Daily Archive: November 26, 2011

Zingzillas lost their awesome

So having a small child changes you, for one thing you get to watch a lot more children’s television. Despite all your protestations that you will raise your child in a bubble of academic excellence and books only, you quickly start to use the excellent service that is CBeebies.

One of my favourite programs is ZingZillas,[1] but I have noticed an issue with this latest series, in fact they have taken what was a brilliant show and reduced it’s brilliance, they have taken the shine off and lost the awesome. Let me explain some of the changes.

  1. It is shorter and it shows as it feels very rushed.
  2.  Because it is shorter the coconuts drop quickly so no sense of build or narrative tension.
  3.  We have less story and virtually no character development or interaction which was a strength in the previous shows.
  4. The special guest performers are given less time and do not interact as much, they also have no place in the storyline.[2]
  5. The other characters, DJ, heads, chorus birds and Todd have virtually no place in the story, and less interaction with the main Zings;
  6.  They added dress elements:
    a. Zack has a cape that makes him look like a failed superhero;
    b. Pansy has been given a feather boa because you know she’s either a stripper or a drag queen;
    c. Tang has a cowboy hat that makes him look like he finally came out and just went full on camp;
    d. Drum has the only costume element that makes sense. She has some, in character to her, butterfly wings.

The last big element is that the Zings’ themselves know it has become less, they feel that they have lost their cool and brilliant selves, they no longer state at the end of each episode “that was the best big Zing ever”.

I want my best big Zing back, I want genius episodes like the Wishes episode whose story and song were awesome. I want the return of narrative tension, storyline and characters entwined within the development of the stories. I don’t blame the writers or the production crew at all, and the songs are still great, but it is too rushed, it needs to be able to breathe not be throttled.

Give our Zingzillas their awesome back, that’d be the best Zing ever.

—-

[1] Visit some of the ZingZillas sites:

[2] I am informed by the internet[3] that the actual ‘glade’ time and ‘performance’ time remains the same, and this I cannot question without examining two episodes, an old and a new. I am inclined to believe it remains the same but the ‘less interaction’ in the storyline, or less time spent developing the need for the guest performers to be there makes it feel as if they have less time.

[3] Specifically the creative force of Banks and Wag