Fillmore! (2002–2004)
Great fun
10 June 2004
Disney have built a reputation of making good cartoons, ever since Steamboat Willy, via the Jungle Book and then to the Lion King. But it's the TV cartoon series at which they excel: Recess, Lloyd in Space, Dave the Barbarian, Kim Possible, House of Mouse...all made in recent years. Fillmore deserves to be in the same list.

As a wonderful satire on hard boiled detective series, with the "government" (in this case, the principal) constantly threatening budget cuts if crimes aren't solved, this is great fun. The interesting thing is that Fillmore takes more after Agatha Christie than Law & Order - it's a show of twists and turns, with the least obvious suspect turning out, at the very end, to be the one behind the model train crash or whatever.

Due to time constraints - 20 rather than 45 minutes, for instance - it can't go into the same detail on either the cases or the supporting detectives. But the writers do an admirable job of having an interesting support cast: Officer O'Farrell, Jr Commissioner Vallejo and Principal Folsom are all fun little sketches of characters, though Tahama and Anza are pretty much Kirk's redshirts.

As for the leads, both are perfectly usable and are given some great lines. The voice acting is excellent from everybody, and this truly deserves a long run.
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