Katie and Orbie

Katie and Orbie was such a warm, soft tender show.

It wasn't your usual animated show. It was more of a picture show with narrations.

It's just about a girl and an alien doing things for 10 minutes an episode. The narrator had this deep, warm voice that made the show special.

Out of respect I would fall asleep to it sometimes but i do remember it.

Katie and Orbie was just a sweet innocent show us 90's kids enjoyed. I love the theme song. Its very catchy and just a good song.

Verdict: Its a good show to fall asleep to.

On a purely technical level, Katie and Orbie is one of the worst cartoons of all time. To call it limited animation would be too kind. To call this show an "animated" series would be an insult to the very concept of animation. It is, quite literally, a slideshow. I've seen better animation from...

• Filmation
• The Ctrl Alt Del cartoon
• Hammerman
• Video Briquendo and Dingo Pictures
• Paddy the Pelican
• Clutch Cargo (which notably used REAL HUMAN LIPS for any and all speech)
• An average PowerPoint presentation

And to think this came out in the 90s. Smack dab in the middle of the Animation Renaissance. Long after the days of farming out limited animation for pennies on the dollar, after what I thought was the advent of quality control on television.

Yep. You heard me right, television. And on TWO networks here in the U. S. of A. And one of them was the Disney Channel! You'd assume the mere thought of airing this... THING on the channel would make Walt Disney himself rise from the grave and curse the one who entertained such an idea!

Canada gets a bad rep when it comes to animation, and usually I'm pretty lenient on them. But even I have my limits. Say what you will about George of the Jungle, Angela Anaconda, or Johnny Test, but this is INFINITELY worse than anything Teletoon could put out. In fact, given how Teletoon was initially made to push Canadian animation, I wouldn't be surprised if whoever founded the network did so because they caught a rerun of Katie and Orbie on TV and vowed "no more".

I'm sure the writing is harmless, and the general art style is cute, and the Intro... is longer than that of your average anime, but I just can't get past that animation.

How did we as a society let things get this bad?

Some seem to think Katie and Orbie is a failure as an animation, but they're missing the point. The show was created as an animated storybook based on Katie and Orbie Save the Planet by Ben Wicks not a cartoon.

The slower pace while jarring compared to modern animation comes from a time when parents were still concerned about developing a short attention span in young children from cartoons.

The show is like a TV picture book you could play instead of story time. Young infants haven't developed a preference for fast paced shows at that age and can appreciate the storybook medium if that's the type of entertainment they're used to.

Growing up television was a rare privilege and shows like Katie and Orbie fit that culture of healthy moderation (e.g., Rainy Day Zombies episode) that appealed to stricter parents.

For a show from the 90's there is a solid amount of cultural representation and diversity with characters e.g., Micah who has down syndrome. The show is all about teaching children who to accept others and be a good person.

As a kid I always appreciated how Orbie (an alien) despite being clearly different was implicitly accepted by those around him with open arms.

The narration done by the late Leslie Neilson is the shows highlight. The pacing and relaxing narration make this the perfect show to watch before going to bed (or early in the morning as I watched it as a kid).

While completely different from Neilson's other work he does a great job storytelling in a way that appeals to young children.

As a kid the stories always felt relatable. It may seem mundane for adults, but Neilson's lessons and words of encouragement helped me immensely as I navigated the same types of adventures as Katie and Orbie.

While it might not appeal to most children today. If you're a parent looking for quality programming for your children I recommend seeing if they enjoy this style of show.

One of the best children shows I've watch on my local PBS station as a little kid along with my sister and parents, and still one of the best since this is kinda like the kid version of Alf.