End of the series

[Crusader7]

So the series dies down too. Along with the sequel and many hopes. Dreamworks has begun to gain my hatred lately.
I must say, though, that I preferred Susan when she wasn't able to shrink down. Also, she had just become a too enthusiastic girl, which wasn't really accurate, since she is supposed to be the serious character, who keeps the crazy team together.
Nevertheless, I'll just go fish.

[buckmana]

Yes, I was pretty disappointed when I discovered that we only got one season's worth of episodes!

I've only watched one other DreamWorks series (the one based on How to Train Your Dragon), so I have very little idea what else they have/are offering.

I vaguely recall something about a Madascagar Penguins series and a Kung Fu Panda series.
I haven't decided if Kung Fu Panda is worth watching and I'm not impressed by Madasgascar at all.


I'm okay with Susan shrinking down, it adds a new dimension to what she does.
Also, I assume they didn't want to keep animating sets with 70 foot ceilings or finding ways to fit a 50 foot woman into a room meant for 6-7 foot people.

I got the impression Susan shifts from being nice girl to "Look out! Enraged giantess!" depending on what is necessary.
She tries the nice approach first and if that fails, cue the instant growth spurt and the beatdown.
Look at how she resolved her issues with Sta-abi, by standing on her and threatening to crush her unless she stopped the vendetta.
And only because the nice approach didn't work!

I assume it's only on the job that Susan needs to be all serious and as soon as she's off the clock, she can be her normal self.
Unless there's a dispute or a crisis going on, then she'll "punch in" again.

[Crusader7]

Can't deny that there is much true in what you said. Sure, the shrinking thing made her more interactive with the rest oif the characters, plus it was cheaper for the studio. However, one thing for sure is, she is usually just too easily beaten by several reasons, like the way Dr. Cutter shrank her using the iron binding (why did she shrink with that anyway), same thing B.O.B. used on her in ''The thing with One Brain''. Not to forget the shot she accidentally had (upon trying to grow) from Dr. Cockroach in the battle with the Zombie Moon Ape. I mean, they just weakened her a lot, don't you think?

[buckmana]

That's the part that never made sense to me, if Susan is always charged with Quantonium (because it's permanently in her system), shouldn't she always be powered up?
Although I assume the amount of power she has is proportional to her size, she has less when she's regular height.
Still, she should at least have some power in her normal form, even if it's not much.

I haven't seen the episode with Dr Cutter yet (as I'm only halfway through the season).
Dr Cutter? There's a name that inspires absolute trust (sarcasm).
To explain my cyncism, there's a recurrant theme with aliens, abnormal/mutated lifeforms (and sometimes mythical creatures) in shows that when they're discovered, the evil scientist's first idea is to get the scalpels out and decide it's absolutely necessary to go poking around in their internal organs.
And without getting the surgical consent form signed either......

As I understand it, Susan has to make a conscious decision to remain small, if she's surprised/startled, she immediately returns to her giantess size, which usually results in her head going through the ceiling if it's low enough.
I don't know if there's a way to disrupt her becoming ginormic though.
Although in theory, if the technology existed, you could invent a device that dampened Quantonium energy fields and if you used it on Susan, you could neutralize her powers until the device was turned off.
Also, electrical fields inhibit the ability to consciously control one's body, which could also have an effect on Susan, as becoming ginormic probably requires her to do something like this. And judging from the movie, Susan isn't immune to electrocution.

As an aside, I wonder what happens when Susan needs to sleep?
Obviously, she can't be concentrating when she's unconscious, so does she return to her giantess state?
Although it could be that the body's function of inhibiting movement while asleep also stops her from becoming large again.


The thing I hate most about series that don't get completed is the storylines that never get finished.
I don't know how the rest of the season plays out, but if the storyline about Coverton's spying for the Coverlord's invasion is not completed by the final episode of season 1, then it will never be resolved.
Which annoys me everytime it happens, because I really hate only getting part of the story!
If you start a story, you have to finish it!
It's the metaphorical equivalent of publishing half a book. Which you would never get away with. The publishers would either order you to finish the story or just refuse to publish it.

Which makes me wish they put a clause in shows to say, okay, if you're authorizing this series, you are obligated to keep the series going until we wrap up all the story threads. Regardless of ratings, viewer opinions, etc.

[Crusader7]

It certainly does annoy everyone I guess, since the ending episode shows them all as a united, happy team (along with Coverton).
Of course we all know how it would end, with Coverton getting powned.

But,the good producer doesn't stop the series at such a point, at least he goes faster with the ending.
But I mostly mean to say, when Nickelodeon promotes other series. I mean, even the Mighty Bee got 2 seasons!
Call this fan disappointed.

[buckmana]

Yes, I've seen the rushed ending a few times, but it's usually a danger sign when the pace gets accelerated.

It means the producer is very aware that the story is going to end permanently, so has to wrap up the story threads sooner then they would like.
So, hypothetically, instead of getting a major plot every 3rd or 4th episode, you're getting one every episode so the big finale can be done sooner.
But it just feels rushed (at least to me) when the show has been going at a moderate pace, then suddenly breaks into a full speed run because time is running out.
And as a side-effect, less stories are written because there won't be any more episodes.

That occuring is rare though, most of the time, it's done without warning and we (the viewers) are left scratching our collective heads and wondering what the next part of the story was going to be.
Stargate Universe is the worst example of this, the first season ended on a cliffhanger that never got resolved.
Dark Angel is number two, they still had the 3rd season to go through which revealed all the secrets season 2 had been leading up to.

[Crusader7]

It's just plain awful, end fullstop.
Dreamworks shouldn't act like this, it's just bad for their reputation.
But it's all marketing, right?

We'll just wait until Shrek is ''dead'', which won't last long enough.

[buckmana]

I've seen a specific kind of marketing technique before that is quite underhanded.

And I hope Dreamworks has more sense then to resort to this tactic, as it just makes you enemies.

The first time I was a victim of this tactic, I was quite vicious in response to the company who did it to me.
And believe me, they did notice, because the sheer vehemence of my messages put me on a blacklist.


To explain what happened, they discontinued a online computer game that was much loved by it's players and replaced it with an inferior game with a completely unrelated subject matter.
All it achieved was to drive the players of the old game away.


And I'm now wondering if that is what is happening here.
They're trying to improve Shrek's popularity by purposefully making sure it has no competition.
I don't think that's a good idea, because a bad product can never replace a good one, no matter how much publicity you put into it.
If they're foolish enough to follow this path, I hope they learn a painful lesson so they don't repeat this mistake again.

[Crusader7]

I'm totally with you on this one.
No matter what, Dreamworks hasn't proven anything like that, except with Shrek.
Sure, the 6 films will some day find an end and the company will finally move on.
However, on a different case, they are just pathetic merchants who keep promoting the same stuff for new.
I just hope they're not.

[mvafan]

Mar 10, 2014 7:43:40 GMT -5 Crusader7 said:

So the series dies down too. Along with the sequel and many hopes. Dreamworks has begun to gain my hatred lately.
I must say, though, that I preferred Susan when she wasn't able to shrink down. Also, she had just become a too enthusiastic girl, which wasn't really accurate, since she is supposed to be the serious character, who keeps the crazy team together.
Nevertheless, I'll just go fish.

I too disliked Susan's new ability to shrink and grow but it grew on me. At least they added a bit of depth to it by making it difficult to control at times.

As for the enthusiastic thing, I think it fits her. In the movie she was serious because she hadn't accepted her powers yet. But by the end she seemed to mellow out and be happier. Maybe this is how she was before becoming Ginormica. In any case I love her bubbly positive personality. It's one of her most endearing qualities.

[Crusader7]

Mar 30, 2014 18:54:54 GMT -5 mvafan said:

I too disliked Susan's new ability to shrink and grow but it grew on me. At least they added a bit of depth to it by making it difficult to control at times.

As for the enthusiastic thing, I think it fits her. In the movie she was serious because she hadn't accepted her powers yet. But by the end she seemed to mellow out and be happier. Maybe this is how she was before becoming Ginormica. In any case I love her bubbly positive personality. It's one of her most endearing qualities.

I don't know...I just preferred her a lot when she was stuck in the giantess state.
It's just that I liked it more, can't verify or explain it further, it's just it.
Now, I do realise that some people might find it funny, smart or logical, in order to withstand the budget of the series, it's just opinions.

[spectersy3]

I didn't loose any sleep when it ended a year ago, but I'm sad about it's non existent future.

The only episode I liked from the entire show was the Susan-centric "This Ball Must Be Dodged" I stopped after that, felt I wanted to leave on a high note.

In the episode, good Die Hard references and the ending, was nice.

[buckmana]

I like that kind of story, when the person you assume is ineffectual actually turns out to be the one who is the greatest threat.

I don't know if Coverton was redeemed or not, it's hard to say.
And since the series is over, we'll never know for certain.

[pinkarray]

Hm. Shame that this board is starting to die down over the years, too. But anyway, I kinda wanted it to end anyway. It's disappointing that the series was a let-down from the movie let alone Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space, Night of the Living Carrots and B.O.B.'s Big Break. I kinda hope for not a sequel hence there's nothing really exciting going on with Monsters vs. Aliens already due to Reese Witherspoon and the other cast leaving and some other things with the plot. (I wonder if it's the same person that wrote Monsters vs. Aliens writing the sequels and such.)

I wonder if there were any good episodes while it lasted besides the first ones. Or if everything was just silly.