Category: Cartoon

Plastic Man in ‘Puddle Trouble’ (2006, Andy Suriano)

I wonder if Plastic Man producers Tom Kenny and Andy Suriano ever saw “Ren and Stimpy.”

It’s not bad, just highly derivative of forty years of other cartoons without ever getting appropriate credit. Suriano takes enough time to put cute kitten pictures in a community service office (Plastic Man’s base of operations), but not enough to wink at his influences.

There’s a manic energy to the cartoon–Plastic Man chases around a villain who can assume any form of water–but only the last gag is memorable. Suriano tries hard with the others, which should be easy because Plastic Man changes shapes, sizes and so on, but none of them come through.

The last gag has a good punchline too. It helps a little.

Kenny’s not particularly special voicing Plastic Man, but I’m not sure he needs to be. Dave Coulier’s parole office sidekick sort of falls short.

Plastic flops.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Andy Suriano; screenplay by Suriano, Tom Kenny and Ian Busch, based on the character created by Jack Cole; edited by Rob Desales; music by Andy Paley; produced by Suriano and Kenny.

Starring Tom Kenny (Plastic Man), Dave Coulier (Archie) and Dee Bradley Baker (The Human Puddle).

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Trail Mix-Up (1993, Barry Cook)

I think Trail Mix-Up is supposed to be zany, what with the inclusion of an adorable beaver and a cuddly bear in Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman’s trek through the wilderness.

It’s not very good, of course. Besides Droopy’s Jaws-related cameo and Jessica Rabbit showing up for a moment, there’s nothing memorable about it until the end. And, at the end, Roger Rabbit destroys the planet Earth… hopefully so there can be no more of these lame cartoons.

When looking for cartoons to ape, director Cook and his writers somehow miss the multiple outdoor-oriented Disney cartoons they could have referenced. Trail would’ve been much improved with an appearance from Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore.

It does benefit somewhat from Baby Herman actually being cute–he calls the beaver “doggy”–even if Roger’s as unlikable as always in his cartoon outings.

The animation’s competent, but lacks any substantial qualities.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Barry Cook; screenplay by Rob Minkoff, Cook, Mark Kausler and Patrick A. Ventura, based on characters created by Gary K. Wolf; edited by Victor Livingston; music by Bruce Broughton; released by Walt Disney Pictures.

Starring Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit), Kathleen Turner (Jessica Rabbit), April Winchell (Young Baby Herman / Mrs. Herman), Lou Hirsch (Adult Baby Herman), Corey Burton (Droopy Dog) and Frank Welker (Bear / Beaver).

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Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990, Rob Minkoff and Frank Marshall)

Roller Coaster Rabbit is exceptionally overproduced. The animation is technically outstanding, just without any gags–Roger Rabbit makes a terrible cartoon protagonist because he’s an unlikable moron–but at the end it takes an odd turn towards the CG. There are some fire effects, there are a lot of spark effects, it’s as though Minkoff gave his traditional animators a break and let the tech guys handle the rest.

The paltry story involves Roger babysitting Baby Herman at a carnival. Baby Herman wants a balloon, which leads to a lot of trouble. Even though the initial gags aren’t funny, they’re more imaginative than the final one involving an endless roller coaster (hence the title). Four credited writers apparently couldn’t come up with a gag to break up the monotony.

Some of Minkoff’s direction is fantastic; while too infrequent, there’re a few outstanding shots.

And Charles Fleischer sounds bored as Roger.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Rob Minkoff and Frank Marshall; screenplay by Bill Kopp, Kevin Harkey, Lynne Naylor and Patrick A. Ventura, based on characters created by Gary K. Wolf; edited by Chuck Williams; music by Bruce Broughton; produced by Donald W. Ernst; released by Touchstone Pictures.

Starring Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit), Kathleen Turner (Jessica Rabbit), April Winchell (Young Baby Herman / Mrs. Herman), Lou Hirsch (Adult Baby Herman), Corey Burton (Droopy Dog) and Frank Welker (Bull).

