Disney plus brings back the hit cartoon ‘The Proud Family’
“The Proud Family” is centered around Penny Proud and her family as they navigate life’s challenges together with love and good morals. In this new continuation of the show, “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” main character Penny is set to experience more serious topics to navigate through, like bullying, social media and homophobia, along with an array of challenges.
“Honestly, I’ve hated this Hollywood wave of recycling and rebooting old great shows that were great as they were and ruining my childhood favorites **cough cough** Powerpuff Girls, Chip N Dale, Girl Meets World, Fuller House but this is actually really good,” athenaaleaw, a reviewer on IMDb said. “Made it current enough that it’s relatable today, while keeping the same voice actors and a style, while not 100% the same it’s so reminiscent that you don’t feel much of a disconnect.”
There have been some concerns expressed by fans that Disney may stray too far into the realm of trying to be ‘woke’ and ruin the original charm of the show.
“This show is simply amazing, the show retains the amazing level of comedy it did back with the original show’s run with more complex issues plaguing today’s world and deals with it in a family friendly manner…. anyone that underrates this show clearly doesn’t understand the significance this show represents,” thomasmattews, a reviewer on iIMDb said.
Although there are a few glowing reviews. Rotten Tomatoes has the show scored at 67% for the average audience score and IMDb has an average rating of 5.4/10 for the show.
The more negative reviews mostly center around the fact that they believe the reboot has not done a good job of sharing black culture and appears to be pushing issues in order to share ‘woke’ agendas. Of the Google reviews, 58% of users liked the show.
The show has been extremely hit or miss for viewers, often either loving or hating the reboot of this classic, like many reboots.
Many criticize the show for its forced pop culture references as well.
“Most jarring of all for the returning viewer is the dialogue — which sounds a lot like adult writers going overboard in trying to prove that they know how kids these days talk,” Writer Nadira Goffe said in an article for Slate.
The culture shift may be to blame for the show’s current critics, as many say the show is not about reaching its old audience but rather attracting the new, shown through its differences. For example the theme song no longer features Destiny’s Child and Solange, but has been redone by a new singer, Joyce Wrice.
The show so far has received mixed reviews and has sat at around 50% in its ratings. The show has changed, as has today’s culture, and many are reminiscing on the old.