Wednesday, May 4, 2016

On The Air: Camp WWE (2016)

It's clear that there are splinters in the windmills of Vince McMahon's mind.

The 70 year old Chairman/CEO of WWE, perhaps inspired by his wrestlers interacting with Scooby-Doo and The Flintstones on DTV DVD's the last two years, decided to dive back into producing his own animated cartoon.

Unfortunately, where Camp WWE ultimately fails is in how its characters are presented.

A collaboration between McMahon and one of the busiest guys in television, Seth Green (Robot Chicken, Family Guy, etc.), Camp WWE attempts to posit some classic WWE superstars as kids. The only "adults" are McMahon himself, 20 years younger than he really is, and fellow senior citizens Ric Flair and Sgt. Slaughter, the latter of whom working on his first animated series since his G. I. Joe days in the late 80's. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon are posited as teenagers, while John Cena, Undertaker, Mark Henry, & Big Show are presented as 8 year olds. Gimmicks are included, unfortunately. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this is ridiculous. For what it's worth, McMahon, Flair, & Slaughter are the only ones doing their own voices. David Brown of the improv comedy group (and former Comedy Central series) Upright Citizens Brigade is tasked with voicing the younger Undertaker & HHH, but the rest of the cast is kept tippity top secret at this point. Could be that it's some of the same folks Green has worked with on Robot Chicken.

After seeing this sample clip, you'll think 2014's Slam City online miniseries is much better.



Yeah, an 8 year old, prematurely bald Big Show. To think Mick Foley had tried positing some of his compadres as kids in one of his books a few years ago, and that may be where McMahon got the other idea for this series. Should've asked Foley to be a writer for the show.....!

Rating: D.

2 comments:

Silverstar said...

The art animation style are reminiscent of 'Dan VS', but the writing isn't nearly as clever. The Bella Twins look cute in this, but they look cute in real life. Who's this made for? Kids? Adult WWE fans? This whole concept has "What the what?!" stamped all over it.

hobbyfan said...

Aimed at teens & young adults, I'd guess. The animation does resemble Dan Vs., now that you mention it, but I was thinking in terms of kiddie fare like the moronic Fairly OddParents....!