Posts Tagged Cartoons
CHILDHOOD REVISITED – FLUPPY DOGS
Posted by kjohnson1585 in Animation, Childhood Revisited, Film, Television, Uncategorized on November 23, 2009
REVERSE STEREOTYPES. Or something.
Fluppy Dogs – (1986)
Director: Fred Wolf
Starring: Marshall Efron, Carl Steven, Cloyce Morrow
Screenplay by: Haskell Barkin, Bruce Talkington
…
WHAT?
Yes, Fluppy Dogs. I know, I know. You’re probably now asking three questions. 1) What the hell is a Fluppy Dog? 2) Why the hell did you choose this as your secret movie? 3) What the hell is this show about? Well, dear readers, I’ll tell you.
Fluppy Dogs was a failed follow-up to 1985’s Gummi Bears. You see, back in the late 80s/early 90s, Disney produce a set of cartoons that ranged from surprisingly mediocre to straight-up excellent for a after-school segment called “The Disney Afternoon”. Gummi Bears, Ducktales, Darkwing Duck, Aladdin, Rescue Rangers, Bonkers, Gargoyles – a ton of animated features aired for this two-hour block, and as a lover of all things animated, I devoured them all. Fluppy Dogs was planned to be one of those shows (along with a short-lived merchandising line of stuffed animals), but they only managed to air the episode’s one-hour pilot. Due to lack of interest and ratings, the show never came to be.
NOSTALGIC LENS: While watching the Care Bears films, primarily to discover that song “Forever Young,” seeing the multi-colored furballs triggered a vague memory of seeing multi-colored canines of some sort. I distinctly recalled them traversing a mountain—but that’s it. So, thanks to the magic that is Google, a few searches connected me to Fluppy Dogs, the movie of which was available on Youtube. So, I decided to surprise myself and you readers by watching this, if primarily to satisfy the most elusive of my childhood memories. One question remains: did we miss out on what could have been an excellent animated series, or did Disney wisely can this into their vault (probably a back corner, next to Oswald the Rabbit?)
DOES IT HOLD UP: The secret to making a “cutesy-girly” product more accessible to boys is to add cool fantasy stuff. Gummi Bears had some pretty epic medieval clashes and even My Little Ponies had a villain of Satanic evil. So, Fluppy Dogs added the somewhat intriguing idea of parallel-world, realm-jumping creatures. Pound Puppies, meet Sliders. (So, if you want your Foo-Foo dolls to appeal to young boys, ladies, add some time travel nonsense.)
The problem that writers can fall into concerning parallel world stories is that it can lead to some really lazy, contrived writing. And Fluffy Dogs, sadly, didn’t pass the test. Now, certainly, I’m not expecting brilliance here, but one of the things the 80s/90s toon-Disney writers were great at was taking bizarre, complex ideas and concepts, and making them nice and straight-forward, an easy to swallow pill for the young audience. This show makes the pill chewable and wholly optional.
Five Fluppy Dogs are jumping gates to try to find their way home. They inevitably land in our world and pretend to be regular dogs. When captured by the pound, a boy named Jamie adopts one. Wackiness happens, and soon Jamie (and older neighbor Claire) are trying to re-unite the Fluppies and get them back home before J. J. Wagstaff (some rich dude with a bad fetish for random animals) captures them.
Part of the problem here is that Fluppy Dogs never passes the contrived-ness of its story. Things happen just cause they can and just to drive the plot forward. For example, why are the colored canines even jumping worlds? It might have been better to say they were escaping some sort of evil – but no, they’re looking for “adventure”. Really? You’re bending the fabric of space and time because your bored?! It gets worse when Wagstaff exposits a history of the Fluppies from a book of legends. Seriously? Why even bother with that? It added nothing to the story. It seemed more apropos to just have Wagstaff chase them because he found out they could talk. No real need to bring in the hard-to-swallow idea that authors have written about them. It’s a knock-off of Gummi Bears; but while that show got away with Gummi Bear legends by taking place in a medieval periods where crazy legends exist all the time, crazy legends in 1980s America concerning parallel-world-traveling canines just seems so random.
