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May 20, 2019

Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars – “On the Blink”

By Joe

Episode Number: 5

Original Air Date: October 6, 1991

Directed by: Karen Peterson

Written by: George Arthur Bloom

First Appearance: Susie

“On the Blink” marks another stylistic turning point for the series. This is the first episode to basically abandon the finer points of the continuity from the first four episodes. There’s no mention of Warren or the plight of the hares, no direct call-backs, it’s simply a plot where the Toads are up to no good and it’s up to Bucky and his crew to stop them. This is, however, the first of many episodes that will try to place the spotlight on one member of the crew. Well, I suppose it’s the second since the previous episode had Bucky be the focal point. As you could probably guess by the title, this one will focus on Blinky, the adorable android who hasn’t had to do too much thus far. Him being the only non-mammal on Bucky’s crew will play a role in how he’s utilized in this one.

Willy and his unnamed female peer.

The episode opens with Willy at the zoo accompanied by a young girl named Susie (named in a later episode). She’s actually the first human we’ve seen who actually looks similar to Willy so I guess he’s not some kind of mutant. There’s no credit for this character, but since it’s a female character I assume Margot Pinvidic is providing the voice. Willy is telling her about the wonders of hummingbirds, but she reacts cooly to Willy claiming he cares more about science and how things work than he does for the feelings of living things. She then points out a koala exhibit and mentions how they were endangered once upon a time to prove her point. When people don’t care about animals, bad things happen. Willy’s parents would love her.

Pay no attention to the koala in the hat.

This links up nicely with the events transpiring in the Aniverse as the koala home world of Rigel 5 has been taken over by the Toads. A koala by the name of Quintin is able to get a distress call out to Bucky informing him of what’s gone on. It would seem the Toads took the planet over and converted it into a resort for other toads. Or at least, one piece of it. We don’t see an actual climate converter so I guess it’s not as severe as what happened to Warren. Frax notices the koala in the tree though and knocks him out of it ending the transmission. Bucky declares that they must help the koalas.

The sight of Al Negator in a golf shirt does make for an amusing visual.

Elsewhere on the resort, the Air Marshall is playing golf with Al Negator. He’s lining up a putt, and as the camera changes positions the balls at his feet keep moving and some disappear. He also looks like he’s wielding an iron and not a putter. It’s the clunky stuff we’re used to seeing from AKOM. Al proposes a wager that he can’t make the putt, and the Air Marshall accepts. For some reason, even though it looks like a 3 foot putt, Air Marshall takes a full swing. Frix and Frax run-in mid-swing to tell him about their capture and Air Marshall bangs the ball into a swamp. He jumps up and down raving mad at the two.

Bucky has a little trouble with the latest in mammal defense.

Bucky, apparently sick of Dead-Eye always telling him he should take him with, launches the Toad Croaker with he and Dead-Eye aboard. As they make their way down to the surface of Rigel 5 they end up snared in some kind of force field. On the surface, Toadborg enjoys seeing this defense shield in action and even interrupts a Toad TV broadcast Al and the Air Marshall were enjoying to show video if its effectiveness. It would seem Al provided the shield and he’s still looking for payment. For Bucky and Dead-Eye, they seem to be stuck within it, but Blinky has a solution. He’s seated at Dead-Eye’s M.A.S.E.R. canon, which is an amusing sight, and says something about reversing the polarity or whatever. In essence, he uses the canon and the shield to create a tractor beam and pull Bucky and Dead-Eye safely to the confines of the Righteous Indignation.

It’s not often we get to see Blinky in the gunner position.

Jenny decides they need Willy’s help to get past this shield and she calls out to him via the memory stone. Willy hears and obeys, as he activates his photon accelerator to come aboard. He then surprises everyone by not having a solution to their problem. Bruiser then points out an arriving Double Bubble which passes through the shield without issue. Willy deduces that the shield must be configured to keep out warm-blooded creatures, and the only member of the crew who doesn’t fit that description is Blinky.

Bruiser actually getting to do something.

It’s decided, and Blinky is tasked with taking down the defense shield. In order to do that, they wait for another passing ship and when a freighter enters the orbit Bruiser is deployed in a spacesuit carrying a large crate. He flies up to the freighter and opens the hatch depositing the crate containing Blinky inside.

Apparently, Blinky was not looking forward to running into Toadborg.

On the surface, the Toads are unloading the contents of the freighter. Frix and Frax are aboard checking out the loot and find some chocolate covered grasshoppers and other gross Toad food to consume. They also stumble upon the crate containing Blinky, but Blinky has dismantled himself partially and they just assume it’s a shipment of parts for Toadborg and leave it be. When they’re gone, Blinky pulls himself together and takes off. He enters the main building that houses the controls for the defense shield. As he works at the terminal, a large mechanical hand snatches him. It belongs to Toadborg, and he knows who Blinky is despite the two not sharing a scene together up to this point.

Blinky lets out a rather unsettling scream during this sequence.

Blinky is then strapped to some machine by Toadborg while the Air Marshall, Al Negator, Frix, and Frax look on. Al suggests spies like Blinky should be killed, but Toadborg claims to have a better use for him. He turns on the machine and we find out that androids apparently feel pain. At least it sure seems like Blinky is in pain. When the deed is done, a deactivated Blinky is left lying on the gurney while Frix and Frax watch a beauty contest on Toad TV. With those two distracted and arguing about who should win, Blinky reactivates himself and takes off. The two hear the sound of Blinky’s tin-can like feet and immediately give chase. Blinky is able to give them the slip though forcing them to raise the alarm.

Meet hologram Bruiser.

Outside, Blinky runs right into the Air Marshall and a few Storm Troopers. Blinky isn’t exactly the fighting type, so he uses his projector to project a hologram of his buddy Bruiser. The Storm Troopers flee in terror, while the Air Marshall is left shaking in his boots. Eventually, Blinky turns off the hologram revealing it was a fake further embarrassing the Air Marshall. He then commandeers a Toad Double Bubble and takes off while three Double Bubbles pursue.

No spacesuit needed for Blinky.

In space, the Righteous Indignation picks up the approaching Double Bubbles on its scanners. Dead-Eye is ready to fry them when Jenny is able to see that Blinky is piloting one. Dead-Eye is forced to stand down as the pursuing Double Bubbles open fire. Conveniently they blast off the hatch on Blinky’s side of the vessel and he jumps out before the rest of it explodes. Bucky opens the bay door and Blinky is able to get to it safely allowing for Dead-Eye to blast the remaining Double Bubbles into oblivion.

With Blinky safely aboard, he informs the others that the shield has been deactivated. They congratulate him and head for the planet. At ground level, Frix and Frax seem prepared to get eaten alive by Toadborg until they find out he intended for the android to escape. Putting Frix and Frax in charge all but assured it would happen. Air Marshall and the others are confused, but Toadborg obviously has a plan.

The hand wants what it wants.

Blinky heads for his usual spot by the engine. It’s there he hears the voice of Toadborg beckoning him to sabotage the ship. Blinky tries to resist, but his hand grabs hold of some hardwired device. As he tries to resist, sparks shoot out of him and he collapses while whatever he was holding gets ripped from wherever it was. The ship immediately loses control and starts spinning teaching Willy a valuable lesson about seat belts. As Bucky and Jenny try to gain control, Bruiser returns to the cockpit with Blinky in his arms. They quickly realize what happened, but will need to act fast because the ship is heading straight for a sun. Willy says in order to fix the ship, he’ll need to fix Blinky first. On Rigel 5, Air Marshall and the others watch as the Righteous Indignation barrels towards the sun and celebrate when they see a resulting explosion.

Is this the end for Bucky O’Hare? Not likely.

With Bucky and his crew apparently out-of-the-way, Komplex contacts the group to recall the troops from Rigel 5 as they now can commence with an attack on the mammals. Al Negator approaches the Air Marshall about payment for the defense shield, but the Air Marshall deems it obsolete now with Bucky no longer a concern. In space, the Righteous Indignation races into focus unbeknownst to the Toads. It’s explained that Willy and Blinky, together, fixed the ship after Willy fixed Blinky. It was also Willy’s idea to jettison a fuel tank to create the explosion the Toads saw. With the ship repaired and the shield still down, the crew turns its attention back to the koalas of Rigel Five.

Al is amused by Blinky’s apparent loyalty while the Air Marshall frets over the bomb in his suit.

Al does not take kindly to such talk. He retrieves some device and he slips it into the Air Marshall’s suit. He tells him it’s a killer bee bomb and he better get paid or else it’s going to explode. As he dances around, Blinky returns. He claims his task is completed and that he escaped from the ship before it plunged into the sun. He requests a new task, and the Air Marshall tells him he has nothing for him and to go relax. He’ll be taken care of since he took care of Bucky O’Hare. He then settles up with Al.

Bruiser making his television debut.

The rest of the crew arrives and takes over a Toad TV production studio. It seems Quintin the koala came up with the idea of putting Bruiser on live television to scare away the toads vacationing at the resort. Bruiser is a bit shy at first, but once the cameras start rolling he gets into it. Outside, Al Negator is enjoying a hot tub filled with a red-orange, bubbling, liquid while Air Marshall is at his side. He’s enjoying counting his payment for the defense shield when Bruiser appears on a nearby television. As other toads panic and flee, Air Marshall realizes he’ll need Al’s help once again. Al is happy to oblige, but he’ll need to see some more money.

It’s going to cost Air Marshall a few bucks to get Al out of this hot tub.

Air Marshall leads Al as well as Frix and Frax to the production studio. He’s not intimidated by the broadcast as he thinks Bruiser is still a hologram. A fire-fight breaks out when they arrive, and everyone is a bad shot including Dead-Eye. Since no one can actually get shot, Air Marshall blasts some scaffolding which tumbles down into a make-shift cage that traps the mammals. All except Bruiser. When Bruiser approaches, Frix and Frax bolt while the Air Marshall is left to insist he’s a hologram. He reaches up and grabs Bruiser by the muzzle and becomes distressed when he finds fur on his fingers. Bruiser then does what Bruiser apparently does best by squashing Air Marshall into a football shaped object. He punts the warty little jerk across the room which is apparently enough of a demonstration for even Al Negator to beat it, despite being armed. The Air Marshall jumps into a Double Bubble while Al is forced to jump onto it. The two alternate yelling “Pay me!” “Sue me!” as the spacecraft takes off.

Oh, you poor, stupid, toad.

With the Toads forces gone, Rigel 5 is free once more. Willy informs the koalas that he can probably reverse the defense shields to keep out toads rather than mammals, a welcomed piece of news. Back on Earth, Willy is again at the zoo with the same girl and she’s more impressed with him this time. When she says they need to protect creatures like koalas from the threat of mankind, Willy adds “toadkind” as well which causes her to declare that Willy can be so silly. He makes a stupid winking face at the camera that I refuse to capture, ending the most disappointing episode of the series thus far.

I’m not a fan of this episode, but I do enjoy this pairing.

That’s how “On the Blink” ends, on the lightest note yet. This is the most bland episode thus far which really fits the typical mode of a children’s cartoon from this era. The enemies are too arrogant or stupid to pose a true threat leaving enough of an opening for the heroes to emerge successful. The power of Bruiser is also exploited as just putting him on television is enough to scare legions of toads and cause them to flee the planet all together. I get that they have a paralyzing fear of Berserker Baboons, but this seems excessive. It would also seem Al Negator possesses a similar fear since he turns tail and runs too, despite being armed with a gun and Bruiser not.

The episode tries to make Blinky its star, but doesn’t do much with him. His usefulness is on display, but I expected the episode to try to humanize him in some fashion but it makes little to no effort on that front. We do see some empathy towards Blinky from the crew, in particular from Bruiser who refers to him affectionately as Little Buddy. Blinky is basically inherently likable because of his cute design and helpful demeanor so perhaps he does not need humanizing, but it would have been interesting to see something more.

Jenny felt the need to arm herself in this one.

Ultimately, this is a very ho-hum episode and the worst one of the series. It’s the type of children’s programming that is most likely successful at occupying a kid for a half hour, but little else. For an older viewer, there’s little to be entertained by as the humor is conventional and the animation quality mediocre with minimal action to fall back on. About the only thing of interest to me is seeing Jenny running around with a gun for the first time. She had been willing to go unarmed in prior episodes where she could rely on her psychic powers, but maybe the sidearm is a cover? It’s interesting that she wouldn’t just always have it, if that was the case. Interestingly, the gun design is the same as one of the included pistols with the Hasbro Dead-Eye Duck figure and I can recall my friends and I referring to it as “Jenny’s gun” when we were kids. Boss Fight Studio opted to include it as well with their Dead-Eye and their Jenny possess a hand capable of holding it even though she didn’t come with an accessory to hold herself. Anyway, this is an episode best forgotten and hopefully isn’t a sign of things to come.

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May 13, 2019

Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars – “Home, Swampy, Home”

By Joe

Episode Number: 4

Original Air Date: September 29, 1991

Directed by: Karen Peterson

Written by: Christy Marx

First Appearance: Mimi LaFloo, Captain Smada

Episode Four essentially marks the part of this series where we move from a strictly serialized format to something more traditional for a children’s program. “Home, Swampy, Home” does not follow a cliff-hanger nor does it leave another one at its conclusion. However, that doesn’t mean we’ve lost all semblance of continuity. The plot of the episode is still a reference to the first set of stories as Bucky’s home planet of Warren needs to have its climate restored and there’s still the question of where the Toads have taken Bucky’s fellow hares.

A sleekly animated intro welcomes our hero into episode four where he truly gets to shine.

Considering this episode is going to focus primarily on the hares, it should be no surprise that Bucky is front and center. Our first three episodes were very much an ensemble, with perhaps Willy getting the most focus and backstory on the greater conflict between mammals and toads taking center stage. The writers and producers of this show will now take time to flesh out the supporting cast, and they’re starting with the captain himself. Eventually, characters like Dead-Eye and Bruiser will get episodes that allow them to spread their wings and even dabble in their past lives before joining Bucky’s crew. It’s a smart approach when your cast of characters is sizable, and it’s a strategy Fox’s X-Men would utilize the following year and even well into season two as its cast was particularly cumbersome. Even though the episode focus is getting narrower, we still have time for new characters and this one will introduce a fairly important one in Mimi LaFloo (Margot Pinvidic).

