If you also had no access to cable television, chances are you watched Qubo at some point in your life.
Hip-hip-hooray to ION Television for their very own kid’s block, which lasted from 2006 all the way until 2021. A legend in poor children’s entertainment will be missed (*Sniff ).
Qubo was truly, uh, something else. Given that it’s a budget channel on public access television, they had none of the shit your friends would be talking about at school, but a fairly solid catalogue, nonetheless. Most of its shows were, in fact, imported from Canada!
Ah, Canada. Maybe you guys get ignored by the rest of the world, but you’ll always mean something special to me.
Seriously though, where’s the love for our northern neighbors? I suppose it’s because they generally tend to mind their business up there, but their contributions to the animation scene go widely unappreciated!
Especially since it gave most of us our childhoods! Canadian animation has the unfortunate brand of being that show you know you’ve watched, but just can’t remember the name of (popular ones like Total Drama Island and Johnny Test aside). The footage and characters ring a bell, but darn! You just can’t remember what it is.
And it gets clowned on for having niche shit that no one’s heard about, because for the most part…yeah. Canadian animation always tends to be as hit-or-miss as a DreamWorks film.
But, come on, when it does land? Oh man, absolute gold. Detentionaire has to be the shining example in the beauty of shows up north. It’s an absolute shame it got snubbed and cancelled, because it’s an underrate gem of its own kind (speaking of which, now that they’ve returned all the episodes to YouTube, I’ll need to get around to rewatching it past the first episode…Looks like an entry for another day!). By the way, how often do you see an animated show cited as being a mystery thriller on its Wikipedia page? God, I wish we had more horror-thriller animated content out here in the West!
Even their stuff that isn’t as beautifully written still bangs. I was a big fan of Grojband as a kid, yet again another show that got cancelled, though in this case, I can kind of understand why. Hell, I even checked out some of Todd Kaufman’s other works, Looped also being among a childhood favorite of mine (and I can still remember the theme songs for both! Nevermind that I have a good memory…).
The other day, I took a small trip down memory lane after I got a Grossology review recommended to me on YouTube. I don’t think I ever caught full episodes of it on television, but I was at least familiar with the show and, to say I’m such germaphobe nowadays, I actually did like the show (and, had I seen that episode with Kid Rot/Chester in it as a kid, I’m fairly certain I would’ve had a crush on him. Also guarantee that he would’ve been a Tumblr favorite had the show been more mainstream!).
Also obligatory “someone on that show had a fetish” comment goes here. Still slaps though.
Then that video got me scrolling all the way down Qubo’s catalogue, and I was surprised by the amount of positive impressions I had from the shows there: Jacob Two-Two, Willa’s Wild Life, Pearlie, Being Ian, and so on. Even the ones I didn’t necessarily like I still regard fondly. More than a few Canadian titles are my guilty pleasure shows (Looking at you, Jimmy Two-Shoes)…
You know what was probably my favorite out of all of them? Sally Bollywood. GOD I loved that show. Other than the weird DeviantArt fetish recolors, I really love how there’s absolute radio silence for that show. That one came from Australia though! I know the animation scene isn’t as active over there, because between that and SheZow, I’m not really sure what else they’ve made, so that’ll have to be a post for another day! (I’ve already promised two additional posts here; I need to slow down!)
I’ve started bouncing all over the place more than enough now, so I’ll end myself here before I go on any longer! Remember to give a little more love to Canada for giving you a proper, well-rounded childhood! Where would we be without them?
Addendum: And how could I forget my one of my favorite Canadian show of all time, Carl Squared? Loved that show, man! May have to rewatch it sometime…
