Magma Eye

Magma Eye is a Kuboian animated television series, and the fourth television series produced by Kubokartoonz. The show focuses on Magma Eye, an alien creature, as he assists his friends in their daily lives.

Unlike other programmes produced by Kubokartoonz, Magma Eye was targeted at an older audience, and dealt with more mature topics, particularly multiple different forms of discrimination. It was broadcast on Vision 1 during its initial run, but never aired on its KT children's strand. The show has since gained a cult following, with fans finding appeal towards the show's large group of characters and social commentary.

Although the show ended in 2000, it has since continued as a franchise consisting of television specials, music, video games and feature-length films.

Premise and characters
Magma Eye is an alien creature whose entire body consists of a floating white eye. He chose to live on Earth with hopes to improve the behaviour of humans, who his alien brethren (who are never seen onscreen) considered a flawed race. A majority of the episodes focus on Magma assisting his friends with their problems.

Magma has a large cast of friends, acquaintances and enemies - a majority of the show's characters are rarely referred to by their real names, and are instead typically known by some nickname. Magma's friends include: Munch, an overweight man with an eating disorder; Ramp, an unemployed young man who is frequently belittled by those of higher social classes; Beijing, a preteen girl who suffers emotional abuse from her family, classmates and teachers; and Rocket, a robot who dislikes being called "it" and wishes to be seen on equal grounds with the human race.

Due to its large cast of characters, Magma Eye features a lot of villains. These include, but are not limited to: Gunner, a corrupt, xenophobic policeman; Novice, Gunner's dimwitted and extremely egotistical assistant; Hatter, a corrupt businessman who is best friends with Ramp's brother; and Webbie, a girl who bullies Beijing and steals to support herself and her sisters.

Many episodes of Magma Eye focused on anti-social behaviour, particularly discrimination. The show, throughout its run, showed signs of racism, sexism, ageism and also disapproval of those of lower social classes. Notably, episodes which focus on Rocket often showed him being dehumanised due to being a robot.

Cast

 * Darren Berlin - Magma Eye
 * Bruno Leon Vidal - Munch, Feng, Hatter, Novice
 * Charlie Karma - Beijing
 * Gerald Crowdus - Gunner
 * Felix Olajide - Ramp, Rocket, Xin, Miles
 * Frank Welker - Mr. Teddy, Bull
 * Ashley Maverick - Webbie
 * Emily Merletta - Lori, Katrina
 * Jack Carole - Tyo, Nitasha

Production
As Kubokartoonz' previous television series had all been made for younger children, Ashley Maverick wanted to make a series for older children in order for it to stand out.

Development on Magma Eye began in mid 1994. Maverick was unsure what to make for the premise, and had ultimately came up with roughly twenty different premises for the new show, initially going under the title Shady Street. Maverick took inspiration from the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, noticing that there were 'a lot of unique characters with their own quirks". She decided that it would be fun to do that with a more darker setting, thus she decided to merge most of the premises she came up with.

Maverick drew the character of Magma Eye when coming up with ideas for the show. She drew a round white circle with a large eye in the centre - she ultimately chose to make him the main character due to his "appealingly simplistic" design. The name Magma Eye was chosen due to the character's red iris. Originally, Magma was going to be an alien who planned to take over Earth in order to make a new home for his dying species. However, Maverick thought the idea was too unoriginal. Lake Caters suggested making Magma a heroic character in order to "combat alien stereotypes". The two ultimately decided that his main goal would be to help the human race with their problems.

When creating ideas for the show, the production team ultimately decided that the show would be dark and cynical but that they would "not go too far". Some of Maverick's original ideas, such as Ramp being a reluctant drug dealer and Gunner being overly obsessed with guns, were ultimately removed from the show. Beijing's voice actor, Charlie Karma, originally voice her character by speaking in a fake Asian accent. However, on request by the voice casting team, she ended up using her normal voice for the character, over concerns that her accent may be deemed offensive.

