Review: Kiff “Thirst to be the First/The Fourth Bath”; “Pool Party/Road Trip”

You have to hand it to Disney Channel in that in this day and age of streaming vs cable and whether or not to cut the cords, Disney makes sure that all of its audiences are served no matter the platform. That said, one could make the argument that the days of animated series geared towards TV-Y7 audiences are ever more combative given that the target age group is probably more interested in watching cartoons on YouTube Kids. Its really why those series really don’t do well on streaming services because nobody under the age of seven is legally able to get a credit card or even a streaming gift card given that most don’t have disposable income or a job in which to get said income. As a result, a free service like YouTube Kids makes the most sense, but if Disney can still crank out the hits and make sure the franchises are everywhere and not just one place, at least they can delegate the costs in making these series and we can get more.

Kiff is a perfect example. Created by Nic Smal and Lucy Heavens and produced by Titmouse, this animated series follows a squirrel by the name of Kiff Chatterley (Kimiko Glenn) and her best pal Barry Buns (H. Michael Croner) in a coming-of-age tale about kids trying to navigate the stresses of school, relationships, and a bustling locale by the name of Table Town, the latter of which is largely inspired by the creators’ hometown of Cape-Town, South Africa.

Right away the show wants to introduce you to everybody in a very Springfield way. Most of the premises featured in the first four prime-time airing episodes don’t even take place in school and instead introduce us to the rest of the crazy cast of characters that our star duo of Kiff and Barry have to live with on a daily basis. Next, you can tell we’re slowly getting to meet the rest of the town’s crazy cast of characters like Helen (Lucy Heavens), Candle Fox (Vella Lovell), and even her dad Roy (Eric Bauza). For my money, the characters I probably had the most chuckles with were the aforementioned Roy and Martin Chatterley (James Monroe Iglehart), both of whom seemed to have the best true one-liners, probably meant for slightly older audiences who may be watching the show with their kids.

Titmouse and Disney co-produce the animated 22-minute series that comprises of two 11-minute quarter-hour episodes in each with Adventure Time star writer Kent Osborne serving as a co-producer and story editor. The show features fun songs, easy-serving premises, and very goofy dialogue that could help make for that next big animated comedy for a network that needs to keep kids laughing in order to survive. Kiff helps in a big way here.