show as I scrolled. I even tried watching an episode of something else and ultimately decided I wanted to try watching Green Eggs and Ham.
Well... I was pleasantly surprised. From the very first episode, I was drawn in. Like I said, I was wondering how in the world they were going to make an entire series out of the original book, but they did it. And they kept it fun and engaging the entire time.
Obviously they had to add a bunch of stuff to make it longer, but it all felt natural and everything progressed nicely. What they did was put the two main characters on a whacky road trip and all along the way, Sam I Am is trying to convince the other to eat green eggs and ham. The more I’ve thought about it, that makes perfect sense because in the book, Sam is asking his friend if he would like to eat the food in different locations and with different people/animals. It IS basically like they’re on a road trip.
I was super impressed with how the show didn’t make the green eggs and ham kind of a background thing that was brought up occasionally (which would’ve been super easy to do); they were always very present and were actually very central to the main characters’s relationship.
So... what IS the plot?
In a nutshell: polar opposites, upbeat and outgoing Sam I Am and grumpy and surly Guy Am I are forced to team up on a road trip to save an endangered animal from a rich collector. Along the way, they learn the value of trying new things, including love, hope, and friendship, but especially green eggs and ham.
That might sound a little cheesy, but hey, it’s Dr. Seuss.
I know the buddy road trip schtick has been done 1001 times, but if it’s done right, it’s extremely entertaining. And this one is, for sure. The road trip itself is a lot of fun-- I mean, everything and everyone they come across is hilarious and/or interesting. Then, the transition of their friendship is extremely well done and very believable. It takes its time and doesn’t feel forced. You get seriously invested in them (I know I did).
Then, the world around them is VERY Seuss-ish. There’s no other way to describe it. They nail all the kooky contraptions, the zany colors, the inventive background characters, and just the impracticality of everything (like a train that’s built like a rollercoaster, for example). It feels like it jumped right out of a Dr. Seuss book. Even the other characters that were invented for the story were designed perfectly and could’ve been designed by the man himself.
Also, it’s FUNNY! As I said before, I was expecting some lame, cheesy show for kids, but I was dead wrong. Sure, it’s still a family show, but it’s got a much more sophisticated sense of humor. The jokes are not halved and pulled out of the writer’s butt, they’re legit. I was actually laughing out loud at some parts... by myself, just laughing. It’s totally my sense of humor; like, they’re kind of stupid jokes, but they’re thought-out/intentional stupid and not lame stupid, if that makes any sense? For example, Sam is talking about his childhood and he says when he got in trouble, his mom would call him by his full name: “Samuel I Amuel, put down that chainsaw.” Or another one is when Sam and Guy are getting on a train and Sam buys the tickets and Guys says, “We’d better not be sitting next to each other” and Sam says, “I wouldn’t dream of it.” Then it cuts to them sitting across from each other with Sam smiling and Guy sulking. Or lastly (this one made it into the trailer) Sam offers to make green eggs and ham for one of the characters and she responds, “I’m vegan,” then Sam solemnly takes her hand and says sadly, “I’m so sorry. How long have you known?” XD Good stuff.
On the flip side, it’s also emotional. When I turned on Green Eggs and Ham, I did not expect to CRY! Yeah, there were legit tears in my eyes at one point. I am not a crier, but somehow, this show got me right in the feels. I was especially impressed with those more serious moments; they were handled with so much respect (which a lot of kids movies/shows don’t often give a lot of time to).
Obviously, I have to talk about the animation... STELLAR! I was blown away by it! It’s Warner Bros and (I looked this up) it cost roughly $6mill per episode! 8O Yeesh! But, I can see it. The animation is breathtaking. The characters’s movements are so fluid and expressive, the worlds and backgrounds are stunning, and it’s just beautiful all around. *applauds* You can tell serious effort was put into it.
Just one more quick praise is the stellar voice work. I wouldn’t replace any of them. They all do an amazing job. Never at any point did I think, “eh, this is weird” or “that’s definitely a guy doing a voice” or whatever. The actors nailed their parts.
My one criticism would probably be on the narration (no disrespect to Keegan-Michael Key). It wasn’t exactly the voice work, it was just that it sometimes took me out of the story because it played too hard to breaking the fourth wall. It would constantly directly address the audience with some commentary like “*gasp* did you see that? I can’t believe it!” It just didn’t feel very natural or consistent. 1) Obviously we saw it 2) How come you didn’t know it was going to happen? It bothered me that he knew somethings (he would brag about it like “I was dying to tell you that”) and then didn’t know others. Well, he wasn’t terrible. Just every once in a while, I would get slightly annoyed and think he wasn’t adding much to the story.
Anyways, needless to say, I was surprised by how much I liked it. There was one or two episodes that I wasn’t SUPER impressed by, but overall, I really liked it and would recommend it to anybody. I would watch it in a boat and I would watch it with a goat, and I would watch it in the rain, and in the dark, and on a train, and in a car, and in a tree. It is so good, you see! So I will watch it with a fox, and I will watch it in a house, and I will watch it here and there. Say! I will watch it anywhere! I do so like Green Eggs and Ham! (Thank you, thank you, Sam I Am.)
TRAILER
No comments:
Post a Comment