Review: Camp Camp Ep 5: Journey to Spooky Island

In which my worst fears for this show are realized.

So, I’m driving down my block with my Pokemon Go app open and hoping those speed bumps weren’t small children when I remember I have this review to do. And if you’ve read my past few thoughts on this show so far, you know I’ve been it’s been a bit of a struggle trying to find much in the way of redeeming quality here. Like plenty of shows starting off in their first seasons, this one had a ton of potential to surprise and take what seemed like a rather overdone premise and put a brand new take on it. Well, worry no more, because I’ve come to a stunning conclusion about that!

There is no potential here.

All this show is good for is pantomiming the tropes and clichés of more successful cartoons while contributing nothing of its own. It reconstructs the shell of these stories rather well, but then makes it painfully clear that the substance beneath has long since left. Possible interesting subplots and character arcs are never even considered, instead left to decay and filled in for by profanity for its own sake.

Basically, this show is proving to be not much more than a reason for leftover animators and writers at Rooster Teeth to make a paycheck on half-assed work. So far be it from me if I use it for that same reason to my benefit.

Take, for instance, this episode. I guess it’s the Halloween episode (in July, nice going guys) where one character is not scared of anything while the other characters try to egg them into finally breaking. It’s been done hundreds of times before and this brings nothing new to the table. In addition, we learn through brief gags and offhand dialogue that, aside from this camp and the two gender-specific camps we saw a couple episodes back, there’s also a CHURCH camp and a PIRATE camp. Nope, not a inkling of good storytelling possibilities there, let’s just move right along.

Speaking of which, you know what I’ve found to be what makes for some of the better Halloween episodes of shows (or holiday specials in general for that matter)? It’s when the episode focuses on a relatable aspect of that holiday or theme. For Halloween, you have a bowl of candy’s worth of options: Differing experiences with trick-or-treating, how people feel about scary movies, making a costume and why characters pick certain ones over others, delving into what a character fears most, or (what it looks like this episode is TRYING to go with) superstition vs scientific reasoning.

Essentially, Max, the kid so limber his head is right up his own asshole, is not afraid of anything, so when the Quartermaster starts warning people to stay away from Spooky Island for fear of danger, Nikki brings him and Neil along to look for monsters while Max just wants to prove there’s no reason to fear. So, the comedy kinda just cycles with Nikki saying something might be interesting and Max says “no it’s not” for the majority of the episode. Even when they run into a closet full of experimented animals and then just kinda drop it. Nothing about it lends anything to any of the ideas of how certain things can’t be explained or how some people rely too much on faith or…really any other way this story could’ve gone. The only thing we learn, out of ALL of this is that the Quartermaster is into really weird group sex, and that is fittingly traumatizing to everyone. So, in the end, nothing is gained from this, which is a pattern I am sadly becoming used to when covering these.

But at least they remembered to get the kids back to the island this time! Because the best sign of improvement is when a show remembers to fit the bare minimum of having a plot by…having an ending.

Put simply, this show is spiraling, and not in the fun way that can be analyzed from tons of different levels and angles like RWBY is. I’ll try to keep from sounding like a broken record, but I can’t make any promises.