I suppose it makes sense that the Toads would have some amphibious vessels.

The episode opens with one of the better pieces of animation we’ve seen so far. Bucky, on the flooded planet of Warren, is piloting the Toad Croaker like a jet ski as it shoots across the surface of the water. Jenny and the others are in communication with him from the Righteous Indignation and we quickly learn that Bucky is surveying the planet for remaining hares while also being on the lookout for Toad forces. A barge like watercraft soon rises from below the water’s surface with a trio of Storm Troopers aboard it and a large canon. Our quite lovely animation level then drops back to the standards we should be used to by now as Bucky maneuvers the Croaker into the sky to avoid laser fire. He then turns around and demonstrates the primary method of attack of the Croaker by squishing the troopers and the barge they’re floating on.

That’s why they call it the Toad Croaker.

In Warren’s orbit, the Righteous Indignation is under fire from Toad spacecraft and is forced to pull out. Their communication equipment is down, and Jenny instructs Blinky to take over piloting duties while she tries to reach Willy. On Earth, Willy seems to be enjoying a sunny day outside piloting a remote controlled airplane when he hears Jenny inside his own mind reaching out to him. She reminds him of the memory stone she gave him at the conclusion of the previous episode and he reaches into his pocket to pull it out. He can see Jenny communicating through the stone and she urges him to return to the Righteous Indignation as they need help.

The memory stone in action.

Willy soon arrives and Bruiser is there to greet him with his battle suit in hand. Willy heads up to the cockpit and is surprised to find only Jenny and Blinky. Jenny tells him Bucky went to Warren to seek guidance from his mentor, which is why he didn’t permit anyone to go with him. We cut to Bucky pulling up the Croaker to a cave. Light is pouring out and we just hear a voice over play while Bucky stares into the cave telling him it’s easier to take a fortress by stealth from within than by force. Bucky then turns around and jumps into the Croaker and takes off. I don’t know if that statement was meant to be cryptic, because it was pretty direct. I also have no idea why they felt they needed to keep Bucky’s mentor a secret. Maybe for time? Maybe no one could come up with a design that was interesting? It’s pretty clunky and weird though.

How Bucky reacts to the site of his mentor. I guess we’re not missing much.

As Bucky shoots through the sky, another barge emerges and this fires grappling hooks. They grab onto the Croaker and stop it in mid-air. Bucky, who is neither wearing a seatbelt nor helmet (tisk, tisk), is ejected from the Croaker when it comes to an abrupt stop and lands right in a net aboard the Toad barge. The Toads then happily celebrate the capture of Bucky O’Hare.

Captured again. Aww gee.

Bucky is taken to a rather neat looking Toad spacecraft. This show seems stretched thin in terms of its budget so its nice to see that AKOM didn’t just continually reuse the same spacecraft for the Toads over and over. This vessel is under the supervision of Captain Smada (Richard Newman), a rather fancy looking Toad who would look at home on the stage. He’s pretty delighted to see what his subordinates have brought him and he immediately radios to the Toad Air Marshall to inform him of what’s transpired.

Meet Mimi LaFloo. She’s an important one to remember.

On a planet new to us, we get a look at the hares who have been captured and are being forced into labor for the Toads. They’re being worked hard, apparently, but all anticipate being set free eventually by their hero: Bucky O’Hare. All, that is, except one fox by the name of Mimi LaFloo. She is not content to sit around and wait for some hero to come and save them and is pretty sick and tired of hearing about Bucky O’Hare from the other hares. The workers are introduced to the new overseer of this factory: Toad Air Marshall. He promises to make them work harder and faster so their very important project can meet its deadline.

Captain Smada gets the credit for the capture.

Air Marshall’s proclamations are interrupted by a transmission from Captain Smada. Smada proudly displays his captured Bucky O’Hare and an excited Air Marshall orders he be sent to him immediately. From the ship, Bucky is able to watch this conversation play out and learn the location of his fellow hares. At the factory, the Air Marshall happily announces over the PA the news of Bucky’s capture. The other hares are shown down-trodden at the news, some even weeping, while Mimi tries to use it as a rallying cry. There’s no more waiting around, they need to act if they want to save themselves.

The other hares do not take the Bucky news well.

Mimi begins actively organizing a resistance movement and needs the cooperation of the hares if they’re going to escape. She interacts primarily with a hare named Larry (Scott McNeil) and a chubby hare named Bob (Jason Michas) who are rather meek in her presence. They’re wiling to take orders from her and provide a look-out as she sneaks into a secure area to hack a computer terminal. The animation of Mimi at the console is particularly brutal as she seems to float around while typing. She is able to print out (on old school computer paper) plans for whatever it is they’re being forced to work on and when she shows it to the other hares they recoil in horror to see it’s a climate converter, like the one used to turn Warren into a swamp.

Mimi’s awkward keyboard animation.

On Smada’s ship, Komplex contacts the captain and demands to know why it wasn’t informed immediately about Bucky’s capture. Smada is quivering and we cut to Toadborg who reminds Smada they have a score to settle with the green rabbit. Komplex, demands Smada place Bucky on his fastest transport vessel and send him to the Toad home world and Smada is forced to obey. A sleek looking Toad ship is then shown launching from Smada’s and it shoots through space.

Smada is in a bit of hot water.

Mimi and the others are shown at work at the factory. Mimi literally tosses a wrench into the machine they’re working on causing an explosion. As they celebrate their little act of sabotage, Storm Troopers come racing in and round them up at gunpoint. It doesn’t seem like they thought this one through.

Torture time, in a very Saturday morning kind of fashion.

Aboard the Righteous Indignation, Jenny is able to intercept the communication between Komplex and Captain Smada. They also use it to figure out a last known location and she has Willy engage the warp drive. As he does, we get more goofy animation where Willy appears to turn a gauge like a dial. The Righteous Indignation rockets through space and is able to catch up with the transport ship. Apparently unaware that Bucky is physically on the ship, Dead-Eye opens fire and scores a few hits. Aboard the ship, the fire causes the ship to lurch and the trooper drops the keys to Bucky’s restraints. He’s able to secure them and takes out the others before radioing to the Righteous Indignation to hold their fire. He then shares the news that he knows where his fellow hares are, and citing the message his master had for him, that he knows someone who can infiltrate the base and free them: Angus McJump.

The Righteous Indignation goes after their captain.

In the slave factory, Frix and Frax are overseeing a torture session. Mimi and the other hares who participated in her little stunt are plugged into a machine that broadcasts Toad TV directly into their brains, basically. We’re even shown what they’re watching, an infomercial for fly paper wallpaper. The Air Marshall is then shown ranting about the injustice of Komplex diverting the captured Bucky O’Hare to the Toad home world. Feeling he needs to get back in the good graces of Komplex, he orders the torture session suspended so that the workers can start working double-time to complete the climate converter ahead of schedule.

A shadowy hare among some pretty cool looking ruins.

Back on Warren, some toads out on patrol in another new piece of watercraft spot a lone hare at the mouth of a temple of some kind. They head over and find an elderly green hare in a ragged cloak with a beard and an eyepatch. He pleads for mercy as they apprehend him and it’s not hard to figure out that this is Bucky in disguise. Angus McJump, as he’s called, is taken to the factory with the other hares. There Bucky is reunited with his Aunt Iris (Pinvidic) and he reveals his disguise to her. She lets him know they have formed a resistance and that she’ll bring him to its leader in the evening. They then enter the hangar where most of the construction is ongoing and Bucky is horrified to see another climate converter.

The Toads are not too impressed with the capture of Angus McJump.

In the mess hall, Aunt Iris is showing Bucky around and he sees Mimi for the first time and is rather impressed. She’s rallying the troops, so to speak, and when one mentions Bucky O’Hare she practically bites his head off. Bucky assures his aunt that he’ll handle things from here, and he approaches Mimi with some exuberance. He claims to be a hare of 92 who really wants to help, and after some convincing, Mimi agrees to let him be a lookout. Larry is then selected to be the focal point of their attack as he was the second best jumper on Warren (I bet you can’t guess who was first) and his skills will be crucial for Mimi’s plan.

Bucky is able to track down his Aunt Iris among the hares.

The next day, Mimi and the hares are basically standing around just wiping walls. It seems like a rather useless task, but whatever. When the sentry yawns and closes his eyes a moment they duck inside the main chamber of the climate converter. There Mimi sneaks up behind the lone guard and puts him in a chokehold while dragging him out of frame. She and the hares emerge with the guard’s rifle and they use it to subdue the scientists inside. Outside, Angus heads in and the sentry awakens to see the missing fox (who must really stand out) and hares and demands to know where they are. The remaining hares simply shrug their shoulders and the sentry raises the alarm.

Mimi’s introduction to Mr. McJump.

Mimi and Larry race to the surface of the climate converter. The other guards are now aware of their location and are firing upon them. Way up high is the command tower they need to reach if they want to shut the place down. It’s up to Larry to make the jump, but one look and he balks. He turns to Mimi to tell her he can’t make it, but she won’t hear it and reminds him their whole plan is dependent upon him making that jump. With no other choice, Larry prepares to make a leap he knows he can’t possibly make when a commanding voice from offscreen shouts “Forget it, kid, you’d never make it!” Angus emerges, and as Mimi reminds him he’s supposed to be the lookout, he removes his costume to reveal his true identity. Larry and Mimi are shocked as Bucky informs her he doesn’t do well taking orders, referring to her as “Foxy.” He bolts for the tower and with a mighty leap he’s just barely able to reach the railing. He hops over the guard rail and batters the lone armed guard and steals his rifle. The Air Marshall and others are forced to run and seek shelter in an elevator. As the door closes, poor Frax collides with it knocking himself unconscious.

Mimi doing her best Solid Snake.

Bucky gets on the PA and alerts the other captives that he’s here to set them free. Larry and the other hares are shown jumping and cheering while Mimi looks on with awe. Bucky blasts the console which controls the various turrets and other security measures allowing the prisoners to revolt and take down their captors. Jenny is able to detect the reduced security measures and the Righteous Indignation heads down.

Larry is not up to the task at hand.

The other hares happily approach Bucky and thank him for the rescue. The hand shake is rather awkwardly animated, hopefully I don’t sound like I’m beating a dead horse by pointing this out. Mimi also thanks Bucky and seems to be quite impressed with the funky, fresh, rabbit. She does inform him to never address her as “Foxy” again though before taking her leave. The others arrive and Bruiser enjoys flattening a few leftover toadies and everyone appears to be in a joyful mood.

And here comes Bucky!

Their celebratory moment is interrupted though by the Air Marshall. He’s now in a Double Bubble vessel with Frix and he informs Bucky that he’s going to explode the entire factory. Frix is alarmed to hear this and he informs the Air Marshall that there are still toads in that factory, including Frax. Air Marshall remarks it’s a price he’s willing to pay. Willy is on it though, and he fires up the climate converter and creates a massive windstorm around the factory. It’s almost comically effective as the hatch on the Double Bubble is blown open causing the Air Marshall to lose the remote detonator he held. The ship then goes spinning wildly out of control and crashes in a firy explosion, so I guess Frix and the Air Marshall are dead? Bucky congratulates Willy on a job well done while Willy shares some good news. He theorizes that they should be able to figure out a way to reverse the damage done on Warren now that they have a climate converter in their possession.

If this were some big sporting moment we’d probably dub this The Leap.

On Genus, the Secretary General is proud to announce that the United Animal Fleet is being expanded once again to include a third frigate. It’s captain will be none other than Mimi LaFloo, based on a recommendation from Bucky O’Hare. Mimi is dressed in a regal looking blue pilot ensemble and when the Secretary General suggests she thank Bucky she is more than happy to do so, in her own way. She plants a kiss on the smitten captain while Jenny turns away in disgust. I’m not sure how we’re supposed to take that. Jenny is either disgusted with Mimi for her conduct of utilizing her sex appeal to woo Bucky, or does she harbor feelings for Bucky as well? Maybe she’s just ticked he recommended Mimi receive her own frigate rather than advocate for Jenny to get her own ship? That would make sense, though I doubt that’s how we’re supposed to take it. Or is this just a lame joke and Jenny is acting “catty” towards another female since she is a cat? Anyways, Mimi names her new vessel, a gray frigate, The Screaming Mimi as the episode ends.

Looks like Bucky won over a new fan.

Going into this series, if someone told me they wanted to watch one episode of Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars and asked me to recommend just one, this is the episode I would have selected. It basically gives us a look at both the myth of Bucky, as perceived by the hares, and the actual hero that Bucky is. I wish the episode went even further with that and included the captive hares sharing some tall tales of Bucky, with some fun ones that were obviously more myth than factual. It’s interesting to see how Bucky is perceived by the other hares and how they expect him to just show up eventually and make everything right. And he kind of does, and the moment where he reveals himself and makes his gravity-defying leap of faith is one of the better moments in the entire series.

Mimi looking rather dashing in her new uniform.

That’s not to say the episode is perfect. I noted many animation shortcomings throughout and this one does get rather ugly in places. Running animation continues to be an issue and overall things are just very stiff. Which is a shame since the episode looks great in the opening moments. AKOM definitely has an easier time with the spacecraft which makes sense since there are less moving parts. That’s not to say there isn’t some room for praise. The backgrounds on Warren look really nice and I enjoy the look of that world the short time we’re there. The additional new pieces of Toad tech are also welcomed so at least there’s a willingness to keep introducing new designs and models and not just re-hashing the same old thing. Budget constraints are also taking their toll on the cast as well as it’s obvious the show wanted to keep things small. Margot Pinvidic has been tasked with voicing every female so far and to differentiate Mimi from Jenny she basically talks in a lower, more even, tone with Mimi. At times, some more excitement would be nice out of Mimi, but maybe then she’d sound too close to Jenny or something. Scott McNeil also does a ton of Toad voices in addition to Dead-Eye, though given that Dead-Eye is barely in this one, it’s not as noticeable as it has been in past episodes.