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Tummy Trouble (1989, Rob Minkoff and Frank Marshall)

Tummy Trouble goes out of its way to pay homage to Tex Avery (down to a Droopy cameo) and director Minkoff does a decent job of it. Not to say Tummy‘s successful, however. While Minkoff apes Avery all right, it’s a combination of too obvious and too reverential. Outside being an “original” Roger Rabbit cartoon, there’s no creative impulse behind Tummy.

It’s also way too exquisite in terms of the animation to be a good Avery knock-off. Looking at the frames, it’s clear a lot of time went into illustrating the animations and not enough went into plotting out the gags. It’s just not funny. There’s not a single good gag.

And since Tummy is a Roger Rabbit cartoon, there’s an obligatory live action section at the end. It feels self-congratulatory, which doesn’t many any sense… Tummy Trouble‘s nothing to pat oneself on the back about.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Rob Minkoff and Frank Marshall; screenplay by Kevin Harkey, Bill Kopp, Minkoff, Mark Kausler and Patrick A. Ventura, based on characters created by Gary K. Wolf; edited by Donald W. Ernst; music by James Horner; produced by Don Hahn; released by Walt Disney Pictures.

Starring Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit), April Winchell (Young Baby Herman / Mrs. Herman), Lou Hirsch (Adult Baby Herman), Corey Burton (Orderly), Richard Williams (Droopy Dog) and Kathleen Turner (Jessica Rabbit).

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Alice’s Wonderland (1923, Walt Disney)

Depending on the process director Disney used to marry live action with animation, Alice’s Wonderland is either mediocre or just plain bad. If it’s the latter, Disney has no concept of perspective or, you know, shadows.

The first three minutes are awesome. A little kid (Virginia Davis, in an awful performance–it’s probably Disney’s fault) visits an animation studio and is amazed at how the cartoon characters come alive on the animators’ panels. Disney’s conception of the studio is something technology still hasn’t produced (and probably never will). It’s spellbinding.

Then it becomes about Davis and gets bad. All the little cartoon animals love her and applaud her lame, poorly directed dance. The technical wonders of the first few minutes become lame and cheap tricks, a couple of shocking incompetence.

The animation’s mostly lame with occasional exceptions. Unfortunately, a couple great gags can’t make up for all of Alice‘s failings.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Written, directed and produced by Walt Disney; directors of photography, Rudolf Ising and Ub Iwerks; animated by Hugh Harman, Ising, Iwerks and Carman Maxwell; released by Margaret J. Winkler.

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The Saga of Windwagon Smith (1961, Charles A. Nichols)

There’s nothing good about The Saga of Windwagon Smith. The best thing about it is the extended opening titles, which eat up some of the runtime and lessen the cartoon’s awfulness.

The animation happily plays at the nexus of lazy, incompetent and bad. Director Nichols–who cowrote–at least could’ve come up with an interesting visualization for his dumb story.

Instead, he relies on singing narration. It, and the dialogue, all rhymes. Except they’re bad rhymes, which makes one wonder how much time anyone spent on Windwagon. It’s like they wrote the dialogue first and the couplet at some later point.

Rex Allen is equally obnoxious as the protagonist and narrator.

The most striking thing about the cartoon, however, is the rampant racism. There are multiple Native American jokes, a Chinese one, but it also mocks the Kansas townspeople as moronic rednecks.

Windwagon‘s a dreadful way to spend twelve minutes.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Charles A. Nichols; written by Lance Nolley and Nichols; animated by Julius Svendsen and Art Stevens; music by George Bruns; production designer, Ernie Nordli; produced by Walt Disney; released by Buena Vista Releasing Company.

Starring Rex Allen (Windwagon Smith) and J. Pat O’Malley (Mayor Crum); narrated by Allen.

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Working for Peanuts (1953, Jack Hannah)

As if Donald Duck couldn’t get weirder, he’s apparently got the hots for a female elephant in Working for Peanuts. But it’s not actually a Donald cartoon, it’s a Chip and Dale cartoon. The boys are after the peanuts–a delicacy they’ve just discovered–and the zoo has them.

Donald’s the zookeeper, the elephant’s got the peanuts. Chaos ensues.

