Review of Clone High

Aired on Monday nights as part of MTV's "Ten Spot.", Clone High is set in a high school whom students are clones from famous people throughout history. The series follows the live of clones: Abe Lincoln (Will Forte) and his friends, Joan of Arc (Nicole Sullivan) and Mahatma Gandhi (Michael McDonald) as they share and journey together, through a lot of misadventures. Abe Lincoln is madly in love with a clone of Cleopatra (Christa Miller) whom is a self-absorbed, vain, and often mean-spirited popular cheerleader who is the object of desire for every male in the school, most notably Abe and JFK (Chris Miller), a handsome, popular, arrogant, and horny jock. Principal Scudworth (Phil Lord) is the mad scientist principal of Clone High, who secretly plans to use the clones as attractions for his hypothetical amusement park, and many of the series' subplots surround him trying to find ways to accelerate his plans despite the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures wanting something different. Mr. Butlertron (voiced by Chris Miller again) is Scudworth's sane robotic butler and reluctant sidekick in his stupid schemes. He refers to everyone as "Wesley" as a parody of Mr. Belvedere (1985's TV show). Much of the humor in the show comes from the large contrast between the personality of the clones and the actual values and legacy of the historical figures they are descended from. While they share the same name, and looks, the clones are so different than their originals. For example, Gandhi is portrayed as a hyperactive comedy relief whose biggest dream is to be accepted by those around him. Joan of Arc is in love with Abe, while Abe is unable to see that. The show is also a parody of the after school specials of high-school themed comedies dealing with themes like drugs. In fact, almost every episode opens with a voice-over parodying the "very special episodes" of TV shows. The show use the style of limited animation is a process of making animated cartoons that does not redraw entire frames but variably reuses common parts between frames that was common in the late 90's and early 2000's shows of the time. The characters and backgrounds are traditionally drawn but the frames and cells are frequently recycled. It makes the show seem low-budget. They even mention how cheat the animating is in some episodes. The episodes were pretty funny in my opinion, but sadly due to poor ratings MTV pull the plug of the show. The bad thing about the show is that the last five episodes were never broadcast in the United States. Even if you get to watch the few episodes, it's not worth it. The season finale episode is left with a cliffhanger ending that will never get solved, sadly. My favorite episode is Film Fest: Tears of a Clone, Episode 4, where the students had to make movies for the Clone High Student Film Festival. It makes fun of a lot of the film genres such as Blaxploitation, Bohemianism avant-garde, and autobiographical epic. In a lot of the episodes, there were a number of guest stars from the TV show Scrubs provide voices of several characters in Clone High, such as Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, John C. McGinley, Neil Flynn and Christa Miller because Bill Lawrence produce the show. Also, it's funny that there is an image of a dolphin hidden in almost every episode. I think the main reason why the show was pulled was because MTV released an advertisement that had character Mahatma Gandhi in a way that offended many people in India. To make matters worse for the 55th celebration of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, protesters in India specifically protested the MTV show. Feeling the heat form this controversy, MTV issued an apology. Scandals like this are rarely good for a show and might cause the demise of the show. Honestly in my opinion, they should cancel all shows on MTV and play music videos only. I'm confused as to why MTV canned it. It was smart, clever, and interesting with likable, fun characters and a dash of high school drama which as everyone knows makes interesting television.