In a post-apocalyptic Dimsdale, 20 years into the future, Chester and AJ are fleeing from a mysterious man in a black suit that covers his entire body, including his face. They fight the other guy until they enter AJ’s room/lab from his childhood, where they are captured. The dictator, Vicky, shows up, and the man in the black suit goes back in time, using his chastity belt.
The scene switches to modern-day Dimsdale, where Vicky cackles and gets ready to babysit Timmy and make his life miserable, as always. But her goal is to make the whole world suffer some day.
After she leaves, the TV is on, and reporter, Chet Ubetcha, discusses children imitating violent television programs. He concludes that he hopes that no child would imitate a character attacking civilians with a special airship—only for Timmy to do it with his fairy godparents, Cosmo and Wanda’s, help.
But when Timmy almost hits an airplane, he wishes for a special bubble to keep him secured inside and to land safely—only for it to destroy his dad’s office and a house his mom was just about to sell.
Timmy lands in front of his parents, and the bubble pops. He gets into deep trouble and is grounded for imitating the TV show, “Maho Mushi,” which is where the airship and bubble he traveled in originally came from.
Vicky arrives to babysit Timmy and ensure that he won’t watch any television while his parents are out. But he reveals that she’s evil. After Mr. and Mrs. Turner leave, Vicky chases Timmy to his room with a flame weapon.
Then Cosmo and Wanda stop Timmy from trying to watch TV because his parents told him not to—which prompts him with the idea of going into television so that he’s technically not disobeying them. Cosmo and Wanda create a special remote for him to go into the different networks. But mayhem occurs while he’s on TV, such as Vicky destroying and vandalizing things, and then blaming Timmy for them.
After he returns, Vicky reveals to his parents that he broke his punishment. His mom confiscates the remote that Cosmo and Wanda had conjured for him, and gives it to Vicky. He convinces them that everything that had been damaged and tampered with was done by Vicky—but they won’t believe him.
Furious, Timmy wishes for another remote that will take him into the TV, and he’ll never want to return to the real world. He even leaves a note for his parents about it.
He, Cosmo, and Wanda, go through multiple channels with different shows—except that the guy in the black suit goes after him. Timmy tries to fight back at him and sees him as a villain. But he reveals that he’s the good guy…and an adult version of Timmy.
Timmy is shocked and declares that he’s not supposed to get older. Adult Timmy reveals why he went back in time and that he has to ensure that Vicky doesn’t get the remote, which is what prompted her to become a world dictator in the future. But Vicky arrives and goes after both child and adult Timmy, Cosmo, and Wanda. It’s only a matter of time before they can stop Vicky from accessing the remote to become a dictator.
My thoughts
This is probably the biggest, and likely the only “Fairly OddParents” TV special that I can relate to. One of the major morals is to never imitate television—especially those that would lead to negative consequences in real life.
Of course, there are exceptions, like lessons that characters learn. There are also times when TV (and streaming) shows and movies set good examples. Those might be okay to use or perform in real life.
There will be no spoilers here. But as Timmy gets to know his adult self, he learns more about the positives of growing up. So, that’s another essential moral—although these days, kids are “growing up” faster than ever since their tastes, especially in entertainment, mature much quicker than those born in the 90s, like me. Even people born in the early 2000s didn’t have that experience. Many of you probably know what I’m talking about.
I saw “Channel Chasers” on TV when it was first released in 2004. All the TV shows Timmy and co. go through are parodies of existing ones. Examples include:
- “Heavy Hal” inspired by “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids”
- “The Meat Flints” inspired by “The Flintstones”
- “Carpet Critters” inspired by “Rugrats”
Years later, I found those unsatisfactory, since I felt that it made the creators sound lazy and not willing to come up with more original ideas. However, they may have done this to communicate the morals of the story.
My Favorite Parts
But, as every TV and streaming show should, “Channel Chasers” remains within the tone of the premise. Nothing becomes too dark at times (the most being when adult Timmy discusses the scary future he’d lived through and came back into the present of this special) or too cute (the most being when adult Timmy, whose identity still remains unknown since he has a mask over his whole head, into the “Strawberry Shortcake” show parody). But I have to admit that I enjoyed that scene.
The girl’s name is Paula Pound Cake, and she has a toasted tart dog named, “Pop tart.” She eats his nose, and his smile becomes a frown. I love when Paula tries to eat Adult Timmy’s arm, curious to see if he was made of licorice, and when he attempts to get back at them, they are not scared.
Other funny moments include when Vicky bangs on Timmy’s door while Timmy is on TV, and Cosmo, resembling Timmy, except for the eyes and voice (as per what Wanda felt was necessary), takes off his clothes and says, “Don’t come in. I’m naked” after he “admitted disobeying his parents demand to not watching TV.”
I also admired the idea of turning a boring show, where everyone speaks in a dull tone (which would have never been greenlit in real life), called “Politically Inaccurate” into a wrestling show. But Vicky, who now has Timmy’s original magic remote after his mom confiscated it and gave it to her, cares more about a show with violence than without it. So, she unintentionally turns “Politically Inaccurate” into “Politically Inaccurate Showdown,” a wrestling version of the show. Not only was that more exciting, but I also considered it a great way to think outside the box.
