The Wild Thornberrys was the first nicktoon to use 22-mintutes of an episode to tell one story. At this time there was a few other shows like Captain Planet, Disneytoons, and other shows that used a full episode to tell one story but this was really Nickelodeon’s first attempt at trying to keep our attention on one story for a half hour. The show focuses on the Thornberry family, a family of documentary filmmakers famous for their televised wildlife studies. The show primarily focuses on the youngest daughter in the family Eliza. After saving a shaman masquerading as a wild animal, the shaman gave her the ability to speak and understand animals but she must keep this power a secret from her folks otherwise she’ll lose the power. The rest of the show just focuses on her adventures with various animals around the world with her family. I have to admit I do like the premise of the show. I like how the family’s always traveling to different locations instead of being stuck in one place thus providing us with different and exotic animals for Eliza to see and meet as well as give us a view of different cultures of the world. And they were pretty accurate on the cultures they really nailed them, you really do feel as if you’re in that part of the world.
As I said before the show mostly focuses on Eliza meeting and befriending new animals she meets in her family’s travel and helping them out with their problems. Such as being hunted by poachers, separated from their packs, and any other problems they might have. Surprisingly some of the animals she meets are in fact friendly critters even the more dangerous creatures like a tiger are friendly to her and are happy to be her friend. But not all of them are good, there some that even try to go as far as kill her. In one episode Eliza tries to befriend a komodo dragon but the dragon instead tries to eat her because it’s a komodo dragon and they don’t befriend people or other creatures. There were even times when some animals would start off good but turn on Eliza. Probably my favorite episode is the one where Eliza helps out this cheetah cub. In the episode, the family goes to film in a wasteland going through a drought and the animals in the region are suffering badly. Eliza is strictly told by her mother not to help any of the animals or wonder away from the campsite but when Eliza sees a cheetah cub crying out for its mother Eliza disobeys her mother and helps the cheetah cub find its mother. When they find the mother the cheetahs turn on Eliza and try to kill her because they’re hungry. It’s nothing personal it’s just the way nature work. It’s either them or her.
Besides some good adventures the family is also quite enjoyable. Eliza is somewhat of a stereotypical nerd who wears glasses and freckles but she’s also fearless, caring, and good-hearted. She has an intelligent chimpanzee named Darwin who acts as her best friend and sidekick. An older sister who’s your stereotypical teenage girl who wants nothing to do with nature and would much rather live the life of a normal teen girl. A wild jungle boy named Donnie who the family adopts and can’t speak but he does have a pretty good 4-part episode that explains his origins and two caring parents. Despite the parents being film documenters and busy with their work, they both set aside time to be good parents and even keep the love in their marriage alive. The mom is always there to keep the kids in line and serve as the voice of reason and the father is a silly guy who loves his job just as much as his family and will always put the safety and needs of the family before his own. There are even these two funny poachers who pop up from time to time who serve as the show’s antagonist and are pretty funny. If I had to name the one thing I didn’t enjoy about the show it would have to be the animation. Yeah, despite having a good story with good characters and role models the show drops the ball on the animation. The backgrounds and locations they go to are done well but it’s the character designs that ruin the animation. There are some characters who were drawn to look like real humans (like Eliza and her mom) while other characters look like cartoon characters (the older sister and father). The animals are fine but for the humans it’s like they weren’t sure whether to stay realistic or go cartooney. But despite this one problem I still liked this show, thought it had good characters with good lessons, a good idea, and got its point a cross well. Though for future reference I wouldn’t recommend approaching animals the same way Eliza does.