Never judge a barbarian by his cover...
Dave gets a lot of flack from viewers who I suspect haven't even watched the show. I too was wary, but seeing that Danny Cooksey was in the title role (Budnick forever, though "Salute your Shorts" may be rotting in Herb's vault somewhere), I felt obliged to tune in at least once. I'm very glad I did.From afar, Dave may look bogus, but it's actually a smartly written show. A combination of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Rocky and Bulliwinkle, with enough scatological humor to please Rocko and Angry Beavers fans, but not to the "throw up" extreme (As in, yuck!, Catdog), it takes constant jabs at "heroes" like He-Man and Conan. For example, in the Barbarian-Mitzvah episode, Dave's tester is a cloaked Skeletor-like figure who introduces himself as...Gloria (Did I mention, there's Family Guy-esq humor to spare, though it's considerably toned down.).
Dave's parents are out fighting all the evil in the world, and they take their job very causally, sending home souvenirs (which sometimes try to kill the kids,), instructing everyone to brush their teeth while chained to a wall, etc. Most shows would have the parents fighting a specific type of evil, which would probably ultimately doom the kingdom, but for Dave's parents, all the evil in the world is good enough.
My one problem is Candy, who assumes a Lizzie Maguire attitude throughout the show, which dooms her character to stereotype. But I'm being to wonder if she's truly that type of character or supposed to be a parody. At least she does some awesome martial arts.
Everybody loves Twinkle the Marvel Horse. A "cute" magical pony with a sick, twisted mind, it's not unusual for Twinkle to come out of nowhere in the middle of a show and start singing about rabid rats and other tortures. For this stroke of pure genius, the show's writers should be upheld.
In short, give this show a shot. If it was on Cartoon Network or Nick (Well, probably not Nick. Worthless piece of scumbag trash that network's become), it would probably be a classic by now. Like many great shows though (How many can YOU name?), it's doomed on the wrong channel.
score /10
Megan_Koumori 26 April 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1068188/14786
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