2 out of 5

Created by: Yoshimi & Katoi

It’s almost painful how unsuccessful this show is at times, given the fairly strong writing, appealing design sense, and novelty of a puppet-based show.  Unfortunately, it’s a brew that never quite settles the right way.

The premise is certainly straight-forward enough quirk to merit a half hour youth-geared series: high school, weird stuff – time travel, ghosts, alternate worlds, etc. – happens; and a core voice cast of some funny Brits (Emma Kennedy as the straight-laced Becky, Richard Ayoade as the nerd Templeton, Doc Brown as the too-cool troublemaker Mitchell) – means the scripts are littered with tossed off dry witticisms…  And yet, I rarely found myself doing much more than occasionally smiling.  In comics, it’s very common that a funny script can fall flat when the artist doesn’t know how to time the art to the panels, or vice versa – the art has all the makings of a zany comedy but the writer isn’t writing effectively for the medium.  It’s very much the same thing with ‘Strange Hill High.’  I can appreciate the appeal of wanting to base the look of the show off of Yoshimi & Katoi’s funky vinyl toys, but the application of that – CGI mouths and expressions and effects with old school ‘strings from their arms’ puppetry attached to direct ports of the toys – is a horrible mish-mash of stiffness (the body) and the spidery movements of puppets, with the CGI work trying to strike a balance between these extremes and instead just seeming like another disparate element.  Because these are figures that aren’t really designed for mobility, attempts to make them look like they’re doing anything are really clumsy, and getting from point A to point B drags because of that.  Then there’s the tonal imbalance: the toys, sets, music, and strangeness-of-the-week plots are all zany, while the dialogue is rather understated.  So every scene feels like it’s trying a bit too hard, and then you realize you actually heard a few good jokes but the humor effect was overridden by all the other bombast.

So I’m allotting points here for a sincere effort.  There’s a lot of talent and creativity behind the show, and it seems like a good idea to give it such a unique visual representation, but it really ends up sinking the watchability.