That’s one way to thank a rabbit.

Mimi LaFloo is a great addition to the series, whatever your thoughts on her methods of showing gratitude. It was really uncommon in 1991 to see a female character take charge like she does throughout the episode. She’s an anti-princess if you’re definition of a princess is in the classic Disney sense where a damsel in distress sits around and waits for her prince to show up. Mimi is a go-getter and a natural leader. It’s also amusing for the viewer to see her irritated at the mention of Bucky O’Hare only to be left in awe when she gets a glimpse of his exploits herself. At the end of the episode she gets acknowledgement from the council for her leadership skills in freeing the slaves and also rewarded by having the rank of captain bestower upon her. She and Bucky are essentially equals, and I expect her to be portrayed as such going forward.

Jenny is not a fan of Captain LaFloo.

“Home, Swampy, Home” does still suffer a bit in the pacing department, even though it’s more of a stand-alone episode than the previous three. Bucky’s meeting with his mentor is basically glossed over and the whole thing feels really awkward. There wasn’t a better, more streamlined way for Bucky to have the idea planted in his head that a stealth approach is better than a full-frontal assault? He should already be familiar with that anyways, since he and his crew have had to fight the entire Toad army basically on their own. They should have cut all of that and just had Bucky get captured like he did anyway and come to that conclusion on his own. Then there would have been a little more time to build towards the big escape or to add some more of that myth-making I desired.

So they do come in different shapes and colors.

After the episode basically leaves Warren, the pacing is actually all right. The Toad security measures are obviously laughable, but I like the little textures put in place. The Toad guards are always aware of where Mimi is, because she stands out. Komplex overruling the Air Marshall is a nice callback to its displeasure at the end of the last episode and demonstrates how far the Air Marshall has fallen. It’s the type of thing little kids might not really notice or even appreciate, but it’s a nice observation for older viewers. The main competition for Bucky was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and aside from all of the jargon that show threw at viewers, its plots were super simple. This show was aiming higher. The execution isn’t perfect, but at least it’s trying. It should be mentioned that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles enjoyed a similar start with inter-connected episodes introducing the Turtles and their main foes before things started to get really silly when it got a full episode order. Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars would obviously never get that order, but it’s only four episodes deep right now and there’s time for it to devolve into lesser entertainment. For now, the start has been solid and this episode is still the one I’d recommend to people just looking to get a taste of what the show is about.

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May 6, 2019

Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars – “The Good, the Bad, and the Warty”

By Joe

Episode Number: 3

Original Air Date: September 22, 1991

Directed by: Karen Peterson

Written by: Christy Marx

First Appearance: Mother Aldebaran

It seems our animal friends can’t stay out of trouble. At the end of the first episode it looked like Bucky and his crew would be annihilated by the entire Toad fleet. They escaped destruction there with the help of the recently displaced Willy DuWitt. Victory was short-lived as episode two ended with the sleazasaur spy, Al Negator, making off with the codes to the defense system of the capital planet in the United Animal Security Council. He managed to escape capture by Bucky O’Hare and was safely in the confines of the Toad Mothership. Worse, the Righteous Indignation was in turn captured by the Toad Empire and we’ll begin episode three with Bucky and his crew inside the Toad Mothership as well.

It’s action time!

Our episode begins as the second did with a broadcast from Toad TV. Andy Phibian is broadcasting from inside the Toad Mothership to report on the imminent capture of Bucky O’Hare, until Toadborg strolls into the picture. Phibian is the same reporter featured in the opening credits, and given how the last two episodes begin, it makes me wonder if the show was supposed to feature him in most episodes giving a news broadcast. If so, it’s abandoned quickly as this is Phibian’s last official appearance. His character model will be re-used as a generic background character, but he won’t be giving any more broadcasts. Toadborg is apparently camera-shy, putting an end to that transmission. Bucky and the rest are grouped on the Righteous Indignation as Toad Storm Troopers blast it from outside. They can’t hide forever as the ship can’t take much so they do the only thing they can: they fight!

Guns? Bruiser doesn’t need guns.

Bucky, Jenny, Dead-Eye and Willy burst through the laser fire and head in different directions. Despite being severely out-numbered, they escape harm. Dead-Eye and Willy climb aboard the Toad Croaker that Al Negator abandoned while Bucky and Jenny duck into a corridor, eventually splitting up. Bruiser is left to guard the ship while Blinky remains aboard, presumably to make repairs. Bruiser has little trouble with his task as the Toad Storm Troopers are paralyzed with fear at the sight of him. He squishes one into a ball and has fun jumping up and down on the others.

Dogstar looks like he’s taking a snooze while Wolf looks stoned. Good allies.

The Mothership is heading for Genus accompanied by the Toad fleet of Double Bubbles. Commander Dogstar and Wolf are shown from the Indefatigable when Dogstar realizes where he recognized Al Negator’s scent from. Theorizing that Bucky is in trouble, they activate their warp drive to zero in on Bucky’s last known position. Bucky is shown running through a corridor being chased by Storm Troopers. He shoots up some pipes along the walls releasing steam, allowing for a “steamed” pun (sadly, no pigs are present for a Steamed Ham pun). Jenny is also shown making the rounds taking out security cameras wherever she finds them.

The latest Toad mechanical monstrosity.

Dead-Eye and Willy are soon shown being chased by a rather nasty looking Toad robot. Air Marshall seems to refer to it as a Void Droid, and Toadborg will make a reference to it later. Dead-Eye’s lasers do nothing to it, and as it gains on he and Willy in the Toad Croaker he insists Willy use his secret weapon. Willy tries to protest as he knows his gun is just a water pistol, but he gives it a shot when Dead-Eye insists. It turns out the machine is not waterproof and one squirt from Willy’s gun takes it out. The Air Marshall, watching via a security monitor, is enraged at this deficiency while Frix and Frax seem to be amused. Dead-Eye congratulates Willy and then makes a confession. He hands over the play money he swiped from Willy’s bag, and Willy tries to tell him what it is. Dead-Eye instead is rather impressed that he considers a stack of cash of that size “play money,” but a hard turn of the Croaker causes Willy to tumble out and into a laundry chute of some kind which causes his helmet to pop off. When Willy looks up, he’s face to face with Al Negator.

Bucky’s initial shot makes a dent, but none of the others will.

Bucky enters a prison yard in hopes of freeing his fellow hares, but all he finds are empty shackles. He soon comes face to face with Toadborg. He informs Bucky that all of the hares have already been moved to slave factories and there’s nothing he can do about it. Bucky, taking Toadborg to just be another robot, fires his gun at him and chips away at Toadborg’s frame. Repeated blasts have no effect though and he’s forced to crank his gun up to full power, but even that fails. He then tries to jump away (and the episode uses a silly spring sound effect for Bucky’s leaps), but Toadborg is a pretty fine jumper himself and is able to grab Bucky by the ears. He then deploys some kind of gas from his fingers that knocks him out. He then heads off with his prize.

Jenny’s powers prove to be just as “effective” as Bucky’s pistol.

Jenny soon breaks into an area of the Mothership and too comes face to face with Toadborg and the unconscious Bucky. She uses her powers on him thinking he’ll crumble like the droid she encountered in the previous episode, but Toadborg returns fire knocking her over. She remarks that he’s not actually a robot and Toadborg is impressed she could detect that. He picks her up by the hair and uses the same gas that he used on Bucky to knock her unconscious. Toadborg then orders some troopers around him to throw she and Bucky into some “jettison tubes.”

Al and his “Willies”

Al Negator is pretty puzzled by the sight of Willy. Not really knowing what he is, he tries to figure out a way to make use of him. Willy demands Al return the codes he stole, and to his surprise, Al Negator is willing to do so – for a price. Willy gets resourceful and pulls out the stack of play money. Al Negator has never seen currency like that before, though he seems to recognize it as some kind of currency. Willy calls his play money “Willies” and says they’re a new currency backed by the United Mammal Fleet. His fib fools the purple lizard and he agrees to deal for the codes, but he wants all of Willy’s Willies. Willy acts like the request is outrageous, then feigns acceptance as he hands over the play money in exchange for the disk. Al Negator then walks away counting his Willies.

You would think Dead-Eye would have better luck than the others with these canons.

Toadborg then confronts Dead-Eye who is still flying around in the Toad Croaker. He tries blasting Toadborg with the Croaker’s canons at close range but they’re just as ineffective as a pistol. He then resorts to just trying to run him over, but Toadborg grabs the Croaker and swings it causing Dead-Eye to crash into a wall.

Not the place to be.

With Bucky, Jenny, and Dead-Eye captured, Toadborg places all three into clear cylindrical tubes. They’re airlocks of some kind and Toadborg intends to torture his captives to get some information. He starts with Bucky, and he causes the tube to empty its oxygen while demanding Bucky tell him the status of the United Animal Fleet. Bucky won’t talk though, and Komplex interjects that Bucky won’t be broken (Komplex is rather impatient). Komplex goes on to say it doesn’t matter, they’ll soon have the codes to attack Genus as they currently wait just outside the defense perimeter. Willy then enters and attempts to use his squirt gun against Toadborg. Dressed in his baboon outfit, Toadborg initially recoils in fear before reminding himself that he’s now far beyond the power of a baboon. When Willy blasts him he acts insulted that he thinks a small amount of water could harm him. Realizing he can’t stop Toadborg, he whips out the disk he purchased from Al Negator and uses it to demand the release of his friends. Bucky orders Willy to destroy the codes reasoning his life, and the that of the others, is not as important as protecting Genus. Willy is hesitant to do so, and there are repeated shots of his face with a worried look even though in every other shot he’s wearing his baboon mask. I can’t tell if this is an error or if its intentional to show us Willy’s anguish. At the urging of his friends, Willy does indeed smash the disk preventing Toadborg from getting the codes.

Jenny has some explaining to do.

At least, that’s what Willy thought he was doing. Al Negator comes strolling in to let Toadborg know he didn’t fail in his mission. He made a copy, as he should have, and happily hands it over to Toadborg in exchange for his payment. Toadborg then grabs Willy and tosses him in another pod before inserting the disk into his own mainframe. He and Al leave with the console controlling the tubes switched on. The oxygen is leaving the tubes and soon Bucky and his friends will be launched into space. As things look dire, Jenny kneels down and reaches out to her Aldebaran sisters. The gem on her helmet then changes to display a green-furred cat she refers to as Mother Aldebaran. She asks for her permission to use her secret powers in the presence of outsiders. The Mother reminds her that such an act is forbidden, but then suggests a Level 3 psychic blast would likely go unnoticed. She thanks the feline, and a beam shoots forth from Jenny that destroys the console and frees them all. When Bucky questions what happened, Jenny simply reasons that they don’t build them like they used to.

Something weird is going on with Toadborg here.

On the bridge, Toadborg strolls in to declare that he possesses the codes to Genus’ defense system. When Air Marshall requests he hand them over, he refuses saying he’ll broadcast them. He seats himself in a throne-like chair as radio waves seem to transmit the codes to the orbiting satellites. They go into an idle mode and Toadborg then ejects himself from the controls of the Toad Climate Converter. The saucer-like vessel then heads for the surface world.

While the others ran around, Blinky was busy making repairs.

Bucky and the others return to the Righteous Indignation. Bruiser had kept the Toads at bay while Blinky made repairs and reports the ship is at a functional 70%. Upon leaving the Mothership they encounter Dogstar and the Indefatigable. Dogstar agrees to do what he can with the many Toad ships surrounding Genus while Bucky and his crew go after Toadborg. They head down to Genus to find a storm raging all around the Climate Converter. Bucky disembarks to go take on Toadborg alone and insists everyone else remain on the ship, but Willy jumps at the last-minute. When Bucky asks him what he’s doing he insists that Bucky will need an engineer to take this thing down.

Bucky vs Toadborg, Round 2.

Bucky and Willy are quickly confronted by Toadborg. Bucky shoves Willy behind some machinery so that Toadborg doesn’t notice him. He once more tries blasting Toadborg, but that’s just as effective as it was on the Mothership. He then uses his brains and insults Toadborg, wondering why Komplex would waste resources on preserving one measly toad. It’s apparently effective, as Bucky gets Toadborg to chase him to the surface of the structure allowing Willy to head for the main controls. Outside the storm rages all around them, and Bucky is able to seek cover behind some electrical structures. Toadborg demonstrates another one of his tricks as his arms extend to try and grab the green hare, but he just gets zapped by exposed wires. Down below, Dead-Eye bursts in to help Willy and Willy informs him he switched some stuff around and basically turned the apparatus on the surface of the Climate Converter into a lightning rod. They jump back into the Righteous Indignation and flee knowing this thing is about to get destroyed. As they fly off, Bucky sees them and makes a jump for it while Toadborg runs off to try and undo what Willy has done. When it looks like Bucky’s leap will come up short, Bruiser reaches down and snatches him by the cape. Toadborg can only watch helplessly as lightning batters him and the Climate Converter eventually causing it to explode.

Komplex does not look happy.

With Toadborg taken out, the defense codes cease their transmission. The satellites then re-arm themselves and take aim at the Toad vessels in Genus’ airspace. They open fire and all of the toads inside the Mothership are forced to head for the escape pods. Air Marshall and his lackeys leave in a slave ship and we see a battered Toadborg, floating in space, grab onto a fleeing Double Bubble. Komplex appears on the monitor in the slave ship demanding the Air Marshall to return to the home world at once. While he passes out, Frix and Frax giggle and ponder what Komplex will do to him as punishment.

Apparently lightning and explosions can harm Toadborg.

