FLAPJACK was a show I started watching since before its official premiere. (Cartoon Network used to air shorts called "Wedgies" between regular programs. The first FLAPJACK Wedgie aired nearly a year before the official premiere of the show.) I didn't watch every single episode but I did watch most of them. I don't think there was ever a cartoon with so much potential that had it all wasted.
I did like the artwork. I can see why some people say it's bad. Some of the minor characters have a grotesque appearance, which I'm sure was intentional. This makes it kind of like RANGO. We have an innocent and rather naive character many rugged characters. I had a problem with RANGO because we have to look at them for almost the whole movie. It's okay in FLAPJACK because we don't have to look at these characters for too long.
I think the backgrounds look fantastic. I love how the water is made of shifting cardboard. I love how Stormalong Harbor doesn't seem to be connected to any land. I love the Victorian setting.
The main problem with the show was the writing. The jokes were rarely funny. Sometimes they didn't make sense.
Now, I know what you're thinking: It's a cartoon so why should it have to make sense?
Well, cartoons have their own set of rules that they can break. For example, in Chuck Jones's cartoons that involve the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, the latter, when he runs of a cliff, usually won't plummet to the canyon floor below until he notices that he ran off the cliff. But cartoons need to obey some rules of logic in order to be funny. If they don't, audience members will become preoccupied with wondering what's wrong with the plot rather than enjoying it.
In one of the episodes of the first season of FLAPJACK, "That's a Wrap!" , Peppermint Larry tells Flapjack and K'nuckles that he'll give them a piece of candy each for every candy wrapper they bring to him. In the end, it turns out that Peppermint Larry is secretly making a map out of the candy wrappers. It's a map to Candied Island, the fabled destination of the show's lore. He needs one more wrapper, one that has the X on it. K'nuckles and Flapjack have it. K'nuckles finds out this information by eavesdropping on Larry. He goes back and tells Flapjack about the plan but before he can do that, Flapjack rips up the wrapper (because it was getting in the way of their friendship). Peppermint Larry had promised them 50 pieces of candy if they could give him the wrapper with an X (which Larry called a "plus" to keep his intentions secret). Flapjack decides to just write an X on an extra wrapper that K'nuckles has and they give it to Larry. Larry finishes making his map and heads to Candied Island but goes to Pickle Island.
This doesn't make sense for a few reasons:
1. Peppermint Larry seems to be the only seller of candy in Stormalong Harbor, which means he already had all the wrappers necessary for making his map but gave those wrappers away...for some reason. Sure he had to sell candy, but still, he gave away pieces of candy in wrappers that he wanted back. That makes no sense. 2. The part of the map with the X on it is the last part of Larry's map. If everything else on the map is right (and the show doesn't give us any reason to suspect otherwise) it shouldn't matter whether or not Larry uses the real wrapper or the fake wrapper that Flapjack drew an X on to finish the map. It shouldn't even matter if he doesn't have any wrapper to finish the map. All Larry had to do was sail in the area of the ocean that the wrapper covered and he would have found Candied Island eventually.
If I haven't made myself clear, there are good and bad ways for a cartoon to not make sense. The example I gave above is a bad way for a cartoon to not make sense. I'll take an example of the good way from FLAPJACK itself: Peppermint Larry has a wife made out of candy (Candy Wife).
Another mistake is that the show doesn't really go anywhere. In the theme song, K'nuckles and Flapjack sing about how great it would be if they went to Candied Island. The episodes are rarely about them trying to get there.
A huge mistake is that they revealed in the episode "Over the Moon" that Candied Island really existed and yet, by the end of the series, K'nuckles and Flapjack don't get to it. I'm sorry, but I think what made Candied Island interesting is that the viewer doesn't know if it actually exists. Why reveal that it's real AND have the main characters fail to reach it by the end of the series?
Another mistake is that Bubbie is kind of an unnecessary character. She's really only used as a house and as transportation by K'nuckles and Flapjack. Roz Ryan did a good job at voicing Bubbie, but the show would have been better if Flapjack had an adventurous adoptive mother who was a human and if K'nuckles was a real captain with his own ship. That would have been awesome.
