Schoolhouse Rockz - Is Kids Central finally going somewhere?

So I recalled my friend verbally rolling her eyes at what seems to be Kids Central's weak attempt at a Singaporean High School Musical - Schoolhouse Rockz. Complete with the kawaiix/cool dudz zZz at the end to replace the now boring S.



As expected of Mediacorp, a search for "kids central" "schoolhouse rock" (yeah I searched without the Z at first) turned up fack all, and I had to go through Kids Central, where they prominently located a banner ad linked to a microsite.

I went to the toilet and came back to find, with mixed surprise, a video streaming on the site. And it turns out to be the music video to the theme song for SHR.

After awhile, my expression morphed into something you might see me make if I saw a rotting dead body chopped into parts with the skin stripped off.

But then I recognised everyone's favorite cute Campus Superstar Shawn Tok's face, and ever a sucker for cute things (in the kawaiix way not the I.wanna.eat.you.rawr kinda way), I let the video run to the end.

And it auto-looped right back to the beginning.

Well that did save me some clicking, but would the site's audience appreciate that? Most likely only the techier kids who'll leave the window open and let the song run all they while they complete their English Maths Science Chinese and Moral Education homework.

So having had enough of the cheesy lyrics (and coming from me who freaks out in joy every time I see quattro formaggi on the menu, that's something. Seriously.) I turned my attention to... well everything else. And actually, it doesn't look all that bad. Cute SFX (magical comet trails all), sharp video sequence editing, and very very well practiced slick moves. All that's left is the content, and I'm really interested to see the casts' skills and the script content (plz plz plz no more cheese plzkthx). This is a welcome change because from being a fatass giant glued to the sofa every Saturday morning cheering on Tweety Granny and Sylvester as they alternated between chasing each other and criminals around, to cringing everytime Dora the Explorer smiles and me and waits patiently for my answer. I serve in Children's Church and I absolutely refuse to believe that today's kids are so deprived of an intelligent education that they have to learn that yellow + cat = yellow cat before being able to appreciate the complex multiple plots of Teen Titans.

Watch the video by clicking on the link to the homepage at the top of the post. Lemme know what you think. This could be a positive sign that Kids Central, if not Mediacorp, is taking a step in the right direction.

About content though. Seriously, spend some money and get quality script writers. Foreign writers != loss of local flavor. Get a local storyboard supervisor la, aiyoh.