Harvey Beaks is a brightly colored cartoon series about a little bird who's a rule follower, and aspires to be a rule breaker. He chafes against being seen as a good egg (pun intended), even though breaking the rules gets him into all sorts of trouble. Although he and everyone else who live in the magical forest are animals or imaginative creatures, all of the characters have personalities that real kids have, which makes them very relateable.

Characters

The main character, Harvey (played by Max Charles, who played Michael in Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas), gets a kick out of making his world a nice, neat and orderly place, but behind his innocence burns an adventurous, yet thoughtful spirit. He is not a kid who can easily break rules, so in order to get the most out of life, he re-writes them in his own earnest way. Where Harvey leads, his best friends, Fee and Foo always follow. Fee and Foo’s wild nature inspire him to take bigger risks. With friends like these, Harvey might get into more trouble, but he will also have more fun.

Fee (played by Angelina Wahler, who plays Deema on Bubble Guppies) is a kid who sinks her pointy teeth into childhood. I can easily see lots of girls wanting to be Fee. She’s fiercely loyal, confident and dirty. Since she’s never had anyone to tell her what to do, she does exactly what she wants. As much as Harvey follows rules, Fee follows her heart. She’s rough and tumble and driven by what seems fun and interesting in the moment.

Like her hair, she’s completely untamed and wild, willing to risk everything for her friends or her beliefs.

Foo (played by Jackson Brundage, who played Joe Hobbs on See Dad Run) is like a puppy. He likes sticks, eating bugs, running and chewing on things. Foo is the most impulsive of the three friends. He can be totally energized one minute and fast asleep the next. Foo considers Harvey his very best friend and Harvey feels the same, which is nice because Harvey can teach Foo about taking baths and wearing pants. He has a pure heart and, if he had sleeves, he would wear it on them.

My Two Cents

I had hoped that Harvey Beaks would be as appealing to adults as SpongeBob SquarePants or The Amazing World of Gumball, which are cartoons that work for all ages. But Harvey Beaks is definitely aimed at young school-aged children. There are times that the characters' behavior and jokes are funny, but the situations and the pace of Harvey Beaks is meant to entertain someone much younger than I am. However, children will be very entertained, because every kid watching Harvey Beaks will see himself or herself in one of the characters. Like I said above, they are all relateable characters.

Please don't misunderstand me. Just because this is a cartoon for kids doesn't mean it's one of those cartoons that turns a kid's brain to mush. (I'm looking at you, Uncle Grandpa.) The dialogue is witty, and what the kids go through is very grounded in reality.

The plots are very imaginative. For instance, in "Pe-Choo!" (you have to watch the episode to know how to pronounce that title), we find out that if you abuse the "Press for Help" button, an underwater monster will eject you from the lake. My favorite part of the episodes that I screened was in "A Tail of les Squirrels." Having a squirrel family speak with a French accent just tickled me.

Creator

C.H. Greenblatt is the creator and executive producer. Greenblatt began his career in television as an advertising art director for TV commercials. Previously he created and executive produced Chowder at Cartoon Network. He has worked as a storyboard artist and writer on Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants and on Cartoon Network's The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. He also directed his own version of the character Deadman for DC Nation shorts.

I love what Greenblatt had to say in a press release about 2D animation, "People will always want to watch stories. But I think the way we deliver the content is changing. People now expect to be able to watch what they want when they want. That's exciting to me.  As far as 2-D animation, I think that will always be around in some form. Simple, appealing drawings always have a way of connecting with people." I couldn't agree more.

Premiere

On Sunday, March 29, at 7:00p.m. (ET/PT), the series will launch in its regular timeslot on Nickelodeon with “The Spitting Tree.” Spitting from the highest tree in Littlebark is fun until the kids realize they can’t get back down.  An encore of “Pe-Choo!” will immediately follow.

For fun, go to the Harvey Beaks page on Nick.com and take the quiz "Which Character Are You?”. (I'm Harvey, apparently.)