Animation
Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld
Netflix’s Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld isn’t your typical fantasy-horror blend, with a mix of Chinese mythology, Daoism and a whole lotta violence.
Pete doesn’t say much. But through his eyes and his shrugs and his emotions characterized by short little acoustic guitar riffs, Pete interacts with his best friends: a grumpy toad, a French bulldog, a pop-star-wannabe cat and a hoarding squirrel.
With these friends and others, Pete lives it up in Cat City. He goes to school, throws parties and plays guitar in a band. When things don’t go their way, Pete and his friends figure out a solution, often through song.
A wise old hound dog (Pete’s guitar teacher) narrates each episode and shares the moral succinctly at the end of each story.
Most episodes (barring special holiday episodes) have two 12-minute stories. With catchy tunes, Pete and his friends learn that it is important to be your unique self, try new things, embrace optimism and live each day to its fullest.
Basically, Pete and his pals encourage young viewers to dive into life with a smile and don’t let anything get you down. For these characters, there’s always a solution. Thematically, Pete the Cat feels happy-go-lucky, focusing on overarching attitudes for life rather than specific issues.
That said, parents shouldn’t skip straight into this show with their own happy-go-lucky attitude. Sally the squirrel has two dads, and they get some short but rather flamboyant screentime in “A Very Groovy Christmas” and “Taking Care of Bobness & Sally Comes Clean.”
While Sally’s dads aren’t core to the theme of either episode, the characters treat it as a normal thing to have two dads, which might be confusing to some children who haven’t been appropriately introduced to LGBT issues. Not too groovy.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
It’s New Year’s Eve! And that means it’s time for a New Year’s party. As Pete passes out the invitations, he tries to learn from his friends what a New Year’s resolution is… and what his should be.
Pete’s friends all have very different definitions of a New Year’s resolution, but with his mom’s help, Pete realizes for himself what’s important: “You gotta find the thing that makes you happy and do that.”
When Pete announces his resolution is to make a band (which is, incidentally, the first time he talks in the episode), his friends quickly agree. Pete is surrounded by a supportive older brother, guitar teacher, friends and parents.
In one scene we hear Grumpy crash his bike (off camera) trying to do a trick. He walks back on screen and says, “ow, pain.”
According to the show, Valentine’s Day is about telling your friends you like things about them. The problem for Pete is that he doesn’t know what he has in common with his new friend Boo Borrow… and he would feel bad leaving Boo out of his Valentine’s Day song.
Pete isn’t the only one with problems, though. Sally, greedy to read all her valentines, doesn’t realize that there’s a hole in the bottom of her box, and she thinks she didn’t get any cards!
Pete realizes you don’t have to have anything in common with a new friend to like them, so he changes his song to talk about the differences between him and his friends.
For Sally, she realizes she doesn’t need cards to be liked by her friends (and as a bonus, Boo Borrow found the cards she dropped).
Pete’s older brother says that he loves the girl he’s going to give a gift to.
Sally yells angrily at her friends when she thinks they didn’t give her any valentines.
Caleb Gottry is the Plugged In intern for Summer 2024. Caleb studies journalism with a minor in music at Texas Christian University, where he will be a junior in the fall. He loves playing with words, listening to and making music, and spending any spare time with friends or family.
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