This clip contains, essentially, all the shows problems:
For my animator readers: How about those multi-size-changing pajamas on Stanley there? Was this storyboarded? Why are the transitions between scenes so choppy? Fades, people, fades. Also, I totally dug the explanation of the head-scratching-flying ability. Yeah, I’m sure the most amazingly convenient abilities arrive just when you need them on certain worlds, right? Hmm, I wonder if these powers will be used in some fashion at the episodes climax? Oh, who are we kidding – OF COURSE they will be:
Oh yeah. The Heffalump thing is there to crash the party. You know, in case the FLYING thing wasn’t enough for you. And get a load of that ending. The Fluppy Dogs are just gonna take over the world at that rate!
IN A NUTSHELL: You know what? I wanted to like this cartoon – and to be honest, there’s a lot of really nice stuff here. The animation has some quality moments, especially animating the dogs themselves, and the story could create some interesting future episodes. But I get the sense that the entire production was rushed; no fine-tuning of the story or overall animation makes anything clicks, and with that ending, I don’t even know how to make a series based off that – unless it’s some human vs. Fluppies type war disaster. It took all the wrong lessons from Gummi Bears – which itself wasn’t THAT great in the first place, but still managed to make epic adventures without the characters crying out “ADVENTURE!” Even at five years-old, that’s pretty lame.
November 30th: Babe
December 7th: All Dogs Go to Heaven
CHILDHOOD REVISITED – WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT
Posted by kjohnson1585 in Animation, Childhood Revisited, Film, Uncategorized on September 21, 2009
Shit, I'd dabble in watercolors too. The internet makes it possible nowadays.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit – (1988)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer
Screenplay by: Gary K. Wolf, Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman
Robert Zemeckis, in my opinion, was one of the best, most accessible directors to ever grace Hollywood screens. Most directors excel at one (or a few things) while falling short in other areas. Zemeckis, however, seemed to really know how to deliver a movie that was both thoroughly entertaining AND rich in content. He was, in a sense, a James Cameron-lite: while Cameron excelled at the big, beautiful blockbuster, Zemeckis excelled at smaller (if still expensive) family, heart-warming fare.
Some of his best works, like Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, and Cast Away, utilize a seamless, almost-perfect blend of special effects, fine acting, strong symbolism, solid direction, and beautiful set design. Nothing pushes into the artsy realm like a Kubrick or Malick film; but when he brings the love, Zemeckis brings the love. (While movies like The Polar Express, Beowulf, and Contact may not have the idyllic temperament that his other movies have, they still are competently done; it’s the writing that usually falls short in that regard. Although I will admit that he is somewhat slipping nowadays, like so many infamous 90s directors.)
How awesome is Zemeckis? Take note of this awesome bit of trivia taken from IMDB.com concerning today’s feature: “The first test audience was comprised mostly of 18-19-year-olds, who hated it. After nearly the entire audience walked out of the screening, Robert Zemeckis, who had final cut, said he wasn’t changing a thing.”
Motherfucker knows what’s up.
NOSTALGIC LENS: Prior to the overwrought and somewhat overdone love for bizarre crossover video game Kingdom Hearts, this, my dear readers, was probably the most awesome-est crossover thing to ever awesome an awesome. Bugs Bunny AND Mickey Mouse in the same film? Kid-mind-orgasm. With a host of amazing and all types of animated characters interacting with live humans, this here was the true fantasy of every child (sorry Goonies, treasure hunting ain’t got shit on this). Also, it helps that the film was well done with competent actors. While I may not have fully understood the plot or the setting, you still had to love the frantic pace and the perfectly, in-character toons.
DOES IT HOLD UP: People, c’mon. Disney bought Marvel, but while you whine about their child-friendly image effecting everything, you’re forgetting that, indeed, Disney can also be very, very badass. They won’t put the “Disney” name on it (this movie is produced through Amblin Entertainment and Touchstone Pictures, which are owned by Disney), but they’ll definitely bring the noise (like in the aforementioned Kingdom Hearts).
This movie is a delight. Fun, frantic, hilarious, and intriguing, Who Framed Roger Rabbit exploits the 1947 time-period with seamless interaction with animated figures so perfectly, there are hardly, if any, awkward moments. It’s the richness of Chinatown with heart of Disney cartoons and the funness of Looney Tunes (and a bit of Tex Avery—but all cartoons have a bit of Avery).
Private eye Eddie Valiant is tasked with taking “risqué” pictures of Roger Rabbit’s wife and Marvin Acme, owner of Toontown. The paddie-cake photos cause Roger to lose it and, suddenly, Acme is dead. People all over town blame Roger for the murder, and it’s up to a reluctant Eddie to return to the world of toon-crime solving to clear Roger’s name.
