Bump in the Night Review

In the second my of ABC challenge reviews, B is for Bump in the Night. It was actually really difficult to find a series to watch this week. If I was going to review an anime series, I already picked that I was going to do Baccano! because I’ve been meaning to watch it again anyway. However, I got western animation. I figured it would be easy because ‘B’ is very common letter. By trying to meet my rules to watch more obscure series, I basically eliminated all the different Batman series. This ended up being a huge limiting factor on the series I could watch. I did actually debate Beware the Batman because after its long hiatus, then super early morning time slot, and finally the last 7 episodes being broadcast as a marathon, not many people saw it. However, I kept to my guns, and did no Batman shows. I chose Bump in the Night because I honestly barely remembered it from when I was I kid. When it originally aired, it was in a competing time slot with the Fox Kids block which I watched religiously. More than likely that’s why I didn’t remember it as well. As a note, I’ve got to give props to my dad, he remembered Bump in the Night better than I did. Which might sound bad because I am a pundit for cartoons, but remember the Cartoon Pundit’s parents were there for all the shows too. I digress. Let’s get back to the real matter at hand and begin the review of Bump in the Night.

Characters

Your main character in Bump in the Night is Mr. Bumpy. Mr. Bumpy is a green monster with purple warts that lives under a young boy’s bed. Basically, he is literally the monster under the bed. He eats the boy’s dirty socks, old chewing gum, homework, and any pretty much anything else. He is full of energy and completely carefree. As a character, he is your typical benevolent mischief-maker. Is he a bad guy? No, but a lot of what he does gets him and his friends into a lot of trouble. He does usually get them out of their predicament, however. He also, has shown that he will do anything for his friends, even going so far as to risk his own life.

Your secondary main character is Squishington aka Squishy. He is a blue water-like monster that lives in the tank of the toilet. He is a neat-freak that’s kind of a worrywart and occasionally tries to be the voice of reason but he tends to get dragged into Mr. Bumpy’s adventures anyway. Squishy and Mr. Bumpy’s personalities are completely different. There is actually an entire song in show about how different they are and the fact that they don’t know why they’re friends but it doesn’t matter they are. The one thing they truly have in common is that Squishy has also proven time and time again he will do anything for his friends.

Your main female is Molly Coddle. She is a comfort doll that Frankenstein’s monster would be happy to have. She has two different arms, two different eyes, a blue dress polka dress with a red patch in it, and mismatched socks. Basically, she is a patchwork of parts. Her main job is cheer everyone up whenever necessary. She is the most kind character on the show. Unlike Squishy, who tries to be the voice of reason but is more easily swayed by Mr. Bumpy she usually ends up being the actual voice of reason. She has some self-esteem issues when it comes to the Cute Dolls which is ironic because she’s cute herself and has more admirers than they do. But this doesn’t dissuade her from having a strong personality for the most part.

The characters on this show are basically different aspects of how children perceive their world. If you look at the characters most of them are living dolls. Which children when they are playing with dolls pretend they are alive. If you look at the rest of the characters are childhood monsters. The monster from under the bed, the monster that shows up in the bathroom late at night, or the monster in your closet, all of these are natural fears for young children. It’s all a child’s interpretation of the things that go bump in the night. Wow the name makes sense now.

Additional note on the characters on this show. Similar to Star vs. the Forces of Evil all of the characters on this show are absolutely brilliant. Each character, even very minor ones, are instantly memorable and entertaining. I would be hard pressed to not say this is one of the best overall casts of characters I’ve seen in a while. My only real gripe is that a lot of the minor characters like Destructo or the Cute Dolls deserved more time on-screen. Of course, this show only lasted two seasons and let’s be honest your three main characters really make this show, so on-screen time was kind of at a premium, but they still deserved some more.

Commentary

Before I go too far, there is something that must be said. Bump in the Night is an odd show. Does that mean it’s bad? No, not in the least. Just odd.

Bump in the Night has minimal in the plot line development department. Each segment is a completely separate entity from the previous one. This gives way for inconsistent character development. In other words, a character could have learned something in one segment and be doing effectively the exact same wrong thing in the next one. Not a big deal as the show was doing this on purpose, but it would have been better if the characters had maintained some of their development from segment to segment. The structure of the individual episodes was kind of weird too. In lieu of two 11 minute segments which is pretty standard, you had one 11 minute segment, one 8 minute segment, and one 3 minute Karaoke Cafe segment which was your main characters singing songs. I’ll admit the Karaoke Cafe songs are entertaining and honestly usually gave better lessons overall than the main segments but they kind of became superfluous during season 2 when a lot of songs came into the main segments. As a note for season 2, again they brought a lot of songs into the main segments which some people will like some won’t, personally I enjoyed them. However, season 2 also brought a lot of season 1 reruns in the episodes. I’m not going to be too critical about it, because the ones they used were the best of the segments from season 1, it was just questionable the need for it. I would rather have had 8 actual brand new episodes than 13 mix and match ones. Admitted that is just a preference. I’d also like to point out Bump in the Night is not the only show to do this either.

All my critical statements aside, I don’t know of any segment I didn’t like in this shows. Each segment was unique, energetic, and fun. This show also has very well hidden deeper messages throughout it. There are segments that literally deal with addiction and personal image issues. When most people look at this show, they miss a lot of the real depth associated with it. Admitted, there are still a few completely random segments that have no real deeper meaning at all, but a misconception I had coming in was that this show was random for the sake of being random, which it is not. I think my misconception came from the fact I could only vaguely remember this show and the part I remember the most is the theme song which is energetic and fun but kind of random.

Conclusion

Bump in the Night is one of those shows that should have lived in my nostalgia factor, it just never did. It’s shows like this, that are reason I try to do more obscure shows for my reviews. If I had gone with a more standard choice I would have ended up not watching this show and missing out on some great entertainment. Is Bump in the Night perfect? No, it has some odd segments and some less than desirable plot writing. However, overall it is a great show with a lot of depth to it. It just got lost by the wayside because of competition with other great programs when it came out. Bump in the Night was a very pleasant surprise for me. I had minimal expectations going in, but it was very good. It’s definitely worth a watch if you’ve never seen it.