Review: Bunsen is a Beast! “Hide and Go Freak; Bunsen Screams for Ice Cream”

Bunsen is a rather tamed beast.

Spoilers Below

Hide and Go Freak

Bunsen brings Mikey to his house to celebrate being best pals. It’s here we meet an entire house where everything is alive, like the chairs, the door, and a whole bunch more. We meet Bunsen’s coupon eating parents followed by the mean girl Amanda who wants to do everything she can to get rid of Bunsen. To accomplish this, Amanda dresses up as a bunny named “Cecilia”, but for the most part she is ignored and we proceed with Bunsen introducing Mikey to the rest of the house. While Cecilia is trying to get video evidence that will support her claims in getting rid of Bunsen and Mikey,  she reveals herself as Amanda to the two and is well on her way in getting her videos uploaded to “MeTube”. Fortunately, Bunsen’s invisible dog shows up and gets her phone flushed down the toilet causing the family to celebrate.

 

Bunsen Screams for Ice Cream

Mikey wants to introduce Bunsen to the joys of ice cream and the little guy LOVES the frozen treat. Right away Bunsen wants a bunch more, but Amanda pays the ice cream truck driver to go away. Instead of following the driver, the boys wait til the next day which Amanda sees as an opportunity to make sure Bunsen and Mikey never get ice cream, and if they do, they’re going to have to break the school rules to do so. Ya see, ordinarily the ice cream shows up at 3 pm which is right after class, but Amanda forces the driver to come much earlier so as to try and get Bunsen expelled from school as a result of leaving so many times. Amanda actually gets Bunsen twice which means once more will see an expulsion. To help, Mikey tries to convince Bunsen to not like ice cream anymore so as to stave off getting thrown out of school. On D-day, Amanda calls in an army of ice cream trucks to get Bunsen to go outside before school is over, but Mikey is able to talk him out of it and get Amanda arrested.

Our Take

The interesting thing that I really like about this show is all of the ancillary characters. In the first quarter-hour, we are introduced to Bunsen’s house which is really funny and imaginative because EVERYTHING comes alive almost like a deranged Beauty and the Beast castle but as home. The second quarter-hour featured a SUPER hilarious ice cream truck driver that I wish had a show all to himself with his constant screaming and hollering about how crummy his life is.

The uninteresting part of the series? Each of the principal characters. Actually, Bunsen’s ok, but he’s really a smash-up of Stitch and Uncle Grandpa in terms of the crazy stuff the character does. Mikey’s just a typical kid that you’ve seen a hundred times, and Amanda’s motives to get rid of Bunsen really doesn’t make a lot of sense. I mean, most of the town’s populace is ok that we have a monster going to school with kids, but she’s trying to upload videos to showcase that he lives with other monsters? Big friggin’ deal…

The show looks pretty cool from an aesthetic point of you, but the rest is just not doing it for me.