"We can fix this with art!"
Creative Galaxy is a 2013 animated series produced by Amazon Studios for Prime Video. The series focuses on the adventures of Arty, a young green alien boy with an amazing talent and enthusiasm for art in many forms. In each installment, Arty is joined by his shapeshifting blob friend Epiphany as well as his mother, father, baby sister Georgia and one or more friends. Every story involves an art-related problem to solve, which Arty takes care of by hopping in his Creative Spark rocket ship to visit artistic worlds such as Paperia or Fabrictopia. Creative Galaxy currently has two seasons and is available to anyone who has Amazon Prime or is subscribed to Amazon's separate Amazon Video service. The first episode has also been made available freely on Amazon and other sources for anyone that wants to sample it. The series is from Out of the Blue Enterprises, a company formed by many of the creators of Blue's Clues and many of the staff that worked on that show are involved with this one, such as Angela C. Santomero. Donovan Patton, "Joe" of Blue's Clues, voices a chef in the show's second season.
Creative Galaxy features examples of the following:
- An Alien Named "Bob": Several of the aliens have normal names, such as Arty, Georgia, Annie, and Jackson.
- Aliens Speaking English: The characters all speak English, but occasionally splice in an unspecified alien language, i.e. "bleepity-bee, come fly with me!"
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Arty and his family are all green-skinned. Arty's friend Annie is a light purple while his friend Jackson is a light blue and his friend Juju is pink.
- Art Course: The planets in the titular galaxy are all themed around some form or aspect of art: Paintoria is based on painting, Paperia on papercraft, Drawopolis on drawing, Museo on art museums, Cooktopia on culinary arts (i.e. cooking), Sculptron on sculpture, and Fabrictopia on textile crafts. There's also Buildora, which is based on the ill-defined, vaguely-artistic subject of "building", and Grooveopolis, which fits a different trope.
- Band Land: Grooveopolis, the planet of music and dance.
- Baths Are Fun: In "Bathtime with Arty," Arty doesn't want to take a bath because it would mean he has to stop drawing and thus be very bored and unhappy. He travels to Drawopolis where he learns how to make bath crayons that allow him to draw on the bathtub while he's in the bath.
- Be Yourself: In "Captain Blah," Captain Blah steals all of the artwork in Arty and Annie's art show because he was unable to make a paper bird like theirs, and feels that so he's not an artist and if he can have art in the show, then nobody else should be able to either. The two point out that he doesn't need to make art like them to be an artist; that really the whole point of art is making something that expresses yourself in your own way.
- Birthday Episode: "Mom's Birthday" involves just that, the birthday of Arty's mother, and Arty making a mosaic sculpture for her. "Arty's Art-y Party" is about Arty's birthday, and Arty making goody bags for his own party after his mother forgets to make them. "Dad's Birthday Breakfast," the premiere of the second season, is about Arty making his father breakfast in bed for his birthday.
- Catchphrase: "We can fix it with art!" or variations such as "Do you think we can fix this problem with art?" Also, "it's my masterpiece" and variations on that. Captain Paper has "Did I hear somebody say paper?!"
- Christmas Episode: This is found in the first season and is called "Baby Georgia's First Christmas / Christmas Memories." The first installment is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, focusing on Arty helping his baby sister Georgia to have a good first Christmas. The second involves Arty and his friends making a photo book of treasured Christmas memories.
- Continuity Nod: Downplayed - when Arty visits Cooktopia in the second story of the Easter episode, having been there in the first story, Chef Zesty makes a passing comment about him being "back so soon."
- Easter Bunny: Appears in the flesh in the first half of the show's Easter episode, "Arty's Eggcellent Adventure / Hoppy Easter Dinner." Arty has to help him (her? It's not really
made clear) out because the Easter eggs got broken when s/he accidentally dropped the basket. - Edutainment Show: With a focus on inspiring imagination and creativity when it comes to art of all types, from painting, to sculpture, to dance. And since it's from the creators of Blue's Clues, you can bet that they're also trying to teach pro-social lessons, such as healthy ways to deal with feelings or finding something fun to do when one is bored.
- Fake Interactivity / No Fourth Wall: Arty regularly speaks with the viewer and occasionally asks for the viewer's help with stuff.
- Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Arty and his friends don't go anywhere on Arty's Creative Spark rocket ship without making sure to first "buckle up." Arty's shapeshifting blob friend, Epiphany, gets a pass because she doesn't ride on the ship, she just floats like she always does, traveling alongside the ship.
- Flight: Captain Paper can achieve this power via another of his powers: he's able to shapeshift into a paper airplane.
- Free-Range Children: Say Arty? Wanna travel into outer space and other planets on your rocket ship accompanied by nobody but your shapeshifting blob friend? Have a great time!
- Halloween Episode: "Arty's Boo-tastic Halloween" is a double story-length special in which Arty goes out trick-or-treating in the Creative Galaxy with his friends, visits a number of planets, and helps out along the way.
- Large Ham: Captain Paper speaks in a loud "superhero" type voice and likes to ham it up, despite being a captain of nothing more than paper.
- Meaningful Name: The show's lead character is named Arty and is a fantastic artist.
- Planet of Hats: The Creative Galaxy that Arty and his friends travel throughout is full of these and this is basically a point of the show. In each installment, Arty visits a different one to help him make art. These include Paperia the paper planet, Fabrictopia the fabric planet and Paintoria the painting planet.
- Satellite Character: Epiphany's role is generally to hang floating around Arty, animating the Creative Spark rocket ship, repeating things that are said, and occasionally shapeshifting to reflect something that Arty is thinking or which is being talked about. About the only exception to this is in the second season story "Epiphany's Dino Dance / Epiphany and Eureka," in which Epiphany somehow suddenly becomes a full character, expressing her anger (in the third person) after losing a game of spaceball, and playing with a friend named Eureka that looks just like her except for being blue instead of purple.
- Screen Tap: In "Taking Care of Splatter," Jackson's dog Splatter licks the screen.
- Stock Animal Diet: In the Easter episode, Arty has to stop the Easter Bunny from eating up the carrots that they're using to make orange coloring for the Easter eggs. At the end of the episode, Arty and his family entice the Easter Bunny to join for Easter dinner with the promise of carrot cake for dessert.
- Third-Person Person: Captain Paper. "Captain Paper likes all of your costumes!" Epiphany also speaks this way during the rare times she actually speaks of herself.
- Title Theme Tune: "Painting, building, drawing, sculpting and fabric too / There's so much for you to do / Ideas are everywhere / In a Creative Galaxy, Creative Galaxy..."
- Toilet Humor: In "A State of the Arty Sign," Captain Paper at one point jokingly suggests as they're trying to decide what type of paper to use for Arty's sign that Arty draw his sign on toilet paper.
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot: No matter what exotic planet he has to go or how much of a time crunch there is, it's never a problem for Arty to draw up his Creative Spark rocket ship that can take him to other planets in a flash, making a brief stop in the wider Creative Galaxy along the way to collect something for his idea box. On the way back home, a special "speed" for the ship is specified, such as "quiet speed" when Arty needs to get home without disturbing his baby sister, but the speed is again always just long enough to give an impression to little kids of time passing and get back in time to have taken care of the problem without anyone having to wait very long.
- Vocal Evolution: The child characters sounded slightly older and livlier in the third season (EX: Arty began to sound more like Reboot Thomas, another character who shares the same voice actor).
- You Mean "Xmas": "Heart Day" is promoted as a Valentine's Day special, but the holiday is called "Heart Day" within the story, as indicated by the title.
"That lights me up! Gooooo... be amazing!"
