This reviewer remembers very fondly the times where Cartoon Network was one of her most watched channels as a child, along with Boomerang, like it was only yesterday. With so much pleasure gotten out of watching gems such as 'Dexter's Laboratory', 'Courage the Cowardly Dog', 'Ed, Edd and Eddy', 'The Powerpuff Girls' as well as the Scooby Doo franchise until it aired instead on Boomerang. Those days were long gone after they gradually aired less frequently and then stopped being aired, and when scheduling was in recent years dominated by abominations like 'Johnny Test', 'Uncle Grandpa' and the reboots.
Absolutely loved the premise for 'Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends', one of the most creative ones that Cartoon Network ever did along with 'The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy'. Was a bit unsure of the way it was advertised at first, this is though going from memory, where it didn't come over as very imaginative, but there are plenty of shows out there that are a bit ehh in advertising but turn out to be very good and more. 'Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends' is one of the very good cartoons, in fact most of the time it was a great show and in its best days one of the last properly great ones that Cartoon Network did. One of their all time best? Not quite. Well worth watching? Yes.
It is not a flawless show. It did lose its way around 2007-2008, which was around the time where Cartoon Network became nowhere near as good, where the plots lost freshness and became a little repetitive and some of the humour was too mean spirited and childish.
Do agree as well that the latter episodes went too far in making Bloo a jerk by overdoing the selfishness, cynicism and arrogance, some of it coming too out of the blue and sometimes with not much learnt in terms of mistakes.
However, 'Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends' does a lot right. The animation is great, am not always keen on Flash but along with 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' this is how to do Flash in a vibrant, imaginative and meticulously detailed way. The music has energy and always felt at one with what happens, very catchy theme song too. The voice acting is top notch from all, and apart from reservations with Bloo later on the characters are great. Really loved their well fleshed out, individual personalities that contrast so well with each other. Loved the nice characters Wilt and Eduardo, who were immensely likeable and nice without being passive. Mr Herriman is strict and very funny and Coco is hilarious. Personally had no problem with Cheese and when the show was in its prime Bloo's point of view was understood and his behaviour was understandable. Mac and Frankie are relatable human characters.
The writing is incredibly funny and smart, personally do think there is more than enough for adults as there are actually references throughout that adults are a lot more likely to get and find funny. The concept is such an imaginative one and pre-2007 the storylines were colourful and inventive, admittedly very random and bizarre but that is what childhood imagination is like. In fact, what was so good about 'Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends' throughout its run was how well and truthfully it captured the essence/spirit of childhood imagination.
Overall, very good and often excellent. 8/10.
