This series is really enjoyable. The idea is that Penn and his two friends, Boone and Sashi, are sent to other dimensions to complete a mission, defeat the bad guy, and save the world. The characters undergo different transformations depending on whoever they're taking the place of. Sometimes it's as simple as a costume change, other times it's something a bit more different (superheroes, stuffed animals, kaiju monsters, cereal mascots or even sports equipment.)
Standing in their way is Rippen, the art teacher at Penn's school whose reasoning isn't entirely clear, but it seems out of a desire to be a full-time villain. He wants to take over the world, and it doesn't matter which world it is. Assisting him is Larry, the school principal. Despite his loyalty and "friendship" toward Rippen, he's really not very evil himself. He's happy and talks a lot, and sometimes is the cause of Rippen's failure.
Supposedly there will be an origin story later in the season. I don't really mind that we didn't get t hat first, since the premise makes the show easily accessible, no matter what episode you begin with. Even so, we can see that heroism is something of a family business. Penn's own parents do it too, but are trapped in the Most Horrible Dimension Ever. Penn sometimes communicates with them through a holo-screen, and it's clear he misses them. However, they're always in good spirits no matter what sort of trouble they're in during the conversation.
Phyllis, who might be a relative of Penn's (it's a bit unclear) is responsible for keeping the inter-dimensional portal working and sending the trio on their missions. Their base of operations is a movie theatre, which I guess allows her to monitor the missions so they can be retrieved when they're done.
Penn's likeability is his real strength as a protagonist. He gets really excited when he arrives in most dimensions, and has some great geek-outs when he gets to be a superhero or starship admiral. And despite only being a part-time hero, he's definitely a full-time hero at heart and always looks out for his friends.
Sashi is the girl on the team. Her character design is adorable, and her normal appearance has a bit of a harajuku/cosplay motif going for it. She's the most serious/competent of the trio, which is often ironic as she sometimes gets the short end of the transformation stick. (A monstrous creature in the James Cameron Avatar parody, a skunk-themed superhero, and a monkey in the Arabian Nights world.) Her seriousness became a detriment when they're sent to clown world, which was guided by the laws of cartoon physics, and she had to learn to channel that humor to save the others.
Rounding them out is Boone, who while at first glance is the laid-back comic relief, does have some good moments in the spotlight. In a world full of merpeople, he had to overcome his fear of water, and when the fate of the world rested on the result of an alien game show, he overcame stage fright with a bit of interpretive dance. He's simple, but smarter than he looks.
The flash animation is fluid and colorful, and the different dimensions visited in each episode are all unique. One of my favorites so far is the superhero world, where every man, woman, child, and animal has some sort of superpower. Adam West even came along for the ride as Captain Super Captain. There was also a G-rated zombie apocalypse caused by tainted hamburgers (the title card a direct homage to Romero's Dawn Of The Dead), and a Star Trek-type mission where the transporter accidentally fused Penn with an adorable alien animal. We also got an episode focusing on Rippen as he attempts to replace Larry as his right-hand man and win for once, which despite ending in their usual failure does give them some nice character moments. On top of all this there's also stuffed animals trying to save themselves from babies, cowboys riding dinosaurs, cereal mascots fighting the milkman, and anything else a wide-eyed imagination could think of.
All of this has made Penn Zero a new favorite of mine, right up there with Disney XD's other great shows like Gravity Falls and Star vs. The Forces Of Evil.
No comments:
Post a Comment