As Told by Ginger

This is a great show. The characters are written very realistically and are given more complexity than your average cartoons. It follows a young girl who is not very popular nor an outcast through junior high. Ginger is a lot closer to your average pre-teen girl than most characters in live action movies. She is smart, thoughtful and awkward. Her best friends Dodie and Marcie are real treats too. They possess all of the sweet yet annoying traits that best friends are supposed to have in junior high.

Even most of the popular kids are well thought out. Though Miranda is a typical mean, rich kid, the most popular girl in school, Courtney has her moments of kindness and gets along well with the not so popular kids. Another real treat is Ginger's family. Her single working mom's a great wide eyed adult who always knows how to deal with her kids. And her brother Carl is always getting into trouble with his best friend, Hoodsie while executing some hysterically bizarre scheme.

This is a great show! Check it out if you like smart toons!

Granted, a series about a girl and her friends in Jr High isn't the most original thing but As Told By Ginger gives a remarkably fresh spin on it.

It revolves around the dead common girl Ginger Foutley, whose only remarkable trait is a love for writing and literature, and her friends and family. The story lines are based on notes in her dairy. They are short, anecdotal but with often with a tricky twist in it. Characters are recognizable, well rounded out and come almost all with a darker side. Themes are regular stuff like peer pressure, friendship and boyfriends, but also things like divorce, depression and backstabbing. The red wire however is coping with change and matching old regular habits with exiting new stuff. The animation is a darker and more detailed version of what producers Klasky-Csupo usually produce. Things like composition and 'camera movements' are well thought out and clearly influenced by live-action shows.

It's a series you'll love or hate. Either you think of it as over-the-top preteen chatter or you'll take the time to sit down and watch a few eps as there's much more to see. And anyone over 18 will probably be drawn in mostly be the often-present melancholic sub-tone. One of the best Nicktoons, sit back and enjoy.

While this show cannot compare to classics such as Rocko's Modern life or Ren & Stimpy, it is one of the best Nicktoons made in a while. It is one of those shows that captures your interest yet you can't explain why. Sadly, the Kid's network I grew up with is not the same as it once was, and there is little that todays kids will get to enjoy like I grew up with. However, compared to mediocre Catdog and plain awful Wild Thornberries, it is spectacular. As Told By Ginger is a small shimmer of hope in Nickelodeons future, which over the years has faded to black. One of the few good modern Nicktoons, hopefully it will fare better than the greats did.

I'm kinda sad this show didn't get as much attention as it should have. Not only was it very unique in that it wasn't like all the other Nicktoons, but it was also very endearing and down-to-earth. The comedy may not have been the highlight, but it was definitely on point. As Told By Ginger would definitely have been a classic if it had been given more attention, but then again, it will still be known critically as one of Nickelodeon's best works. It was Emmy- nominated THREE TIMES alongside shows such as Futurama, King of the Hill, The Simpsons, and South Park!! (That's how good this show was!) And as I've said before, the show was truly one of its own: an animated drama, something unheard of. It broke the boundaries of what usually would be able to go on kids' TV. And usually, I'm not too fond of drama series, but this show was definitely engaging in that it dealt very well with real-life problems. But one thing about the show that can be noted is that it completely did away with the "daily wardrobe" trope. Another problem, however, was that I was too young to remember anything from the show. I'm reviewing this from having re-watched episodes of the show recently. Still, As Told by Ginger will forever be known as Nickelodeon's most underrated cartoon.

I remarked before about a thread on the Rocko's Modern Life boards, and being shocked about Avatar: The Last Airbender being on there, well this is another show that was on a lot of people's worst lists. To me, As Told By Ginger is not that bad, compared to ChalkZone and Rocket Power, the only animated shows on Nick I well and truly dislike. As a matter of fact, I love how clever and original it is, As Told By Ginger does make the most of a brilliant concept.

The animation is great in general and has a somewhat unique style to it. I agree it was occasionally off, particularly with the mouth movements, but it was solid on the whole. The music is nice to the ears, the writing is clever and funny and the stories are sweet and well constructed. And I like the characters in general, they seem like stereotypes at first, but they do have some depth to them, especially the title character Ginger who is very smart yet awkward, and I like Dodie and Marcie.

And Carl is funny too, especially when he gets into trouble. Miranda is rather spoiled, which can be seen as stereotypical because there are kids who behave like that, but she is still pretty likable, and Courtney is really nice when she's kind. And what's wrong with morals? Nothing, and As Told By Ginger does teach some good morals. You may say this show is clichéd, but it is also different, I like different by the way.

All in all, I like this show. 8/10 Bethany Cox