The Nickelodeon classic The Fairly OddParents is getting a new live-action sitcom for Paramount Plus, titled The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder. The series will pick up years after the original series, with an adult Timmy Turner giving Cosmo and Wanda to his cousin, Viv Turner, and her new stepbrother Roy Ragland.
This is not the first time there's been a live-action Fairly OddParents sequel series. In the early 2010s, there was a trilogy of Nickelodeon TV movies staring Drake Bell as the adult Timmy. Bell presumably would've reprised the role for this Paramount Plus series, but since he recently pled guilty to endangering a minor, his days at Nickelodeon are ostensibly over.
The new Timmy is played by Shakespeare in the Park star Ryan-James Hatanaka, and Audrey Grace Marshall of The Flight Attendant is playing Viv Turner. Daran Norris and Susanne Blakeslee are reprising Cosmo and Wanda, as their 2D animations are integrated with the live-action, Roger Rabbit-style. The series overall seems to be a hybrid between the original series and Nick's sitcoms like iCarly, which from a marketing perspective makes a lot of sense.
So the question remains, are Fairly OddParents fans happy with these changes? The answer seems to be no. For one, the original series ended up an exhausted shell of itself, with a new outrageous jumping-the-shark moment every season for ten straight years. An old sitcom trick is to introduce a new character in the final season, but Fairly OddParents ended up doing this four times, with vastly diminishing returns. Also in the past few years, creator Butch Hartman has become a controversial figure in the animation industry. His Kickstarter campaign for Oaxis Entertainment, a planned streaming service, received hideous backlash, with many critics calling it out as vague and manipulative.
Obviously Fairly Odder had a lot going against it, and it was going to take a miracle to win over the fanbase. Sadly, the series itself doesn't seem to be that. It looks derivative of any Nickelodeon sitcom of the past ten years, and the animation influences feel cheap and awkward. Many fans now see the Bell films as better by comparison, and those weren't particularly well received either.
If there is one market Fairly Odder still has potential to win over, it's today's kids. The original Fairly OddParents has been off the air for a few years, so it's possible that a younger generation will discover the new series on their own. Will this new sitcom revive interest in the franchise? Or will it be seen as yet another bridge too far? Fans just have to let the kids today decide its fate.
The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder will be streaming on Paramount Plus starting March 31st, 2022.