I could go on for a while longer if it were not for IMDb's word limit on reviews. I'll just finish by saying again that FLAPJACK had so much potential but it was wasted. Unfortunately, I can't judge a cartoon by what it could have been but by what it was.
I did like the artwork. I can see why some people say it's bad. Some of the minor characters have a grotesque appearance, which I'm sure was intentional. This makes it kind of like RANGO. We have an innocent and rather naive character many rugged characters. I had a problem with RANGO because we have to look at them for almost the whole movie. It's okay in FLAPJACK because we don't have to look at these characters for too long.
I think the backgrounds look fantastic. I love how the water is made of shifting cardboard. I love how Stormalong Harbor doesn't seem to be connected to any land. I love the Victorian setting.
The main problem with the show was the writing. The jokes were rarely funny. Sometimes they didn't make sense.
Now, I know what you're thinking: It's a cartoon so why should it have to make sense?
Well, cartoons have their own set of rules that they can break. For example, in Chuck Jones's cartoons that involve the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, the latter, when he runs of a cliff, usually won't plummet to the canyon floor below until he notices that he ran off the cliff. But cartoons need to obey some rules of logic in order to be funny. If they don't, audience members will become preoccupied with wondering what's wrong with the plot rather than enjoying it.
In one of the episodes of the first season of FLAPJACK, "That's a Wrap!" , Peppermint Larry tells Flapjack and K'nuckles that he'll give them a piece of candy each for every candy wrapper they bring to him. In the end, it turns out that Peppermint Larry is secretly making a map out of the candy wrappers. It's a map to Candied Island, the fabled destination of the show's lore. He needs one more wrapper, one that has the X on it. K'nuckles and Flapjack have it. K'nuckles finds out this information by eavesdropping on Larry. He goes back and tells Flapjack about the plan but before he can do that, Flapjack rips up the wrapper (because it was getting in the way of their friendship). Peppermint Larry had promised them 50 pieces of candy if they could give him the wrapper with an X (which Larry called a "plus" to keep his intentions secret). Flapjack decides to just write an X on an extra wrapper that K'nuckles has and they give it to Larry. Larry finishes making his map and heads to Candied Island but goes to Pickle Island.
This doesn't make sense for a few reasons:
1. Peppermint Larry seems to be the only seller of candy in Stormalong Harbor, which means he already had all the wrappers necessary for making his map but gave those wrappers away...for some reason. Sure he had to sell candy, but still, he gave away pieces of candy in wrappers that he wanted back. That makes no sense. 2. The part of the map with the X on it is the last part of Larry's map. If everything else on the map is right (and the show doesn't give us any reason to suspect otherwise) it shouldn't matter whether or not Larry uses the real wrapper or the fake wrapper that Flapjack drew an X on to finish the map. It shouldn't even matter if he doesn't have any wrapper to finish the map. All Larry had to do was sail in the area of the ocean that the wrapper covered and he would have found Candied Island eventually.
If I haven't made myself clear, there are good and bad ways for a cartoon to not make sense. The example I gave above is a bad way for a cartoon to not make sense. I'll take an example of the good way from FLAPJACK itself: Peppermint Larry has a wife made out of candy (Candy Wife).
Another mistake is that the show doesn't really go anywhere. In the theme song, K'nuckles and Flapjack sing about how great it would be if they went to Candied Island. The episodes are rarely about them trying to get there.
A huge mistake is that they revealed in the episode "Over the Moon" that Candied Island really existed and yet, by the end of the series, K'nuckles and Flapjack don't get to it. I'm sorry, but I think what made Candied Island interesting is that the viewer doesn't know if it actually exists. Why reveal that it's real AND have the main characters fail to reach it by the end of the series?
Another mistake is that Bubbie is kind of an unnecessary character. She's really only used as a house and as transportation by K'nuckles and Flapjack. Roz Ryan did a good job at voicing Bubbie, but the show would have been better if Flapjack had an adventurous adoptive mother who was a human and if K'nuckles was a real captain with his own ship. That would have been awesome.
I could go on for a while longer if it were not for IMDb's word limit on reviews. I'll just finish by saying again that FLAPJACK had so much potential but it was wasted. Unfortunately, I can't judge a cartoon by what it could have been but by what it was.