This little cartoon enchanted me as a child. The concept of transporting oneself to another dimension where you play virtual reality fantasy PvP, interacting with the fantasy world itself is as fun as it gets. The voice acting is annoying, the animation is cheap, and the show is a cash-in on collectable card games. But damned if I don't get a surge of happiness when I watch those characters 'Get Chaotic' in the battle dromes!
10 Reviews
Chaotic: From CCG to Flash to Animated Series
omega206413 December 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Chaotic is one of any number of the dieing breed of collectible card games AKA CCGs. As with many CCGs now there is oft a TV series tie in, similar to how in the 80s there were action figure based animated series.
Chaotic the series starts off with pretty good Flash style animation, its still stiff and mechanical as virtually all Flash style animations are, but its well done and they improve as they go. The 2nd and 3rd seasons shift to standard animated cartoon style art with the usual gratuitous CG tossed in randomly. The art here too is very well done and animated with clean lines and good motion.
~~~~~~~~ POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW ~~~~~~~~
The series itself mainly follows two Tom and Kaz players of the CCG Chaotic who are drawn into the secret games played in and around the worlds the game is based on, by somehow splitting and re-merging the players personality between the two worlds. They explore the new world seeing to scan locations and characters to used in the Chaotic battle arena where each player takes on the form of the characters selected, and then have at it. Its pretty interesting to see play out and is a novel approach vs the usual Summons/Upgrade battle type series.
And in the background plays out the struggles between the various factions of the realm as they strive for dominance. In the second season this becomes much more important as a new invading faction is introduced that forces new alliances to combat the spreading invasion. At some point along the way quite a number of characters get showcased.
There are also a few unusual side stories such as a clique of conniving players who seek to win by any cost, and a secret organization who maintains the contests and invites new players into the realm.
When watching the series do take note that the first season is *very* different from the rest. The episodes are mostly stand-alone and the aforementioned Flash animation style, while the rest of the series has a more overlying plot with standard drawn animation.
Give the series a try. Its got a-lot of characters! Really!
Chaotic the series starts off with pretty good Flash style animation, its still stiff and mechanical as virtually all Flash style animations are, but its well done and they improve as they go. The 2nd and 3rd seasons shift to standard animated cartoon style art with the usual gratuitous CG tossed in randomly. The art here too is very well done and animated with clean lines and good motion.
~~~~~~~~ POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW ~~~~~~~~
The series itself mainly follows two Tom and Kaz players of the CCG Chaotic who are drawn into the secret games played in and around the worlds the game is based on, by somehow splitting and re-merging the players personality between the two worlds. They explore the new world seeing to scan locations and characters to used in the Chaotic battle arena where each player takes on the form of the characters selected, and then have at it. Its pretty interesting to see play out and is a novel approach vs the usual Summons/Upgrade battle type series.
And in the background plays out the struggles between the various factions of the realm as they strive for dominance. In the second season this becomes much more important as a new invading faction is introduced that forces new alliances to combat the spreading invasion. At some point along the way quite a number of characters get showcased.
There are also a few unusual side stories such as a clique of conniving players who seek to win by any cost, and a secret organization who maintains the contests and invites new players into the realm.
When watching the series do take note that the first season is *very* different from the rest. The episodes are mostly stand-alone and the aforementioned Flash animation style, while the rest of the series has a more overlying plot with standard drawn animation.
Give the series a try. Its got a-lot of characters! Really!
Great, besides the first season.
hawk-1192123 March 2017
As a child, I always loved watching Chaotic and I've re-watched the series since then and it surprisingly holds up. The animation was awful for the first season, but seasons 2 and 3 not only had good animation but also a good overarching plot. I don't know why Chaotic is getting flack from these other reviewers, but I would put Chaotic up there with the best TCG TV shows like Yugioh, personally I enjoyed Chaotic even more than I did Yugioh. Overall, great animation for seasons 2 and 3, good voice acting, story, the concept is amazing, and the card game that accompanies the show is fun to play too.
Underrated and forgotten
praisethesunyoucasual1 August 2017
The show was highly underrated especially when compared to successful TV series like pokemon, yugioh, digimon and basically every other kids show that falls into that fantasy monster category. The intro is one of the best of any animated show and Id recommend listening to it yourself. Keep in mind the shows like pokemon and yugioh were Japanese anime and are not in the same category of animation. And although shows like rugrats and every single animated batman can attract high acclaim for some reason people like to bash this show instead of taking it for what it is. I can agree disliking animation for something such as the batman animated series especially for being such a large well known franchise character and giving high expectations. Having poor animation can be seen as lazy, but Chaotic was a new show idea based on a trading card game and the animation to me at least is not what I consider bad. I can still enjoy watching an episode of the original scooby doo and that animation is arguably worse and more "poorly" done than chaotic. I believe that the show just came out to late for the 90s generation to critic it, the memories or their favourite animated shows being better possibly. However I remember this being in my top 3 animated American shows and I think it holds up.
Chaotic could've been better.
filmbaker2 March 2013
Warning: Spoilers
The thing about this estranged show Chaotic is that it was an ups and downs show. The show follows Tom, played by Jason Griffith (former voice of Sonic the Hedgehog), who enters a place called Chaotic where players around the globe can play the game as the creatures themselves, or actually meet the creatures in the world of Perim. The plot episodes were put together well, but the lower ratings are the result of poor voice acting and bad dialog. Other than these two problems, Chaotic is a good show. If the voice acting were better, it would've been a GREAT show.
If you wanna watch Chaotic, I hope you can handle cheesy voice acting. If not, I suggest the far better Yugioh.