The Righteous Indignation is shown buzzing around Genus taking in the cheers. Bucky then ducks inside to find Willy as he prepares to leave to head home. He tells him he should come out and soak in the cheers since he played a huge role in saving Genus, but the modest Willy DuWitt insists he needs to get back. They all say their goodbyes, except Jenny who is no where to be found. Willy asks Bucky to say goodbye for him, with a little blush, and then Jenny emerges from the cockpit. She says she was working on an Aldebaran crystal communicator called a memory stone which she gives to Willy so he can contact them whenever he needs to, and vice versa. She plants another kiss on him and sends him on his way, Willy blushing uncontrollably.

Al takes Willy’s deception quite well.

On some planet apparently occupied by mammals, Al Negator is at a bar and is attempting to spend some of his “Willies.” An orangutan working the bar tells Al he’s checked all over and no one is backing any currency called Willies. Al realizes he’s been cheated, but rather than act mad he actually has a laugh. When the bartender starts laughing along he takes exception and tosses the guy aside. He then vows to find the mammal who gave him the Willies and make him pay.

Willy continues to have the hots for Jenny.

We’re then taken to Earth where Willy, Doug, and the other guys are showing their skateboard off at a science fair for school. Doug is taking all of the credit for the invention while Willy is behind a computer monitor. One of the other guys tries to reassure Willy by telling him not to pay Doug any mind, but Willy doesn’t care as he’s staring forlornly at the amulet Jenny gave him and the image of the crew appears on it as the episode ends.

Episode 3 is essentially the action-heavy episode I was expecting. Bucky and his crew are in enemy territory without the aid of stealth and are forced to blast their way to safety while also trying to protect the planet Genus. The action is fairly tame as apparently Bucky won’t be allowed to simply blast Toads, which is expected, and probably why we’ve seen some robots early on. Toadborg gets to demonstrate his might and he’s a formidable foe. He also shares pretty much his entire back story confirming he’s not a robot, but a former Storm Trooper turned into a cyborg. We also see more of the Dead-Eye/Willy pairing which is working well early on and we also get a little insight into Jenny’s powers. The Mother Aldebaran thing will get a bit more confusing in a later episode when Jenny returns to her home world and there isn’t a character matching that name. She’ll confer with someone named the High Artificer, but she doesn’t match the image we saw in Jenny’s amulet. At the time, Jenny’s ability to free them from the trap they’re in feels a bit too convenient, but at least the show plans on following up on it. I also like that some mystery is preserved here.

Our first happy ending of the series.

Visually, this episode is the worst so far. It might have to do with our characters no longer largely being stationary as they’re forced to flee the confines of their spaceship and do battle on foot. The running, particularly Bucky and Toadborg during their fight, is choppy and the characters practically glide. There’s clearly not enough frames of animation in places. Toadborg’s eyes also keep changing color, and I don’t think it’s intentional, and at one point Dead-Eye’s head turns orange. Some images look all right, such as when Toadborg is walking away with a limp Bucky and carrying him by the ears. Aside from the eye thing, Toadborg in general looks imposing. I found it confusing though that Bucky’s initial shot blasted away some of Toadborg’s outer shell, but then every subsequent shot did nothing. The blemish also disappears quickly so maybe it was an error to even include it initially. I do like that the fight between Toadborg and Bucky is basically resolved through some ingenuity. Bucky just basically occupies Toadborg while Willy goes to work. No weakness is really exposed with Toadborg, he just under estimates his opponent. The Willy/Jenny stuff still remains weird, but at least we weren’t stuck on Earth for very long in this episode.

This episode essentially concludes the show’s first arch. There’s no cliff-hanger of an ending as Bucky and his crew destroyed the Climate Converter and prevented the Toads from securing the Genus defense system codes. They also destroyed a Mothership in the process, but more likely remain. This is a temporary victory as Bucky still needs to locate his fellow hares and find a way to reverse the damage done to his home world. The rest of the season will focus more on stand-alone stories often with some member of the crew stepping into the spotlight each week, but it doesn’t completely lose sight of those primary goals. Things will steadily build towards the finale, which is a satisfying structure for a show like this. Even though this episode has some warts, it was fairly exciting and the show has created some strong momentum and hopefully the variation in plotting won’t derail that.

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April 29, 2019

Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars – “A Fistful of Simoleans”

By Joe

Episode Number: 2

Original Air Date: September 15, 1991

Directed by: Karen Peterson

Written by: Christy Marx

First Appearance: Toadborg, Al Negator, Bruiser, Commander Dogstar, Wolf, Andy Phibian

When we last checked in with the courageous mammals under the leadership of Captain Bucky O’Hare, they had just lost their chief engineer at a bad time. Their photon accelerator, their means of activating warp drive, had failed and they were under heavy fire from the entire Toad fleet. Then an unusual thing happened, when trying to restart the photon accelerator a great stasis field overtook the ship. It sapped their power and prevented them from leaving it, but also the Toads from entering. This occurred because young Willy DuWitt, a human boy from San Francisco, had just activated his own home constructed photon accelerator as part of a science experiment. He and Bucky had activated their respective machines at precisely the right time opening a rift between their two dimensions expressed by the presence of the stasis field and Willy’s own bedroom door appearing in the engineering bay of the Righteous Indignation.

The Toads apparently broadcast up to the minute coverage of military operations.

Because of Willy’s knowledge gained from the construction of his own photon accelerator, he was equipped with the know-how to fix the one aboard the Righteous Indignation. If they could repair the accelerator it would enable them to utilize the warp drive function and ditch the Toads. If it failed, well then they’re all dead. One additional wrinkle is that Willy expects his door, his passageway back to his own dimension, to vanish once the warp drive is engaged and he doesn’t know if it will return once disengaged. There’s the very real possibility that he could be trapped in this universe completely foreign to him where humanity apparently doesn’t exist.

Bucky is forced to put his faith in the human Willy to get out of a big mess.

Since this is episode two for the series, you’re probably not surprised to learn that despite all of the drama contained in that build-up, Willy’s repairs did indeed work and the heroes were able to escape certain destruction. Pinned down, the Toads were ordered to all fire at once. For some reason, this causes their many lasers to literally combine, it sort of resembles the laser from the Death Star in Star Wars right down to the color green. Dead-Eye’s twin M.A.S.E.R. (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emissions of Radiation) canons are fired at this conjoined beam which apparently cancels the two out. The Righteous Indignation is then able to burst free from the asteroid it was on and escape into warp drive. Those damaged engines from before are apparently all fine now.

Not enough Komplex monitors.

Aboard the Toad Mothership, the Air Marshall is incensed to find out that Bucky O’Hare escaped. He orders the fleet to pursue, but Komplex interrupts him. Komplex declares that the Air Marshall has wasted enough time on Bucky as it appears on a monitor that is affixed to a mechanical arm. Komplex is able to move it around at will, and the angry visage even bursts forth from the monitor screen in what is a really bizarre effect. Komplex doesn’t see how one frigate could possibly pose a problem for the Toad Empire and declares their real target is Genus. When the Air Marshall protests citing Genus’ formidable defense system, Komplex counters that they’ll need to hire a spy to steal the codes to the defense system in order to take it down.

Al Negator sharpening his skills.

Enter Al Negator (Garry Chalk), the sleazasaur. What is a sleazasaur? It’s a bipedal, purple, crocodile with neon green teeth and eyes. Pretty interesting. To complete the look he wears gold-plated armor on his chest and tail and speaks with a Louisiana accent. When we see him, he’s attaching small cards to a wheel with each containing an image of one of the crew members of the Righteous Indignation. He receives a call from the Toad Air Marshall and as he speaks to him via video monitor he holds up a small mirror and uses it to aim over his shoulder. As the wheel spins, he picks off members of the crew in an impressive display of shooting accuracy. Despite that, I’m willing to bet when it comes time to fire upon the actual crew he’ll miss and miss often.

The Air Marshall wishes to hire Al to steal the defense codes. Al is intrigued, but will need a big payment for such a job. He requests 5,000 simoleons, which is apparently the currency in the Aniverse (Animated Universe, in case you were wondering). The Air Marshall balks declaring it extortion, but Al keeps his cool and reminds him that extortion is another one of his many specialties. He adds he’ll need half of the payment upfront and the Air Marshall reluctantly agrees to the deal. Their business concluded, the camera zooms in on Al’s spinning wheel to rest on an image of Bucky O’Hare with a laser hole through his head.

Aboard the Righteous Indignation, the crew congratulates Willy. Without his help, they’d all be dead and they know it. Bucky mentions they just lost their engineer Bruce, and also vows to find him when this business is concluded, and that they need a new one. Willy seems willing, but does cite the need to see his parents and go to school and such. Dead-Eye returns the weapon he confiscated from Willy’s room, which drips water to reveal it’s just a water gun. When Willy tries to explain it to Dead-Eye he refuses an explanation insisting he trusts Willy. Willy then inquires about the Toads – were they always this evil?

The Toads back when they were harmless lovers of useless crap.

Blinky steps in to answer that question. It seems his giant eye also functions as a projector and he plays a brief video detailing the corruption of the Toads. Once upon a time, they were a harmless race mostly obsessed with watching television and acquiring shoddy merchandise (so they were boomers, essentially). Their scientists created Komplex, a program designed to handle all of the remedial tasks in their society that they were too lazy to do themselves. Like all good A.I. though, Komplex eventually went rogue and enslaved the entire population. Now their once swampy home is covered in factories which run seven layers deep. From space, it just looks like a big, metal, sphere. Komplex desires domination of the whole Aniverse and now whoever isn’t a part of the Toad Trooper Army is building ships for said army or working on new technology to improve it.

Mini Golf is big business on Warren.

Willy is distressed to see this, but it is what it is. Bucky then retrieves an old battle suit that belonged to Bruce and instructs Willy to put it on in case things get rough where they’re going. When Willy inquires about that, Blinky pops in yet again to show a video on our next destination: Warren, home planet of Bucky and the hares. The video shows lots of hares in varying colors doing happy things. The climate is described as perfect and there are carrots the size of trees. When the video ends a message is displayed reading “That’s It Furries,” which is a bit funny from today’s point of view given the term furries and the apparent attraction of Jenny towards Willy.

Warren is now one big farty-butt of a planet.

With the Toads no longer pursuing them, the crew of the Righteous Indignation has no trouble heading for Warren. Bucky is dismayed to see how cloudy the atmosphere looks from space, and it gets worse at ground level. The whole planet has been turned into a swamp and appears deserted. Willy says it smells, and Blinky uses an instrument in his hand to detect high levels of methane in the air basically revealing that Warren smells like farts. The crew wonders how the Toads could have altered the entire planet’s climate with Willy declaring it impossible, but Jenny points out the evidence before them which suggests the Toads found a way. Willy finds some piece of Toad tech and feels the need to yell to the crew about his discovery despite being a mere 10 feet away. The device is mangled, but inside is a floppy disk (so dated) that Blinky is able to analyze. Toads apparently possess incredible floppy disks because Blinky finds a video on it and projects it. It’s of a Toad discussing the successful test of their new climate converter used on Warren, confirming what happened, and also makes mention of heading for Genus next. Bucky decides they must leave for Genus immediately and warn them of what’s coming.

If your business is smuggling and spying then this is the shop for you.

In a dank shop, Al Negator is shown bargaining with a rat named Tinker (Scott McNeil). He’s getting some supplies for his new job and is preparing to leave when Tinker’s monitor clicks on suddenly. It’s Commander Dogstar (Chalk), who sounds similar to the Colonel from One-Hundred and One Dalmatians, and he’s here with a warrant for Tinker’s arrest. Tinker tries to flee through a secret passage, but Al knocks him aside and declares it’s more important that he gets out. He slams the door shut behind him as Dogstar and company break down the entrance door. Dogstar, along with Wolf (Richard Newman) and another dog-person enter and apprehend Tinker. Dogstar notices another scent in the air, and Wolf finds where it stops. Since their job was just to apprehend Tinker though, they leave without further investigation.

Bruiser is pretty insistent about being allowed to join Bucky’s crew following the “death” of his brother, Bruce.

On Genus, Bucky and crew disembark as Willy insists he needs to get back to Earth soon. Bucky understands, but mentions they’ll need to hire a new warp drive mechanic. Willy, who is wearing Bruce’s suit, is sent back to the ship to retrieve his helmet by Bucky who says to Jenny that it’s probably best that they keep Willy a secret. Just then, a rather large, and angry, baboon shouts at him. It’s Bruiser (Dale Wilson), the younger brother of Bruce and a space marine. He somehow heard about what happened and is livid with the Toads. He demonstrates what he wants to do to them by crushing some helpless chair that was hanging around and insists that Bucky take him aboard his ship. Bucky is happy to have him, saying they need some muscle, and Bruiser calms down. Until Willy returns in his brother’s suit. With the mask on, he looks just like Bruce and Bruiser runs up and embraces him so hard that the mask pops off. He then becomes angry, and who can blame him, to find someone else in his brother’s suit. The others are able to calm him down insisting that Willy is a friend and Bruiser does indeed settle himself. All the while, Al Negator has been watching the events unfold.

Well, the United Animal Fleet just doubled, at least.

Bucky, Jenny, and Blinky then address the council once again. Blinky plays a video he took of Warren demonstrating the effects of the Toad’s new climate converter. The pig guy is distressed, but when Bucky mentions they’re coming for Genus next he dismisses the possibility out of hand due to their defense system. He then tells Bucky the good news that they’ve decided to expand the fleet. Bucky’s enthusiasm is short-lived though when it’s revealed the fleet is being expanded by one additional frigate: The Indefatigable. Bucky is underwhelmed.

Everyone is suspicious of Al Negator except old, trusting, Bucky.

A raccoon is then headed for an interview for the open position of warp drive mechanic but is intercepted by Al Negator. He directs the raccoon to a doorway, and once opened we see the unconscious bodies of other apparent warp drive mechanics. Al knocks this raccoon unconscious and into the closet before heading over to the Righteous Indignation. There he presents himself to Bucky O’Hare as a warp drive mechanic. His phony credentials fool Bucky, but Jenny says something doesn’t feel right as Al stands there and whistles suspiciously. Dead-Eye then points out he’s a sleazasaur, who apparently have a bad reputation. Bucky points out that people say the same of pirates thus confirming that Dead-Eye either is or was a pirate himself. He hires Al and welcomes him aboard. Before they depart though, Dogstar comes running in. Bucky is happy to see him and Dogstar confirms he’ll be in charge of the new frigate. He then takes note of Al and mentions he’s smelled him somewhere before. Al insists all sleazasaurs smell the same and it’s enough to cover him for now.

