July 25, 2005
Animation on television, child-safe and otherwise.
ZOINKS!The Pre-Hiatus Animation Round-Up
As this is the final Zoinks! column before Season 1 of SMRT-TV comes to a close, a few short bits:
I've raved before about the current run of Justice Leage Unlimited. By the time this column gets published, the final two episodes of possibly the best single season in cartoon history will have ended. Anyone who hasn't been watching this has missed a true treat: a show with amazing depths of continuity that rewards fans of the comics without punishing viewers unfamiliar with the characters. Story Editor (and oft times scripter) Dwayne McDuffie deserves to have his name uttered in the same breath as Bruce Timm and Paul Dini after his run on this show and Static Shock. The good news is, even though this season ends with the ominously-titled episode Epilogue, the show will have at least one more thirteen-episode season. I couldn't be happier.
- It's been a while since Nickelodeon has really
impressed me with a
new show (Jimmy Neutron is the last solid
debut I can recall,
as it seems their animation department has hung on
Spongebob's
coattails), but their latest, Catscratch, has
a ton of
potential. It does invoke one of my least favorite
contemporary cartoon
cliches -- the animal with the inexplicable Scottish
accent -- but it's
still fun. The concept is straight from the Ren
and
Stimpy/Catdog/Ed, Edd, and Eddy formula, with
three talking cats,
each buffoonish in their own way, who have inherited
a
fortune and a
house from their former owner. Unlike those other
shows, there's a
sense of sweetness underlying the slapstick and
fighting, much of it in
the form of Kimberly, the little human
girl ably voiced
by Liliana Mumy (daughter of Bill). The cats, played
by Rob Paulson,
Kevin McDonald, and Wayne Knight, are funny, manic,
and more than
capable of dropping non-sequitors that will amuse
adults as much as
kids. The fact that Catscratch was created by
Earthworm
Jim mastermind Doug TenNapel bodes well for the
continued zaniness of
this show.
That's not to say that all's peachy over at Nickelodeon. The Rugrats franchise, run into the ground and deprived of its creative soul long before we were hit with the current All Grown Up spin-off, refuses to die the dignified death a once-great show deserves. Their latest blunder is yet another made-for-Nick movie (the franchise has certainly lost the power to open on the big screen by now), this time sending the teens on a field trip to a ranch. The name? Dude, Where's my Horse? I couldn't make up crap this bad if you paid me. The show has an amazingly talented voice cast, but it's a shame to see them wasted on such lousy material. We can only hope that with Catscratch and another new franchise or two, Nick might finally let the Pickles, Finsters, and Carmichaels retire in peace.
- Viewers lucky enough to get Toon Disney are in
for a
treat. They're
currently rerunning what may be the most
underappreciated show of the
'90s, The Tick. Ben Edlund's indy comic book
translated
perfectly to the small screen* (actually, I think the
show was even
better than the comic), with the zany yet naive
titular hero fighting
alongside such wonderful creations as Sewer Urchin
(imagine Rain Man as
a superhero), Der Fledermaus (Batman as a coward),
and
American Maid
(feminist super-hero and caterer extraordinaire). The
show combines
traditional riffs on comic book characters (one
episode has Jim Rage,
Agent of Shave), with some surreal concepts that only
Ben Edlund and
company could have conceived. My favorites are
probably Pigleg, who has
a pig for a foot, and The Ottoman Empress, furniture
thief and riff on
Catwoman. As a bonus, the episodes featuring The
Human
Ton (with Handy)
and Little Wooden Boy will show you where Parker and
Stone ripped off
some of their early ideas for South Park's
Mr. Garrison. It's
currently running late at night (11:30PM on the East
Coast), so a Tivo
is ideal for catching the show.
Finally, speaking of late-night TV, Adult Swim's best show (and that's high praise), Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, returns on July 24th. If you've caught the wonderful late-night TV ads for the show (mimicking ambulance chasing late-night law firm commercials), you might have noticed the number at the bottom of the screen: 1-877-MANBIRD. Any fan of the show should give this number a call, as the voice menu options (all hosted by Peter Pottomus) are hysterical, and include a cover of "Take it to the Limit." The show itself looks to be as funny as ever, with a love triangle involving Black Vulcan and Reducto and a court case involving Wally Gator kicking things off.
Here's hoping the rest of your summer goes well! I'll be back when SMRT-TV returns this September with a look at Fall cartoons.
*Actually, it made it to the small screen twice. The live-action show that aired on Fox, unlike the cartoon, has been released on DVD.
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