If you wanna watch Chaotic, I hope you can handle cheesy voice acting. If not, I suggest the far better Yugioh.
Horrible
Rectangular_businessman6 September 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Honestly, this was one of the worst cartoons that I've seen in my entire life.
Basically, "Chaotic" was a bad rip-off of the equally bad anime series "Yugioh", and like that cartoon, this stupid series doesn't even try to cover the fact that is only a glorified infomercial to sell toys and video-games to the kids.
At least the cartoons from the eighties done with similar purpose were funny to watch, unlike this drivel.
The animation of this series was bad, with bland and boring designs (Apparently the animation quality improved in some of the recent episodes, but the plot was still garbage) the characters were annoying, generic and clichéd, the stories from each chapter were idiotic and poorly made...There wasn't any single good thing about this series.
It was something incredibly dumb and unoriginal from the very beginning. Personally, I think that "Chaotic" deserves to be forgotten.
0/10
Basically, "Chaotic" was a bad rip-off of the equally bad anime series "Yugioh", and like that cartoon, this stupid series doesn't even try to cover the fact that is only a glorified infomercial to sell toys and video-games to the kids.
At least the cartoons from the eighties done with similar purpose were funny to watch, unlike this drivel.
The animation of this series was bad, with bland and boring designs (Apparently the animation quality improved in some of the recent episodes, but the plot was still garbage) the characters were annoying, generic and clichéd, the stories from each chapter were idiotic and poorly made...There wasn't any single good thing about this series.
It was something incredibly dumb and unoriginal from the very beginning. Personally, I think that "Chaotic" deserves to be forgotten.
0/10
Great show and the other Reviews are dumb
alasimjouser18 January 2021
Sorry but this show is Perfect from season 1 to season 2 and 3 and there will be season 4 and it will be ,this show has good Development and good drama and good comey and one of The best Animted action i have every see in so i will give it 10/10
Wasted potential.
sonikuu-706-7444525 July 2013
If you go past the cheesy voice acting, Chaotic is actually not that bad of a TV Show, but my main gripe with it, is how the universe seem to have been dumbed down in order for the show to target kids.
It needed a more dark, gloomy atmosphere, like the Animated Series from the 80s, instead we have the most annoying kids as protagonists traveling around the world of Chaotic battling each other and getting involved into the Chaotic's universe with other major characters... or not so much.
The problem is that the human protagonists, apart from being annoying, are almost always doing something in relation to Chaotic, but the interactions with the beings from Chaotic are very limited, so most of the episodes are just filled with 10 minutes of battling between humans (sometimes the whole episode is like that, rarely it doesn't involve battling), and at best, the rest being "plot development". If there's any plot ; Season 1 has more like stand-alone episodes rather than being plot-focused. Season 2 & 3 however are more plot-focused but not entirely.
Chaotic is the complete opposite to Digimon on that aspect. (by the way watch Digimon in its Japanese -read original- version to see what I'm talking about, not the 4Kids dumbed down version, it's actually not bad at all) The art direction is not bad at all for the creatures, but terribly lame on the humans. Season 1 uses flash animation, it works well on the creatures but it only makes the human protagonists even more ugly. Season 2 & 3 use traditional animation, I like it better than flash, but it's not as fluid.
The music is so-so in my opinion, some themes are damn good, but others are just plain bad, some of the most aggravating ones comes when a "mugic" (some sort of power-up) is activated. Usually the better themes are those that conveys a serious/epic feel, others however just underlines how dumbed down and sometimes even childish the show is.
All in all, the artwork of the card's game may completely mislead you into thinking that this show is actually quite mature, or at least for mid-late teenagers, but this show has been butchered and toned down so much, that it would hardly get a 5/10.
I give it a 4/10, but I'm sure if it had been transcribed in its original state, it would deserve at least a 7/10.
It needed a more dark, gloomy atmosphere, like the Animated Series from the 80s, instead we have the most annoying kids as protagonists traveling around the world of Chaotic battling each other and getting involved into the Chaotic's universe with other major characters... or not so much.
The problem is that the human protagonists, apart from being annoying, are almost always doing something in relation to Chaotic, but the interactions with the beings from Chaotic are very limited, so most of the episodes are just filled with 10 minutes of battling between humans (sometimes the whole episode is like that, rarely it doesn't involve battling), and at best, the rest being "plot development". If there's any plot ; Season 1 has more like stand-alone episodes rather than being plot-focused. Season 2 & 3 however are more plot-focused but not entirely.
Chaotic is the complete opposite to Digimon on that aspect. (by the way watch Digimon in its Japanese -read original- version to see what I'm talking about, not the 4Kids dumbed down version, it's actually not bad at all) The art direction is not bad at all for the creatures, but terribly lame on the humans. Season 1 uses flash animation, it works well on the creatures but it only makes the human protagonists even more ugly. Season 2 & 3 use traditional animation, I like it better than flash, but it's not as fluid.
The music is so-so in my opinion, some themes are damn good, but others are just plain bad, some of the most aggravating ones comes when a "mugic" (some sort of power-up) is activated. Usually the better themes are those that conveys a serious/epic feel, others however just underlines how dumbed down and sometimes even childish the show is.
All in all, the artwork of the card's game may completely mislead you into thinking that this show is actually quite mature, or at least for mid-late teenagers, but this show has been butchered and toned down so much, that it would hardly get a 5/10.
I give it a 4/10, but I'm sure if it had been transcribed in its original state, it would deserve at least a 7/10.
Shallow but Great
jamedlakinbard6 June 2021
Good card game show
shaunadam-3990318 September 2019
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