Director Hannah and his animators must have either been on a tight deadline or completely disinterested, because Peanuts is terrible work. The animation on Donald and the chipmunks is fine, but on the elephant and the other zoo animals it’s awful. There’s one shot of a group of people standing around with the same face and expression. The zoo itself has no personality (or cages).

As for the gags… they’re tepid. The final one’s kind of funny, but the dumb elephant’s in the scene; she ruins it.

These Peanuts are stale.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Jack Hannah; written by Nick George and Roy Williams; animated by Volus Jones, Bill Justice and George Kreisl; music by Oliver Wallace; produced by Walt Disney; released by RKO Radio Pictures.

Starring Dessie Flynn (Dale), James MacDonald (Chip) and Clarence Nash (Donald Duck).

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Superman Classic (2011, Robb Pratt)

While it only runs a minute (I think), Superman Classic–which director Pratt describes as a “super fan film”–is pretty, well, super. Only the final moment disappoints, mostly because it’s a promise Pratt’s not going to keep.

Classic is mostly hand drawn animation, which gives the cartoon the “fan film” feel occasionally, but Pratt professionally packages it. The music is from the old serials and sets a certain tone. But the backgrounds remind of the Fleischer cartoons. And Pratt gives Clark Kent mannerisms straight out of Christopher Reeve’s essaying of the character.

Not to mention John Newton (who once played Superboy on TV) voices Superman.

Classic feels like a thoughtful, warm homage to the various Superman moving pictures.

The first moments, between Clark and Lois are the best. In a few lines, Pratt establishes the classic banter with some modern details.

I wish Classic were just twenty seconds longer….

2/3Recommended

CREDITS

Produced and directed by Robb Pratt; screenplay by Pratt, based on characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster; animated by Pratt, Steven Pierre Gordon and James Baker.

Starring John Newton (Clark Kent / Superman) and Jennifer Newton (Lois Lane).

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Susie the Little Blue Coupe (1952, Clyde Geronimi)

Bill Peet, who came up with the story for Susie the Little Blue Coupe and co-wrote the final script, must have thought American kids didn’t have enough depressing classic Russian literature in their lives. It’s a seriously disturbed, if fantastic, cartoon.

Susie tells the story of a happy little car named, you guessed it, Susie. Some guy buys her and she lives a happy life, or so she thinks… because it turns out the guy doesn’t do maintenance until its too late and then abandons her.

She suffers in a used car lot, then ends up in the possession of a small-time drunk. She suffers even worse in his care before the climax–a junkyard.

Director Geronimi showcases the suffering, one upping it every time.

The animation’s great, the pacing’s great, it’s just a disquieting cartoon. Geronimi and Peet introduce a lovable character only to make her suffer.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Clyde Geronimi; screenplay by Bill Peet and Don DaGradi, based on a story by Peet; animated by Bob Carlson, Ollie Johnston, Hal King and Cliff Nordberg; music by Paul J. Smith; produced by Walt Disney; released by RKO Radio Pictures.

Starring Stan Freberg (Junkyard owner); narrated by Sterling Holloway.

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Little Tiger’s Can-Can Bug (1950, Masaoka Kenzô)

From the title, Little Tiger’s Can-Can Bug, one has to assume there is something lost in translation.

The cartoon concerns two little tiger kittens who are working on a ship. They sing and they’re precious, but they don’t do much in Bug. There’s a grown-up tiger, a tuna boat captain–apparently the boat the two kittens are working on–and he’s more the main character.

Until the end, when one of the kittens gets the spotlight (for some obviously repeated animation) and the other spends the rest of the cartoon off screen.

Director Masaoka tries lots of stuff and none of it works. The attempts are fleetingly interesting. The cartoon’s not strange as much as boring and poorly animated. For example, there’d no perspective on captain’s face, though the rest of the body has it; he looks he’s wearing a mask.

Not even the captain’s pet monkey amuses.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Masaoka Kenzô; written by Matsuzaki Yoshihito; director of photography, Yabushita Taiji; animated by Abe Koki, Hama Keitaro and Kumagawa Masao.

Starring Anzai Aiko, Mie Kimiko and Murao Goro.