Agrippine

There are worse cartoons to watch than this adaptation of the French comic book character of adolescent Agrippine, but it shows up the problems when trying to translate series - though very clearly set in France, Channel 5 (who co-produced the series and had it dubbed in English for UK viewers) attempted to have it set somewhere in England, and it just didn't go with the animation and the scripts (know any schools in England that casually have trips to the Continent?). Though the US handlers of "Sailor Moon," "Pokemon" et al did wring some changes, even they didn't try and say they were set in America.

Next to these problems, the colossal hooters sported by most of the characters (including Agrippine herself) weren't much of a distraction. Their language, on the other hand, was exceptionally grating - if there's one thing worse than misguided use of slang (witness Bethany "Totally tubular!" Simms in Stephen King's novel "The Langoliers" or your parents' attempts to be trendy), it's madeup slang. Do you know anyone, anywhere, who calls their parents "Mumski"?

Still, we could use more European cartoons on our screens - this is in no way a suggestion to cut down on what non-fans call "cheap American imports" (cheap to buy, that is, not necessarily make) because I've always liked US shows. I'm just saying that the more international fare the better... as long as they're good.