A Rant About The American Girl Kavi Animated Series

I normally love everything related to American Girl. I'm arguably AG's biggest fan, and I have been for years. But there's been something bugging me about the company recently, specifically about the YouTube channel. It's the Kavi animated series.

Don't get me wrong, I love Kavi! She's super cool. It's just that, if you take a look at the series, the writing and production quality is not it.

I am usually harsher on American Girl's filmed content due to my background in filmmaking, specifically directing and screenwriting, but this honestly was worse than Isabelle Dances Into The Spotlight. The problem with the series, in my opinion, is the production quality and screenwriting.

Half the episodes are usually just Kavi breaking the fourth wall like she's on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse talking to the screen about her problems, and the other half is a bad adaptation of Kavi's journal where important details and Kavi's character arc is all but forgotten. Kavi's problems with studying and grades are just brushed off as "look Kavi's late to school and now she has an F!"

I have learned that one of the most important things that amateur writers lack in comparison with pros is the quality of dialogue. Subtext is necessary for dialogue to work well, so the characters don't say exactly what they mean. All the characters in the Kavi series talk like a 6 year old wrote the script, they say exactly what they mean, and it's especially annoying when Kavi talks to the camera and does just that for half the episode.

It breaks the film rule of "show, not tell". Film is a visual medium, and apparently the writer didn't understand.

Also, the animation and directing is atrocious. The camera angles are placed oddly, the actors sound like robots, and of course, the animation...

I just had to get this off my chest. This isn't a hate post, but I just wanted to bring this to light because I believe Kavi deserves better quality content. She deserves to have her story adapted in a quality manner. This... isn't it.

AG, do better.