Pepper Ann

The Saturday this was supposed to have premiered on was the same day as Princess Diana's funeral, so ABC preempted it and debuted it a week later as part of their "One Saturday Morning" and I fell in love instantly. In my opinion, this was Disney's best animated show since "The Disney Afternoon" heyday of the late 80s, early 90s with such classics as, "Gummi Bears", "Chip N' Dale, Rescue Rangers", "Tale Spin", "Darkwing Duck", "Goof Troop" and "Bonkers." To see Disney return to their roots, if only for a brief moment, was wonderful.

However, due to some stupidity at the Disney corporate level, "Pepper Ann" was cancelled in February 2000 and relegated to "Disney's One Too", a daily version of "One Saturday Morning" that aired on UPN stations. This was a great show and not one to be shot down so quickly. How "Recess" managed to last so long with their most recent episodes being three years old already and their not-too-appealing movie is a sin.

If crap like "Teacher's Pet" (which flopped) and "Recess" (which I was a fan of in the very beginning) can get the big screen treatment, then why not "Pepper Ann"?

Pepper Ann is a really good show, and it saddens me to see people write it of as some stupid crappy kiddy show, although you can't blame them since it airs between two crap-o-ramas, (the unoriginal Recess and the utterly boring and stupid Sabrina: The Animated Series). This show is funny, smart, and entertaining. Watch it now!! Make sure to see The Bra Episode, ("The only Miracle here is that somebody would by this." says Pepper Ann's little sister Moose, who is trying on a Miracle Bra for Pepper Ann). Watch and enjoy.

Pepper Ann is another one of those cartoons that kids and adults alike can laugh at. The writing is witty, the characters are charming, the animation is colorful and fun too watch. While I am not a big fan of cartoons, I have to rate this one up there with The Simpsons, and Arthur. Only low point, you have to get up mighty early, and on a Saturday, too see it. Luckily, I own a VCR.

When I first heard of Pepper Ann, I wrote it off as another stupid Disney series. In fact, I wouldn't give it a chance until I saw the Musical (I was too tired to change channels). I collapsed laughing, as it highlighted EVERY irritating musical cliche far better than any other I've seen so far (I haven't seen the Buffy one yet, though). So I decided to give the series a chance. Sometimes it's not too entertaining, but a lot of the time it has a great off-beat humor style that frequently leaves me with at least a satisfied smirk on my face. "Pepper Ann" captures middle school well (Believe me, I know, I'm in the eighth grade), with a funny cast of characters from the title character (The slightly nuts, awkward, scheming P.A.) to the smaller, more obscure ones (Wayne Macabre, Pink-Eye Pete, Vera the Secretary). If you get Toon Disney or have the luck of seeing it on the Disney Channel (It's one of two decent shows on that channel, too!), give this cartoon a chance, because it could really surprise you.

I really think this was a cute show, the animation was good, and it was pretty original. Pepper ann was a regular 7th grade girl going through life's ups and downs with her best friends, the perfect nicki little, and the original artist milo kamalani......along with them there was lydia, Pepper ann's single working mother, pepper ann's sister Moose *margaret* who sounded and acted like a boy and fooled many until we realized what she was. Then there was aunt janie the hippie cool aunt and her husband jojo, the all around good guy cop. There was also pepper ann's father who you never saw much of and had an accent that you really could never figure out where he was from... and of course there were grandma and grandpa, the old fashioned yet fun grandparents of the girls, all together it really was a fun show if you were into that kind of thing, considering other crumby cartoons that were around then, Pepper Ann and Recess really weren't half bad. Definitley worth a look!