Al does what he can to shoo Blinky away. Stupid, helpful, robot.

Willy is then shown saying goodbye to the crew, but before he heads back to his dimension through his door he warns Bucky about Al. Bucky dismisses his warning and orders him to go back to school. Once gone, Blinky then takes to showing Al around who immediately starts nosing around. He slyly tosses some device into a compartment and then begins complaining about the excessive amounts of banana peels that are accumulating around Bruiser and orders Blinky to clean the place up. He snoops around some more and even finds Willy’s duffel bag, but Dead-Eye catches him and tells him to scram. He then sees the fake money in Willy’s bag and has a crisis of conscience. Apparently, it’s pirate code to take any money, but Dead-Eye doesn’t want to steal from his friend. He reasons he’ll just hold onto it for him, in case he never comes back. With his conscience satisfied, he stuffs the money into his belt.

This is the part of the episode no one cares about.

On Earth, Willy is walking to school when he’s accosted by Doug and his two friends again. They enter on skateboard and start chasing Willy down the street. He runs, but ends up tripping on some trolley tracks and gets his hand stuck. Just before the trolley can smear him all over the road, he frees himself and gets out-of-the-way, but his victory is short-lived. Doug and his buddies surround him, and Willy throws down his books and faces him. He demands Doug meet him after school to do battle with his choice of weapons, and Doug is happy to oblige.

Meet Toadborg, the most intimidating villain yet, but is he competent?

Aboard the Toad Mothership, Frix and Frax are once again watching Toad TV. This time it’s an ad for Warts Illustrated’s swimsuit issue featuring their favorite model Veruca from the first episode. This parody is actually genuinely amusing, but it’s short-lived as the TV gets smashed by another new face: Toadborg (Richard Newman). Toadborg is essentially the Toad version of Darth Vader, only he’s mostly purple and yellow. He’s quite large and scary looking despite the abundance of purple, and Frix and Frax look like they’ve soiled themselves with terror. Toad Air Marshall enters the room and demands to know what’s going on and is just as terrified as the twins to see Toadborg. Toadborg informs the Air Marshall that Komplex sent him to oversee the invasion of Genus. Worse is that Komplex has lost confidence in the Air Marshall calling into question his job security. He demands an update on the smuggler Air Marshall hired, who in turn insists shall be returning with the codes soon.

Ugh, should I even bother recapping the Earth stuff?

Back on Earth once again, Willy is in study hall waiting for Doug and his lackeys. When they show up he tells him what they’re doing: building a computer-enhanced skateboard. He shows Doug the blueprints and he balks at doing any “sissy science stuff.” One of Doug’s friends takes a look at it though and says it looks kind of cool. Doug then gives in, but warns Willy that he better get an A for this. This Earth stuff just keeps getting worse.

Bruiser has a rather potent dropkick.

Back aboard the Righteous Indignation, Al Negator returns to the engine room and informs Blinky and Bruiser that Dead-Eye wishes to speak with them. Once they leave he slams the door shut behind him and uses his rifle like a welding torch to seal it shut. He then inserts his snooper device into the ship’s computer. Immediately, Jenny notices the intrusion from the control deck and she and Bucky know who is to blame. Al is downloading all of the security codes and they need to stop him. Bucky orders Bruiser to break down the door and he does so with three running dropkicks, a pretty cool little visual. Once inside though they find Al is gone. He’s taken the Toad Croaker and is attempting to escape. Jenny pilots the ship after him while Bucky joins Dead-Eye at his gunner spot and orders him to open fire.

That pesky Al Negator.

Back home, Willy wonders how things are going with the suspicious engineer and activates his photon accelerator. He then casually walks onto the Righteous Indignation and finds the crew in clean-up mode following Al Negator’s subterfuge. They’re still chasing the purple croc whose destination has been revealed: the Toad Mothership. The bay door opens and Al heads for it as Dead-Eye lines up a shot. Al then pulls out a remote and presses a button which detonates all of the devices we saw him planting around the ship. Dead-Eye’s guns, the warp drive, even the command deck all explode. No one appears injured, but they’ve lost control of the ship. Bucky is happy to see Willy, but tells him he picked a bad time for a visit. The explosions also took out Willy’s door, and with no way to pilot the ship, they drift into the bay doors of the Toad Mothership. Meanwhile, the Air Marshall watches and howls with delight for he has finally captured Bucky O’Hare!

I wonder what singed baboon ass smells like? Can’t be good.

Like the first episode, “A Fistful of Simoleons” packs a lot into its roughly 20 minute duration. New characters are introduced on both sides of the battle and an elaborate plot begins to take shape with the Toads targeting Genus. It’s not handled in a sophisticated manner, and Al’s antics are largely played for laughs, but it’s still interesting to see a subterfuge angle played out with Al gaining entry to the Righteous Indignation and sabotaging it. I wonder if kids in 91 were mostly confused over the whole “codes” thing. I know I had no frame of reference for such a plot device when I was a kid, but mostly just went along with everything. A code to me was something that made a video game easier. It’s another cliff-hanger of an ending with Bucky and his crew seemingly trapped aboard a Toad Mothership, but it’s a bit more exciting since this time they’ll likely need to resort to more conventional action hero antics to get out of that one.

Bucky and Dead-Eye are not thrilled at how this episode ended.

Al Negator is a fun addition to the roster. He’s a slimy, creepy, greedy, villain and those types tend to be easy to write. It’s interesting to see how basically everyone is racist towards Al’s species, and Bucky is the only one who won’t hold it against him and yet he’s the one who ends up being wrong. Apparently, in the Aniverse not all racism is inherently wrong. Bruiser is another potentially fun addition. He appears to be a character of little brain, but plenty of braun and heart. On the one hand, I’m surprised he was added to the show since the baboons almost break the story since Toads have a paralyzing fear of them, but if you’re looking at things from an in universe perspective, wouldn’t Bucky absolutely want to get another baboon to replace Bruce for that very reason? Dogstar comes across as a bumbling sort of good guy. I don’t really like him, but my opinion isn’t fully formed at this point and I’m trying to remain open-minded. Toadborg though, despite being a pretty clear Darth Vader rip-off, is still undeniably bad ass and I look forward to seeing more from him. I like the effects used on his voice which really gives him a menacing presence.

As for Toad Air Marshall, this may very well be the happiest we see him.

What I continue to not like are basically any of the scenes taking place on Earth. Willy’s trouble with bullies just doesn’t entertain me, and the rather drab setting even looks terrible. I appreciate the familiar sights establishing that we’re in San Francisco, but Willy looks out-of-place in that setting when compared with how he looks in the Aniverse. Skateboarding bullies are just a terrible cliché and Willy’s little scheme to avoid getting beat up would not have worked in a million years. No way those kids want to stay after school to work on a science project.

Into the belly of the beast go our heroes.

Overall, the look of the episode is a slight downgrade from the first episode. Or it at least appears to be. I do like the look of both Al Negator and Toadborg, but there are some weird shots of Bruiser. His kicking down the door sequence was pretty neat though. What I am enjoying though is the score for the show which has a sci-fi feel for the space scenes and seems to always find the right tempo. It’s not something I really anticipated, but it’s definitely one of the show’s strengths and composer Doug Katsaros should be happy with how this show turned out, especially considering he probably composed it all from a synthesizer.

“A Fistful of Simoleons” is a successful episode 2 for Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars. Aside from the opening escape scene and the lame Earth segments, the episode is pretty engaging, sometimes humorous, and exciting while also further adding to the setting’s lore. The pacing is sometimes a bit sped up, but that’s because it’s trying to cram a lot in here. We learned about the history of the Toads and got a peek at Bucky’s home world pre and post Toad invasion. We’re set up for an exciting third episode next week with “The Good, the Bad, and the Warty.”

Leave a comment | tags: al negator, bruiser, bucky o'hare, cartoons, commander dogstar, doug katsaros, larry hama, toadborg | posted in bucky o'hare and the toad wars, Comics, Television

April 21, 2019

Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars – Introduction

By Joe

bucky intro This may often look like a Batman blog, but if I could make it look more like a Bucky O’Hare blog then I totally would. The problem is, there just isn’t enough quantity to talk about when it comes to Bucky O’Hare. While Batman: The Animated Series produced 85 episodes in its original run, Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars produced a mere 13. Batman was broadcast on Fox Kids, then Kids WB (with a new season too), with reruns airing for years when it was all said and done. The show had a comic tie-in, toys, three films, and then it went on to basically spawn Batman Beyond, not to mention all of the Justice League themed shows. As for Bucky, he got the toy treatment and a Nintendo game, but his 13 episode total meant there was really no home for him in syndication. After the episodes were broadcast a few times, they all but disappeared. A comic line was launched in the UK, but it never left that territory so if you wanted to continue enjoying the show in the US you had to seek out the VHS tapes.

And that is largely where things remain even today in 2019. Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars has been practically forgotten, and if not for the contribution of toy maker Boss Fight Studio the property would be dormant. On this blog I’ve drawn attention to the various Bucky releases over the years and to the new toy line from BFS. In my last post, a wish list for the line, I theorized that in order for my new favorite toy line to continue as long as I want it to there would likely need to be more Bucky promotion. Well, I’m hardly a major vehicle for said promotion, but I am going to do my part by not only continuing to post about that very line, but starting tomorrow we’re going into a Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars deep dive. All 13 episodes over 13 weeks.

The one true Easter Bunny.

Today seemed like a good day to start this as it’s the day many people invite a large bunny into their homes to hide eggs and candy all over the place. Bucky isn’t as famous as the Easter Bunny, but he should be! Bucky O’Hare is the creation of Larry Hama with an assist given to artist Michael Golden. He was allegedly created sometime around 1977 or 78, probably after Hama saw Star Wars, and made his comic debut in Echo of Futurepast #1 in May of 1984. Likely due to the popularity of a certain group of ninja turtles, Bucky would get his shot at TV stardom not too long after despite only having a total of six comic book stories.

Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars was conceived during the time when it had already been established that in order to launch a cartoon aimed at boys you needed to attack the market from multiple angles. It wasn’t enough to just create a successful show, it needed to be very merchandiser friendly. Hama had already anticipated this when creating the characters and included pegs on their various outfits that a weapon could be affixed to should they become action figures. Due to the success of other toy line/cartoon properties, there was a strong appetite for anything that looked marketable and a lot of people wanted in on it.

The show’s first few episodes largely mirrored the comics while adding in new characters like Bruiser.

The show ended up being a combination of several companies. First was Sunbow Entertainment and its new Sunbow Productions arm. Sunbow had made a name for itself primarily animating commercials for toys. Eventually, the company moved towards creating shows of its own and by 1990 it had several under its belt. It would initially partner with Toei Animation, the company responsible for Dragon Ball, and by the time Bucky arrived the company was partnered with South Korean animation studio AKOM (The Simpsons, X-Men). Abrams/Gentile Entertainment was involved as a producer and Continuity Comics obviously had a stake in the show as well as French company IDDH. Marvel Productions co-produced the show and Hasbro distributed it via Claster Television and it’s Hasbro Studios that holds the distribution rights today. That’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen and a lot of arms with a share in the profits. It’s no wonder the show failed to satisfy and also less surprising to see it has struggled to get a Region 1 DVD release as there are a lot of people that would be owed money.

The show premiered on September 8, 1991 and would conclude its first run on December 1 of the same year. It aired on Saturday mornings in most markets on various local television affiliates. It didn’t air on any of the major networks in my market and I don’t know if it did in others. The show was quite similar to the comics, but since it had more stories to tell it expanded the roster of characters. The only character left out of the show was the Omnipotent Mouse. The first few episodes of the show are presented in a serialized nature and there is a running story through-out the first season concerning Bucky’s home planet of Warren. It’s a sophisticated form of story-telling for children, and it would be popularized by X-Men the following year, and it’s possible that this played a role in making it hard for new viewers to just jump in. I think such arguments are overblown, but it’s worth mentioning.

The Air Marshall may have actually ended Bucky’s existence after all.

To coincide with the launch of the series, Hasbro released the first wave of action figures. Hasbro had ridden to prominence on the back of the Transformers line and had expanded to become the largest toy seller in the world. 1991 was an especially big year for the company because it purchased Tonka, Parker Brothers, and Kenner giving the company huge reach into almost every facet of the toy market. Still, Hasbro (and other toy makers) had passed on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a few years earlier after making the same mistake back in the 70s with Star Wars. Maybe that was part of the drive to go after Bucky O’Hare in hopes it would become a major action figure property for the company.

The initial wave of Bucky O’Hare figures based on the show included six heroes: Bucky, Dead-Eye Duck, Willy DuWitt, Commander Dogstar, A.F.C. Blinky, and Bruiser. Four villains joined them: Toad Air Marshall, Toadborg, Toad Storm Trooper, and Al Negator. The company also released a vehicle play set for the good guys and one for the bad guys, the Toad Croaker (which featured a whoopee cushion like device in it to squish the bad guys) and the Toad Double Bubble, essentially the toad version of a Tie Fighter. The toys were prominently placed in my local Toys R Us and Christmas of 91 was the year I got a lot of Bucky stuff. It ended up being the only Christmas for me and Bucky as the line was discontinued. Series 2 was famously shown in a Hasbro catalog, and a figure of Jenny was completed for the first series but held back. Carded figures of Jenny have become the most sought-after piece of Bucky merch there is even after she finally received an official figure release from Boss Fight Studio.

