Review: Pig Goat Banana Cricket “Let’s Get Tiny”

Spoilers Below

Pig makes friends with a whale because they are both outcasts in their respective worlds. As a result, Pig helps his whale friend get a new blowhole so that they both feel like they are contributing to each others’ happiness without the need of outside BS.

Goat heads to the museum and is accused of stealing paintings at the local museum, so she decides to track down the fucker that’s actually doing it. Her search leads her to a bar with the actual paintings as the patrons. Turns out, these paintings just aren’t a fan of the museum crowd, so Goat decides to join with her new friends whom are more of a biker gang. Her test? To jump a canyon with a bike. She almost doesn’t make it, but Pig shows up with his whale friend and they save her ass. Unfortunately, her disguise is blown, but the paintings opt to keep her around anyway. In exchange, Goat brings the paintings back to the museum, but with a few alterations.

Cricket is shrunk to the size of bacteria, and meets up with the local cheer squad whom need help in winning their competition in exchange for the shit that Cricket needs to fix his machine and become normal size again. After the opposing squad nearly kills the girls, Cricket ends up having to do the routine all by himself, but he wins. The cheer squad keep their end of the bargain, and even help Cricket fix his machine, leading Cricket to go back to being normal again…but as a cheerleader too.

Banana gets Ranger Rhino fired, and Rhino’s replacement, a Sloth,  is an even bigger douche, so Banana creates a Shrimp Vortex to destroy the forest. It gets out of control, so Pig Goat Banana Cricket have to team up and stop it with the power of rabbit muscles. Banana blames the whole thing on the Sloth and gets him fired. Ranger Rhino is rehired, and voila shrimp cocktails for all!

Our Take

This is our first time reviewing this show, and I know a lot of people wanted us to check it out and give a contrasting opinion to what some of the other shitty Cartoon Blogs say. Fortunately, I’m siding with the show producers on this one.

Fans of Nickelodeon’s yesteryear like Ren & Stimpy and Rocko’s Modern Life, would certainly appreciate the ilk that is Pig Goat Banana Cricket. For starters, the show is inspired by a comic strip, and shows that start from comic strips are usually better than shows that don’t start from comic strips. Reason being, the producers already have laid out the different personalities, character designs, and whatnot of the star characters. So, instead of kicking off the show with garbage premises to see what sticks, you in essence get what you have in this TV series, four unique, but intertwining characters with vastly different personalities, and as such, various types of TV premises. Certainly Banana is your workplace comedy ala Regular Show. Pig is your definitive Stimpy-esque character, and Goat reminds me a bit of a Lisa Simpson-type, but with more of a punk rock edge to her. Finally, Cricket gives you your classic animated-science fair that you would see in like a Rick and Morty or Futurama. 

This week’s episode was a lot of fun, but there were definitely some highs and lows. Pig’s infatuation with the whale was largely overshadowed with the more action-packed efforts of the other three characters. Cricket’s plot was funny, but we’ve seen cartoons with funnier ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’ inspired efforts, even if this one featured a throwback almost to a Fish Hooks episode. Goat and Banana’s shorts were probably my favorite, with Goat being the only one of the four to think outside the box, without the scientific explanation. Banana, definitely is your Regular Show. A park comedy but with fantastical elements, but with real world situations like job security and dick bosses.

Overall, Pig Goat Banana Cricket is the first show I’ve seen on Nickelodeon in 10 years that absolutely hearkens back to the stuff I used to watch on Nick. It goes places that I hope others will follow, and expand upon. That said, when you get into the nuts and bolts of the show, there are definitely some inspired plot elements, but the execution is firmly there and rife with gags.