Les Lapins Crétins: Invasion

This show was probably one of the better shows of it's time on Nickelodeon. Let's face it modern Nick right now sucks. (Besides The Loud House and TMNT) Rabbids isn't of course for the everyone, but it is perfect for the younger audience it is aimed at, and fans of the Rabbid's video games. During it's run on Nickelodeon, it was miles ahead other shows in terms of quality like Sanjay and Craig, Breadwinners, and yes SpongeBob SquarePants. (Of course, because SpongeBob was garbage 2008-2015)

One Saturday, I woke up with my son and after making breakfast, we settled in and watched a few cartoons on the tried and true kids network, Nickelodeon. Most of these shows were filled with fart jokes and hip lingo. This was, as it seems, to cover for these shows' total lack of wit. Then, a TV friendly version of some of my favorite video game characters croaking out sprach Zarathustra. Those were the Raving Rabbids from the Rayman series. While the show also lacked wit, it shamelessly dovetailed into a slapstick series of misadventures. Compared to what my eyes and ears were subjected to previously, this was such a relief.

What can I say about the plot less, aimless episodes? Chase scenes, mishaps, and beatings dominate this series. If we took a preschool class, somehow made them indestructible, gave them each a case of Red Bull, and turned them loose on the planet, you would get the chaos of this show, and boy I loved it.

"Groundbreaking", "Up to date", "hip", and "original" are not words to describe this show at all. The only word to describe the mayhem in this show would be "fun".

Enjoy the show for what it is, expect nothing big, and you'll have fun,too.

The idea was wonderful. Slapstick a six year old can understand and have fun. Also the short clips were universal as there was no speech. Only the grunts of the rabbits/rabbids. Nothing special, but different than the regular humor clip. Naturally I was quite curios about the series. Yet something changed. A lot. The short, funny clips were replaced by longer less funny clips. Somebody must have hated the rabbits/rabbids. The universality of the slapstick humor is replaced by stupid pointless dialogue that is necessary for the let's call it plot. And while the rabbits/rabbids were funny as design, humans look like crap. Back in the days when computer generated animation was new, that was acceptable. But Pixar and the others have raised the bar a lot. But the intern hiring bureaucrat in charge of this series stands behind the bad choices. So you see a lot of the same three ugly human models. Blah!

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First, my family is a big fan of the games. The first and second Rabbids game were total comedy gold, from flinging spit balls at teacher to fart wars across the desert, the game kept my family laughing over multiple plays. The games use a crude and non-verbal humor not appealing to many, but the slapstick quality was genius to me.

The episodes follow in this trend. The designers offer a limited number of settings - the testing lab, the grocery store, the beach, a farm - and most rabbids look just alike. They are mildly malicious, selfish, rude, but I see nods to Loony Toons classic comedy set ups all through the writing and design. I particularly appreciate how all other, non rabbid, characters either ignore the creatures or push them aside, and the rabbids save most of their mischief for each other.

For those who feel this is not appropriate for children - I think you sell children short. So often, books and cartoons showing childlike creatures behaving badly serve children as examples of what they should NOT do. We were reading Shel Silverstein's ABZ book to our son at a young age, and it's filled with examples of bad behavior, all of which he could identify as naughty and none of which he emulated. I can't imagine children would be so facile and dim as to attempt to reproduce rabbid behavior any more than they would recreate the actions of the Three Stooges. It's the same stuff, just packaged differently.

You have to think of rabbids as being like toddlers on their own in the world. Everything is marvelous to them - an empty box, an escalator or elevator, a fly or flea - and they explore their world with hilarious results. Children can understand and respond positively to this approach, and it never preaches or treats them as idiots. Make up your own mind - episodes can be found on YouTube.

The Rabbids started out as part of the ''Rayman'' video games developed by Ubisoft. However, the Rabbids became wildly popular and thus, were given their own game franchise, as well as viral videos and comic books. This show was produced by Ubisoft Motion Pictures. If you're a real big fan of the games, you'll love the show. I'll be honest, I was very skeptical about the show when i watched the first episode, however, after I watched episodes like ''Stop! No More''! or ''Until Rabbids Do you Part'', I changed my point of view entirely. The show can be cute and funny at times and can be quite appealing after watching a few episodes. However, if you are new to the Rabbids, I recommend you watch a YouTube trailer for a game first in order to familiarize yourself with the Rabbids for a bit