Why is Eddie so reluctant? A toon killed his brother. Pretty harsh, I know, but the movie spares no expense in this regard. If you ever saw Chinatown or LA Confidential, you may have an understanding of this moment in American history, of the power of the paparazzi and stardom, of studio control and the relationship of this to the public, private, and government sectors.
I included this clip specifically for 7:30 – 8:30, one of the best, heartwarming, and underrated tracking shots in film history. Zemeckis shows an incredible amount of control in this film, maintaining the perfect blend of wackiness and seriousness; no scene is awkward or out-of-place (like numerous moments in Space Jam), and we as viewers are easily brought into this parallel world of cartoon stardom and the seedy underbelly of the Hollywood that controls them.
I especially love the attention to the details. Along with the costume and set designs, little bits here and there jump out, like the general lack of concern for Eddie’s drinking problem (there’s no AA in 1947; no one cares, and they even have a few jokes at his expense). All complemented by a powerful score by Alan Silvestri and the incredible hard work by the animators and the special effects crew, there’s very, very little to hate about this movie.
And speaking of the animators: of course, I can’t do a review of this movie without noting the amazing cartoon characters themselves. It’s a grab-bag of classic characters, both minor and major, and audience members will have a blast just pointing out every one they remember. But no one character seems forced in any scene; they fit like a glove, and the fact that the humans and toons interact comfortably, as if it was always like this, really gives this world and, consequently, the movie, it’s heart.
Of course, the most iconic of the characters appear, and they indeed steal the show:
“They never get to finish the act!”
“Ya, you could get killed!” Cue Mickey’s laugh.
If I had to choose some flaws in this movie, I would say that the actual mystery here isn’t really all that complex. In fact, it’s kind of simple, and the actual resolution hardly takes any time. But the moments that Who Framed Roger Rabbit does include are special and hilarious, and rather inspiring. I could imagine that the legal considerations was a nightmare (in fact, Popeye and Felix were to appear but the rights weren’t secured in time), but when a director has the passion and vision to prevail through the odds and bring about a spectacularly enjoyable crossover of such epic proportions, you know you have something special on your hands. (Watch the movie on Youtube to find out whodunit, although, the real culprit is obvious – and yet, the twist behind it may not be as much.)
IN A NUTSHELL: I once irritated my ex when we watched this movie together by quoting lines before they were actually spoken. With such an infinitely quotable script, how can you not? If there’s anything you can take from this movie, is that deserves a serious amount of respect (there were no CGI or computer-use whatsoever). But it’s a wonder and a treat: parents, at the very least in the midst of your over-protectiveness, let your children see this.
September 28th: Robin Hood
October 5th: Theodore Rex
CHILDHOOD REVISITED – SUPER MARIO BROS.
Posted by kjohnson1585 in Childhood Revisited, Film, Uncategorized, Video Games on September 13, 2009
You know a movie sucks when they didn't even bother to edit out any WTC scenes.
Super Mario Bros. – (1993)
Director: Annabel Jankel, Rocky Morton [Roland Joffe and Dean Semier, uncredited]
Starring: Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, Samantha Mathis
Screenplay by: Parker Bennett, Terry Runte, Ed Solomon
So, if you look over there in my list of links, you may notice that there’s a little fan project I’m working on. Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog. Together. Think this and this, but what people would actually like to see.
Of course, then, I have a lot to say about this so-called film. The stories that emerge from the making of this film are staggering. Hoskins and Leguizamo were drunk for most of the film. The directors and studios clashed over whether to make it more “adult” or keep it a children’s film, ultimately making a hodgepodge of a mess. Working with the directors was apparently excruciating, with random re-writes of the script every day; there were so many that the actors ended up ignoring them. So, it’s easy to see how horribly it did at the box office; fans hated it, regular audience members hated it, and Nintendo vowed never to enter the movie business ever again. (Oddly enough, Miyamoto claimed to have enjoyed it.)
Since I’ve been doing a ton of research on Super Mario for that project, I have a small jump on how and why the writers did what they did; the movie itself, I can’t excuse. I can say right now that it doesn’t hold up. The question is, how bad?
NOSTALGIC LENS: I know that as much as this hates on the film, it’s not that bad. But it’s pretty close. I know that I convinced myself that the movie was good – I remember distinctly dancing to the theme music as it plays during the intro – but it took some seven-to-ten years to finally acknowledge that, no, I did not like this movie at all. With no distinct visual reference to the game, how could I? At least the title designed in chrome lettering was cool.
