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Anyway, on with the review...Adventures in Odyssey has always been part of my life since I was about seven or something. I have gotten used to the overall "style" of the show. Ya know, a comical episode here, a kids-slice-of-like episode there. But, when I heard this episode, I didn't know what to think. It was different. It was funny, but not necessarily comical. It was adventurous but not exactly on-the-edge-of-your-seat-I-can-hardly-breathe-in-fact-I'm-even-a-little-scared type scary. It was good in some respects, but not all. I know I'm confusing ya'll, I'm not really sure what to think about it. I'll try and explain it all to you over the next hundred paragraphs...
First, let's look at the positive side. To be truthful, there was quite a few more positive sides to this show than negative ones. It was incredibly childest-funny. There was lots of jokes, but many of them were more Saturday morning cartoon material. That actually wasn't too bad (what's wrong with the Disney stuff?). Though many of the jokes were more worldly than I'd like to hear from Odyssey, the lesson was also a huge plus (for once). Fear-a lesson that has been taken care of many a time on Odyssey, but never quite like this in such a fun way. Trent actually noted the lesson himself for once. There was even a memory verse at the end! Wow, this is really great stuff!
The imaginary journeys of Trent's were sometimes a little confusing, but never really lost me. Trent's once-grandfather's story was really funny. It reminded me a little of the excellent show A Single Vote. Wacky characters voices very similar to that show. I also seemed to enjoy Trent's imagining much better than Lawrence Hodges freakish imagines. I actually enjoyed Trent's amusing and realistic thoughts. It's really something that I enjoyed, for some weird reason.
Now, about the similarities to the episode Snow Day. The few similarities that there were to the show were only minor and were okay to me. In fact, I like Snow Day! Why not go against the crowd?
The sound effects and music were also really great aspects of the great show. The effects were so wonderful that it just left me longing for more. From the noices in the men's bathroom to the slow moving final moments in the classroom, there was no sound effects to look down on. They only improved! Fantastic, super, wonderful! If only every Odyssey show could have this good music.
And now to a more negative side of the show. I would like to quibble on and on about some of the bad things in the show, but there weren't many. The characters, though fairly new, were enjoyable, had chemistry and are just kids! It is always nice to hear another original kids-slice-of-life show, and by the new guy, Bob Hoose. This episode was truely enjoyable!
Edit: 5/9/04-I deleted half a star. After three listens, Called On in Class seem to get a tad stale. But, it is still a lasting show, for now, at least.
Edit: 2/24/05-I removed a star to my rating (it was originally 4 1/2 stars). It is just another AIO show, now. The humor is not really very well put together and the lesson is quite childish. I am finding that the writings of Bob Hoose aren't holding up very well to the test of time.