Second thoughts on the Skylanders Academy Trailer

In my original reaction video, I was a bit too critical over the fact about the choice for the voice actors for some of the Skylanders in the Academy TV series. Over the past few days, I just realized I was being kinda hypocritical. At first, I was very skeptical about the fact that Justin Long replaces Josh Keaton as the voice of Spyro in the Academy TV series. Let's say I had afraid of how he might sound like as Spyro knowing the fact that he did do the voice of Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks which I had a very bad reputation when I was using songs from that franchise in my different songs videos. Also, with exception of the first one, I pretty much hate the film series like everyone else. However, someone told me that Spyro in Skylanders Imaginators is no longer voiced by Josh Keaton, instead he is voiced by Matthew Mercer (who also did some additional voices in the past Skylanders games) which he said so in this tweet: twitter.com/matthewmercer/stat…

I also remembered that several Skylanders from Spyro's Adventure went through different voice actors in Giants. Gill Grunt originally sound high pitched with some kinda of accent which was different compared to his commercial voice which was deep and rusty. The deep and rusty voice was later used in Giants and so forth. In addition, Trigger Happy had a very high pitched crazy voice in the games but in the commercials, he had a sort of stereotypical russianish type of accent which is basically the type of accent I used when voicing Trigger Happy in my animations. Eruptor also had a deeper voice in the Spyro's Adventure game which is different from his voiced used in commericials and the sequel games. Terrafin even had about three different voice actors, one was Chris Williams (who did Crunch Bandicoot in Crash Tag Team Racing and Crash of the Titans), another was Freddie Winston who also did the other Skylanders in Spyro's Adventure before he was recasted (he was uncredited BTW) and currently it's Joey Camen (one of the Monstars of Space Jam). At least they have Jonny Rees (AKA Greg Ellis) and Bobcat Goldthwait reprising their roles from the games. I heard the reason why they chose to have different actors for Skylanders Academy is to give the show some identity.

Believe it or not, my problem with the Skylanders Academy TV series trailer is not the voice acting. My main problem with the trailer is that some of the personalities and traits of the Skylanders seem kinda mismatched. Eruptor doesn't normally get super mad which causes him to overheat in the games, that's usually Fryno's personality (though if Fryno is in the Academy TV series, I'll be more than happy to watch it 70 more times). Also that joke was done to death and I think Anger from Inside Out managed to use up the remaining hilarity level of it. Also, Stealth Elf doesn't sound very whispery (it has nothing to do with the fact that she is voiced by the same voice actress of Candace from Phineas and Ferb) and she's more of a fun lover compared to her game counterpart. Another thing they gave her was a teleportation ability instead of being plain insivible and leaving a decoy. I did that to her when I made my Skylanders Christmas animation in 2011 but that was a mistake. Been getting negative comments about that ever since.

Another problem with the trailer is that the jokes they threw at us... I didn't find them funny except for the one where Pop Fizz tries to eat the banana head Imaginator. That was kinda like a suicide joke which something Spongebob did quite frequently (Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy 4, Dunces and Dragons, the Great Patty Caper, Sandy's Vacation in Ruins and yes, even Are You Happy Now. One Coarse Meal doesn't count but it wasn't a joke. It was a plot point). But the other jokes they showed to us is something I have seen in so many other shows and movies. I already covered the Eruptor being angry part but let's focus on the others. The bit when Jet Vac is using sign language to get the Skylanders to get moving and they don't understand what that means is something I've seen in the Penguins of Madagascar and some people in my commenting section said they seen that joke in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cartoon. And the joke about Jet Vac being the original Angry Bird, guess what. I've seen that joke all over the internet and it was used for various pictures of other cartoon birds who were angry before the Angry Birds came out like Donald Duck, Iago and even the dinosaurs who were the close relatives of the birds (Especially the velociraptors).

But even if I am willing to watch the Skylanders Academy TV Series, I don't think I can watch it. It's on Netflix which is something that is an infant in Malaysia and I don't have the TV for that. There is however KissCartoon which is something that allowed me to watch other cartoons like BoJack Horseman. I'm still not sure if I am willing to watch the Skylanders Academy TV series but as MrEnter said in his Filly Funtasia Trailer Analysis "NEVER trust a trailer". I might give it a watch. If it's bad, I'll probably won't go the rest of the show. Then again, some shows like BoJack Horseman, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and even the Classic Looney Tunes didn't start out well until they got better later. If it is good, I'll probably watch more of it and I can't wait for Season 2.