Blame for the demise of Bucky is largely placed on the toys and Hasbro for its case ratios. When a store would order more, Hasbro would send out a standard case which included two of each figure. Gradually, less popular figures like the Toad Air Marshall would start to take over the pegs while figures of Bucky and Dead-Eye would disappear quickly. Hasbro allegedly never adjusted the case ratios and stores stopped ordering when they had pegs full of Air Marshalls and Storm Troopers. It’s hard to say if that played the largest role, but I can personally recall going to the store and indeed seeing an entire section of Toad Air Marshall figures.

Bucky was apparently picked up by at least one Fox affiliate.

With Hasbro bowing out of the property because of the profitability of the toy line everyone else bailed as well. Obviously, since only 13 episodes were ordered initially there was some skepticism from the beginning for Bucky O’Hare. We don’t know how the show fared ratings-wise or how successful sales of other merchandise was. Like most cartoons, Bucky was on everything: party supplies, puzzles, costumes, lunch boxes, shoes, coloring books, etc. Family Home Entertainment had the distribution rights for the show on home video and released 3 VHS tapes of the show which totaled 7 episodes. The Konami video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System would be a late arrival in January of 1992, but likely still in before the consumer had a notion the show wouldn’t continue. A separate arcade game arrived in the fall of 1992 when it was likely obvious the property was dead. Not surprisingly, I don’t think many units were produced and I’ve actually never come across one in the wild. I mentioned the Hasbro Jenny as the most sought after of Bucky collectibles, but I bet if one of these arcade cabinets were to go up for sale it would fetch a pretty high price.

In Canada, the show was titled Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Menace, like the TPB release.

Whatever the reason, Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars failed to catch on. Blame it on the toys if you wish, or maybe it just wasn’t promoted enough on television. I think a large part of the issue is simply that selling boys on a green space bunny was a bit of a hard sell. I think most who gave the show a chance probably liked it, but they might have needed convincing. Had Bucky been a weekday afternoon show, he might have stood a better shot as that’s easier for kids to get into. A week is a long time between episodes for a six-year-old.

Where I grew up in New Hampshire, Bucky O’Hare was pretty popular. My friends were all into the show and the toy line and eventually the NES game. It seemed popular to me, which is partly why I was so confused as a kid when Bucky simply went away. Now, I’m ready to engage this property once again as an adult. Like Batman, I’ve seen the episodes multiple times as both a kid and an adult, though overall I’ve seen these episodes less simply because the re-runs weren’t on TV for years. As I work my way through the series here, I’ll be re-watching the episodes again and approaching it from a critical standpoint as I walk the reader through the episode. My opinion going into it is that this show is not high art, but it has more depth than many of its peers. Bucky O’Hare aired in a more cynical time pre-Batman and pre-X-Men, and I’ll keep that in mind. This show was supposed to be a 23 minute commercial for toys and games, but it seemed to aim higher.

The now out of print R2 release is the only official way to enjoy Bucky on DVD.

If you want to follow along with me it’s going to be a bit more difficult than it is with Batman. Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars received an incomplete VHS release, but that’s likely not that important to readers in 2019 who likely don’t even own a VCR any longer. The show was released on Region 2 DVD in 2004 by Metrodome Distribution. It was a bare-bones release that contained just the episodes in a quality pretty typical of the era. The DVD is out of print. No official Region 1 DVD was ever released, though there was a popular bootleg put out by Exposure Entertainment in 2010. It just contained the episodes and was probably a rip of the Region 2 release as the quality is pretty much the same. The packaging though was pretty ugly. I covered both in the early days of this blog, though both are a lot harder to come by now than they were back then.

It is highly unlikely at this stage that Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars will get an official Region 1 release and that’s further heightened by its presence on the internet. The entire series can be streamed on YouTube and probably on other platforms as well for free. No one is protective of the property in 2019 and it’s hard to imagine that changing at this point. No matter, this should be a fun exploration of the old show and hopefully you enjoy going on this trip with me. We start tomorrow with the very first episode “War of the Warts.”

Leave a comment | tags: akom, boss fight studio, bucky o'hare, bucky o'hare and the toad wars, cartoons, continuity comics, hasbro, konami, larry hama, sunbow | posted in bucky o'hare and the toad wars, Comics, Television

August 22, 2018

DuckTales Season One Review

By Joe

ducktales new Rebooting an old cartoon property has its pluses and minuses. On the one hand, reviving an old brand means the core of what you’re trying to build is already in place. Characters, relationships, stories, even music can all be mined from the old and adapted for the new. There are often tweaks made to the look of the show, new voices to cast, and a whole new team to assemble, but it’s undoubtedly easier and less expensive than starting from scratch. And it also allows a new generation of creators to take something they enjoyed as youngsters and mold it into something else. It also comes with risks, and as we’ve seen all too often recently there is an aspect of fandom that is, well, toxic to say the least. Take She-Ra, for example. Originally conceived as a way to market action figures to girls, She-Ra was integrated into He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, itself a show designed simply to sell toys to boys, and the backlash was swift and quick. Even those behind the creation of He-Man looked down on She-Ra and blamed her for hastening the decline of the franchise as a whole, “Now my sister wants to play with me? Gross!” This is all captured quite well in the documentary series The Toys That Made Us, if you want to know more.

She-Ra, I’m sure, had fans of her own, but they definitely were small in numbers, relatively speaking. Rarely did I ever hear anyone in conversation bring her up in a positive light and I literally met no one pining for a reboot in the same mold as He-Man himself. And yet, when a new concept was recently unveiled for She-Ra online the He-Man fandom and nerd culture as a whole was swift to pounce on it. Blaming it for ruining the character or for unoriginally adhering to the “CalArts style,” these fans were loud and largely obnoxious. It was similar to the backlash towards a new ThunderCats show that has yet to air. Did you ever watch ThunderCats back when it was originally aired? That show, just like She-Ra and He-Man and countless other programs, was terrible. It’s fine to be nostalgic for them because you grew up with them. I certainly watched a lot of crappy cartoons, but I don’t want to subject my kids to the same. If there are to be new versions of these shows I want them to be good! Not some 23 minute toy commercial. Fans should be happy these things still exist for a new audience. And the beauty of it all is, if you don’t like what’s new, you still have what’s old. It doesn’t go away or vanish the moment a new version shows up.

The cast is much larger, but many episodes still revolve around Scrooge and his nephews (plus Webby).

It’s interesting that one of the companies behind the pivot from making shows that sell toys to just making good animated programming was Disney with its Disney Afternoon programming block. The original Disney Afternoon toon was Adventures of the Gummi Bears, but the show most associate with the block is none other than DuckTales. Basically a loose adaptation of the Carl Barks comics for television, DuckTales centered not around Donald Duck but around his rich Uncle Scrooge McDuck. He was partnered with his grand nephews Huey, Duey, and Louie along with his personal pilot Launchpad. Together they went on grand adventures searching for treasure. They wouldn’t just travel to far away places, but backwards and even forward in time! It was memorable for its lavish animation that went far beyond the likes of Dic and Hanna-Barbera. Not to mention for its incredibly catchy theme song.

As such, it seems appropriate that when it came time for Disney to adapt DuckTales for a new audience it largely escaped the internet backlash that had befallen other properties. Oh, I’m sure there are detractors that do not like the new visual style or the Felicia Barton sung intro, but by and large the response I have seen online and in person has been overwhelmingly positive. DuckTales just concluded its first season. Commercially, I have no idea how well the show has done, though it’s done well enough to receive a second season. It’s hard to judge that sort of thing in this day and age when ratings mean almost nothing thanks to streaming options and DVR. There hasn’t even been a tie-in toy-line until very recently so sales of that aren’t going to offer much of a measure. Creatively though, it’s hard to think of a cartoon reboot that has been more successful than DuckTales. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles come close with their 2012 reboot, and really that ThunderCats reboot of a few years ago was miles ahead of the original, though it did not last very long. DuckTales is on another level though, and there are a lot of reasons why.

After mostly chilling on the sidelines in the original series, Donald is a part of the main cast this time around. He doesn’t get to relax as much as this image suggests.

First and foremost, the work of Carl Barks has not been ignored. Scrooge is back to his red overcoat and he’s partnered with all of his nephews this time – including Donald Duck! Back when the original Disney Afternoon was conceived, Disney was hesitant about letting any of its big stars headline a show. Landing Donald for the few episodes he was in was a huge get, as characters like Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy were completely shut-out at the onset. That stigma has long since passed allowing Donald to finally star alongside his uncle as he should. Huey, Dewey, Louie are still around and now they have distinct looks and personalities all to themselves. The prior nephews in basically every iteration were interchangeable. It was part of their charm, but also pretty limiting from a character perspective. Now they’re free to be themselves and the writers are allowed to explore each individual duckling. Huey is the closest to the original mold, the burgeoning Junior Woodchuck. Louie is more slothful and laid back while Dewey embodies the adventurous spirit of his great-uncle with perhaps a touch too much enthusiasm. Webby is also back and she’s no longer the little girl who seems to get in the way, rather she’s an adventurer herself who looks upon the likes of Scrooge and Donald as something close to legendary figures. She’s good-natured, and her grannie Mrs. Beakly is still around to look after her. Oh, and Mrs. Beakly is no longer the meek maid to Scrooge but a former covert agent herself with a rather massive and intimidating physique.

One of the more radical redesigns is that of Mrs. Beakley, who went from doting old maid to a tank-like brawler who still has a soft touch.

The show’s approach is similar to the original DuckTales, take Scrooge and the gang on adventures to fantastic worlds with treasures to uncover and villains to foil. Since the cast is larger, episodes will often pairs things down to just a handful and save the full cast for the most important episodes. It also includes more structured story-telling and the first season revolves around a character we’ve only ever seen mentioned, and rarely at that – Della Duck. Della is the sister to Donald and the mother to the boys, and at the end of the second episode (aired as one long episode for the premiere) the boys uncover a painting that depicts her alongside her brother and uncle. Della previously was basically only mentioned in the cartoon short “Donald’s Nephews” with Donald shown reading a letter from her asking her to watch her kids. She’s basically never been mentioned again and never seen, as far as I can recall. The boys start off knowing something happened to her and it may or may not have led to a falling out between Scrooge and Donald. The first episode deals with Donald reluctantly going to his uncle for help in watching the boys so he can go on a job interview, and that arch ends with Donald and the boys moving in as Donald seems to understand its best for his nephews (plus his house boat was destroyed in the process). The boys spend parts of the first season secretly investigating what happened to Della, and the mystery is unraveled slowly and takes some twists and turns. It even threatens to split the brothers apart as Dewey discovers something and decides to keep it from his brothers. Things come to a head in the penultimate episode leaving the finale, which just aired this past Saturday, to deal with the fall-out.

Lena and Webby’s friendship is one of the main plot points weaved throughout the first season.

The other big teaser throughout the first season revolves around Scrooge’s old enemy – Magica De Spell (Catherine Tate)! She was a frequent foil in the original series so naturally she’s back. As basically the big baddie of the whole thing, it’s a lot of fun to see the show treat her as such. When the season begins she’s magically sealed away and only able to interact with the world through her niece Lena (Kimiko Glenn) who poses as a friendly sort in order to gain the trust of Scrooge and thus somehow free Magica from whatever keeps her sealed away. To do so she gets close to Webby and the two become best friends. Throughout much of the second half of the season we get to see Lena being pulled between the two forces in her life; her friendship with Webby and her loyalty to Magica. It’s nothing new, but it’s handled well and there are some genuinely emotional moments that come of this and there’s a lot of payoff in the end. Plus, the animators used this really creepy effect where Lena’s eyes turn black and “spill” shadows to form Magica. It’s genuinely unsettling.

The original DuckTales cartoon dealt with plots that continued from one episode into the other. There were even changes to the main cast as was the case with the introduction of Bubba and Gizmoduck. Those storyline pay-offs though were not on the equal with the new show. The main theme of family is at the core of this new show and it never strays too far from that. Very few of the episodes in the first season felt like filler as all seemed to serve some purpose. Either a character learns something about themself or their relationship to the others or something else happens to move the overall story along. It’s a great way to structure a show and I always love seeing what is primarily children’s programming take this sort of risk. There will always be television executives who look down on children and think the simpler the better, but trust me, kids notice this stuff and appreciate it when a show doesn’t treat them like brainless buffoons.

Many of Scrooge’s old villains have returned.

Additional challenges arise when creating a new version of a 30-year-old show. Namely, the voice talent available isn’t the same anymore. Alan Young, who provided the voice of Scrooge for decades, is no longer with us. And since it was decided that the nephews would be approached differently this time around, the talents of Russi Taylor were declined and instead each was given a unique voice. These changes are often the hardest for the old fans since not only do these characters barely resemble what we fell in love with as children, but they also sound very different. Once you get past that change though, it’s hard to say bad things about this cast. David Tennant is a great Scrooge with a natural Scottish accent. He brings everything you need from a voice actor to the character. He can be gentle, intimidating, enthusiastic, and even sad. It was hard to say good-bye to Young, but Tennant has done a remarkable job in his first season at the helm. The nephews are voiced by Danny Pudi (Huey), Ben Schwartz (Dewey) and Bobby Moynihan (Louie) and they all impart their own personality on the characters. If there is one negative to this season, it’s that Dewey definitely feels more developed than the other two and thus Schwartz shines brighter than the others, but season 2 could easily rectify that. Kate Micucci is Webby and she was perfect in the role while Toks Olagundoye voices her grandmother Beakley. Beck Bennett plays a more aloof Launchpad, but otherwise kind of sounds like he’s trying to do Terry McGovern which is a little sad because I know McGovern really wanted the part. If you’re feeling uncomfortable with all of the newness in the cast then at least you have Tony Anselmo reprising his role as Donald Duck, as it should be.

The new visual style of the show is bright and expressive. It’s a bit flat, which seems to be a trend in 2D digital animation, but it has its own look which helps differentiate it from the original series. The look of the old series just can’t be duplicated in today’s environment, so the show was smart to not even try. I really like the new look for Scrooge and Donald and feel it suits them well. The nephews have taken some getting used to as they have really large heads and in some respects resemble chickens more than ducks. The backgrounds are all really well done and there’s plenty of variety to be found from suburban settings to creepy castles. There’s also more imaginative and fantastic settings to be found and the show does an admirable job of mixing things up. It does the same with the villains and guest spots and virtually everyone you know and love from the original series makes an appearance or two here. There are also a few new characters thrown around, some inconsequential and some rather imaginative (I’m looking at you statue-headed horse) and almost all have some pay-off.

