2 out of 5

Created By: Thurop Van Orman

Although Flapjack has a lot of great elements, I have to fall back on accepting that I rarely actively enjoyed watching it.  It doesn’t quite annoy in the way that ‘Regular Show’ does (though I accept that that fills a particular niche), it just never really feels like it finds its stride, instead coming across as a mish-mash of influences and, with Pendleton Ward’s presence and its focus on adventure and candy, seeming like a perverse spin on ‘Adventure Time.’  This is not to diminish some amazing voice acting by Brian Doyle-Murray, Roz Ryan, and creator Thurop Van Orman, and the generally mottled and dour set design – while its limitations inform my opinion – is an interesting blend of styles classic and new, run through a rainy-day blender.  But our ‘mis’ adventures of the purposefully annoying-voiced Flapjack, his adoptive whale mother (who doubles as his house) Bubbie, and his ‘idol’ and friend, the selfish, greedy, Cap’n K’nuckles are often lacking either a straight man – an important component that exists in almost every comedy in some form or another – or a sense of innocence – too often everyone is a stooge or incompetent and it begins to wear on you after so many episodes.  We’re also plagued by a bit of sameness and misdirection: Our opening credits (which are wonderfully stop-motion animated and feature a nicely chaotic tune) tell us that K’nuckles lusts after ‘Candied Island,’ making it seem like our Misadventures will often be in pursuit of same.  Instead we’re mostly stuck to hijinks in Stormalong Harbor, of which we see almost every location within a couple episodes.  Combine that narrow scope with the art design, which is a pretty consistent wash of blues and browns, and it starts to feel like we’ve been watching the same episode on repeat…  Now despite that, the show gets into a pretty great groove toward the end of season 1 and start of season 2, finding the right balance between sass and silly and stupid to make the characters more endearing and the staging more familiar than limiting.  But when John Infantino takes over as creative director, the episodes slip into a somewhat annoying “all for the punchline” format that lacks the oddity of earlier eps.  Still, its the kind of show that deserves a full release, as I imagine it becomes stronger with repeated viewings.  Despite it not working for me, Cartoon Network oddballs should give this a shot, if only to flavor whatever other shows you’re watching.