Music
The show's soundtrack incorporates elements from a variety of different genres, including acid jazz, dub, funk, neo soul and trip hop.

Reception
Magma Eye received critical acclaim during its original run, with critics praising the show's large cast of unique but relatable characters, as well as its social commentary. Celebrating the show's twentieth anniversary in 2017, a BBC article noted that the show had aged well despite some of the "hilariously mid-90s music and setting", and is still remembered fondly by millennials. The show had proven popular on CBBC, with millions of viewers tuning in for new episodes. In Kuboia, the second and third series was one of the most watched television series in the country in 1998.

Controversy and criticism
During its first run on CBBC in the United Kingdom, Magma Eye hit news headlines due to complaints, mostly from parents, that the show encouraged racism in children. Ashley Maverick responded by stating those who complained were "missing the point".

The show has faced criticism over its depiction of overweight adults, who are almost always written as greedy, lazy and dimwitted. This includes Munch, a prominent character on the show, though he is given a more fleshed out personality later on.

Beijing, Feng and Xin, characters of Chinese origin, are all voiced by either lightskinned Kuboian actors or actors of English-heritage. Ashley Maverick faced criticism by some sources in the mid-2010s over her casting decisions.

Home video releases
In the United Kingdom, eight VHS tapes, each consisting of three episodes from the first three series, were released in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The first seven were listed as a numerical "Volume" series, whilst the eighth was a "Best of", which featured two episodes from series two and one episode from series three.

In 2003, five DVDs, each consisting of every episode from each of the five series, were released in Region 2. The Complete Collection, containing all 35 episodes and specials, was released in 2010.

Internet availability
The YouTube channel JangleNet! began uploading episodes of Magma Eye in January 2018, with new episodes being uploaded on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Currently, all 35 episodes are available on the channel.

As of August 2019, the show is available on Netflix.

Kuboia

 * Vision 1 (1997-2001)
 * Nickelodeon Kuboia (1997-2005)
 * Nicktoons Network (2004-2010)
 * Vision Two (2018-present)

Arabia

 * Nickelodeon Arabia (1998-2011)
 * MBC 3 (2010-2013)

Australia

 * ABC (1997-2005)
 * Nickelodeon (1998-2010)

Canada

 * YTV (1998-2009)
 * Teletoon Retro (2010-2011)

Central and Eastern Europe

 * Fox Kids (2000-2005)
 * Jetix (2005-2009)
 * Disney Channel (2009-2011)

El Kadsre

 * Banushen Television (1997-2004)
 * ETVKK (2008-2014)

Gau

 * GBC Kids (?-present)

Germany

 * Super RTL (1997-2008)
 * Nick (2005-2010)

Latin America

 * ZAZ (1998-2003)
 * Boomerang (2008-2011)

Netherlands

 * Nederland 3 (1997-2003)
 * Nickelodeon (2003-2010)

Russia

 * Fox Kids (1999-2005)
 * Jetix (2005-2010)
 * Disney Channel (2010-2013)

Stevia

 * YTV (1997-2018)
 * Biggs (2010-2014)
 * Teletoon (2014-present)

Tasanala

 * Boomerang (?-2020)

United Kingdom

 * CBBC (1997-2007)
 * Nickelodeon (1998-2010)
 * Trouble (2006-2009)

United States

 * Nickelodeon (1997-2009)
 * TEENick (2001-2009)

Video games
During early production of the show, a tie-in video game was in development for the SNES titled Magma Eye: Metropolis Missions, and was scheduled for a late 1997 release. The game was cancelled for multiple reasons, such as the SNES being at the end of its lifespan and the game being drastically behind schedule.

Rocket's Rec Room, an online party/sandbox video game starring Rocket, was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004. Ashley Maverick has described it as "a more-mature family party game but online". An enchanced version, Rocket's Rec Room 2.0, was released as a digital-exclusive title for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in February 2010.