Fun for the Whole Family: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

As a father of two young boys I find it hard sometimes to find kid's/family shows that I can tolerate watching with my boys. Sure, they love the National Geographic type stuff, as I do. But the real challenge is animated shows. The cartoons out there range from animated Japanese card playing games to the usual robotic tedium. Thank goodness a show like Foster's came along.

My wife and I actually find ourselves DVR'ing episodes, not just so the boys will have something to watch, but because we enjoy the episodes!

The main story behind Foster's is that of an imaginative young Anglo-Saxon boy named Mac. Mac is your usual little boy that imagined himself a friend, one Blooregard Q. Kazoo, better known as Bloo. Bloo looks like the classic sheeted-ghost with big eyes and a bigger smile, except that he is a striking cobalt blue color.

Mac finds that Bloo can't stay with him and his single mom in their apartment as there simply isn't room. He goes to the local imaginary friend orphanage and makes a deal with the establishment, namely one Madame Foster, a kindly eccentric little-old-lady that runs Foster's. If Mac comes and visits Bloo daily then Bloo won't come up for adoption and Bloo can stay there indefinitely.

Bloo shares his new home with an amazing host of characters, all imagined by someone at some point in time, bringing them into existence. There seems to be hundreds at Madame Foster's, but the main ones are these:
Wilt: an extremely tall, lanky, red basketball-player'ish character. Wilt has one lanky arm and a stub for the other, a shaggy face, big smile and two stalk-like eyes, although only one seems to be controlable. Wilt's most noticeable trait is his extreme niceness, using "I'm sorry, but…" in most of his dialogue. Wilt is also polite to a fault, if such a thing is possible.

Eduardo: Eduardo is the classic beast under the bed, with certain catches. He appears as a big, shaggy, toothy, horned and hoofed Latino monster. Ed's main personality trait, however, is that he is timid beyond reason to the point of being afraid of everything. Even with his fears, Ed will defend his friends to the death.

Coco: Coco defies description, as she is a conglomeration of items. Although she appears to be an ostrich shape, with big eyes and mouth, her head seems to be a palm tree from the neck up, with a tuft of greenery for hair. Coco's body is a small plane. Coco also has the ability to lay large, plastic eggs that, when opened, can produce virtually any item. Coco only uses one word, "Coco." Even with this limitation, she will use highly expressive phrases, like, "Cocococococo, coco, COCOOO!!" and somehow everyone understands her.

Periodically Foster's has other characters that visit. A frequent guest is a little, lanky African-American girl that goes by the name of Goo. Goo, in her illustrious dynamic braids, is the fastest talker imaginable. Coupled with that is an imagination that surpasses all, making for a couple of episodes that have led to her being restricted from imagining creatures at Foster's for fear that she will create another 100 or so creatures that will need to be adopted, something she has done in the past.

To further demonstrate the energetic and imaginative writing of Foster's I'll outline/overview one of the episodes that our family recently enjoyed.

In this episode, Goo came over to play with Mac and the crew. Plugging in her Karaoke machine, along with the other already-in-use video games and TV's, causes a power outage. The crew then decides they will play pretend. Goo expresses her love of playing-pretend and Mac warns her "about last time." She assures Mac and all around that this time, she has figured out how to avoid creating creatures in real life while she is pretending. Standing on one leg, pinching her nose and closing her eyes, Goo imagines some type of potato whale, but no creature comes into existence. The gang thinks they are safe from Goo's usual imaginative onslaught, so the games begin.

Mac decides that he is "Rex Carsalot," the debonair, swashbuckling race-car driver. [After each creation of an imagined character, a flash of the imagined image appears, each with a corresponding artistic variance. Rex Carsalot is in the Speed-Racer artistic genre, for example.] Bloo decides that he is Mac's confidant ("I'm not his side-kick!"), one Bloonan the Blarbarian, complete with mighty sword (umbrella). [Of course Blooman the Blabarian is expressed in the Conan artistic venue]. Goo is going to be Brittney Lollipop Sunshine, a Universally renowned pop-star. Ed decides he is the Assistant to the King's baker and begins making imagined pies of all sorts, seemingly off on his own. Goo's teammate is Coco, who imagines herself as a vicious Tyrannosaurus that lays exploding eggs. With all the "good guys" now created, they needed "bad guys." Wilt reluctantly gives in and proclaims himself the head of the Galactic legion of viscious bandits known as the Space Snot Boogies. He adds a card-board tube on his arm-stump and puts a lamp-shade over his head with stalk eye protruding to complete the costumed make-over.

The battle ensues between the galactic Space Snot Boogies and the followers of the charismatic Rex Carsalot. At one point, Mac develops a space-time freeze ray that cannot be imaginatively exceeded by Goo, a feat that Goo cannot get out of her thoughts. The electricity comes back on and the scene ends with Goo puzzling the freeze ray concept.

Goo goes home to mull over ways to defeat the freeze ray, dozing off with thoughts of Space Snot Boogie battles. She wakes up to find that all the Space Snot Boogie characters that she has created have come into existence due to her amazing imagination. Mac (Rex Carsalot) and Bloo (Bloonan the Blarbarian) are now in a lot of trouble.

Mac, Bloo, Goo and Coco now have to figure out ways to defeat the now real Snot Boogies lead by the lanky Wilt as their leader. The story then goes on with ups and downs of imaginative madness with the baking Eduardo as key in the finale of the galactic battle.

Our family laughed at all the characters and truly enjoyed every minute of it. Along with the laughter and fun I could not help but be struck by how strikingly well the writers of Foster's did at capturing the imaginative mind of children, a feat that is sadly lost many times as we grow older.

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is a show that would be loved by kids of all ages. Don't let it escape your viewing. Check out one or two episodes or, if you are like my family, catch them all.