After that is a show where a contestant would spin a wheel to win 1 million dollars. The contestant, named Jerry, also has his age displayed, which is 32 (yet I found that to be unnecessary). But Vicky wants to take his place, which changes the age on the podium to 16, though keeps the name, Jerry, for some reason.
As the host tries to hand her the money, he learns that Vicky (or whom he thinks is Jerry) is 16, and tells her that people have to be 18 to play. Disappointed, Vicky presses a button on the remote, which ages her two years. Now “18,” Vicky gets the money, and reveals that her plan is to dominate the world.
The strange parts
There are also some moments that I found odd. One is Mr. Turner’s office being called, “Dad’s,” especially since he shares it with Dinkleberg, his next-door neighbor and archnemesis, and is not a boss or manager since he is almost given an award for having the cleanest office.
Another is when cops flash and sound sirens while adult Timmy is in an alley, and hides, worried that he’ll be caught—except that the police officers are just having a time for coffee and doughnuts.
A majorly weird event in the special is that there’s a channel where they have dictator week, where it teaches people how to become dictators—something that would also never be allowed to air on television.
Additionally, there is a time when Timmy wants to know when he’ll become too old to have fairies, thus lose Cosmo and Wanda, and forget them. He starts with ages 11 and 12, but then skips to 15, despite pressing that same button once.
And this was long before the conspiracy theory of Danny Phantom and Timmy Turner being the same person. That is where Timmy wished to never turn 13, so he becomes 14 instead, and that many of the other characters in “FOP” becomes ones in “Danny Phantom.” For example, Timmy’s friend, AJ, would become Tucker, Danny’s friend.
Although it’s far more creative than many other conspiracy theories about different cartoons, which are often the characters’ dreams or imaginations, this theory is not true. I even read online that Sam, another friend of Danny’s from “Danny Phantom” mentioned something that happened when they were in the 8th grade.
Also, “Danny Phantom” had only been out for a few months prior to “Channel Chasers.” Maybe the skipping of ages 13 and 14 was just a glitch in the remote. Who knows?
What I disliked
Many of the displeasing moments were the kinds that made me give myself facepalms. One of them is when Timmy is on a racecar show, and the man in charge keeps telling him that he’s too young to participate since it’s too dangerous, in a weird way of speaking, followed by a “ooh, ah, oh!” or something similar. Timmy does the same thing, but opposing the other guy’s demand.
Another part that made me lose patience was when Timmy and co. were in a “Tom and Jerry”-like show. They were mice, and Vicky was a cat, behaving like Tom, who tries to hurt Jerry all the time, but Jerry gets back at him, which is what happens in the actual “Tom and Jerry” show.
Cosmo and Wanda constantly talk about cartoons from the 40s versus the 2000s, and what audiences saw then, but not now. As much as I appreciate it when characters break the 4th wall (like when they talk directly to the audience), I felt that Cosmo and Wanda overdid it.
The biggest bug of all was the high number of defecation jokes. There is a minor one, when Timmy is on “Heavy Hal,” and he gets to play music along with the other kids—but a random boy, not part of Heavy Hal’s gang, points at him, laughs, and says, “You’re playing the pooper scooper,” which grosses Timmy out. That is the exception of a defecation joke that pleases me. But the rest of them are too much.
There is one defecation joke that crosses the line for me the most. That is when Timmy and co. enter a “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” show, resembling the one from the 60’s. As Comet, an adult reindeer who leads the younger reindeer as they fly, they also do number 2, and Cosmo holds up an umbrella. That grosses me out so much that I cover it up.
What I found unbelievable
When Mr. and Mrs. Turner ask Timmy’s friends, Chester, AJ, and Vicky’s parents for proof that she is evil, AJ and Vicky’s parents deny that while shaking in fear. Yet that didn’t make Mr. or Mrs. Turner believe that Vicky was malicious.
But Chester yells at AJ and tries to tell Mr. and Mrs. Turner that Vicky is evil—but he gets electrocuted each time. I found that unbelievable, even in a cartoon.
Eventually, Mr. and Mrs. Turner receive a note to learn the truth about Vicky, the sender is someone named, “Deep Toot.” That makes Mr. Turner laugh.
It glossed over my head when I was a child—but now I understand why it made Mr. Turner giggle. He must’ve seen that as a fart joke.
Overall
More twists and turns occur, which include happy, sad, and bizarre ones. Even though this is before todays’ kids’ times (they’re probably more interested in the live-action reboot, “Fairly Odder”), I would still recommend this to everyone, including those who did not grow up with “The Fairly OddParents,” nor were parents of kids who watched it in the 2000s.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this series, it first aired in 2001 and ended in 2017. I’d suggest that you watch it to understand this special. Maybe some of you who enjoy “Fairly Odder” may be willing to check this cartoon out. You may enjoy it.
Despite some of the flaws, I still enjoyed “Channel Chasers.” I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars.