Skylanders Acadamy

New details about the show were revealed by a writer on Twitter, but they were taken down for violating an NDA.

Take this with a grain of salt, but apparently the writer compared the show's style to Gravity Falls. If that's actually true, that's... really encouraging, actually. In a best case scenario, I could see this show being like a slightly wackier Justice League Unlimited in a fantasy setting. Worst case scenario, it's just another obnoxious and/or mediocre children's show.

Well, can't say I blame him for spilling the beans. It was awfully quiet around here. Like "radio silence" quiet.

I mean, how long has it been since they announced it?

Back in November.

I think part of the reason for the lack of hype around here is because there aren't many little kids on the TV Tropes forums...

At last, news!

Highlights:

• It's coming to Netflix later this Fall.
• It'll be 2 seasons long (for now?).

Geez, kept us waiting, huh?

edited 16th Jun '16 10:53:15 AM by TargetmasterJoe

Hmm. I wonder if Crash will ever appear on the show. Donkey Kong and Bowser probably won't (though they were allowed to appear in the comic...).

Crash, Spyro, and Donkey Kong in the same series. Might as well call it The Wreck It Ralph show.

If he appears in the cartoon, they better play this theme.

Also, I think I should go to the Skylanders page to express my nerdgasm/nerdrage of Crash in the series.

Regrettably, This makes me want to by "Imaginators".

First image from the show.◊ Spyro looks great. Seems like they're trying to make him look as cute as his Skylanders design will allow for...

I can say that this is the first time I've ever actually been interested in Skylanders, myself, after only being interested in Disney Infinity and LEGO Dimensions as far as T 2 L games go.

Toon!Spyro's design doesn't look too bad, but at the angle he's in in that picture he looks slightly weird. Maybe I'm just not used to him smiling like that.

I wonder if this will be a Sonic Boom situation where it's a comedic slice of life but it starts to dwindle in humor.

The difference is, Sonic Boom is set on a confined island with a very limited cast of characters, whereas Skylanders is set in a massive fantasy world with dozens of cool-looking Skylanders with interesting backstories. They'd have to try really hard to make the show boring.

I just hope there are some semi-serious plotlines and character interactions to offset the comedy. I mean, the whole point of the TV show ought to be to develop the Skylanders as characters, since in the games themselves they pretty much can't interact with the plot at all thanks to the "play as any character at any time" gimmick.

So basically you're betting that this show might become the next Ninjago?

Honestly that's the best case scenario for me. It is a show meant to sell toys, so at least give me a story that would make me wanna buy them all with my hard earned cash.

I wonder if it will be anything like IDW comics.

Guess what dropped just now?

Holy crap, that looks amazing. I'm really digging Stealth Elf's new character design.

Also, I'm glad that Spyro seems more relaxed and personable like the Tom Kenny version. Some of the tie-in books and comics portrayed him as kind of a stoic, no-nonsense leader type.

Hopefully this will have an overarching story of some sort, though I have a feeling it'll just be a bunch of one-off "Kaos comes up with a wacky plan to take over Skylanders" episodes. Word of God said some episodes would focus on Cynder, though, so there's at least that. This show seems like a good place to flesh out the Skylanders as characters and their backstories and whatnot.

Also, I'm guessing this is a prequel series, seeing as Eon is still alive and it looks like Spyro, Stealth Elf, and Eruptor are still in training here.

...Also, do you think it's too much to hope for Crash, Bowser, or Donkey Kong to show up? Or for Mark Hamill to reprise his role as Malefor?

UPDATE: Whoa, I just noticed the base of Spyro's palms are yellow now. Weird.

edited 12th Oct '16 6:26:28 PM by thebandragoness

[up] i'm speechless, in a mixed way.

edited 12th Oct '16 6:40:52 PM by ewolf2015

The animation definitely seems better than, say, Sonic Boom. It gives Skylands a nice sense of scale, as opposed to Sonic Boom where the characters were trapped in like the same two or so environments every episode.

Just watched the pilot, and it far exceeded my expectations. It's looking like it's gonna be an episodic action-adventure show but with an over-arching plot. And although Spyro's backstory has been retconned, the show still has plenty of Continuity Nods that make it clear it's a direct prequel to the first game, though maybe it's just a Mythology Gag and the series will branch off at some point, I don't know.

The point is, if you like action-adventure comedy and think there's too little of it, definitely give this show a watch. It's basically the antithesis of stuff like Teen Titans Go.

edited 28th Oct '16 6:03:14 AM by thebandragoness

I think it's fair to say that that's music to pretty much everyone's ears.

Which means now I've got more reason to see it myself.

Yeah, I highly recommend it. They weren't kidding when they said the humor was inspired by Gravity Falls. Never thought I'd give such glowing praise to a Skylanders-related media when I'm such a classic-Spyro-purist, but there you go.

It seems to be a direct prequel to the first Skylanders game, but I don't think you need to be familiar with the games to understand it. I mean, it's pretty simplistic anyways.

now that you say that i might give it a watch, even if i might not like it myself since i'm not a big skylanders fan.

Where can I find it if I don't have Netflix?

Okay, I've watched a couple more episodes. The show's pacing is maaaaaybe a little slow, but then, every Netflix show is like that. I also skipped ahead and watched the Crash Bandicoot episode because I was impatient.

What I really appreciate is that the show is much, I don't know, calmer than I was expecting. I was kinda bracing myself for the obnoxious little kiddie fart-and-burp jokes humor, but it's been surprisingly witty so far.

From what I've seen so far and from reading the episode descriptions, the plot seems pretty simplistic and the focus is definitely more on the character-driven humor, but the fact that is has an over-arching plot is definitely a step in the right direction.

If that Crash Bandicoot show that episode eleven teased at is anything like this one, I will be very happy. Heck, they oughtta pull an Arrowverse and do regular crossovers.

Sorry, I don't know, I'm watching it on Netflix.

edited 28th Oct '16 8:35:15 AM by thebandragoness

Just finished watching the whole season. That last episode had a surprisingly high Holy Shit Quotient. Overall, this show was waaaaaay better than I thought it'd be, and I think the next season has the potential to have a much more solid overarching plot, based on all the hints the finale dropped. It seems there's a Greater-Scope Villain hiding in the shadows. Malefor, perhaps?

I think the most important thing the show did was flesh out the Skylanders as characters. They did a great job with Spyro and Stealth Elf in particular. There were also some background Skylanders like Hex and Roller Brawl who were really awesome but got criminally little screentime. On the other hand, though, I'm also glad the show only focused on, like, five or so Skylanders and didn't give us Loads And Loads Of Characters like the games do. But I wouldn't be against having maybe a Lower-Deck Episode or two each season to give the other Skylanders the spotlight. It'd help keep things from getting too repetitive.

Also, I was relieved to see that they didn't go with a repetitive formula of "Kaos shows up with a new plan each episode and gets foiled." They had a much greater variety of villains (Apparently they're from Trap Team, but I never played that one so they're new to me). Dreamcatcher, Golden Queen, and Kaos's mom really stood out.