And many old allies are back as well.

Of the first season’s 23 episodes (25 if you count the premier and finale as two episodes) it’s hard to pick a favorite. The first episode, “Woo-oo” was wonderful for its patient and rewarding reintroduction of these timeless characters. Any episode that pits Scrooge against Glomgold was usually humorous and entertaining to watch and the episode “Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System” was equally humorous for its focus on Launchpad, plus it had Gizmoduck! Some of the episodes have some rather delightful Easter Eggs in them. You have undoubtedly seen or heard about the numerous Darkwing Duck ones, and the finale included one Easter Egg from the old NES game. And it’s really hard for me to not just pick the last three episodes as my favorites. They’re the most weighty with the biggest emotional moments in the whole season. I even get a lump in my throat just thinking about them.

As I said earlier, it’s hard to imagine a reboot having as successful a reintroduction as DuckTales did in 2017 and into 2018. The new show proves the old comics and original series still have legs, their foundation was one that can anchor any show in any era. This is the rare reboot that should have little trouble appealing to the old fans while also being something new for a younger generation that may never have even heard of DuckTales before 2017. If nothing else, my own children have proven to me time and again that the old theme song will never go out of style as the two will happily sing it at the dinner table, from their car seats, or while they play. It’s really rewarding as a parent to see your children embrace something you loved as a kid yourself, even if it’s not the same and in a new form. I have no doubt that DuckTales is in good hands right now and I look forward to watching the second season with my kids, or even on my own after they go to bed (it can be hard to focus on these things with a pair of short-attention span toddlers).

Leave a comment | tags: beck bennett, ben schwartz, bobby moynihan, cartoons, danny pudi, darkwing duck, david tennant, disney, disney afternoon, donald duck, ducktales, kate micucci, magica de spell, scrooge mcduck, toks olagundoye, tony anselmo | posted in Television

July 24, 2018

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – “Mystic Mayhem”

By Joe

rise_of_the_tmnt On July 20th, Nickelodeon offered up a preview of its newest take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Dubbed Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the new show is the heir-apparent to the one Nick ran from 2012-2017. Simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that show was a modern re-telling of the story we’re all familiar with. It was presented in CG and featured the main characters from the comics and older television shows while mostly adhering to the personalities that had been long established throughout the various media. It was the fourth attempt at bringing the Turtles to television, and by all accounts it was pretty successful. Likely no future version of gang green will ever be as impactful as the 1987 series, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be a success.

The show was well-received and it was one that even I, a 30-something, mostly kept up with. It likely ended for business reasons, though possibly artistic ones as the show-runners may have felt they had told all of the stories they wished to tell. I think it’s more likely the network felt the toy franchise was mostly tapped out and there were probably new contracts that needed to be negotiated. Television shows for older kids are also transitioning away from CG and back to 2D as technological advances have made that medium a lot cheaper, and easier, to work with. Which is likely one of the many reasons we are here today talking about a new version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arriving just a year after the previous one ended.

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an entirely new show with a new cast of characters. In some ways, this is the most ambitious reboot we have ever seen for the franchise. The 1987 series took the most recognizable characters from the Mirage comics and adapted them for television while also stripping out the violence. Each turtle was given his own personality, something they kind of lacked in the comics, and Shredder was made the main villain and given an accomplice in Krang. Ever since that series found success, it would seem each successive iteration tried to incorporate more of the original comic. Starting with the 1990 movie, Raphael would see his prickly and combative nature made his default personality, the tone would be a touch more serious, and Shredder more deadly. The 2003 4Kids series practically adapted the early books, and even Michael Bay’s turtles tried to keep some of that spirit, while also bringing the turtles closer to their cartoon counterparts.

The 2012 series did the same while also making sure to make everything appear modern. It’s biggest change was making April O’Neil and Casey Jones adolescents, but it mostly took the comic and cartoons that arrived before it and melded them together. It was a show that really wanted to appeal to adults who grew up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and likely hoped these adults would get their kids hooked. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is attempting to no such thing. For the first time since that 87 series debuted, this is a version of the Turtles made to appeal to kids first and foremost. It doesn’t care if you’re familiar with the property. It doesn’t even need to be a TMNT show, but the brand recognition is certainly easier to sell than a new IP.

April and Splinter are two of the more radical redesigns, but also two of the most effective.

Of course, some things will naturally never change. The Turtles are still Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello. They live in the sewer with their sensei Splinter, a mutated rat, and reside in New York City. Their only human friend is a girl named April. What’s different is both radical and superficial. For the first time, each turtle is actually a different sub-species of turtle. Most notably is the large and spiky Raphael who is a snapping turtle and kind of looks like the old Slash. Donatello is a soft-shell turtle, and as a result, he creates backpack-like shells to wear to protect himself. Leonardo is now a wise-cracking turtle and Raph is an ineffective leader, as the two have sort-of swapped personalities from the 87 show. When the episode opens they all have their signature weapons, but that will change by episode’s end. Splinter is not the stoic Ninja Master we’re used to, and instead is a chubby little rat who likes to fall asleep in front of the television. April is once again a kid, though just how young is hard to gauge. She’s also African American and sports a pair of oversized glasses. In some respects, she reminds me of Irma from the old cartoon.

The episode opens with some light crime taking place in New York and the Turtles on the prowl. We’re supposed to think they’re patrolling the city as usual, but they’re actually just looking to discreetly take a dip in a rooftop swimming pool. It will become clear soon enough that these turtles are not proper ninjas. They don’t really know what they’re doing or appear to have any designs on fighting crime or anything. April is kind of just there and we’re not sure what the relationship is, but at least they appear to be having fun. The palette of the show is incredibly bright and vibrant, but the animation is not smooth in the least bit. Everything feels loud as characters move suddenly and quickly as if frames of animation are skipped. I don’t think this is a cost-cutting decision, but an artistic one to make the show feel heightened and manic and strikes me as an example of the show going for kids.

On the right, new villain Baron Draxum, and on the left a big, white, blank, space.

The Turtles will encounter a weird teleporting dog/cat creature that takes an instant shine to April. It’s being pursued by some sketchy looking individuals and the Turtles feel compelled to help. This will result in them taking a trip through an inter-dimensional portal where they’ll meet the big baddie of the series, Baron Draxum, and also acquire new weapons. All except Donatello that is, who prefers to stick with his techy-looking bo staff. From here on out, Raph will wield twin tonfa in battle while Leo downgrades to one sword. Michelangelo will wield a kusari-fundo and all of their weapons have some mystical property that they’ll likely need to learn more about as the series moves along. Baron Draxum is a large, some-what Shredder-like figure, who is apparently behind the mutation of the Turtles. He has scores of underlings presumably, and some odd mosquito things that carry mutagen. The episode is an establishing one, and it’s likely the Ninja Turtles will need to get a touch more serious following this episode if they want to challenge Draxum in the future, since their fighting prowess is severely lacking.

It bares repeating that Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a show very much aimed at today’s children. It’s not a show made for me, and that’s fine as the children of 2018 deserve their own TMNT. As a show, it feels very similar to Cartoon Networks Teen Titans Go! It shares a similar look and the show wants to make kids laugh and is less concerned with wowing them via action sequences. The characters take nothing seriously, and I suspect they’ll have some failures along the way. The structure of the show is also to be two 11 minute cartoons for each episode, so the scale of each plot is obviously small.

I couldn’t get much of a read on Michelangelo in this debut episode, but he definitely doesn’t seem as goofy as other iterations.

The voice cast struck me as fine. Ben Schwartz is Leonardo and he’s essentially just playing Dewey Duck from DuckTales. I thought it would be odd seeing Leonardo act in such a manner, but it was fine. Omar Benson Miller is Raph and he’s obviously being tasked to play a very different Raphael. He’s a leader, which just feels off, and he’s a bad one too, but not because of the usual Raph traits. He’s more indecisive and uncertain as opposed to abrasive and headstrong. Donatello is played by Josh Brener and he’s more or less the same Donatello we’re used to, with maybe a touch of dryness. Michelangelo is played by Brandon Mychal Smith and is the character I felt the least impressed by. I just didn’t get much of a sense for his personality, though he did refer to himself as an artist. The press material labels him a prankster, but we didn’t really see that side of him in this episode. This episode was probably too concerned with establishing Leonardo as the new Mikey type at the expense of the other turtles.

Looks like there will be no shortage of interesting villain designs.

Splinter is voiced by Eric Bauza, who had previously voiced Tiger Claw for the last TMNT series, doing a stereotypical Japanese master voice. It almost feels out of place with so much of the other personalities mixed-up, though his personality is obviously different as well. He’s rather funny looking, and I presume he will have to actually train his sons eventually. We didn’t see much of the lair, but it appears to follow in the same mold as the other cartoons in that it’s lavishly outfitted with Donnie’s tech. April is voiced by Kat Graham, and she’s another character I didn’t get much of a read on. She seems more heroic than the actual turtles, and obviously felt an instant connection with the little dog/cat creature she acquires in the episode. WWE’s John Cena is Baron Draxum and I forgot he had been cast in this series. Draxum looks like a high resolution Xavier Renegade Angel, which isn’t a compliment, but his personality seems interesting. He doesn’t want to be a foe to the Turtles, though he obviously will be, and he came across as less cartoonish than the villains from the 87 show, which surprised me. He may prove to be a worthy foe after all.

And don’t forget the toy-line! Meat Sweats is also an awesome name for a mutant pig.

I can see what Nickelodeon and executive producers Andy Suarino and Ant Ward are going for with this show. I also know that very little of it appeals to me. I welcome the change back to 2D, but I’m not crazy about the design of the characters. They’re a bit too similar to the Bay Turtles, which I found gross, but I concede they have a marketable look. I just feel it’s a bit too similar to other shows out there and it doesn’t strike me as unique. I did not enjoy the janky animation techniques and I hope they tone that down. The pivot to humor is fine, and it does feel like Teen Titains Go!, but it’s not naturally funny like that show. I didn’t watch it with any children present, so maybe they’ll disagree with me, which is what matters most. This isn’t a show I’ll seek out and watch as I did the 2012 show, but as a parent it won’t bother me if my kids start watching it. I like seeing the TMNT brand relevant, so for that reason I hope it’s a success.

“Mystic Mayhem” is just the debut for the show. Additional episodes are available right now online via Nickelodeon’s website and app. The actual series premier is scheduled for September 17, and the ever important toy line is expected to launch in October. Each episode will consist of two segments, but this first episode was one long segment. If you’re an adult fan of the brand I would still say give this one a peek just to check it out. Maybe you’ll like it, most likely you won’t. In a world where a lot of cartoons are hitting wider audiences (OK K.O.!, Gravity Falls, Craig of the Creek, etc.) it’s a little disappointing that this one does not, but not everything has to. Sometimes it’s fun for kids to have something that’s just for them.

1 Comment | tags: cartoons, donatello, john cena, kevin eastman, leonardo, michelangelo, mirage comics, nickelodeon, peter laird, raphael, teenage mutant ninja turtles, TMNT | posted in Comics, Television

October 27, 2017

Batman: The Animated Series – “Be A Clown”

By Joe

Be_A_Clown-Title_Card Episode Number: 9

Original Air Date: September 16, 1992

Directed by: Frank Paur

Written by: Ted Pedersen and Steve Hayes

First Appearance(s): Jordan Hill

Thus far, Batman: The Animated Series has basically given us an episode either featuring The Joker as the main antagonist or basically a no-name villain (at the time) for Batman to do battle with. Here we are at episode 9 and already it’s the third Joker episode for the series. The series will not be so Joker heavy much longer, and truthfully it’s hard to argue with the strategy of making new stars out of Poison Ivy and Scarecrow while also mixing in a liberal dose of Joker. This is also the second episode directed by Frank Paur, who gets a shot with a big-time villain following his series debut with “The Underdwellers.”

The episode opens with Mayor Hamilton Hill (Lloyd Bochner) giving a press conference when some hoodlums come speeding through to disrupt things. They’re fleeing Batman, who swoops in and nabs them before departing as quickly as he arrived. Unfortunately for Hill, this all happened while he was downplaying the amount of crime in Gotham and it prompts a reporter to ask him about the criminals, as well as Batman. Hill reveals himself to be of the Bullock mindset that Batman is no better than criminals like The Joker – cut to The Joker watching all of this on television which enrages him. He’s angry that anyone, especially the mayor of Gotham, would compare him to Batman and deems it a grievous insult.

Mayor Hill doesn’t share his son’s enthusiasm for magic.

Sometime later, Hill is throwing a birthday party for his son Jordan (Justin Shenkarow), who isn’t particularly excited about it. Hill basically reveals himself to be a greasy politician who stocks his son’s birthday party with various political personalities in Gotham as well as wealthy individuals like Bruce Wayne. Jordan is not at all amused by any of this, but he is delighted when Jekko The Magnificent shows up to entertain the party goers. Jordan is an aspiring magician himself, so he’s drawn to the clown performer immediately. When asked how to become a great magician, Jekko tells Jordan he should run away and find a mentor. As viewers we are not fooled by The Joker’s disguise, and anyone who was is soon tipped off when Jekko places a stick of dynamite on the birthday cake which features a head sculpt of The Joker himself. Wayne notices, and finds a way to “accidentally” knock the cake into a swimming pool before it explodes. Interestingly, when Joker places the candle he instructs the children to run along indicating he’s only interested in blowing up the adults. It’s an interesting bit of morality from The Joker, and I wonder who’s decision it was to soften The Joker in this manner.

The guests at Jordan’s party apparently aren’t too observant.

