It’s kind of strange that the day after I gave Athena the images to put this profile up, I noticed that the show was on every day on television in my country. Oh well, you live and learn.

Anyway.

I like this series, it’s got a distinctive favor, an identity (in this case Canadian), is well written, thankfully looks like nothing else on the air and is generally good fun. Another aspect I like about the show is the way in which it integrates its homeland into itself. This seem to be the atypical way of creating most animation (mostly so the makers can sell it overseas easier), but this series is proud to be Canadian and well, good for it. In the past this hasn’t been bad for series, to revel in their motherland’s eccentricities, I mean, would Danger Mouse have been as iconic a British series without being so proudly British as it was? Maybe, but the sense of identity helped, as it does with Jacob.

Flights of fancy are a great section of the human psyche for an animated series to get its teeth into, and though many of them have tried and failed to use this as a basis for their stories, Jacob manages to holds its own with some well written stories centered around a group of well developed characters. Jacob is a bright, optimistic kid, who has to deal with both being the ignored middle kid of the family but also the sadistic-and-proud-of-it Principal Greedyguts, who is always coming up with loony, generally immoral and at times possibly illegal schemes to save money and/or make other peoples lives miserable, usually with the help of the school janitor as well as Jacob’s own teacher.

The animation is done in flash, some might say a spot on the face of modern TV animation; but it has a strong enough visual design to forgo the limitations that one might usually expect from this medium (actually, quite a bit of made-for-TV flash is quite well animated). In fact in terms of looks it’s a breath of fresh air in a world of similar looking product. Much of the look has to do with the original books that it's based on of course. It also helps that it is smoothly animation. The writing is strong and entertaining, with some well realized characters and a great lead to work with, and while the show isn’t really laugh out funny, at least not to me, but it definitely has its charms and is definitely worth a look.

A cool show! I love it, and it is one of the only shows I tape. The style of animation...not exactly mine, but to make up for it, Buford is hilarious! Renee is pretty cool. I love this show!!! It is a must-see. Unfortunately, its only on on Saturdays here...

...Nooooooooooo!