Camp Camp has garnered quite the cult following from Rooster Teeth fans. Unfortunately, I cannot side with them as this show left a rather lame taste in my mouth when I first saw it a few years ago. Having watched more episodes, I can confidently say this Camp Camp is yet another "adult" cartoons. Those who know me know my resentment for these types of cartoons, so let's dive into how Camp Camp fails It's own premise.
Set in the titular Camp Campbell, the show follows the misadventures of it's campers and their camp councilors. Rather than dedicating the time to showing how great camping is and how getting to bond with fellow campers, the showrunners instead focus on humiliating David for being an optimist while everyone else acts like the one dimensional archetypes they're assigned to. Each episode is intent on shocking the viewer with all the hallmarks of the standard "adult" cartoon clichés: blood, gore, sex, swearing, alcohol and drug uses, all the will never adding anything to the plot. What really sinks the writing though is it's just not funny. None of the jokes they make land as they're all easily predictable and the payoff just isn't worth the set up. I saw Nurf stabbing David after a heart to heart chat a mile a way, and I knew there was gonna be a sex dungeon at the end of Journey To Spooky Island (I mean, given the nature of the show, what else could it have been). See this is the type of writing that I hate seeing in cartoons, especially the ones that are supposed to be for adults. It makes me feel like the creators only wanted to get into animation just so they can make cartoon characters that swear and do other obscene things without parents getting riled up about it because "hey, it's not for kids so they won't be tramutized." I hope that's not the case, but this show's writing is evidence that it just might be.
The characters aren't much better as just about everyone in this show has it in for David. David is, by default, the most likable character in the show. He's still as one note as everyone else, but he tries to stay optimistic and he tries finding positive solutions to dire situations. The least likable character by contrast is Max, who for some reason is the main character of the show and not the villain. He's rude, selfish, cynical, and because David's too nice to punish him, he always gets away with causing trouble. His lackies (I refuse to call them his friends -.-) aren't much better in terms of personality. Nikki is a wild child who could've been enjoyable, but she never once gets a laugh out of me because her jokes and antics are predictable and the delivery isn't over-the-top enough. Neil is a science nerd who wanted to go to science camp, but instead he's stuck here and is meant to be the more logical one. Nurf is a bully, Dolph is the German kid, Harrison is the magician, Gwen is the cynical council and the Quarter Master is a creepy old man with a hook. With a cast of characters like this, I'd want to transfer David to somewhere that doesn't stress him out all the time and potentially somewhere where he can develop more as a character.
The voice acting is pretty solid all things considered, but some actors don't work as well as others. Elizabeth Maxwell was okay as Nikki, but she could've been a lot more energetic and make her character sound like an actual crazy kid who means well. Michael Jones was...not good as Max. He sounded dull and unenthusiactic which only makes me like the character less. Yuri Lowenthal though was really good as Neil, making him sound like a reasonable kid who got jipped and tries to be the voice of reason. Miles Luna sounded perfectly chipper as David and his squeals were on point (if they were more properly used I'd actually find them funny). Lee Eddy was fine as Gwen, though she could've exerted more personality into the role (i.e. More sass and perhaps a tough tone). It was a nice treat to hear Dante Bascoe as Billy "Snake" Niksslip and he did a good job giving the character a more gruff voice. All of the other actors were fine, but because of the little material they were given to work with, they don't shine as much as they could've.
Visually the show looks pretty good for a webcartoon. The character designs have appealing and expressive faces, their hairstyles are all distinct and their clothes reflect their personalities. The character animation is fairly natural with the characters having unique walks and their hair flicks up when they movie their heads. Still though, the backgrounds are very well detailed and this is a luscious forest the camp resides in.
Camp Camp is just another "adult" cartoon, only instead of being on network television it's on a channel with over 9 million subscribers (as of this review). Despite some solid voice acting and pretty good animation, the show still suffers from the same things every "adult" cartoon suffers from. Bad writing, unlikable characters, unfunny jokes, and lame uses of obscene content intended to shock the viewer. There are tons of really good webcartoons out there that are much more worth your time than Camp Camp. Better off watching those instead of this lousy cartoon -.-