Jordan, predictably, runs away and stashes himself in Jekko’s van. The police are summoned for a missing person and also happen upon the real Jekko, whom The Joker had tied up and left on the side of the road. Bruce is still hanging around the Hill residence to hear all of this and races off to track down Joker and Jordan. He tracks them to an abandoned amusement park where Joker has somewhat reluctantly taken Jordan in as a protege of sorts. He actually sincerely shows Jordan a few tricks before Batman shows up. Jordan, distrustful of Batman thanks to his father and also a bit intimidated by his appearance, goes along with Jekko’s scheme to lure Batman into a trap that succeeds in knocking him out. When Batman awakes, he finds himself inverted in a water tank with a straight jacket and no utility belt. Jordan, realizing this trick is intended to kill Batman, tries to free him only for Joker to finally reveal himself.

Jordan runs off, and for some reason The Joker decides to give chase rather than watch Batman drown, which naturally helps to allow Batman to escape. A chase sequence ensues involving a roller coaster, and if you played the Super Nintendo game based on this series it will seem familiar to you. Batman is able to deal with The Joker, who falls into a nearby body of water. Jordan has to overcome his fear of Batman in order to be saved, but naturally everything works out. We don’t get any closure on The Joker, who we presume gets away since I doubt anyone thought he perished from his fall, nor do we see Mayor Hill’s reaction to learning his son was rescued by Batman.

Joker in his Jekko gear corrupting young Jordan.

This episode does not mark the first appearance of Mayor Hill as he was a part of the pilot, but it might as well be his true introduction. It’s actually nice to see people who question Batman and I like that his only real ally at Gotham PD is Gordon (and apparently Montoya following “P.O.V.”). It is sort of surprising to see a politician come out against Batman as I also assumed the general population of Gotham approved of Batman, but maybe they don’t? This episode also has some fun easter eggs in it. When Jekko pulls out a poster for a magician named Prosciutto the drawing is clearly supposed to resembled famed comics writer Alan Moore. There’s also a clown robot at the amusement park which laughs at Jordan when he runs by it. The laugh was taken from Tim Curry’s Joker audition (uncredited) as he was originally cast as The Joker before losing the role due to bronchitis. It’s interesting to hear because it most likely represents what The Joker would have sounded like (at least when laughing) had Curry been retained.

Batman dodging Joker’s bladed throwing cars is a fun little animation sequence in this episode and a warm up for the roller coaster chase.

“Be a Clown” is one of the better Joker episodes as it captures what I like about the character. He’s easily set off by some of the most mundane things and is more interested in stirring up trouble than doing lasting damage (though he probably did intend to murder some of those party-goers with his dynamite candle). It’s also interesting to see him try and corrupt a child. The Jordan/Mayor Hill dynamic is believable in that he’s more of a political prop for his dad and feels isolated as a result. Hill comes off as a bit of a slime ball, but we do see that he does genuinely care for his son so he’s not a true bad guy. The only thing I don’t particularly care for about the episode is Batman is given some one-liners that mostly fall flat. I don’t mind the writers injecting a little bit of dry humor into Batman, but it’s a delicate game and the script wasn’t up for the task this time. And as always, the score for any Joker episode is excellent as the playful, but somewhat malevolent, Joker theme is always welcomed.

As I stated in the intro, this is already The Joker’s third appearance in this show, but we still haven’t made it to his actual broadcast debut! The order is all over the place, but this is our best Joker episode so far and when all is said and done it will probably still place in the top five, I would guess

1 Comment | tags: batman, cartoons, clowns, jekko, magic, mark hamill, mayor hill, the joker, tim curry | posted in batman the animated series, Comics, Television

October 20, 2017

Batman: The Animated Series – “The Forgotten”

By Joe

The_Forgotten-Title_Card Episode Number: 8

Original Air Date: October 8, 1992

Directed by: Boyd Kirkland

Written by: Jules Dennis, Richard Mueller, and Sean Catherine Derek

First Appearance(s): Batwing

A simple premise, what would Bruce Wayne do if he forgot he was Batman, turned into an episode. “The Forgotten” takes Batman out of his element and forces him to rely on his own skills as a fighter and lean heavily on his own instincts and moral code. It also gives us a deeper look at Alfred and his ability to function as a sidekick to Batman and show off his own detective skills. It’s also another episode without a traditional Batman villain, settling for the one-shot Boss Biggis as the main antagonist who will never re-appear (hence why I didn’t bother mentioning this as his first appearance).

The episode opens with Bruce volunteering at a homeless shelter. He learns some familiar faces have been disappearing and the police do not have the manpower to look into why homeless men are suddenly no longer around. Bruce decides to investigate, but not as Batman, but as Griff – the homeless guy! It’s while nosing around in his disguise that Bruce gets jumped by some men who at first appeared to be offering work. Distracted by a cat (foreshadowing future encounters, perhaps?), Bruce ends up getting walloped on the back of the skull and wakes up in a weird camp with no memory of who he is.

Bruce disguised as Griff, Salvo, and Riley

The camp is basically a slave camp, and Bruce befriends two men: Riley (Dorian Harewood), a steel worker who was a fellow volunteer, and Salvo (Lorin Dreyfuss), just some homeless guy down on his luck. All of the men in this camp are the prisoners of Boss Biggis (George Murdock), an obese man with no regard for the well-being of others. He’s angry the men need to stop work to eat and sleep, and demands they work harder or be imprisoned in “The Box,” a small, metal, enclosure placed in direct sunlight. The men are to work in Biggis’ mines for gold. He’s truly a repugnant individual and series director Bruce Timm stated he intended for this one shot villain to be memorable, and the only way he knew how to make him memorable was to make him revolting. He’s almost always show with some food in his hands and stains on his clothes and he’s constantly gnawing away while complaining about the lazy bums he’s surrounded himself with.

The repulsive Boss Biggis.

Alfred notices Bruce’s absence the following morning, and finding the Batmobile still in the Batcave, is quite puzzled as to Bruce’s whereabouts. He notices one of the cars missing, which just so happens to have a tracking device implanted on it. He tracks it to a salvage yard where he removes the device and places it on a truck that’s being loaded with supplies, guessing this will lead him to Master Bruce. Once Alfred has a suspected location for Bruce, he decides air travel would be more appropriate (Bruce is in a desert so who knows how far away he ended up) which leads to the debut of the Batwing. Styled after the aircraft from the Tim Burton directed Batman, it’s strange to see the Batwing debut while being piloted by Alfred instead of Batman. Though perhaps it would be more appropriate to say the Batwing as piloted by the Batwing, as Alfred relies on the auto-pilot to reach Bruce. It should be noted, for television viewers the Batwing actually debuted in the two-part “Feat of Clay.”

Alfred, in need of flying lessons.

Back at the camp, Salvo for some reason decides to mock Biggis with a fart noise, which leads to a scuffle when Riley and Griff come to his aid and all three men wind up in the box. Bruce’s memory is returned to him, triggered by Riley missing his family, and the escape is on. Bruce is able to find Alfred, following a particularly rough landing, and returns to the camp as Batman to take out Biggis and his lackeys. They end up battling in the mines, where Batman is triumphant. The episode ends with the three amigos back in Gotham. When Riley offers Bruce his home as a place to crash, Bruce politely declines and introduces himself officially to the two as Bruce Wayne, prompting Salvo to suggest Riley knock him out so that maybe he’ll wake up a millionaire.

“The Forgotten” tries something different, and it should be commended for doing so. I know more than one person who considers this a favorite, or at least memorable, episode of the series for them and I want to acknowledge that. For me, this is one of the weaker episodes. Amnesia plots have never been a favorite of mine, and it’s just hard to take Biggis and his men seriously as actual threats. I appreciate the Alfred side plot, and it’s probably my favorite part of the episode, but the rest I’m just sort of “meh” about. Riley is fine, but Salvo is intended to be a bit of a joker, but he’s just not funny. I would have also liked to have seen more concern for Bruce on the part of Alfred considering it’s probably his worst nightmare to get up in the morning and find he never came home.

The best sequence in the episode is Bruce’s nightmare where he struggles to help all those who need his aid.

The score for the episode is something I find irritating. There’s a twangy theme used throughout the camp scenes that just sounds corny to me, like something that would have been featured in the 1960’s show. By the end of the episode I want to mute the television to stop hearing it. It’s even over-layed with elements of the Batman theme during the final chase sequence that makes it even worse. The episode looks fine, but the climactic moments in the mine aren’t a strong point. This show does so well putting its characters in dark environments, but they don’t blend well at all throughout this sequence. Boss Biggis is a rather huge individual too, but his model has no weight to it. He runs and bounces around like a balloon. More effort should have been made to convey just how heavy he must be.

I don’t hate “The Forgotten,” but it’s definitely one of the weaker episodes for me. I’m torn on if it’s my least favorite episode so far, as it’s between this and “The Underdwellers.” I think I probably would rank this one just ahead, but that’s not saying much.

1 Comment | tags: alfred pennyworth, batman, boss biggis, cartoons, the batwing | posted in batman the animated series, Comics, Television

October 6, 2017

Batman: The Animated Series – “The Underdwellers”

By Joe

The_Underdwellers-Title_Card Episode Number: 6

Original Air Date: October 21, 1992

Directed by: Frank Paur

Written by: Tom Ruegger

First Appearance(s): The Sewer King

For a long time, children’s shows were required to have some education content. That’s why we have such memorable segments from G.I. Joe with one of the Joe’s letting us know that “Knowing is half the battle.” These standards were either omitted or relaxed by the time the 90s rolled around, but this episode of Batman feels like it could have been made in the 80s.

The episode opens with a couple of kids playing chicken by riding on the roof of a train. Whoever bails first loses. Batman takes note and swoops in to put an end to such foolishness, and it’s a good thing too because one of the kids gets his foot caught on some cables and might have perished had he not. The boys are admonished by Batman with the line, “Play chicken long enough and you get fried.” See, Batman doesn’t just fight crime!

Batman says, “Thumbs up, dude!”

Shortly after, a woman is robbed by a little person wearing a green cloak, prompting her to declare she was victimized by a leprechaun. Batman oversees this but is unable to catch the culprit, but seems to be buying her description for some reason. This even leads to a scene at the Batcave with Bruce asking Alfred if he thinks he’s crazy for claiming to see a leprechaun. Alfred smartly responds with sarcasm, before Batman heads out for further investigation. He ends up finding a secret entrance to Gotham’s sewer system, where he finds his leprechaun: a young boy who’s apparently been living down there. For some reason, Batman deems it necessary to take the kid home with him and have Alfred look after him. I have no idea why he doesn’t bring him to the police and continue nosing around in the sewers, and sadly Alfred doesn’t question Master Bruce.

This is The Sewer King. He sucks, though Michael Pataki gives a pretty good performance, all things considered.

The real reason for bringing the kid back is likely to pad out the episode as we get to watch Alfred struggle through a day trying to wash the kid, feed him, and even get him to do some chores. He’s a mute with a dislike of sunlight. In a separate scene we learn his name is Frog via his surrogate father: The Sewer King. The Sewer King (Michael Pataki) is never named in the episode, and his name only appears as graffiti throughout the sewers. He’s some kind of madman dressed kind of like a pirate (complete with the eye patch) who has some obedient pet alligators to make him seem menacing. He also lords over a bunch of orphaned children who do his bidding. They’re forbidden to speak, and are only allowed above ground to steal for him. He’s cruel, but only emotionally. Apparently Standards & Practices wouldn’t let him be physically cruel to the children, which probably would have added more menace to the character. He’s enraged when a child other than Frog brings him his rolls for his dinner, and as the tired and malnourished children look on, he throws the food on the ground and sends them all away to find Frog.

The Misadventures of Frog and The Butler

Meanwhile, Frog finds Bruce’s room full of antique weapons and plucks an old rifle off of a display. Batman shows up and is quick to remind the audience that children and guns don’t mix. Hey Bruce, I don’t disagree with that sentiment, but if you want to keep guns out of the hands of children maybe don’t just casually hang them on your wall within reach?

Batman and Frog head back to the sewers, where Batman is finally able to confront The Sewer King. He gets to do battle with the gators, and even dislocates the jaw of one of them in unrealistic fashion, but you don’t need me to tell you that Batman isn’t losing to some guy named The Sewer King. When he does finally catch The Sewer King, Batman implies he’s really tempted in this instance to take his life which apparently director Paur felt was necessary in establishing that Batman is a friend to all children.

Shots like this are probably what caused Bruce Timm to declare it too anime-like in appearance, but I do think it works in places and love the blacks and blues seen here.

This is probably not a well-remembered episode of Batman. It deals with a D-level villain who will never resurface and is clearly aimed at just connecting Batman with a young audience. That said, I don’t feel it’s necessarily written poorly, I just wish it wasn’t so hammy with the lessons. The opening scene exists only for the show to make the statement that riding on top of trains is a bad idea, which feels like something that doesn’t need stating. If those kids were somehow followed-up on at the episode’s conclusion maybe it would have been worthwhile. Instead it feels like an episode that had a 15 minute story, and that scene, as well as Frog and Alfred, needed to be added to add more time. Though I should say, the scenes with Alfred and Frog might be the best of the episode as they are kind of funny, and the villain is so hard to be invested in that those lighter scenes end up working better.

Visually, Bruce Timm expressed dissatisfaction with the episode, saying it too resembled anime. I can kind of see that in the design of the children, but the episode is actually animated rather well. Better than the previous episode, “Pretty Poison.” The lighting in the sewer, something which could have proved challenging, looks great and I felt Batman’s movements were noticeably smoother than they’ve been in some of the other episodes.

There’s no covering up for a mediocre antagonist, and while The Sewer King is easy to root against, he’s also hard to take seriously. With the way these episodes are structured, when the villain stinks the episode tends to follow which is why “The Underdwellers” is probably nobody’s favorite episode. I should add though, I was not looking forward to re-watching this episode for this feature, but I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would, some of that was ironically. Still, probably not my least favorite episode of season one.

1 Comment | tags: batman, cartoons, frank paur, michael pataki, the sewer king, tom ruegger | posted in batman the animated series, Comics, Television

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