DOES IT HOLD UP: You know what? If you were to remove every single thing that’s supposed to be Super Mario Brothers related and replace it with original characters/concepts, you’d have a cheesy, ridiculous, so-bad-it’s-awesome sci-fi flick that resembles The Fifth Element or Event Horizon.
I had a treat while watching this on Friday—my nieces watched it along with me! They, being owners of Wii’s and DS’s, proceeded to ask me a ton of questions about the Super Mario fandom, and, as a nerd, I proceeded to answer them. I told them the story of the Great Princess Toadstool/Daisy/Peach confusion of the mid-90s, the Toad/Yoshi debacle, the King Koopa/Bowser debates… and they surprisingly ate it up.
Yes, I have a lot of knowledge of the Super Mario canon. So, in the 90s, with a lack of special effects, at the very least I’ll commend the writers for trying their damnest to keep at least some the SMB world in tact (they even seemed to crib a teeny bit of information from the short-lived Valiant comic run, I believe). But of course, I won’t excuse the pathetic final product, the blame of which mainly fall on the directors. Here, it seems the studio meddling actually tried a good thing.
Mario and Luigi are our plumber heroes screwed out of work by their corporate, mob-tied rival, the Scapelli Company. However, Luigi meets Daisy, an archeologist digging for fossils, which lightens the mood. After dinner, they, like all couples do after dinner, explore the skanky cave at the fossil site, where a lot of stuff happens that’s irrelevant. But Daisy is kidnapped and the Mario Bros. chase her into the “alternate dimension” where evolved dinosaurs rule, all under the despot King Koopa.
The movie’s main problem? Over-exposition. It’s terrible. It’s probably the worse exposition I’ve ever seen on celluloid. Check out this scene where King Koopa explains the entire plot in one go, starting at 3:58:
What in god’s name did King Koopa put his hands in? McDonald’s French Fries grease?
SMB fans understandably hated it, which were mostly kids. Look at any Super Mario video game, and then look at this movie. The instant hate is palpable. What about everyone else (the parents), though? Well, with the goofy animated intro, the moronic Koopa cousins Spike and Iggy, and asinine set design (which, by the way, looks like a cross between rejected Blade Runner sets and the crappy locations out of The Wiz), I suspect they just rolled their eyes and hoped at the very least their children were liking it; however, they WERE NOT.
And yet…
With fifteen years of general recovery behind me, I’ll have to admit that I kind of dug this movie, sans my fanboyism. As much as Hoskins and Leguizamo hated their position, I have to admit they still tried their best, with Bob nailing a slightly grizzled yet knowledgeable plumber, and John, although goofy and annoying, still managing to not want me to kill myself. Samantha Mathais, however, is still the worthless blank slate she’s always been (I cannot believe that she was popular at some point). But Dennis Hopper is surprisingly gold. Given that his dialogue is generally shit, he delivers it as best he can, with his most primal lines being anything about killing people. Because, hell, the real Bowser would have no qualms about killing people, so, neither does Hopper.
(I should also note that the models of the various creatures are pretty nice. The Goombas aren’t excellent, although they move well, but Yoshi is particularly well done, animated with a nice, seamless blend of animatronic and CGI. Thank you, Jurassic Park; it seems we nowadays have forgotten what you taught us.)
But imagine my surprise when I found myself really enjoying the final conflict between King Koopa and Mario at the end.
There’s no reason for Mario to go up against Bowser after he knocks the jewel out his mouth. But he does. Why? Because he’s MARIO.
I joke, but in an odd way, it’s telling that, even in the midst of an obvious disaster waiting to happen, that at the very least the writers and the actors (minus Mathais) were still trying at some level to present something watchable. So seeing King Koopa and Mario duke it out (sort of) draws a decent level of something that kind of, in part, resembles a facsimile of an iota of an idea that you may or may not see in the video game.
IN A NUTSHELL: Don’t get me wrong, now. It’s still a crappy movie, but at the same time, there’s a lot here that can be enjoyed, I suppose. If you were to tell me you hated it, I’d completely understand. But if you’re the kind of person that enjoys the sleezy action from sci-fi, B-movies, then simply replace the names Mario, Luigi, Koopa, Toad, and Daisy with Paul, John, Ringo, George, and Yoko. Hell, they already introduced a number of random characters like Daniella, Lena, and Scapelli. (Couldn’t one of them at least be named Pauline?)
September 21th: Who Framed Roger Rabbit
September 28th: Robin Hood