Now Watching: Ruby Gloom

Ruby Gloom is the happiest girl in the world, and she lives in Gloomsville, in a Victorian-style mansion on a hilltop with all her friends.

Her friends include Doom Kitty, the black cat, Iris, the one-eyed girl with a massive taste for adventure, the two headed boy/s, Frank and Len, skeleton with father issues, Skull Boy, and walking disaster, Misery, as well as a few others, such as a bat afraid of just about everything and three dapper ravens.

The main theme behind Ruby Gloom seems to be accepting everyone, even if they look or act a bit weird. Which is cool. I can dig that. It never gets too preachy, like quite a few kid's shows nowadays (I am a frequenter of children's television programming, in case you hadn't guessed.), and it's just all around cute with darkened edges. I've embedded the opening titles for you to watch - and I strongly recommend that you do -  the quality is not brilliant, which is a shame because the graphics are lovely, but it's worth sitting through the pixelation just to listen to the theme tune.



A little searching awhile ago informed me that the show is Canadian, although it began as an American stationary franchise thing. And by searching, I mean wikipedia told me. The page has nice little bios of all the characters and an episode list. I highly suggest going and finding the episodes to watch. I got given the DVD with episodes 4-8 on it for Christmas last year (my friends know me well), and I play episode 8 quite frequently. Frank and Len are trying to find a singer for their band so they can play at Gloomapalooza, and in this episode Skull Boy is convinced his ancestors were famous film makers/biographers. The songs they play are actually quite good as well.

There is an official website where you can watch the short skits they play at the beginning and end of episodes as well as some of the music, however I am not going to suggest you go there. The site is slow and glitchy a lot of the time, and while it used to be worth it when they had it decked out much akin to her mansion, they've updated it. And it makes me cry a little inside. She's "punk-rock" now. You know, like Avril Lavigne is punk-rock. You might not mind, but it was so much better before.

However, I have found a way to see the old site, thanks to a website archive called the WayBack Machine. The theme song plays one it's finished loading, but you can turn it off - there's a button on the bottom left.