6Teen – Snow Job

6Teen – Snow Job
1 DVD 2 Episodes
Peace Arch Entertainment 2008
60 minutes

I am a big fan of the 6Teen DVD series and the Snow Job DVD is not exception. This Nelvana cartoon features excellent writing, solid very teen like characters, and original story lines. Snow Job features the title episode and a one hour special titled Bring It On.

The 6Teen series is a hit with tweens and teens because it is directed at them without ever pandering or selling something. The characters (the always fired Jonesy, good girl Jen, tough cookie Nikki, blonde Caitlin, Coffee fan Wyatt, and surfer dude Jude) are realistic: intelligent, well-meaning, able to get into trouble and out of it, good friends, and not perfect. It is nice to see a TV show with a positive outlook but that still just wants to entertain.

The title episode has the gang hanging out at the mall when the schools have closed because of a snowstorm. While the girls plan the great winter dance, the guys try to have as much fun as possible. Jude and Jonesy with too much time on their hands and an invasion of kids with nothing to do are exactly what Ron the Rent-a-cop needed to make his day. The great winter dance sends Wyatt in a panic when he cannot ask the bass player in his band out. He gets advice from an also dateless and helpless Caitlin. Sounds like a recipe for success if there ever was one.

Bring It On is a double length 6Ten episode that has Jonesy working at the Penalty Box sports store and being better at sales than Jen. This leads to a fun battle of the sexes between the gals and guys. There is a serious continuity glitch here as Jonesy is in and out of his referee shirt from scene to scene.

6Teen is a great cartoon. The animation is original and perhaps a bit of a matter of taste but the writing and the characters are superb. This is an intelligent kids’ show that does not pander or preach.

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