Thugaboo: Sneaker Madness

When I saw a clip of this special in a TikTok compilation, I was honestly confused more than anything. Now that I've watched the whole thing, I'm more annoyed that clip because it was just a small piece of a painfully dull package. From the awful writing to the unlikable characters, this special makes it's 45 minute runtime feel like an eternity.

Created by the Waynes Brothers, the special focuses on a group of neighborhood munchkins (I refuse to call them kids -.-) making bootleg shoes. I'm guessing the Waynes Brothers wanted to teach kids about how it's wrong to make bootleg versions of the things you want. However, whatever good intentions they had is completely lost on me in the execution. The writing is painfully bad as it does a poor job at pacing and structure. It took over 5 minutes to get to the inciting incident and by the time we get to them actually making the bootlegs, the special is more than halfway over. All the while it pads the runtime with unfunny joke upon unfunny joke that give Family Guy cutaways a run for their money. It feels like the concept wasn't sustainable for an hour so they had to improvise by putting in gags ever minute. If you cut out all the pointless and unfunny gags, this special could easily be around 20 minutes. Not that it would help because the characters are insufferable.

The characters in the special are at best one dimensional and at worst they are just downright despicable. Starting with our leading munchkin, D-Roc is such a selfish and spoiled brat who only cares about showing off and wanting to be a successful rapper. I know we're supposed to emphasize with him, but I fail to understand why I should care about this spoiled rapper wannabe who only wants shoes to impress his peers. This is not a relatable character, this is a pathetic dweeb that would make Blooregard Q. Kazoo facepalm over his selfishness. His sister Dee Dee isn't much better as she's a selfish and greedy tramp who's only in it for the money. Dirty is Pig-Pen if he was black (they just barely dodge a lawsuit thanks to the character design and voice being unique enough), DJ is a white guy pretending to be black (it's not funny, it's stupid), Soo Young makes the bootleg shoes and Money is a talking dog...that's it, that's his character. None of the other characters have anything interesting going for them and only exist to fill up space. You could get the exact same results by replacing them all with pieces of cardboard.

There's a reason why I don't refer to these characters as kids: because they neither sound nor act like actually kids. The voice actors were all given the direction to act like they normally would if this was a sitcom and they were all adults. Not a single actor voicing these munchkins ever once sounded like they were playing kids. George O. Gore II is basically playing Junoir from My Wife & Kids (another Waynes property I hate) when voicing D-Roc and it just sounds so off. Countess Vaughn's sassy independent woman attitude does not fit at all with what's supposed to be a little girl. Michael Rapaport sounded way off as DJ, especially in the infamous TikTok clip where he's saying goodbye to his Dad in a civilized tone. Nancy Lee sounded really awkward as Soo Young, going back and forth between an American voice and a Chinese voice. I never bought Shawn or his brother Marlon Waynes as Slim or Dirty as their voices would fit much better if they were playing adults. None of the other actors made a lasting impression either way as the material they were given wasn't funny or interesting.

Visually, the animation is not too shabby. The character designs all have an appealing and unique appearance to them, particularly in their clothes and hairstyles. The actual character animation though is fine, but nothing spectacular really makes it anything to right home about. Where the animation really falters is in the visual gags were the impacts and cartoon antics feel very weak. Gags like D-Roc's enormous cranium and him getting hit by a shoe don't land because it's not exaggerated or impactful enough. The backgrounds are well detailed though and this neighborhood feels very lived in.

The Boo Crew: Sneaker Madness is yet another example of a rightfully forgotten failure. It's animation is pretty solid on its own, but the writing is still terrible, the characters are unlikable, the voice acting is painfully bad and above all, it's just NOT funny. Thankfully this is just a 45 minute special and not a full length animated series because I don't think my sanity could handled 13, nevermind 26, more episodes of this quality. If you want a cartoon that does a better job at teaching kids what not to do when you want something, watch Ed, Edd, n Eddy. No seriously, each episode basically does what this special tried and failed to do but infinitely better.

By far the most racist and ghettoish cartoon for children 7+. Kids who watch this cartoon will most likely try to dress, talk, and act like the characters portrayed. I am disappointed in Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. for agreeing to air this terrible program. The Wayan's Brothers may be good in movies meant for the young adult viewers. They should stick to the movies and not make any more episodes for this cartoon. Usually The young celebs start off working in movies and doing voice-overs for cartoons and then as they grow older, they move up to programs for young adults. A good example is Nick Cannon. He first started out with appearing in All-That, Later on he starred in MIB II, then Drumline, and now his TV show, Nick Cannon Presents: Wild 'N Out, where comedians compete by telling inappropriate jokes. This comment was originally for Thugaboo, but I wanted to show examples of how celebs kids watched on TV not long ago can become those who get involved with non-kid-friendly programs. It is very sad that this happens, but all celebs change and grow up. It is just the opposite with the Wayan's Brothers new cartoon. It is bad enough we have to deal with all the bad people from the ghettos, with allowing the young generation watch this program, it will just convert the kids with possibilities to the ones who don't have a chance at a good life. Just my feelings on this cartoon and my beliefs on what will happen to our children if they were to watch it.

Many deem this new source of entertainment from the infamously inappropriate Wayans brothers as "Ghetto-ish" and "Racist". I on the other hand, take pride in not being included in that "many". Viewing this two episodes of this program, it has proved to be nothing horrible -- although it has also proved to be something extraordinary.

Centered on the youngster D Roc and his busy and interesting neighborhood, I consider the show to be light-hearted for the most part, although it does have it's moments. Nonetheless, this show isn't as controversial as the Boondocks, but then again it is not necessarily a fluffy Nick Jr show either.

Personally, I found it a bit cute with the music videos filled with modern morals and it was occasionally funny with great voice talents. The music video at the end summing up the episode the revealing the moral of the story proved to be a bit entertaining also. This might be the redemption of Shawn's and Marlon's decline of enjoyable television and movies. However, the show does have it's flaws and falls short on a few other scales. But then again, I'm no children cartoon connoisseur. All in all, we must realize that in the end, it is a cartoon for the kids. I give the show 7 stars out of 10, as the show is a bit average, yet it is still a step above mediocrity.

this cartoon is not right,lol I totally disagree with a lot of things it portrayed however it ended on a positive note , but as for me and mine we will not be viewing this in our household mainly because we fight against stereotypes every day and this cartoon just confirms what most white people feel black people act like

the comment one of the little black girls made on the cartoon was that her boyfriend was so conscious (he was white ) that really offended me that's not something we as black people take lightly conscious is a state of being that black people achieve when they realize their true ability

Okay, so yeah, it's a terrible show for "younger" kids to watch...I absolutely agree with that. However, having watched it myself, I found it to be a non-stop laugh fest. I live in Brooklyn myself and I thought the social observations were absolutely hilarious. I think if you stop taking it so seriously, and enjoy it for what it's worth, you'll feel the same way.

And P.S - The end has a nice little lesson, the golden tuna if you will.

P.S.S - I can't wait for the Christmas special! I hope it's still coming out. In fact, I'm going to google it right now. (I'm crossing my fingers!)