Warning! SPOILERS for The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder season 1.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. On March 31, a revamped version of The Fairly OddParents hit Paramount+. The live-action sequel series trades out an animated Timmy Turner for real-life actors playing the original main character's cousin, Vivian, and her new step-brother, Roy. There have been a slew of changes between Fairly Odder and its predecessor, but though it's great to see some new life being breathed into a beloved show, the laugh track-infused revival version certainly isn't without its problems.
Created by Butch Hartman, the original Fairly OddParents show began its run on Nickelodeon in 2001. The kid-oriented cartoon show chronicled the life of 10-year-old Timmy Turner, a fairly average, ball cap-sporting young person who was routinely made miserable by his evil babysitter, Vicky. His life was forever altered when he gained two fairy godparents, a couple by the name of Cosmo and Wanda. Floating around with signature glowing crowns, fairy wings, and magic wands, Timmy's formerly run-of-the-mill childhood in his hometown of Dimmsdale became much more complicated and in need of constant problem-solving - albeit one that was profoundly more interesting and exciting.
In The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder season 1, episode 1, it's revealed that Timmy (Caleb Pierce) is now a college freshman, heading off to higher education at Princeton. On a bittersweet sort of note, he leaves to broach adult life after leaving his beloved fairy godparents (once again voiced by Daran Norris and Susanne Blakeslee) with his new-to-town cousin, Vivian "Viv" Turner (Audrey Grace Marshall) and, inadvertently, to her step-brother, Roy (Tyler Wladis). Following in the spirit of its predecessor, a Fairly OddParents fairy rule): an exhausting, non-stop sort of manic energy where something wild is happening practically every couple of seconds.
Laugh tracks have lately been used in certain teen-/kid-oriented sitcoms from networks like Nickelodeon and Disney. Fairly Odder is a sort of modernized sequel series to The Fairly OddParents, featuring real actors on-screen. So, though problematic in a way, it seems like the laugh track is one of the elements intended to aid the reboot in almost "feeling" like an animated show, especially one as off-the-wall and fantastical as its predecessor. Unfortunately, some of Fairly Odder's vibes feel a little forced and rushed, almost cramming as much wacky absurdity into episodes as possible.
Even so, in a way, this does harken back to the original Fairly OddParents. In addition to a slew of callbacks (like a Crimson Chin poster, Jorgen Von Strangle's return, and more), the original's quirky energy - which was so tonally on-par with other animated series of the 2000s, like live-action production of Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder. Even so, as other recent reboots have found, translating a beloved series' essence over to a different, revamped project is a delicate and often dicey endeavor. Fairly Odder's laugh track only further highlights some of the problems that can easily be run into in such cases.
The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder is currently streaming on Paramount+.