User blog:JohnVMaster/Total Drama World Tour: Final Review

TDWT Talk Page, August 4th, 2010

Wow, only a month ago, but it feels like months. That, my friends, is where I began the "Ezekiel in the Volcano" theory in response to people's claims at the time Alejandro would throw the money into the volcano on purpose. Now it's September 1st, and we're done - all of the episodes have leaked online from Australia, and we're only waiting on Canada and Cartoon Network's airing to declare the official winner.

Okay, gloating over. Now the real post. There's the review, a quick list of my favorites from this season, then there's TDWT's effects on TDU, which hopefully someone cares about lol

Review
Total Drama World Tour has ended it's twenty-six episode run, and I'm surprised in many ways. I enjoyed it - even though there were a hell of a lot of spoilers, it was fun and we still got plenty of surprises. We had some running gags ranging from horrendous and rather stupid (DJ's Animal Curse) to what was brilliant foreshadowing, had we not been spoiled (Ezekiel's cameos) - in addition, we had some plotlines also with incredible range from boring and pointless (The Love Triangle) to really sweet (Tyler and Lindsay). Certain plotlines, in my opinion - notably Noah and Owen's budding friendship, Owen and Izzy's near-breakup, Brainzilla herself and the Courtney-Alejandro relationship - seem fairly neglected.

The challenges this season range from awesome to meh: we get some pretty cool challenges in Jamaica. But nearly every location's first challenge is a race - which, while interesting, gets steadily boring once the merge creeps up on us. And as a result of splitting the challenges, a few neat ones, like the hotly anticipated Niagra Brawls challenge, seem to get almost shafted for the sake of it being a half-hour show. Not to mention, with all of the races, certain challenges seem just a bit improperly utilized - Australia, London, France and China are shining examples in that while we get a taste of the place, it still doesn't feel like the right place.

The songs are incredibly ranged - which is a good thing, in my opinion - the TDWT songwriters put a lot of work, I think, into giving each location a distinctive style about it. But the simplest of songs seem to stand out - Eine Kleine is a fan and personal favorite for it's very simplicity. We also got Sea Shanty Mix among other simple songs. More ambitious songs, such as This Is How We Will End It however, are very styled - which makes it a bit harder to come to a conclusion - if you don't like a certain style, the entire song seems ruined.

In addition to the Big Eleven who've been in all three seasons, we get quite a few underdogs returning - fan favorites Noah, Cody, Ezekiel and Tyler are all back for the third season and get some fair development. At the same time, a lot of the season's biggest hopefuls, like Bridgette and Harold go out early thanks to Alejandro, and while a shame, it lets the underdogs perform a bit longer - while Noah doesn't get much actual development, he gets some nice quips and an interesting yet stand-out elimination in I See London... while Ezekiel maintains a presence post-elimination, Tyler plays a big role in the love triangle and Cody makes it to the final three. I do consider it a shame Eva, Sadie and Katie sit out two seasons in a row though.

We also got some new contestants - Sierra, Alejandro and Blaineley. Alejandro is much like Justin in that a major power with him is his charm - he puts it to work on Bridgette, LeShawna, Courtney and Heather, and to a lesser degree Lindsay. But Alejandro has more up his sleeve - notably, he messes with Harold and DJ's minds. But the real thing that makes Alejandro so interesting among fans is his attraction to Heather. Personally I felt it was too much of a rehash of Justin, even though he was different.

Sierra and Cody felt more like a bad attempt at humor until the last couple of episodes. Most of the series has Sierra stalking Cody endlessly, or kissing him, or something else - as a result, Cody does VERY little as an independent character during the season, and his own participation is limited - he felt to me like only Sierra's chewtoy. His attraction to Gwen even has almost subsided, aside a few notable incidents. In the final episodes, they forge a friendship but the "You remembered my birthday?" thing was a little too cheesy for me - I was fine with the idea of them becoming friends, but it seemed too easy to go that path - I am glad they weren't paired off though.

Lastly, Blaineley, who's the only one of the newbies who doesn't have a big, dedicated fan base - ironically though, she's my favorite of the newbies. Most detractors don't seem to like her because she's older but I see no reason - Total Drama's art style doesn't make age really clear and while yes, Blaineley's age can be told and is pretty strongly implied on series, it's not as if she's too much older - she's in her early thirties or late twenties. I felt her two episodes underdeveloped her, but I guess they went with what the fans wanted - and they wanted her gone.

My biggest disappointments this season were chiefly Team Victory's treatment - the running gag was a fun idea, but by the time we were down to the Victory Twins, it was really tiring, and they could have thrown in a few Team Amazon and Chris eliminations to keep things fresh. Team Amazon's steak is also annoying - they are virtually unstoppable until over halfway through the season, while Team Victory and then Team Chris are hacked off quickly. Which brings me to my next disappointment...

