Review: Planet Sheen - "Pilot"

Notice the subtle parallels to the Jimmy Neutron title card?

Back in July of 2009, Nickelodeon announced that they picked up a spin-off series of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (which was an underrated work of genius, IMO) that would be entitled Planet Sheen. Now it's out and racking up some very sizable ratings for Nick, but the question is then raised for this blogger: Is it any good? Well, since I've got nothing better to do, I'm gonna answer that question for myself as I review the pilot episode of Planet Sheen.

So the premise of Planet Sheen is basic: Sheen ignores Jimmy's warnings and pops into one of the boy genius' rocket ships (which I don't see the point of, considering over the course of the franchise, Jimmy's gotten, like, 6 different space ships; why he needs another one is beyond me, though I assume he's consummating for something), plays around with some buttons, and winds up on a mysterious planet known as Zeenu. Now a fish-out-of-water, Sheen tries to adapt to the planet's oddities, serves the Emperor, and pisses the hell out Doorkus, who is established as our antagonist 2 seconds into his first appearance.

Clearly a harmless girl scout.

The pilot episode establishes everything the pilot should establish, which is good. Now though the premise seems very tired, and the very concept of a spin-off always draws many exasperated sighs (same as sequels or reboots), Planet Sheen is still from the same minds of Jimmy Neutron, and it shows. The style and presentation is very different, but the humor is still rather sharp. I found myself laughing consistently throughout this episode, including during scenes involving a giant green monster playing the ukulele, Sheen tapping on the fourth wall when he acknowledges the "similarities" between the language of Zeenu and English, and Doorkus' British sidekick.  

O Entertainment is still producing the animation for this spin-off. Over the years they've been known to deliver quality CGI in their programmings, and while not exactly Pixar-level, it's solid enough to impress me. The animation's especially impressive when you compare this to 2001's original Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, which sorta resembled the graphics of a less glitchy Tony Hawk game.

You can't help but wonder while watching this if Sheen really was the best choice to make a spin-off out of. On Jimmy Neutron, Sheen was established as one of Jimmy's best friends; he's a well-meaning, dim-witted child with an obsession with the Ultra Lord franchise and a lot of heart. On display here, though, is the same character, but with less heart and much more stupidity. A common downfall of a lot of modern cartoons is the default choice of making characters really stupid to get a laugh. This works a lot, but as shows like The Simpsons and Phineas and Ferb have shown us, you have to ground your character's idiocy and establish likable, caring traits in them. I wish there was more sincerity in this new Sheen.

"Jimmy, are you implying something here?"

I suppose the characters are my only serious problem with Planet Sheen. Some are good, such as that aforementioned randomly-British sidekick of Dorkus, but a lot of them just seem a bit forced and contrived. The emperor's only there for the short jokes and taking Sheen's very wrong interpretations of Earth life as factual. Dorkus, like I said, is just so obviously the villain the character designers should've put a swirly mustache on him; he's also a practical wall for the tired "silly name for a bad guy" gags that have been done much better on shows like Dave the Barbarian. Oh, and I'm pretty positive he's actually Squidward. Sheen's love interest is a yodeling Na'vi, we've got an alien version of Carl (who I really can't complain about because Carl's probably one of the best cartoon characters of this decade), and of course Sheen has a monkey chimp sidekick named Nesmith who I swear is the secret love child of someone from Space Chimps and Darwin from The Wild Thornberrys.

An illicit affair.

So really, the only major flaw in the show is its reliance on predictable tropes which construct both the characters and a few hit-and-miss gags that really bug me. The writing's not as sharp as Jimmy Neutron, and the new characters (and some of the old) are just hollow cutouts of other cartoons, but overall, I found Planet Sheen to be a very solid half-hour of entertainment. The pilot's not the best, but it's good enough. Plus, from the later episodes I've seen, the writing improves and makes up for the stale characters.

Grading: B+