Stoopid and stoopider

It all began with "The Simpsons," of course, but the golden age of TV animation really proclaimed itself on Aug. 11, 1991, when "Rugrats," "Doug" and "Ren & Stimpy" debuted on Nickelodeon.

Soon joined by a number of new original series on the Cartoon Network, as well as prime-time fare like MTV's "Beavis and Butt-head," which gave way to Mike Judge's "King of the Hill" on Fox, Nick churned out cartoons of lasting quality throughout the '90s.

Since then, that golden age has inevitably descended to more of a gilded age, with the arrival of Seth MacFarlane's determinedly dumb "Family Guy" and "American Dad." Even Nick has mixed the sublime "Jimmy Neutron" with the more mediocre "The Fairly OddParents," while enjoying a mammoth hit with the immensely popular but comically pedestrian "SpongeBob SparePants."

Now comes "The Mighty B!" as an indication of where TV animation stands today. It's derivative to be sure when it debuts at 9:30 a.m. Saturday on Nick, as it's written by Cynthia True, who has worked on the "OddParents," with storyboards by Erik Wiese of "SpongeBob," who borrows many of the same limited-animation touches copped from John Kricfalusi's "Ren & Stimpy."

Yet it also gets an attitude all its own from Amy Poehler, the "Saturday Night Live" trouper and former Chicago Upright Citizens Brigade comedienne who has specialized in female-friendly humor every bit as stoopid as anything pulled off by Judd Apatow and his minions.

As I wrote Thursday on Tina Fey's "30 Rock," that seems to be the trend in comedy these days: women being every bit as dumber as men, as in Fey and Poehler's new film, "Baby Mama." "The Mighty B!" finds Poehler being just as dumber as the "OddParents," but also -- and this is key -- quite a bit more endearing.

Borrowing a uniform from the Girl Scouts and a set of spectacles from "Dexter's Laboratory," but mixing it with a manic humor all her own (see her hyperactive Caitlin on "SNL"), Poehler's Bessie Higgenbottom is a 9-and-three-quarters-year-old whirlwind of swiftly shifting emotions and good intentions gone awry. She wants to collect 4,000 Honeybee badges so that she might attain critical superhero-osity and become the Mighty B, but that part of the story is fleshed out as the series goes along, it appears.

Saturday's premiere starts out instead with "So Happy Together," in which she is equipped with a dog, Happy, a stray she picks up to qualify for an obedience-training badge. (It's also a good omen: Remember that "The Simpsons" launched with a Christmas special in which the family picked up Santa's Little Helper.) That fills out her family to go with her funky diner-owner mom and bratty little brother (Andy Richter) in their hometown of San Francisco. That leads in turn to "Sweet Sixteenth," in which Bessie comes up a fraction of an inch short of being able to take her first ride on a grown-up (read: vomit-inducing) roller coaster.

Again, there's nothing much new in the style or the stories. True's scripts are simple and streamlined and don't even make room for many real jokes. And Wiese's animation is heavily indebted to Nick's "Ren & Stimpy" and the "OddParents" and the Cartoon Network's "Dexter's Lab" and "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends." (Bessie too has an imaginary friend: her besmirched left finger.) At the same time, it pays homage to the granddaddy of all animators, Tex Avery.

Yet Poehler provides something different, something unique, something of herself. "So Happy Together" might display the show's sweetness and cleverness, but it's when Poehler vamps on Bessie's made-up song about "Who's gonna ride on a roller coaster?" in "Sixteenth" that the show proves its whimsical staying power. Bessie Higgenbottom is a dear, but a determined dear who is going to get whatever it is she wants in spite of the obstacles -- and entertain along the way.

The eternal question is, however, will boys watch? The problem with female cartoon characters -- no matter their moxie -- is that boys simply won't identify with them. That was the case with ABC's charmant "Madeline," and it takes something as aggressive as "The Powerpuff Girls" to make any inroads at all. Perhaps that's why Saturday's debut ends with Bessie and Happy blowing chunks (at least by suggestion if not graphically) after their roller-coaster ride. If that's what it takes to get boys to tune in, Poehler and "The Mighty B!" are eager to oblige. More (girl) power to them.