...the Love Triangle, the reason Team Amazon stuck through. The writers kept Duncan out of the first half to give us a break, but when they brought him back he took over once more and while I liked the love triangle plot in Greece's Pieces and find Tyler's involvement both clever and funny, it quickly becomes annoying as people endlessly beat up on Gwen - Duncan seems to get almost no retribution from anyone, while Gwen is beaten up by the contestants as if she'd been planning it from the start. And suddenly, Team Amazon is expendable - the plot is the only reason they stuck through. It really makes me wish they'd have just done it in the beginning and eliminated Duncan right off.

Then of course, there's the Aftermaths - the first one was fun and gave us plenty of lines from our pals who didn't make into season three, but the second, third and fourth have little from anyone besides the hosts, Blaineley, and whoever was eliminated last. The second Aftermath was particularly boring, and the third had it's moments, particularly during the "Second Chance" challenge, but the challenge deserved more time really. The fourth Aftermath was much worse - mostly endless beating and ragging on Blaineley, some rather annoying jokes with Bridgette's new pet Bruno, and an interesting but wasted challenge to get an advantage for the final three - which ends up being pretty much useless in the final challenge.

Now the biggest surprises... while Ezekiel's cameos were a fun idea, using him for the plot in I See London... was a pretty clever idea and also gave us out final look at Ezekiel uncapped. Ezekiel's zombie look wasn't too bad for the one episode, and was explainable. But afterward, while the cameos remained fun, his zombie-like appearance grew annoying, and by African Lying Society with his missing hair and Gollum-like appearance, his new look and animalistic traits pretty much lose the essence of the Zeke. Still, his scene in Hawaiian Punch was pretty fun and gives Zeke an ironic ending, even if he'd been misused. His and Alejandro's survival is a mixed blessing - I'm glad both survived, especially given Al's Star Wars homage, but at the same time, it's impossible and just is a bit of a "final straw" of Total Drama losing the realism it seemed to hold during the first season, and parts of the second.

The other big surprise of the season was our likely yet somehow still unpredictable final four - with Duncan out of the way, we had our two newbies, Cody and Heather. Nobody'd expect the villainous Heather to make it this far in the competition, much less win, but then again, she'd have been out in The Am-AH-Zon Race if not for Chris' intervention. Cody was a huge fan favorite due to his devotion to Gwen and him making it this far isn't surprising, although I feel it's a shame he didn't go to the final two, but he got some great moments, even if his attraction to Gwen has almost subsided. Alejandro, being the main antagonist, was an obvious choice for the final four - yet him making it into the final two was a huge surprise. Sierra well, I at least expected her to go out early on, but it was clear within a few episodes she was here to stay a while.

The final surprise was simply how many loose ends were left... but with the recent revelations of thirteen campers returning for cameos in season four and as contestants again in season five, my guess is all lose ends will be tied up there, including the particularly discussed Gwen-Trent Relationship.

Overall, Total Drama World Tour was a great season and while greatly flawed, it was still fantastic and deserves a good three and a half out of five stars - it doesn't beat the first season, but can you ever beat the classics? We got a lot of subplots and ideas, the underdogs conquered, and all in all, if you ignore the spoilers, it had a lot of nice twists and turns.

Favorites
Favorite Songs: Come Fly With Us, Stuck to a Pole, Eine Kleine, Her Real Name Isn't Blaineley, Blainerific, I'm Gonna Make It Least Favorite Songs: Save This Show, Boyfriend Kisser, We Are Shearing Sheep, This Is How We Will End It, Versus Favorite Episodes: Walk Like An Egyptian - Part 1, Aftermath: Bridgette Over Troubled Water, I See London..., Niagra Brawls, Hawaiian Punch Least Favorite Episodes: The Am-AH-Zon Race, Aftermath: Revenge of the Telethon, Picnic at Hanging Rock, African Lying Society, Awww, Drumheller Favorite Eliminations: Duncan (both), Harold, Gwen, Sierra, Alejandro Least Favorite Eliminations: Bridgette, Lindsay, DJ, Noah, Intern, Owen, Cody

TDU
Two of my fanfic in development Total Drama Unleashed's challenges were actually used in TWDT - the underwater challenge appeared in "Jamaica Me Sweat" and the blindfold challenge appeared in "Niagra Brawls" - as a result, I am cutting both of these challenges. The latter was somewhat integral to an elimination. Also, I've cut Blaineley's brief stint and let Cody back in. It's also influencing my thoughts on how to treat Ezekiel within the series. On the bright side, it convinced me to do a post-TWDT special to bridge the gap and introduce Alan :D

Thanks for reading dudes. - John