Les Lapins Crétins: Invasion

This show is for kids, and as for such, it is not meant to teach them anything. Its meant to be pure slapstick comedy which is supposed to make kids laugh.

And for most of the time the mischief the Rabbids do is really funny and entertaining. Sure, there are parts where the humor is kind of forced and you could almost say that you laugh out of politeness. But then this is outhweighted by those really dumb Rabbids making so funny things that you wet your pants.

So if you as parent want to only give to your kids only shows which have an educational value, steer away from Rabbids invasion. If you want to have some fun, give it a go.

As of this reading there are two posted reviews for this new show. One of them was glowing and given 9 stars. The other person gave it 1 star and said it was the "worst show ever made" and compared it to cancer. It's impossible to respond to such hyperbole but I will just leave it at "this show might not be for everyone".

Fans of physical comedy will see a timeless style of comedy merged with modern settings and contemporary video game characters and graphics. I think of the Rabbids as a larger group of Three Stooges. They can be somewhat mean spirited towards each other but there is a child like playful quality to them that makes them endearing. Their silly antics also wouldn't work if they were speaking a legible language but we see them instead communicating with exaggerated and hilarious, yet understandable body language.

Fans of the video game Rayman may know more about the origins of the Rabbids but there is no back story given here. I am interested to know more about where they came from but honestly, it doesn't really matter. This is a hilarious show and each episode has had me laughing out loud. The only downside I might add would be that this may be geared more towards adults than the children who are the presumed target audience. I hope Nickelodeon doesn't try to alter and ruin the show the way they did Ren and Stimpy or push it out of the way despite a good following the way they did Invader Zim simply because the humor may be above that of their intended viewers. But the quality of humor is one that can be enjoyed on many levels and by numerous ages.

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 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!

Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

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.