Review: The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder “It All Started with an Orange Basketball”

Overview

Penny has a crush on a boy named Kareem who not only is a solid b-ball player, but is passionate about being a musician. But, when Penny is recruited to join Oscar’s basketball team after the team’s leading scorer, Michael, goes down with an injury, Penny laces up her shoes and takes the inter-gender league by storm. Unfortunately, with Penny’s new commitment to basketball, she loses focus of what’s important, and narrowly misses her shot with Kareem.

Our Take

One thing I was worried about with The Proud Family reboot is constant Twitter-influenced preaching featuring ideas that are either unfounded or illogical. This character appears to be in the form of new character “Maya”, clearly the social justice warrior of the group. In any event, the main plot of the episode is pretty standard “paint by the numbers” hero’s journey type fare with a slight twist at the end. Most of the in-game elements were fun, even if they were clearly Space Jam-esque in their execution.

I do continue to give this show extra points for it’s fun aesthetic even with the shadowing issues. Funny dialogue and a pleasant morale to the story is the type of classic Disney cartoon elements that old-school fans can get behind. However, some cliched elements, like some of Maya’s comments, could be something to look out for as a potential hindrance that precludes the show from having it’s own voice, and not one clearly subdued by social media bot-influence.