tek's rating: ½

Dave the Barbarian, on Disney Channel
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This is a show that, when it was on, I watched sporadically. I definitely enjoyed it, but I don't think that I thought that highly of its quality. But in retrospect, I definitely think it was pretty clever, and maybe I thought more highly of it at the time than I remember. I dunno. Anyway, it was really funny, in a totally random, silly way. There was a narrator, who sometimes talked to the characters he was telling stories about, I guess. But the main characters were this teenaged barbarian named Dave, his older teenaged sister Candy, their little sister Fang, and their uncle Oswidge. They all lived in a kingdom called Udrogoth, of which their parents, Throktar and Glimia, were king and queen. But since they were always away fighting evil, Princess Candy was left in charge. But she wasn't interested in ruling a kingdom, she was just interested in sort of stereotypical teenage girl stuff, like shopping and whatnot. Anyway, Dave was pretty strong, but not interested in fighting, if he could avoid it. His interests were more... cultured, I guess. On the other hand, Fang was very interested in fighting, and wished her big brother would act more like a barbarian. As for Uncle Oswidge, he was a sorcerer, but not a very good one. Kind of kooky. I should also mention that Dave had a very small pet dragon named Faffy, and a talking (actually mostly nagging) sword named Lula (voiced by Estelle Harris, best known as George's mom on Seinfeld). And there are various enemies against whom Dave and his family will have to defend Udrogoth, but the main recurring villain is the Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Piggy. And... there's really not much more to say. It was just basically this ridiculous, absurdist comedy that was like a parody of medieval adventures or whatever. It was just crazy and fun to watch. And to this day, I can't see a "Ped Xing" sign without thinking of this show.


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