The Secret Saturdays was created by Canadian Cartoonist Jay Stephens (Tutenstein) and is about a family of Cryptozoologists (That is the study of the unknown) who track legendary creatures to help keep them hidden from humans for the protection of both species. The family consists of Zack Saturday (Sam Lerner) who uses a claw weapon and has a sort of telepathy with cryptids,  Solomon “Doc” Saturday (Phil Morris) who uses a battle glove and is a learned scholar when it comes to cryptids, and Drew Saturday (Nicole Sullivan) who was given a flaming sword by monks when she was a child. Among their family they have Fiskerton (Diedrich Bader) a Gorilla-Cat, Komodo (Fred Tatasciore) a genetically altered Komodo Dragon which has the ability to disappear, and Zon (also voiced by Tatasciore) a thought to be extinct Pterosaur.

As I watched Volume 2 of The Secret Saturdays I couldn’t help but notice how bland everything looked and how set back the animation was. At one point I commented that the show looked like it was inspired by the old Snork or Smurfs cartoons. To my surprise I find that the style was inspired by the old Hannah-Barbara cartoons of my day. As much as that puts a smile on my face I have to say that it still brings down the overall quality of the show. The voice actors as well just didn’t seem to work together. I’m sure as a kid you don’t really care but Nicole Sullivan, better known for her work with MadTV and King of Queens, just doesn’t have a very good cartoon voice. Sam Lerner also is missing some kind of kid quality in his delivery that makes the character of Zack Saturday less fun. Diedrich Bader (The Drew Cary Show, Napoleon Dynamite) and Fred Tatasciore make great use of their vocal works here reminding me of Frank Welker the way they just roll with the character body language.

While I was excited about the show for its cryptid angle (total cryptid freak here) I like how the show is less about cryptozoolgy and more about adventure and family. One minute the Saturdays are on their way to cover up a cryptid sighting and the next thing you know the plot has moved into a moral lesson so smoothly you hardly notice until after the show is over. Smart. Of course the cryptid stuff can’t be overlooked. What seems like science fiction in the show is stuff kids can actually investigate themselves and it also helps that there is a cryptid catalogue in the bonus features that shows kids what was featured in the show and some facts about it. Some great stuff there. All together you get five great episodes and great bonus features that kids will eat up so The Secret Saturdays Volume 2 is a winner in my book.