Carmen Sandiego: Netflix Hits a Feel Good Animated Show!
Carmen is a modern day Robin Hood traveling the globe and stealing from V.I.L.E. (Villain's International League of Evil) and giving back to its victims. Carmen is publicly perceived as a criminal by most law enforcement agencies – correction, make that a master criminal due to the sheer scale and theatricality of her heists.
Carmen Sandiego is a one of a kind type of show. It gave the show runners the space to be creative and it's story telling ingenuity makes this one a really good watch. The fact that the show is also meant to pass an educative message means that the show runner had the choice of representing the character in somewhat good light at all times, or portraying the evil part of the character alongside the good. They chose the latter.
The show did not become boring because it was meant to be educative, quite the opposite, it created some moments of intrigue as the titular character and her motivation for thievery is explored throughout the first season.
What has made the show so highly regarded is its simplicity and it's close association to the source content. The character designs employed basic CGI to good effect, while the storytelling was a touch of class. We particularly loved that the creators chose to ditch the more burly design for Carmen employed in earlier works for this slick, more ladylike design, it's a very good choice, as we didn't want our titular character look more like a villain than the villains themselves. The Plot element of the show appeared a little too simple and it's conflict a tad too weak to sustain a TV show, but at the end of the first season, I think we can chalk all that down to the need to have a massive reveal in the season finale. It was worth the wait in the end.
The show did not become boring because it was meant to be educative, quite the opposite, it created some moments of intrigue as the titular character and her motivation for thievery is explored throughout the first season.
What has made the show so highly regarded is its simplicity and it's close association to the source content. The character designs employed basic CGI to good effect, while the storytelling was a touch of class. We particularly loved that the creators chose to ditch the more burly design for Carmen employed in earlier works for this slick, more ladylike design, it's a very good choice, as we didn't want our titular character look more like a villain than the villains themselves. The Plot element of the show appeared a little too simple and it's conflict a tad too weak to sustain a TV show, but at the end of the first season, I think we can chalk all that down to the need to have a massive reveal in the season finale. It was worth the wait in the end.
Having said that about the positives, we must mention that the show is not without its flaws. For one the conflict throughout the first season was just too weak to really be rivetting or immersive. On the other hand, the plot direction and storyline were too streamlined to offer up any surprises. The titular character always came out on top, and that really got boring and old at some point in the show.
Again, it was quite weird that even though Carmen was the best pick pocket in the academy during her time there, she was never the best student at V.I.L.E academy, and thus it was quite disturbing how she always got the upper hand of all V.I.L.E agents.
Once again, V.I.L.E is an international organisation that had been in existence since long before Carmen was brought to the academy, didn't it feel off that consistently after becoming the greatest threat to V.I.L.E, they kept sending young graduates after her? What happened to the Senior agents of V.I.L.E? It was like they just set her up to have easy wins. Not too convincing!
Well, Agent Chase Daveneaux definitely did offer a lot of humour to cover for the plot failings and conflict weaknesses of the show. I guess we can really forgive that, being a first season. Things are only going to get better, we hope.
We must also factor in the performances of the Voice actors; Gina Rodriguez and Finn Wolfhard definitely do stand out being the principal Voice overs in the show, it's really good what they achieved with this one. At some point or the other, they were able to keep viewers interested just by speaking, amazing work!
Conclusively, it's a good feel good show that you won't want to miss, if you do have time for animated shows. It's worth your time, it's a mood booster and will definitely give you a few good laughs. If you are going into this one expecting a brain tasking show, please do not get your hopes up, it's nothing so complicated, it's just a simple straight feel good animated show. Nothing more! Oh, it does have a very cool opening music. Like the show itself, the song is simple, straight and beautiful.
Created by: Duane Capizzi
Based on: Carmen Sandiego by Broderbund
Directed by: Jos Humphrey, Kenny Park
Executive producer(s): Caroline Fraser, C.J. Kettler, Anne Loi, Kirsten Newlands
Producer(s): Brian Hulme
Voices of:
Gina Rodriguez
Finn Wolfhard
Theme music composer: Jared Lee Gosselin
Opening theme: "Carmen Sandiego" by Raquel Castro.
Based on: Carmen Sandiego by Broderbund
Directed by: Jos Humphrey, Kenny Park
Executive producer(s): Caroline Fraser, C.J. Kettler, Anne Loi, Kirsten Newlands
Producer(s): Brian Hulme
Voices of:
Gina Rodriguez
Finn Wolfhard
Theme music composer: Jared Lee Gosselin
Opening theme: "Carmen Sandiego" by Raquel Castro.
FCA's AppR: 8.1/10
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