Hell Reviews: Scream Street the TV series.

I know, I know…”Hell, this is meant to be book Wednesday, this isn’t a book!”

I’m sorry, I’m cheating a little today.

Now those of you who were here the other week, probably being no-one but you know, would remember that I did a review on a children’s book series called Scream Street and in that review I mentioned a show being made from it.

If you wish to see that, it's here: http://hellrreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/hell-reviews-scream-street-by-tommy.html

So I am going to review the show based on the book.

It was around mid-February that I found out that a long awaited cartoon had been made from it, first airing in October of 2015 apparently.

I’d missed it completely, but the magical thing called internet certainly helped me discover what I’d missed….kind of.
I’ve only seen a few episodes as the entire catalogue seems kind of difficult to find online all in one place, even on their own website, but you can play a game to make yourself a scary monster!
From the ones I found I watched about two episodes and was highly disappointed to the point where I couldn’t actually watch anymore.

The books have this amazing story about three friends finding relics to get the parents of one of their group home to live normal lives by the standards of humans, and people have been crying for a TV series to be made from this premise and characters.

So why did they make a show that only seemed to use the characters and not the fascinating story?

The creators had this whole, magical story to work with and instead they went for fifteen minute stories that don’t relate in anyway to anything and I’m failing to understand why. One of the ones I watched was about a renegade hoover.

Some of the characters have had some strange design alterations and one has been changed completely!
Bella Negative seems to have ditched her original vampire looking designs from the book illustrations to horrible, tacky clothes that you see people on Jeremy Kyle usually wearing.
Luella went from being a beautiful witch with a daughter called Poppy to a teenage trainee witch with a thing for Resus.
Why?
Not a clue.
Despite only being in one book she was her own character who fit in well with the original story and now they’ve shifted her to a teenage fangirl.

The animation also jars me, I think it’s kind of ugly to be honest. There’s not much I can say about it aside from I really don’t like it, but this would probably be because I kind of liked the scruffy looking illustrations from the book and the designs from the show just don’t sit well with me.

 

(My favourite book cover to date)

(Resus' design on the show.)

However I know I am not the demographic for this show and it’s not made to entertain me, I just can’t help but feel let down by what CBBC produced from a story that would have translated so well on the screen if it had been followed.

Maybe this was their intent?

To tell a different story away from what you’ve already read, little bits and pieces of 'normal' life in between their adventures, but there are children out there who don’t read and aren’t encouraged to who will miss out on the original plot that I think would really entertain them.

The show was put up for an award however, so it seems that I don’t know anything and should keep hushed as a casual TV viewer.

The original author Tommy Donbavand, who is an awesome guy from what I’ve seen and thumbs up to him for keeping the series going with e-books, seems happy with the end result and I suppose that is ultimately what matters.

Not everything will be to everyone’s taste, and this is one thing where I will simply stick to the books.