EDITOR’S NOTE: This review encapsulates the original series that aired from 2005-2008. This is NOT about any of the successor shows spawned in the franchise, or the reboot of the same name that started in 2016. We’re going old school!…if you can call a show that’s the same age as Avatar: The Last Airbender that.
The Lowdown:
Show: Ben 10
Network/years aired: Cartoon Network/ 2005-2008
AniB’s thoughts: Long before Ben 10 became a ubiquitous household name type of franchise, this was the show spawned by Cartoon Network and Man of Action (the same people behind Teen Titans) that started it all. Yet another take on the classic “summer vacation” trope, the show follow the titular Ben Tennyson, his cousin Gwen and their grandpa Max on an RV road trip that ultimately delves straight into the realm of science fiction. I’ll be the first to admit that this show captured my imagination as a kid, between the alien transformations of Ben, the increasingly strange locales the show featured…and this super catchy theme song:
(It goes to about 1:05; this video also has slight variants.)
What’s notable is that the show almost beyond a doubt has the highest animation production values of any of the Ben 10 iterations. The Teen Titans inspiration is clearly there in terms of style, and while it’s clearly a Western show not veering into the realm of Japanese anime, the detail as well as the story arc progression certainly resemble it. The show came in the later years of “classic Cartoon Network,” a golden period that in these years had the really amazing “CN City” bumper campaign (seriously, check them out if you’ve never seen them) and was able to stand out thanks to a fairly unique premise, the quality of the animation, and the fact that it carved its own unique niche at a moment in time when Cartoon Network was loaded with good to great shows (and obviously some bad ones, but that’s true of any network over the years.)
Another distinct factor about Ben 10 was that Ben in fact, had access to only 10 aliens for much of the show. Whether it was the design team, the marketing team, or the writers, the franchise became known for pumping out a new set of transformations for Ben to take in each iteration of the universe, but as our lovely intro above makes clear, those original 10 were the stars and remained fairly static save one major change until later in the show’s run. What was established here however (and was smart, as well as logical from a writer’s point of view), was that each alien had a distinct personality and different strengths, which mixed with Ben’s own 10-year old attitudes and ways of doing things, and due to his inexperience, the Omnitrix (the watch-like device that allowed him to transform) sometimes would lock him into a different transformation that he did not want to use…and all his changes had a time limit, with a subsequent cool-down time. The last part was more a narrative failsafe to make certain problems have a more compelling way to be solved, and one episode actually teases this when Ben find a master code to get rid of the time limit, only to have to reset the watch by the end.
At its heart, Ben 10 is a unique show that does some unexpectedly original twists on ideas normally seen in comics. There’s a secret organization (and secrets in general), otherworldly villains, unexpected twists, and of course, the hero origin story. To a 10 year old boy watching, it really did excite me…and it’s still a solid show today, if drowned out by the successful spinoffs that succeeded it. You might just want to find out “what an alien device did what it did” and go on a summer vacation that once again, breaks the trope into new territory.
Animation Quality: Traditional 2-D animation, with computer shading, some rich detail and colors and some really creative design work. Ben 10 looked fantastic in the various locales and places it spanned; the characters themselves are aesthetically pleasing and it leads to a fine effect overall. 4.5/5 points.
Characterization: Being the original series, Ben is a bit of a jokester, looking for adventure (and occasionally trouble) and is in all respects, a fairly typical 10 year old personality wise. He’s got a good heart though, and a strong sense of justice. While he loves his newfound alien powers, he’s rather impulsive and can become arrogant from time to time, a trait that often gets him in trouble.
Gwen, Ben’s cousin, has a love-hate relationship with him, but it is developed through the series to show despite acrimonious appearances, they do really care for each other. Unbeknownst to her for most of the series, Gwen also possess certain “special abilities…” though I won’t say what they are!
Grandpa Max is an amicable old man with a deep, mysterious past that compromises quite a bit of the story. Highly fond of his niece and nephew, he’s determined to have a great summer with them in his beat-up old RV, but what that entails exactly is even more than he bargained for… (Fun fact: His voice actor, Paul Eiding, is also the Colonel in the Metal Gear Solid series of video games!)
Finally, Ben’s rogue gallery is pretty good, especially his archenemy from season 1, Vilgax, and Kevin Levin (who in the franchise, actually has a much bigger role, but serves as an enemy in this series.) 3.75/5 points.
Story quality: There’s a clear story and canon, but the episodes can stand alone as well as episodic events. To that end, they usually are quite humorous, action packed affairs. The backstory is decently solid, if not convoluted, but it’s all very pleasing when it comes together. 4/5 points.
Themes: There’s notions of family, sticking together and the like, plus heroic ideas of justice, but there’s also a fairly dark sci-fi element to the whole show. It’s gripping enough, but perhaps not next level compelling in terms of themes. 3.5/5 points.
Don’t insult the viewer: Ben 10 isn’t always the easiest thing to digest from time to time due to the sometime jarring shifts in location and objectives, but stays fairly clean and inoffensive. The theme song is addictively catchy as can be, and the overall product avoids talking down to its audience. 4.5/5 points.
