Animation
Blood of Zeus
Creativity abounds here, but those artistic measures can’t blur the obvious issues that families are sure to discover.
Sixth-grader Nate Wright has big dreams. And they’re all about him fulfilling his destiny of becoming awesome.
Sure, he’s already kinda awesome. All the students love him, he’s extremely smart and lovable, and absolutely none of these are at all his own delusions of grandeur.
It’s just unfortunate that some people want to stand in his way of obtaining total awesomeness. Social studies teacher Mrs. Godfrey, the “Kaiju monster” herself, seems to take active pleasure in racking up as many detentions for Nate as possible. His sister, Ellen, feels no shame in expressing her disdain for him at every turn.
There’s even…himself? Yes, sometimes even the Big Nate himself can ruin his plans towards becoming awesome. After all, he’s not there yet.
But through misadventure after misadventure, he’ll claw his way up to that coveted destiny of his.
Big Nate is based on the book series of the same name–which itself is based on a comic strip by Lincoln Pierce. Each follows the same subject: Nate Wright, a sixth-grade boy with a rebellious streak. In the show, he’s joined by his friends, Francis, Chad, Teddy and Dee Dee, all of whom help him navigate through the obstacles and trials that fall into his lap—often as a result of his own misdeeds.
Nate desires to be awesome, but his self-righteous attitude often gets in the way of that goal. He pulls pranks that often land him in detention, but his vanity tends to put the blame for the consequences on those around him instead. Surely, the reason why he got that detention was because Mrs. Godfrey is a maniacal monster and not because he stood on his chair and disrupted class.
And that’s perhaps what makes it so difficult to root for Nate: He doesn’t learn anything from many of his selfish actions, and he rarely faces true punishment for them either.
In one episode, Nate’s father allows him to spend up to $50 on his credit card for his birthday, but Nate purposefully misinterprets this to mean “per purchase.” Later, it is Ellen who saves the day by discovering one of Nate’s presents can pay off the massive debt Nate has piled onto the card—and Nate still attempts to keep the extra money left over from selling the gift under the rationale that it was his gift.
This inability to see himself as in the wrong pervades Nate’s entire personality. He self-describes as a celebrity to his friends, and he is convinced that the other students are huge fans. These thoughts provide a striking dissonance to the actual feelings of others. In one instance, Nate is covered in a horrid and foul-smelling concoction of gross-looking food—so gross that it causes everyone Nate passes by to drop to their knees in nausea. But all Nate notices is how everyone is looking at him as a wonderful hero, and he leaves the school satisfied with how successful a day it was for his reputation.
And perhaps that’s the best way to approach this show. We must remember that the story is being told by a self-absorbed protagonist who actively sees the world in a much different way than it really is—and we’re just being taken along for the fantastical ride.
The world Nate reveals to us contains a lot of potty humor, parents who treat their child like a dog, a depressed divorced father whose failures are often used as the punchline of the joke and more. Nate’s friend Teddy inappropriately uses God’s name in Spanish, LGBT characters (including Nate’s friend, Dee Dee) appear and there are jokes made about Cthulhu and urine icicles. And yes, Nate’s best friend’s name, Francis Butthurst Pope, is indeed a reference to Pope Francis. Why? Beats me.
When Nate’s grandparents arrive unexpectedly announcing that they’ve found a treasure map, his whole family decides to chase after it. But when his friends find out, they try to stop Nate since the treasure is rumored to be cursed.
It seems the curse might actually be real. During the quest, a storm hits Nate’s family that only affects their ship. Later, Nate’s dad is entranced by a siren—which turns out to be waste from a toxic spill. And finally, their boat is swallowed by a large whale.
Nate’s grandparents are disrespectful to his dad, Martin. They lie to him and make it clear that he isn’t their favorite son. We hear stories about how they stole from their son in “get-rich-quick schemes.” Nate’s grandmother discourages his sister from doing well in school. They also set a bad example for Nate, encouraging his mischievous behaviors (such as lying and pranking).
We hear that Nate’s mom left his dad for another man, and despite being rich, she does nothing to support her children (or even acknowledge their existence). A woman stuffs food into her bra to make her chest look bigger as a joke.
Nate’s sister smacks him on the head with a book. Several people smash up items in a home because they plan to buy new things. A girl whacks a shark with an oar. A crew fends off radioactive creatures at a chemical spill. (And another crew takes a moment of silence for the sea creatures affected negatively by the chemicals.)
Characters belch, spit and vomit offscreen. A man pranks people using a prosthetic finger. Someone accidentally swallows a bug. A boy says he hasn’t bathed in 40 days and also worries he might be “in heat.”
We hear the terms “dagnabbit” and “holy mackerel.” Nate calls his sister ugly.
Martin saves his kids from drowning.
With Nate on the verge of receiving his fifth detention in one week and being “gunted” from school, he takes on the role of showing the new kid, Bentley Carter, around to earn a favor from Principal Nichols. However, Bentley may be a bigger troublemaker than Nate ever considered.
Nate calls Mrs. Godfrey, his social studies teacher, the Devil. In a title sequence, Nate talks about stealing the teacher’s teeth and bailing on a test. Nate is beaten up by older students offscreen. When Bentley whips Coach John’s behind with a wet towel, Nate blames it on another student. Nate calls Mrs. Godfrey a “Kaiju monster” and Principal Nichols a princess, the latter of which Nate draws in a dress that Nate says “actually looks pretty good on him.”
Nate is covered in “vegetarian surprise,” and his friend Francis says it smells like “burnt cabbage lathered in diaper sauce.” A few times, we see Bentley rub snot out of his nose, covering his hand with it in the process.
Bentley performs a number of cruel or dangerous pranks, including stealing Principal Nichols’ underwear and wallet, taking another student’s crutches and stabbing a basketball with a plastic fork until it pops. He also mentions that he’s going to release biting “murder crickets” in the lunch line after commenting that he already tore off their wings. Additionally, he throws a burrito at a teacher, and he blames it on another student. Bentley explains that what makes pranks fun is the pain they inflict. Bentley pulls a mace and a saw out of his locker, and he attempts to cover Principal Nichols in vegetarian surprise at a school pep rally. He is later taken away by authorities for forging documents, and it is revealed that he is criminally insane.
Principal Nichols says that the only time there are more rats in the school than students is “during mating season.” After Bentley hugs Nate upon meeting him, Principal Nichols says he’s “sensing a love connection.” Nichols also shaves off a student’s hair with his reckless flying of his drone, and the drone explodes after running into a wall. He then throws the controller, hitting another teacher in the chest. He later knocks out school legend Brad Gunter with another drone.
Brad Gunter is said to have performed a prank which sent six students to the hospital, but all of them agreed that it was worth it. Brad speaks to Nate from a bathroom stall, telling him that the Mayans called him “Babajide el Embaucador” (Babajide the Trickster), the Romans called him “Augustus Qui Decipitur” (roughly Augustus the Deceiver) and the students at P.S. 38 call him Brad Gunter. Brad says that he is a legend, and “legends get to come and go as they please.” When Nate opens the stall to confront him, Brad has vanished.
A student carves on his desk. Nate’s friend Dee Dee calls trail mix a “snack for hippies.” Ceramic angels play trumpets around a bag of trail mix, and one of the angels is eaten by a puffin. Nate’s friends break into Principal Nichols’ office to look at Bentley’s transcript. School staff members are run over by a 40-pound ball of chewed gum.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
Creativity abounds here, but those artistic measures can’t blur the obvious issues that families are sure to discover.
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