Cartoon review: “Class of 3000”

Today’s cartoon review is “Class of 3000,” an animated series that ran on Cartoon Network from 2006 to 2008, for two seasons totaling 28 episodes (with two unaired in the US).

The series is co-created by Andre 3000, a member of the hip hop group Outkast. It draws from some aspects of his childhood in Atlanta.

Summary

The series features Sunny Bridges (voiced by Andre 3000), an international music star. After getting fed up with fame, Sunny abruptly quits during a concert in Tokyo, and moves back to his hometown of Atlanta. Sunny soon gets a job as a music teacher at a performing arts school, teaching a class of eccentric students.

Cast

Besides Sunny, the main cast (and Sunny’s students) include:

Lil D: The show’s most prominent character besides Sunny. Lil D is an African American boy who’s Sunny’s biggest fan, and acts as the de facto leader of the rest of the kids. Lil D is voiced by Sylvia Holloway.
Madison: A ditzy white girl with a Southern accent. Madison is voiced by Jennifer Hale.
Philly Phil: A geeky white boy who serves as the gang’s inventor and tech guy. Phil is voiced by Phil LaMarr.
Tamika: A sassy and short-tempered African American girl. Tamika is voiced by Crystal Scales.
Eddie: A vastly wealthy white boy, who tries to help the gang’s adventures with his wealth when possible. (His family owns a Coca-Cola-like soft drink conglomerate.) Eddie also has an unrequited crush on Tamika. Eddie is voiced by Tom Kenny.
Kam: A rational-minded Asian American boy. Kam is voiced by Janice Kawaye.
Kim: Kam’s twin sister, who’s more vapid than her brother, with a strong interest in fashion. Both twins were born in Columbus, Ohio. Kim is also voiced by Janice Kawaye.

Highlights

“Class of 3000” is one of the few animated cartoons set in Atlanta, and stands out as making use of its setting. As I’ve written before, most American cartoons only portray the South in one of several ways: oddly devoid of Black people; set during the Civil War or Civil Rights movement (or still obsessed with said eras); or with generic redneck/hillbilly jokes. Atlanta itself is usually either ignored or treated as a generic city, with none of its relevance to African American culture ever mentioned. (“I thought Atlanta just had an airport… Morehouse? Is that some sort of steak house?”)

Avoiding most of the usual cliches (or reflecting how Black Americans view Atlanta), “Class of 3000” highlights or makes use of various aspects of Atlanta, such as the neighborhood of Little Five Points. Of course, Atlanta’s music culture is also a big part of the series; in real life, Atlanta’s famous for its hip-hop scene. Cartoon Network itself also is headquartered in Atlanta, per its origins as part of Turner Broadcasting.

A few lines in the pilot are a reminder this show was made in the 2000s. One line during the song number references downloading music, a bigger concern (both positive and negative) in the pre-Spotify, iPod era. One scene has Eddie concerned he can’t take a pottery class because he throws clay “like a sissy,” a word that wouldn’t pass muster in kids media these days.

Sonny makes a cameo appearance in the 2019 series finale of “OK KO! Let’s Be Heroes.” “OK KO” is a Cartoon Network show that’s vanished from streaming as of this writing, and only has a single full season DVD release available as a Region 4 set from Australia. (Region 4 is the DVD region for Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America.)

The series ran for two seasons of 28 episodes, with two episodes unaired in the US. The show features a song in each episode; a soundtrack of the show’s first season is available. Several reasons I’ve seen for the show’s short lifespan include the series being expensive to produce (Andre 3000 alone isn’t cheap), and the changing landscape at Cartoon Network in the late 2000s (changes in management, the ill-conceived shift to live-action with “CN Real,” etc.).

Home video

Unfortunately, “Class of 3000” is hard to find on video. No streaming service carries the show. Digitally, iTunes (but not other digital video stores) has most of the show’s run available. A Region 4 first season DVD box set is the only major DVD release available, and it’s out of print. I suspect the show’s music rights (Andre 3000 wrote most of the show’s songs) might also be an issue.

Otherwise, some episodes have been uploaded to YouTube and the Internet Archive.