Total Score: 20.25/25 (81%). Ben 10 was, and still is a highly successful endeavor that spawned an entire franchise with this extremely solid first entry. Packed with action, written with some memorable characters, and featuring a diverse cast of alien creatures, this sci-fi ‘toon stayed strong.
Like what you see? Are you a fan of the Ben 10 franchise? Leave a comment!
AniB Productions 
Great review! Ah, the nostalgia’s kicking in. I remember Ben 10 as a fond part of Saturday morning cartoons but only this original series. I could never keep up with all the sequels, which thought they were getting better the more aliens they threw in but were really moving away from what made the first so fun. With Ben’s original 10/11 transformations, less was more, and I liked the road-trip interactions with Ben, Gwen, and Uncle Max, not to mention the rogues gallery. I wouldn’t say they ran the franchise into the ground, but the first was clearly the best.
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Absolutely! I watched the original iteration quite avidly when it first was airing. Turns out I had trouble keeping up with all the sequels as well, but I’ll agree the original had a unique dynamic that wasn’t quite the same in subsequent iterations of the franchise. The rogues gallery was pretty refreshing at the time, and the road-trip dynamic was pulled off well. Finally…yes, less was more with Ben’s transformations, and that constraint actually made for some interesting narrative conflicts. It was fun writing about this show!
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Awesome write-up! Ben 10 escaped me when I was younger, so it’s good to read up on this. Have you shared your writing anywhere else or just on your blog here? 🙂
Samuel
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Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’ve mostly shared my writing on this blog, but have linked some material to Reddit. Please feel free to check out everything here; I’ve written quite a few reviews and other material at this point!
-Christian, aka “AniB”
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That’s awesome, I’ll definitely check those out! I was also wondering if you might like to see some of your writing on Moviepilot. I would love to help with that if you were interested! Samuel.harries@moviepilot.com
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That would be an amazing opportunity! It would be great to reach a wider audience. I’d be very interested in doing so.
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Awesome, looking forward to chatting further!
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Likewise!
-Christian, aka “AniB”
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I always felt that if I were fewer years younger when this show started airing I would have ate it up.
When I watched it later on I thought it had the potentially to be pretty interesting beyond its toyetic superhero roots, but that never seemed to fully pan out.
As obnoxious as he could be I didn’t have too much of a problem with Ben himself, mostly because it was (and kind of still is) a novelty to have a protagonist in a superhero/ action series that was genuinely immature like you would expect of ten year old (not unlike many shonen protagonist actually). Having such a character be put in the role of a hero is actually pretty smart idea since it allows for his character growth to carry more weight, to see this snotty punk learn that “with great power comes great responsibility” and become a genuinely heroic figure would have made for a very satisfying arc. It’s to bad that that doesn’t really happen, and in fact he kind of gets worse as the series goes along.
I don’t really know why Gwen exists. I mean, yes I know she wasn’t to be a foil to Ben and he needed someone to interact with on a regular basis who wasn’t Max, but. . . why did it have to be Gwen? She was often about as obnoxious as Ben despite being the “smarter and more mature one” and when ever those two interacted all they did was bicker and bicker. Yes she eventually got powers and a couple of enemies but other then that she was either a bland or obnoxious presence that really didn’t have anything going for her.
You also mention that the series gets dark a few times, but despite that I never felt like it took itself seriously enough for that to have an impact, but then that’s problem a lot of cartoons have.
That all aside the show did have some decent action and made great use of the whole changing hero gimmick well. I still think this show had a lot of untapped potential and a lot of kinks it needed to work, and knowing that it’s kind of sad that this is still considered the pinnacle of the franchise by many fans.
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Interesting thoughts as always! I will agree that Ben as an “immature hero” was an interesting dynamic, and that maybe some more character growth on that end would have been nice, but we’re led to believe that everything takes place over a summer, so how much he could grow really depends… Gwen exists not only to be Ben’s foil, but also the only consistently female presence on the show. I wouldn’t go so far as to call her a “token character,” but the writers did take their time to give her more development. That at least kept her character relevant, and in fact one of my favorite episodes is the “what-if” Gwen had found the Omnitrix instead of Ben… There was untapped potential here for sure, which is why the show got the grade it did from me, but there’s still a lot to like here, at least in my opinion.
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I think most people will be able to suspend their disbelief to have a big character arc take place over the course of a single summer. Besides I don’t think that “realism” should necessarily be valued valued that highly in fiction, especially when when fictional settings can be perfectly believable without it.
Like I had said I know why Gwen exist, I just don’t know why they choose that personality for her. I mean, when they were coming up with who should be the foil to their snotty punk kid hero they decided to go with “obnoxious, pretentious, know-it-all”, and on top of that decided that their relationship should be mutual hatred. I can’t imagine that those in charge thought this would be entertaining for any more then a few episodes, and on top of that their relationship (much like many things in the series) never develops and even kind of gets worse despite all of the things they go through.
Again I just think it was not a very smart thing to setup these two characters they way they are and then to just keep them the same as the show went on.
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Well, that’s the difference between this show and say…Gravity Falls, where there was no forced tension between the Pines twins, which in turn contributed to a brilliantly crafted relationship. I understand what your point is and definitely agree largely with your angle, but I also stated why I believe Gwen is there…could they have gone with a different personality? Sure. It’s actually the little details like this aspect of character development that makes analyzing shows so much fun!
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