Review: Hailey’s On It! “The Beginning of the Friend” ; “Beta’d and Hooked” / “The Wild, Wild Mess”

Overview

“The Beginning of the Friend”– After learning that her to-do list will save the world, Hailey attempts to ride every ride at the county fair.

“Beta’d and Hooked” – Hailey and Scott set sail to catch the legendary Blue Ono so they can win the top prize at the Fish Taco Festival.

“The Wild, Wild Mess” – After becoming ‘Sheriff for a Day’ at a western reenactment town, Hailey uses her newfound authority to rid the town of an invading dirt bike crew.

Our Take

Every couple of years or so Disney Channel will instead of renewing franchises that gain a big following like Amphibia or The Owl House will try and introduce a number of new IP in an attempt to make things fresh. I actually applaud the network for doing that because I don’t know of another cable network that continues to stay THIS busy with premieres week in and out, and with the likes of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network abandoning the primetime slots altogether, it’s nice that Disney will at least give us a premiere every now and then before they send a series to Saturday mornings. Earlier this year the network did this with the likes of Kiff and Marvel’s Moon Girl and Dinosaur, and now we’ve got another one to add to the list in the form of Hailey’s On It!

From co-creators Devin Bunje and Nick Stanton comes an animated comedy that follows Hailey (voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho) who is typically a girl that is afraid to take chances, but when she comes in contact with a professor (voiced by Sarah Chalke) from the future that arms her with gadgets and a new AI-pal named “Beta” (voiced by Gary Anthony Williams), Hailey has to complete a document to save the universe. On top of all of this, Hailey is a normal girl dealing with budding hormones which introduces her best friend Scott (voiced by Manny Jacinto) who she grows feelings for but because Hailey is too nervous to take a chance, loses out on a potential love interest to her school friend Kristine (voiced by Amanda Leighton).

A lot of the premise seems indicative of films like The Adam’s Project or even The Terminator, “There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves”, type of a pathos where Hailey is tasked with doing bits to overcome her fears but needs the threat of the universe coming to the end to actually act on them and even after a few episodes the series seems to devolve into cliched premises like competitions instead of anything truly ground-breaking in terms of huge tasks with potential consequences. Think of it as Phineas and Ferb but geared more towards girls. I’m not sure I put this series in the same advantageous class as say a Gravity Falls, instead, this effort seems to be more standard than some of the other premieres that Disney has been showcasing during the course of 2023.