BubbleCAN Review: The Stanley Dynamic “The Stanley Halloween”

It’s a Halloween special as two dimensional as its main character.

The family sitcom is a classic staple of television entertainment, and especially with children’s entertainment family sitcom shows sprout up like whack-a-moles. When one falls due to substandard ratings another shall rise soon after. I didn’t think I’d be covering one for Bubble Blabber but apparently, on YTV they have produced a family sitcom with an animated twist. The basic premise is that the Stanley family has two twin boys, a jock named Larry and an animated dork named Luke, and what follows is the many misadventures that sparks from that. I get haunting flashbacks of such “classic” sitcoms like Dog With a Blog but everything deserves a chance. However, when it comes to sitcom writing as I have learned, it’s much easier to fall into the stale, predictable flow of joke writing as many shows do.

OVERVIEW

And speaking of predictable, The Stanley Halloween is the show’s Halloween episode which follows or animated Luke answering the door to some trick-r-treaters and wagering them that if they aren’t scared by his “spooky” story that they can have their fill of candy. Thus, Luke begins three horror related tales starring his family. Story #1 follows the family father and man-child Lane Stanley as he and mother and daughter, Lori and Lisa, as they try to contact Lane’s rich dead relative to find his fortune. Story #2 has Luke’s brother Larry going through a parody of The Fly as after jumping into a really scienecy machine with a tarantula he merges with it and becomes a tarantula-man. It’s such an obvious setup for a spider-man joke I’m surprised the show never went for that low hanging fruit. But anyway, story #3 is Luke’s tale as he and his nerd friend discover a vampire’s hidden lair in the school and decide that they will unmask the vampire and literally kill it. The nerd had some stakes on hand, I don’t think he was planning on putting up a tent with those.

Now those are the three stories, but how do you suppose they were told? One at a time like say for example the Treehouse of Horror series on The Simpsons. We can debate the quality of the Treehouse of Horrors all we want but format wise an anthology made the shorts concise, to the point and focused. However, Stanley Dynamic attempts to keep the sitcom style of storytelling, interweaving plotlines with an ABC story to reach a conclusion that concludes each one. It does not pull off this format well in this case or at the very least the current format makes the stories told even weaker. By weaving the plotlines in and out from one another each tale lacks a certain flow as none connect to one another because of none of the Stanleys interact with one another. Why not just keep the three stories separate and just use the commercial breaks to cut between? By doing this it allows more focus on each tale and the humor of each piece doesn’t overstay its welcome.

I am sad to say though writing wise it is at best mediocre in terms of actual written content I find it rather lifeless. A show filled with not characters but shadows of them. Just pure archetypes. The man-child father, the overachieving daughter and the doting mother. In a project, there is the time and place for these archetypes, especially if their interaction is engaging. Stanley Dynamic really lacks that dynamic of character to make it an audience. Compound the bland characters with highly telegraphed humor and I am just left unenthused, the funniest party was having Bill Turnbull, which some may know him better as Curtis from Todd and the Book of Pure Evil. It is endearing to see such a great actor from a horror comedy taking a role as a janitor to act in a toothless show. In typical Halloween episodes, especially kid ones, the color scheme is darkened to offset the bright colors and goofiness. But this show is so full of bright colors it makes me think of another childishly colorful show, Caillou. Comedy in these circumstances feels and views like a formality, and the visuals overlap with anything Halloween related. It feels like another bright and cheery day at the Stanleys’.

OUR TAKE

Toothless is definitely the only way I can describe Stanley Dynamic. Even Luke’s ToonBoom blurring animated movement feels half-assed. I can’t really give this episode a low mark. I did enjoy the actors even though due to the writing they come across very stale. I just feel that Stanley Dynamic could have used more of a dynamic feel to its existence. This is plainly a bare-bones Halloween special with a 2D protagonist behind it. We want what is best for us but we can’t reach that with no hard work. Stanley Dynamic is just a cute show to see with friends for just a chill time but it is still rather forgettable.

SCORE
5.0/10