Clarêncio, o Otimista

When I first saw the commercials for "Clarence", I rolled my eyes. It looked to be your average mindless kiddie gross-out fare with no effort put into it whatsoever. However, once I gave it a shot, I was immediately hooked.

Clarence is a show about the everyday adventures that an optimistic young boy and his two best friends go through together. There's Jeff, a square-headed boy obsessed with neatness and Sumo, a messy, rowdy, and hyperactive kid with good intentions. It's very nice to see how Jeff and Sumo's conflicting personalities don't get in the way of their friendship, thanks to Clarence himself. All of the characters in the show feel human and relatable, to the extent where you'll swear you've met some of them before.

The attention to detail present is astounding, with plot lines following the little things you remember as a kid, like getting lost in the grocery store, hiding in clothes racks, and going to arcades. These locations themselves are so accurate to real life and my memories that it instilled a sense of deja vu in me. Places Food Lion, Adventure Island, and McDonalds have been recreated with perfect accuracy. I remember standing in the exact same places Clarence and friends did, and they look exactly like I remember them! This show will make anyone who grew up in the 80s and 90s giddy with nostalgia. On top of accurately recreating places I remember, the artwork is just gorgeous. Places as plain and ordinary as the outside of a trailer look amazing in their vibrant and colorful realization. The show also has a heart to it as well, and pulls off some genuinely emotional moments (which I won't spoil here).

Overall, Clarence is a brilliant, down-to-earth, and refreshing new show for Cartoon Network. Please don't judge it by its advertising, and give it a go. It's worth it!

Clarence is such a fun to watch cartoon that has great animation and lively characters that constantly keep you entertained. The episode plots are usually pretty simple but this show executes those plots in the most creative ways possible. Most of the characters are pretty great and Clarence himself is such a lovable character that just wants to have fun and help out the people around him. I definitely recommend this cartoon, as watching it will take you back to your childhood days

Clarence is a delightfully charming show about kids being kids, that illustrates the silliness that we all experienced, pretending, making the best of a bad situation, and reminding the audience that at such a young age, we didn't understand what made the world work, it just did. Skyler Page created a masterful series by using the three main kids you would see when you were young, giving nostalgia to those who miss playing outside and not having fear of the world around them. It may seem like it's meant to numb your brain, but instead it gives true humor and accurate representations of childhood. I watched it with an open mind and loved it, feeling revitalized to enjoy the day instead of staying inside on a computer.

Clarence is a cartoon that succeeds with an element that many other fail at employing: Childhood Satire.

Not only does this show recapture the feeling of being a child in middle-class America or Canada extremely well, but it has additional benefits. Whereas most shows would make fun of children for their stereotypes and specific "modern" habits, this show gets more into the psychology of it. The humor is a mixture of the laidback style seen in shows like "Adventure Time" with the more delivery-driven gags seen in shows like "Gravity Falls" or "Early Spongebob", and I love it dearly. It's more proof that Cartoon Network is developing its own unique personality and growing as a channel.

Visuals: The animation style in Clarence is pretty simple. The characters come in all shapes and sizes, but they have the more reserved style of motion that characterizes most modern Cartoon Network shows. It's actually pretty similar to the animation in Steven Universe, just without all of the pretty, detailed backgrounds. The characters all have unique designs that capture their personalities very well.

Characters: By far the best the about the show. These characters are all either relatable to childhood, or relatable to people you KNEW during childhood. They can be annoying and immature, but there's more to them than just non-stop hyper wackiness. They have enough character that, when they act up, it honestly just feels like a child being a child. They each have a clearly defined personality. They basically act like real kids, but with a more screwball-ish style of comedy sprinkled in. Sumo and Clarence have great comedic delivery, but my favorite character is Jeff. He's probably one of the most identifiable and likable child characters I have ever seen. They aren't as deep or interesting as the child characters in say, "Peanuts", but they're a lot better than what most cartoons would give you.

Storytelling: The stories in some episodes are really satisfying. This is a slice-of-life show that mostly just humorizes the day-to- day live of these characters, and the situations they get into are mostly ones that we can all feel for. I don't care for some of the episodes where the writers mess up and get a bit too annoying, but some like "Clarence gets a Girlfriend" are really funny and enjoyable.

Audio: This show has a really nice theme song. Most of the in- episode music doesn't really stand out, though. The voice performances are very memorable. Clarence and Sumo have cartoony voices, but Jeff and some of the others sound more like real children. They get big laughs when they want to. There's something hilarious about the way Sumo chimes in and says things in his weird, alien-like voice. Definitely the funniest performance I've heard out of Tom Kenny in a while.

All in all, this is another welcome addition to the cartoon network lineup. Recommended for fans of "Ed Edd N Eddy", "Early Spongebob", "Steven Universe", "Rugrats", "Peanuts", and people who generally like kids. You can tell that this show wasn't made to mock children and pander to them. It was made by adults who know what childhood is like. That being said, if you don't like kids, or don't like to remember your own childhood, you probably won't like this show and will find it irritating. That is all I have to say on the subject.

My kids and I LOVE Clarence. I think this show is hilarious and there are so many Easter eggs with in the episodes. I'm still finding things after all these years of streaming reruns. I hate that the show was canceled I wished another network would have picked it up. Clarence is the most adorable kid ever. He looks out for everyone. Sumo is my favorite! If this cartoon was around when I was a kid.. it would still be running.